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?”

 

***

 

 

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