Chapter
19
Brian woke with a start as he felt the vehicle come to an abrupt stop.
He opened his eyes and moaned as the overhead light on the vehicle came on as
one of the doors was opened. As the backdoor of the Explorer was jerked open,
Brian felt the cool fall European breeze play with his sandy blonde hair and
let out a shudder. He was dragged out of the Explorer and forced to stand on
his weak and shaking legs, looking at his captors with innocent and fear filled
eyes. The man who seemed to be the leader of the group let out a chuckle when
he saw the fear in Brian's eyes and said, "You know what Littrell? That
was the same looking your little blond friend had in his eyes before we did
this to him." Brian felt the anger well up inside of him as tears of anger
mixed with sadness surfaced to his eyes. Before he could respond he was
forcefully pushed towards the door of what looked like a basement of a small
house in a secluded area. He looked around trying to take in every detail of
the place, hoping to find a way to escape from this nightmare. His hopes
deminished as one of the men picked him up and roughly threw him on a bed
located near the far wall of the basement. Brian whimpered as he realized the
man was tying him down to the bed to restrict his movements. He let out a small
sigh of relief as the man left the room. Brian lay in the cold windowless room
hoping that someone would find him and everything would return back to the way
it was before this nightmare occured.
at the hospital
Kevin sat restlessly in the uncomfortable waiting room chair as he
looked down at his watch every few seconds to look at the time. Brian had been
gone over 30 minutes and he was beginning to get worried. He looked over at
Howie and AJ who were both staring at the waiting room TV watching a news
report on CNN. Kevin cleared his throat to get the attention of the younger
boys and walked closer to where they sat, taking the seat in front of them. As
the newsreport about an earthquake in Turkey ended and the station went to
commercial, AJ and Howie looked at the older man in front of them with anxious
but tired eyes. "Um, you guys have any idea where Bri is? He has been gone
over 30 minutes and I'm getting worried." said Kevin as he looked down at
his hands. AJ smacked himself in the head and mumbled, "Not this
again" and received a hateful look from Kevin who had heard overheard him.
"Well what do you suggest we do Kevin?" asked Howie who was also
getting annoyed by AJ's attitude.
Kevin got up and walked to the entrance of the waiting room and looked
down the hallway. "Well I'm gonna go look for him. He turned to the left
and to the left is a short hallway, he couldn't have gone too far. I'll be back
in a few minutes, ok guys?" said Kevin as he walked out of the waiting
room and turning to his left, not giving his friends a chance to respond.
"Yeah that is fine Kev. Don't you turn up missing either." mumbled AJ
after a few minutes only receiving a smack in the head from Howie who then moved
over to an empty couch away from AJ and lay down closing his eyes as he
listened to AJ as he continued to mumble.
Kevin walked down the short hallway at a fast pase making his way towards
the soda machine he knew Brian would have visited. He looked around the area
where the soda machine was located and spotted the sign for a bathroom behind
him. He made his way towards the bathroom and entered the bathroom to look for
any sign of Brian. He looked around the bathroom and just as he turned to leave
he seen a can of Ginger Ale and a cellphone laying on the floor. He thought the
cellphone looked a lot like Brian's and he slowly bent down and reached for the
cell phone; turned it over. A feeling of dread filled his heart as he saw the
first 4 digits of AJ's cell phone number in the display window of the cell
phone which he had now positively identified as Brian's. Without a second
thought, Kevin turned around and ran out the door with the cellphone in hand
and quickly made his way down the short hallways towards the waiting room,
praying that he wasn't too late to save his youngest cousin.
***
