Chapter
10
Later
that morning, Brian awoke to find himself lying on the bed next to Julie. He realized he had fallen asleep. He quickly sat up and studied Julie. She was sleeping, but her face was contorted
with pain, and her breathing was shallow.
He looked at the bandages wrapped around her stomach and saw that the
blood had soaked through them. He knew
he would have to change them. He grabbed
some of the other bandages he had ripped from the blanket, but had not
used. He tried to gently unwrap the
bloody ones from Julie’s body, but it didn’t work.
I
awoke with a start, cringing in pain.
Brian’s eyes widened, and he looked stricken. “I’m sorry, Julie,” he said. “I was just trying to change your
bandages. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“It’s
okay, Brian. I know that,” I said
weakly. He slowly and carefully
unwrapped the rest of the bandages, and I clenched my teeth together. Suddenly, I caught sight of the old bandages
as he set them aside and gasped. They
were nearly saturated with blood! I felt
suddenly queasy as I realized how much blood I must be losing. Brian saw the expression on my face.
“Don’t
worry, Julie, it looks worse than it really is,” he assured me. He looked rather pale himself though, and I
wasn’t sure if he was being truthful or just trying to calm me down. He carefully wrapped fresh bandages around the
wound, trying his best not to hurt me, but I was in pain already anyway, so a
little more wouldn’t have mattered much.
I
closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep, for the only time I could forget my
pain was when I was sleeping.
***
When
I awoke, I could hear voices shouting from upstairs.
“I
can’t believe you gone an’ done dat, Lance!” Justin shouted, his voice drifting
through the vents to the basement.
“I’m
sorry, Master, I just couldn’t help myself,” Lance replied.
“Well,
you bettah learn to controh yo’ urges,” Justin reprimanded. “Dat’s jus’ sick, dude!”
“I
didn’t think it would matter,” Lance whined.
“I mean, we’re going to kill them anyway, right?”
“Yeah,
but dat don’t mean you gets to use Brian as yo’ sex toy, Lance!”
“I…
I’m sorry, Master,” Lance said, his voice shaking.
I
looked over at Brian, almost afraid to see his reaction. To my relief, Brian was sound asleep next to
me. But Heidi was awake. She had just come out of the bathroom, and
was standing in the middle of the room, her eyes wide.
“They…
they’re going to kill us anyway?” she asked, her voice cracking with built up
tears. I said nothing, just looked up at
her weakly. But suddenly, my eyes
widened as her whole body began to shake.
With horror, I watched as she went into a seizure right before my
eyes. Her body collapsed to the ground
in violent convulsions.
“Heidi!”
I screamed. I turned my head to where
Brian was sleeping and reached out to him.
“Brian!” I cried, weakly shaking his shoulder. He jerked awake.
“Julie?”
he asked, his eyes wide.
“It’s
Heidi!” I cried. Brian sat upright and
gasped when he caught sight of Heidi convulsing on the floor.
“Oh,
God, Heidi!” he cried, jumping up and running over to her. But just like the time before, there was
nothing we could do, even he, who could at least get over to her. All I could do was lie there and watch.
Finally,
the seizure stopped, and Heidi lay unconscious, her breathing rapid and
irregular. Brian turned to me, his eyes
filled with tears. “Julie, what are we
going to do?” he asked miserably. “How
long is this going to last?”
“I
don’t know, Brian,” I whispered. “I hope
not much longer.”
“Me
too,” he said, sighing as he glanced back down at Heidi’s now still form. “Me too.”
***
Around
noon of that day, Brian lay next to Julie, who was sleeping again. He wasn’t really tired, but he had nothing
else to do but lie there. His stomach
growled. He was getting weak from not
eating in over two days. But at least he
was healthy. He knew Julie and Heidi
were in bad shape. He wanted to escape, but he had no idea how. Even if he could find a way out, he didn’t
know how he could get both Julie and Heidi out with him, in their
conditions. And if he tried to make an
escape and was caught, it could be fatal.
Escaping was definitely out. But
he knew he couldn’t stay there much longer, and neither could the girls. Why wasn’t anyone coming for them? Surely the other guys had reported them
missing. But where were the cops?
It
seemed as if someone had been reading his mind.
Suddenly, he heard loud pounding coming from upstairs. Then, there was a lot of noise, mostly men
shouting. Brian knew it had to be
someone there to help him.
“Help!”
he screamed loudly. “Someone help
me!!” Moments later, he heard heavy
footsteps clomping down the stairs into the basement. Then, the door to the room busted open, and
there stood three cops. “Oh, thank God,”
Brian whispered, sagging with relief. He
looked at the cops. “We need medical
attention down here,” he said. He
motioned to Heidi. “That girl has epilepsy and has been without her
medication. She’s had two
seizures.” Then he pointed to
Julie. “And she was shot.”
“Ok,
we’ll get some paramedics down here right away,” one man replied. “Are you hurt, sir?”
“No,
I’m fine,” Brian replied.
“Ok,
why don’t you come with us then. We’ve
arrested the men that locked you down here, and everything’s going to be fine,”
the officer assured him. “By the way,
the name’s Hunter.”
“Okay,”
Brian said. He slowly followed Hunter
out of the room, hesitant to leave Heidi and Julie behind. But as he and Hunter made their way upstairs,
Brian saw some paramedics at the top of the stairs, ready to come down. That comforted him a little.
Hunter
led Brian through the house, which was an old, dusty, wooden house with all
kinds of tacky animal skins and horns on the walls. It looked almost like something out of
“Waterboy”.
“Where
are we? Whose house is this?” Brian
asked, looking around in disgust. When
the kidnappers had brought them in before, he had been too terrified to notice
the furnishings.
“We’re
in Mississippi, and the house belongs to the family of one of your kidnappers,
Lance Bass,” Hunter replied.
Brian
almost laughed out loud. Only a redneck
family like Lance’s would live in a house like that.
Feeling
in much better spirits, Brian followed Hunter out to his police car and climbed
in. Hunter was taking him to the police
station for some questioning first, and then to the local hospital, where Julie
and Heidi were being taken.
***
“Hello?”
Kevin asked, picking up his cell phone.
He, AJ, Howie, Josh, and Sonny were back at the hospital with Nick, now
that Chris, Joey, and JC had been arrested.
They knew that Kessler had sent all kinds of police to the place that
Justin and Lance were supposedly keeping Brian, Julie, and Heidi. They were now just waiting for some assurance
that their friends had been rescued and were safe.
“Hi,
Kevin, it’s Kessler,” came Kessler’s voice over the other line. “I just got a call from Officer Hunter, a
state policeman in Mississippi that was in charge of rescuing Brian, Heidi, and
Julie.”
“And?”
Kevin asked anxiously.
“All
three have been rescued and taken to Jefferson Davis Hospital in Biloxi. Justin
Timberlake and Lance Bass were arrested and are being held in the local
prison,” Kessler said.
“How
are they?” Kevin asked eagerly, his heart pounding.
“I
don’t know the status of their conditions right now,” Kessler replied. “But you all are to be flown down to
Mississippi as soon as possible, and you can see them then.”
“Ok,”
Kevin said. “When do we leave?”
“I
have a flight booked for you in an hour, at 2:00. I’ll send some officers to take you to the
airport shortly,” Kessler said.
“Ok,
thanks so much,” Kevin said. “Bye.”
“Goodbye,”
Kessler replied, and hung up.
Kevin
turned to the others, who were all staring at him anxiously. “Guys, we’re going to Mississippi,” he told
them.
Immediately,
he was flooded with questions, which he answered the best he could. Then they all gathered their belongings and
got ready to go to the airport.
“What
about Nick?” Howie asked. “Should any of
us be here with him?”
“Well,
yeah, at least one of us should probably stay.
Who wants to?” Kevin asked. No
one raised their hand. Kevin knew they
all cared about Nick, but he also knew they were more anxious to see Brian,
Heidi, and Julie. “Ok, then,” Kevin
said, chuckling slightly. “I’ll just let
Dr. Cantrell know to call us on our cells if anything should happen. I mean, we can be here in a matter of hours
if we need to. We don’t need to stick
around this place the whole time.”
The
others nodded, feeling bad about leaving Nick, but all wanting to see their
friends and loved ones.
Officer
James, along with one other officer, arrived at 1:30 to take them to the
airport. Kevin, Howie, and AJ piled in
with James, while Sonny and Josh rode with the other policeman, Officer
Kettle.
Once
they were in the car, neither Sonny, nor Josh, could sit still. “Gosh, I hope Julie’s okay,” Josh said softly.
“Yeah,
me too,” Sonny agreed. “I hope Heidi’s
doing okay without her medication.”
“What
medication?” Josh asked.
Sonny
looked at him. “You don’t know?” he
asked.
“Know
what?” Josh asked, puzzled.
“About
her epilepsy,” Sonny replied softly.
“No,
I didn’t!” Josh cried, looking shocked.
“And she went this whole time without her medicine?!”
Sonny
nodded gravely. “I just hope she didn’t
have a seizure,” he said.
“That’s
horrible,” Josh murmured. “How long has
she had it?”
Sonny
thought for a moment. “About eight
years,” he replied. “She was diagnosed
not long after we started dating. She
suffered a grand mal seizure when she was staying at the Marine base with me
one time, and her doctors found out she was an epileptic.”
“I’m
sorry,” Josh said sincerely. “I feel bad
for her.”
“It’s
not really that bad, usually. As long as
she takes her drugs, she lives a perfectly normal life. But if she misses even one dose, she could
have a seizure. She’s missed a lot of
doses by now, so I’m just praying she’s okay,” Sonny said grimly.
Josh
nodded. “Me too,” he replied softly.
“I’m praying that all three of them are okay.”
Josh was trying to remain hopeful, but he had his doubts. Only time would tell the condition of his
girlfriend and the others.
***
