Chapter
7
It
was about 12:30 in the morning back in Lexington. Josh had fallen asleep on one of the couches,
as did AJ. Howie and Kevin were waiting
up for Sonny to get there, in between visiting Nick, who was still comatose.
Suddenly,
the door of the waiting room where they were opened, and a young man
tentatively stepped in. He was about
5’8” and quite muscular. He had brown
hair and green eyes and was dressed in a gray Marines T-shirt and a pair of
khakis. When he saw Kevin and Howie, he
stepped forward and extended his hand.
“Hi there, I’m Sonny Williams, Heidi’s boyfriend,” he introduced.
“Hey,
Sonny,” Howie said, shaking his hand warmly.
“I’m Howie Dorough.”
“And
I’m Kevin Richardson,” Kevin said, also shaking hands with Sonny. “How are you doing, Sonny?”
Sonny
sighed. “I’m a wreck,” he admitted. “Have you heard anything from Heidi?” He looked so desperate and worried that Kevin
would have given anything to be able to tell him better news. But he couldn’t lie.
“Sorry,
but we haven’t heard anything on any of them,” he said sorrowfully.
Sonny
nodded, his shoulders drooping. He
sighed and sank down into a chair. “So,
how’s Nick doing?” he asked them.
“Not
too well,” Howie said, sighing. “He’s in
a coma right now, and the doctor isn’t even sure if he’s going to make it. He could have massive neurological damage.”
“I’m
sorry,” Sonny said grimly. He looked at
the two sleeping men on the couches.
“That must be AJ and Julie’s boyfriend, right?”
“Yup,”
Howie replied. “How do you know all of
our names?”
“Well,
Heidi’s a huge fan of yours, so I’ve learned all of your names from her,” Sonny
said, rolling his eyes, but grinning for the first time. Howie and Kevin smiled back.
“So,
Sonny, tell us about yourself,” Kevin said.
“Well,
I’m 27 years old, and I’m in the Marines.
I live in Blacksburg, Virginia with Heidi, except when I’m at the base,
which is about three hours away,” Sonny replied.
“Cool,”
Kevin said, looking impressed. “Oh, hey,
do you want Heidi’s necklace? We found
it when we were looking for her. The
clasp was broken; it must have fallen off.”
“Yeah,”
Sonny replied, nodding.
“Ok. I think AJ put it in her purse,” Kevin
replied. Not feeling it was right to dig
through Heidi’s purse, he handed it to Sonny.
“Thanks,”
Sonny said, as he opened up the purse.
He rooted through it, and suddenly, he gasped.
“What’s
wrong?” Howie asked, seeing the horrified expression on Sonny’s face. Sonny paled.
“Sh…
she doesn’t have her medicine,” he whispered, pulling out a small prescription
bottle of small red and white pills.
“What
does she take medicine for?” Kevin asked.
“She’s
an epileptic,” Sonny said softly.
“Epileptic?”
Howie asked, his eyes widening. “Doesn’t
that mean-“
“She
could have a seizure without these pills,” Sonny answered.
“Oh,
God,” Kevin said, his eyes wide with concern.
“Yeah,”
Sonny said, shaking his head sadly. “She
was diagnosed with epilepsy a few years ago when we were at the base. She had a grand mal seizure. Luckily, we had medical technicians there on
base. They took her to the hospital, and
the doctors ran all these tests to find out what caused the seizure and
determined she had epilepsy.”
“I’m
sorry,” Howie said softly. “That must be
horrible.”
“Yeah,”
Sonny said. “As long as she takes her
pills regularly, she can control it. But
if she misses just one dose, it could trigger a seizure. And who knows where she is now. There’s probably no one around to help her if
she has one.” He rested his face in his
hands and sighed miserably.
“Julie’s
probably with her,” Howie said hopefully.
“She’s a med student, so I’m sure she’d know what to do.”
“Yeah,
probably,” Sonny said. “But still, if
she can’t get to a hospital, it won’t matter much. Julie won’t have any equipment with her if
something bad would happen.”
“We
just have to keep the faith and pray that everything will be okay,” Kevin said
softly.
Sonny
nodded, trying not to give up hope that Heidi would come back to him
safely.
***
I
woke up and found myself face to face with Brian, who was still asleep. I smiled at him. He looked so hot that I wanted to kiss him,
but pushed that thought out of my mind.
How could I possibly think a thing like that when we were locked in some
little room with no idea what was in store for us. Not to mention, he was married, and I had a
boyfriend that I planned on marrying.
I
rolled over and saw sunlight streaming in through the windows. It was morning. I yawned and sat up, stretching. I was stiff all over. The blankets had provided some padding on the
hard floor, but not enough.
Brian
stirred and opened his eyes. He looked
at me and slowly pulled himself up.
“Hey, Julie,” he said.
“Morning,
Brian,” I replied, offering him a small smile.
Suddenly, I heard noises above my head.
It was footsteps. I knew our
kidnappers must have already awoken.
Just
then, Heidi woke up. “Hey guys,” she mumbled
through a yawn, as she sat up.
“Hey,
Heidi. How do you feel?” I asked.
“Tired,”
she said sleepily. “I didn’t sleep very
well last night.”
“Yeah,
it wasn’t too comfortable, but I fell asleep right away, I was so exhausted,” I
replied.
“Yeah,
me too,” Brian said.
Suddenly,
I heard the sound of muffled voices coming from somewhere in the room. I looked around, confused as to where the
noise was coming from. Then I realized
it was coming from the furnace on one side of the room. It was the sounds of the men talking from
upstairs.
“Guys,
come here,” I whispered, as I scurried over to the furnace and sat down beside
it, trying to make out what they were saying.
“But,
J, why won’t you come?” one of them asked.
“I
told y’all already, I ain’t comin’ wit you.
I gots to stay here an’ watch da’ others, and L’s stayin’ here wit me,”
another man replied. I felt a tremor of
fear run down my spine as I realized he was the man who had called my cell
phone.
“But,
what if we screw up?” yet another man asked.
“Y’all
better not be screwin’ up, yo,” J replied harshly. “You’s not dat stupid, I’m sure y’all know
what to do.” There was silence. “Well, c’mon, get goin’! You gots a long ways to drive,” J
ordered.
“Do
we have to do it today?” the first man whined.
“We just went to Lexington yesterday, I don’t want to go back again.”
“We
gots to get da rest of them though!” J insisted. “We wait too long, an’ da police will be on
da watch. We gots to strike today!”
“Fine,
J,” one of the others said finally. “You
don’t have to snap at us, we’re going now.”
“You
best be goin’ now. An’ don’t be comin’
back wit out da rest of ‘em. Not
includin’ Nick, of course.” He
snickered. “We already taken care of
him.”
I
gasped. “They’re the ones that cut
Nick’s cord,” I whispered to Brian.
Brian looked at me, his blue eyes filled with a fury that I had never
seen there before.
“Those
bastards,” he said, his voice low.
“They’ll pay for this.”
“Guys,”
Heidi said. “Do you realize what they’re
talking about? They’re going back to
Lexington to get AJ, Howie, and Kevin!”
“We
have to stop them!” I cried.
“But
how can we?” Heidi asked.
“I
don’t know,” I said miserably.
“We
need a phone,” Brian muttered, looking around desperately. “If we could only get to a phone, we could
call the guys and warn them.”
“And
we could call the police,” I said. But
there was no phone.
“Well,
at least there’s some good news,” Brian said suddenly.
“What?”
Heidi asked.
“Some
of them are leaving,” Brian pointed out.
“From what I’ve seen and heard, there’s five of them. It sounds like only two are going to stay
here. If there’s three of us, and only
two of them, maybe we can escape somehow.”
“We
have to get out of here first,” Heidi said bitterly.
“Yeah,”
I said. But I refused to give up
hope. “I’ll be right back,” I said,
standing up. I went into the bathroom
and shut the door. I knelt down and
buried my face in my hands, as tears began to flow down my cheeks. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. Now it wasn’t only us in danger, but the
other Backstreet Boys were too, and I was helpless.
“Julie!”
Brian suddenly screamed. I jumped up and
burst out of the bathroom, forgetting my tears.
Something was wrong, I could tell by the panic in his voice. I screamed when I saw Heidi on the floor,
having a seizure.
“Give
her room,” I said, my voice shaking.
Brian backed up.
“Can’t
you do anything for her?” he asked frantically.
I
shook my head, my tears welling up again.
“There’s nothing anyone can do,” I whispered. “We just have to wait for it to stop.”
The
seizure lasted about six minutes, but it seemed like much longer. Finally, Heidi’s body relaxed, and she lay
flat on the ground. I immediately ran
over to her. She was breathing shallowly,
yet her pulse was racing. She was
unconscious.
“Is
she gonna be okay?” Brian asked worriedly.
“Probably
so,” I replied. “But she could have
another one at any time.”
“Will
she wake up soon?”
“Probably,
unless she hit her head and got a concussion or something,” I said.
Suddenly,
I heard footsteps again. With horror, I
realized they were coming downstairs.
There was suddenly a loud pounding on the door. “What da hell’s goin’ on in der?” J’s angry
voice demanded.
“We
need medical attention in here!” Brian shouted, his voice full of rage.
“What?”
J asked.
“One
of the girls just had a seizure!!” he yelled.
“She needs to go to the hospital now!”
“Yo,
I don’t care ‘bout dat! You’s all gonna
die anyways!” J shouted. I began to sob.
“Fuck
you!” Brian shouted at the top of his lungs.
I looked up at him, shocked at his outburst. He immediately knelt down beside me and
wrapped his arms around me. “Don’t cry,
Jules,” he whispered soothingly. “It’ll
be okay, just keep praying.” I nodded,
but I couldn’t stop crying. I lay my
head on his shoulder and sobbed as he slowly rocked me back and forth,
comforting me until my tears slowed.
***
Three
men rode in the truck in silence, on their way to Lexington, Kentucky. Suddenly, one broke the silence. “Hey, fellas?” he asked.
“What?”
one of them asked. The other kept his
eyes on the road.
“Do
you think this is right?” the first one asked.
“Right?”
the second scoffed. “Who cares about it
being right? Sometimes, in this business,
it’s what we have to do.”
“That’s
not what Jesus would do,” the first insisted.
“Damn,
man, cut the WWJD crap, already,” the driver yelled, clearly annoyed. “Who the hell cares what Jesus would do?”
The
first man said nothing, just stared straight ahead out the windshield and
stewed. What they were doing wasn’t
right, and he knew it.
They
drove a few miles further, until the first man saw a sign for a rest stop just
two miles ahead. “Hey, guys?” he asked.
“What?”
the second man asked again, also sounding annoyed.
“I
gotta take a piss, can we stop at the rest stop up here?”
“Oh
man, can’t you control your freakin’ bladder?” the driver asked.
“Sorry,
dude, but when I gotta go, I gotta go,” the first man insisted.
The
driver sighed. “Fine,” he muttered
angrily, swerving over to take the next exit which would lead them to the rest
stop.
They
stopped at a nearly deserted looking gas station. “Take the mask off, dude,” the second man
said, as the first started to climb out of the truck.
“Oh,
yeah,” he said, pulling off his black face mask. “Be back in a few.”
“Hurry,”
the driver said, his voice low.
“Right,”
the first said, as he hopped out and slammed the door behind him. The other two watched as he ran into the gas
station. What they didn’t see was what
he did when he was inside.
***
The
first man stormed inside the gas station and looked around. He saw a pay phone in the back, where the
restrooms were, just what he was looking for.
Glancing around to make sure no one was watching him, he strode over to
the pay phone and dropped a quarter into the slot. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket
and dialed the number on it.
***
Josh
jumped at the sound of Julie’s cell phone ringing. He hurried over to it and picked it up. After pressing ‘talk’, he put it to his
ear. “Hello?” he asked anxiously.
“Is
this a Backstreet Boy?” asked a male voice.
“No,”
Josh said, confused.
“Are
you with the Backstreet Boys right now?” the man asked, his voice rising. He sounded panicked and nervous.
“Why?”
Josh asked suspiciously.
“Please,
this is a life and death situation. Are
they there with you?!” the man demanded.
Josh’s
eyes widened at his tone. “Yeah,” he
finally said, his voice low. “Why,
what’s wrong? Who are you?”
“Please,
listen to me. Are the guys at the
hospital?”
“Yeah,
why? Please, what the hell is going on?”
Josh asked angrily.
“Get
them away from there, please. Get them
somewhere else, somewhere safe, ok?” the man asked anxiously.
“Who
are you?!” Josh demanded.
“I
can’t tell you that. But please, if you
care about their lives at all, you’ll do what I say. There’s some men coming for them this
afternoon, coming to take them, just like the others. Get them out of there!”
“Ok,
ok, man, I will,” Josh said, his heart pounding. “But please, who are you?” Suddenly, the line went dead. “Damn,” Josh muttered and hit ‘end’. He looked around. No one else was in the waiting room. Sonny was getting some lunch, and the three
Backstreet Boys were in with Nick. Josh
didn’t know who had called him, but he knew that he had meant business. Without any further thought, Josh took off
down the hall to Nick’s room.
***
