Chapter 46
Sarah’s point of view
Morning had arrived, yet AJ had not come home.
Two days ago, he had phoned me to tell me he would be back by 10pm last night.
I had assumed that the flight had been delayed or cancelled. Yet he hadn’t
phoned to let me know, and his mobile was switched off the last time I tried
phoning it.
Alone, I sat sifting carelessly through a
magazine, waiting for some word. I grinned when the shrill ring of the
telephone cut through the tranquil silence. That had to be him.
“Hello?”
“Sarah?”
I recognised the voice instantly: “Leighanne?”
Frowning, I listened intently, and could hear
the muffled sobs from her end. She didn’t reply, so I continued.
“Leigh, what’s wrong? Has something happened?”
Fear and anxiety gripped me: AJ had gone to
visit Brian again, and I suddenly was hit with the possibility of something
terrible having happened.
“Turn to the Channel 6 news…” she wept, before
trailing off in despair.
Shaken, I obeyed. An officious, smart looking
reporter was standing in a run down area of a familiar city – most probably
Atlanta – was thrown up on the TV screen. The reporter was half-way through his
account of some chilling event.
“— street Boys are reported to have
disappeared, in the southern district of Atlanta, by a friend of the two men.
There have been no leads so far as to where they are now, or who is behind
their sudden disappearance. However, police have found traces of blood nearby
which has been positively tested and identified to belong to one of the two
missing performers, AJ McLean. Police suspect both men were victim to a
premeditated attack. In 2001, 16 years ago, the oldest member of the Backstreet
Boys, Kevin Richardson, was murdered, causing the pop band to split. There have
been theories of the attacks being linked as some kind of hate-killing of the
band members by some kind of extremist, yet the Atlanta Police Department have
so far found no evidence to support this…”
Brian’s point of view
“…do you know if he’ll be in any pain?”
Out of the sickening darkness, my mind could
just make out the faint, familiar voice. It was AJ – there was no doubt despite
the dizziness of my thoughts.
“When he wakes up, he should be safe… IF he
wakes up!”
This was a new voice, unfamiliar yet
unmistakably young. The pitch of the voice suggested mid-twenties. However, age
was unimportant: identity was my main concern.
“Hey, Brian’s a born fighter, and he’s pulled
through stuff worse before!” AJ’s confident tone boasted to the stranger.
“He’ll wake up - you’ll see!”
Unexpectedly a low hissing, tinged with curiosity,
filled my ears. I wanted to cover them to blot out the horribly distorted
sound, but I couldn’t move.
“What’d he say?” That was AJ again.
“He was wondering what is worse than radiation
poisoning.”
Radiation poisoning? Uh oh! That had to mean
trouble.
“Well, I’d say heart surgery is pretty bad in
comparison!”
“Sssssssssssssssaahhh!”
There was that low hiss again, drawn out and
filled with nervousness.
“Before you ask, he said we didn’t mean to
hurt you or your friend – we didn’t know how our weapons would affect your
anatomy. Plus it was dark out there.”
“Well,
as long as he doesn’t die, which he won’t, I won’t hold it against you three.”
Three? Who the hell was AJ with? Unable to
contain my bursting curiosity any longer, I used every grain of my current
strength to move, open my eyes, speak, anything…
“Hhuuugh…”
A pitiful groan was all I could manage. But it
seemed to attract enough attention of AJ and his mysterious companions. Light
yet urgent footfalls approached.
“Bri?”
AJ’s hopeful voice spurred me on, to prove to
him that I was OK. I managed to open my eyes a chink and gazed weakly upwards.
The unmissable blue of AJ’s dyed hair was the
first thing that became clear to my bleary eyes. I blinked to try and bring
clarity to the rest of my dizzy world. AJ was definitely there, looking down on
me with concern. He was shade-less (I assumed he had lost them when we were
attacked), but also cradled his arm in a makeshift sling. His chin was slightly
grazed – probably another result of our brief scuffle.
“See! I told you he’d wake up!” AJ gloated.
I started in the direction of the mysterious
stranger. If I had the energy, I would have gasped. A small winged dinosaur was
perched on the other side of the bed I was lying limply on. It’s long snout
nodded at AJ, the mouth curling up into a grin. Before I could find a way to
express my shock, a second of the creatures flew from a darker part of the
room, followed by a short, bipedal, gecko lizard.
I looked back towards a relieved and jovial
AJ. After coughing shortly, I stared pleadingly at him as I found my voice.
“AJ… what’s… what’s going… on?”
***