Prologue

“And Nick can belch on command?” Jay Leno asked on TV.

“Oh yeah, yeah,” said the tall, dark haired man, amid the wild screams of the audience.

Brendan Graves rolled his eyes at the old, fuzzy TV in his tiny living room. Of course, the one night was he wasn’t working and was able to watch “The Tonight Show”, they had to be on. The Backstreet Boys.

“He’s gotta have a carbonated drink though,” the dark-haired man added.

“Oh, here’s a carbonated drink right here,” Jay said, handing him a Coke.

The dark-haired guy handed the Coke to the tall, blonde man sitting next to him, who began to protest. They egged him on though, and finally, the blonde took a sip of Coke and let out a loud belch.

Brendan stared at the screen in disgust as the audience once again broke into screams and applause. “The guy burps, and the girls go wild? How fucked up is that?” he asked aloud.

His vision zeroed in on the other blonde member of the group, who was now trying to impersonate Donald Duck. Brendan knew this one’s name. Brian. Brian Littrell.

“Gee, must be nice to have all those girls trying to get in your pants,” Brendan said, speaking to the TV. “Just wait, boys. Soon, they’ll be wanting to get in my pants too. And you won’t have a clue.”

He snickered evilly, as the show ended, and picked up his phone. He had work to do.

***

Chapter 1

“Flight 809, Los Angeles to Atlanta, now boarding.”

“That’s my flight,” Brian Littrell said, standing up and slinging his backpack over on shoulder.

The first leg of the Backstreet Boys’ Black and Blue Tour had finally come to an end, and the quintet was splitting up, heading for different flights to take them each to their homes. Brian’s flight home to Atlanta, Georgia was the first to take off.

Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough, and AJ McLean stood up with Brian. The five men exchanged quick hugs.

“You take care, cuz,” Kevin said to Brian.

“Say hi to Leigh for us,” Howie added, referring to Brian’s wife, Leighanne.

“Bye, bro,” AJ said, patting Brian on the shoulder.

“See ya, Frick,” said Nick, Brian’s best friend, giving him one last hug.

“Okay. Bye, y’all,” Brian said, smiling at his five bandmates and best friends. Then he headed to a terminal, where a woman was taking people’s boarding passes. He looked back just once, waved, and headed on his way.

***

Brendan glanced around quickly, to make sure no on was around. He was in luck; the phone bank where he stood in a small corner of the big Atlanta airport was completely deserted.

Brendan adjusted the do-rag on his head so that it covered all of his hair, and slipped a pair of dark sunglasses on so that no one could see his eyes.

Picking up the receiver of one of the pay phones nearby, Brendan deposited a quarter, pulled a rumpled piece of paper out of his coat pocket, and dialed the phone number written on it.

The phone rang a couple times, and then a woman answered it. “Hello?”

“Hey, Leigh,” Brendan said warmly. “It’s me, Brian.”

“Hi, honey,” Leighanne Littrell greeted. “Where are you calling from?”

“I’m in LA. Look, honey, my flight got delayed, so I won’t be in Atlanta for another…” Brendan looked at his watch quickly, “… two hours.”

“Oh.” Leighanne sounded disappointed. “Well, okay, honey. I’ll be at the airport to pick you up at six then, okay?”

“Okay, babe. Gotta go now. I can’t wait to see you,” Brendan said.

“Oh, me neither, hon. Love you.”

“I love you too,” Brendan said through gritted teeth, and hung up the phone.

“Flight 809, Los Angeles to Atlanta, now arriving,” projected a voice through the intercom.

Brendan grinned evilly. “Show time.”

***

“Thank you for flying Delta airlines,” said a perky stewardess. Brian nodded in acknowledgement and continued on his way out the plane and into the airport. He was finally home in Atlanta, and he was glad. He couldn’t wait to see his wife, Leighanne. After months of being on tour, he missed her like crazy.

But when he made it inside the airport, he saw no sign of his wife. He looked all around the waiting area at the gate where his flight had come in, but she was nowhere to be found.

Puzzled, Brian checked a large clock hanging on the wall nearby. It was exactly four o’clock in the afternoon; his flight had been right on time. So where was Leighanne?

Brian figured maybe she was just running late and decided to sit down and wait for her. The gate where he was standing was filled with people meeting friends and relatives that had been on his flight, so, not wanting to be mobbed by any fans that might recognize him, Brian headed down the hall in search of somewhere isolated where he could wait.

He walked through the airport until he came to an empty waiting area. He took a seat in a corner, letting his backpack fall to the ground.

Maybe I should call Leigh, he thought suddenly. Maybe she had forgotten what time to pick him up or just lost track of the time. Deciding that calling home was a good idea, Brian pulled his cell phone out of his backpack and turned it on. As he was pressing the speed-dial for his home number, he did not see the figure rapidly approaching him.

Brian watched as the seven digits of his phone number appeared in the little window on the phone, and started to place the phone to his ear. But when he looked up, he gasped, the phone slipping out of his hand.

There was a man standing right next to his chair, looking down at him, a sneer on his lips. It was hard to tell what he looked like, for the man’s head was covered with a bandana, and he was wearing a pair of large, dark sunglasses. The man was dressed in black, complete with a black trench coat.

“Can I help you, sir?” Brian asked meekly, reaching down to retrieve his fallen phone. But as he did so, the man took a swing, his fist colliding with Brian’s jaw.

Falling back in his chair with a gasp of pain, Brian cowered, rubbing his jaw. “Wh… what’s going on?” he demanded, but his voice wavered.

“I’ll fill you in on that later,” the man replied gruffly. “But for now, I want you to come with me. And don’t give me no trouble either, or you’ll get it later. Got that?” At a loss for words, Brian just nodded.

“What’s that?” the man asked, noticing Brian’s fallen cell phone. Before Brian could reply, he picked it up, glanced at the screen for a moment, and put it to his ear. A twisted smile crossed his face, and he let go of the phone, sending it clattering onto the ground once again. Then, he raised his foot and stomped down hard on the phone, smashing it with his heavy black boot.

“Come on,” the man growled, grabbing Brian’s shirt collar and yanking him up. Brian was surprised at the man’s strength, for he was quite small in stature, no bigger than Brian. Yet, he seemed to be stronger.

“Wh-where are we going?” Brian asked, as the man pushed him roughly forward.

The man chuckled, his cold laugh sending chills throughout Brian’s trembling body. “You’ll see.”

***

Chapter 2

“Hello?” said Leighanne Littrell, picking up the phone in her living room. No one answered. “Hello?” she repeated, pressing the receiver tightly to her ear.

She frowned, puzzled. She could hear muffled noises and voices on the other end of the phone, but she couldn’t make out what was going on. She could hear two voices, both male, and one sounded angry.

“Who is this?” she demanded. “Hello!?”

Suddenly, she heard a loud sound, then static, and then the phone went dead.

***

“Walk straight ahead, and don’t make any sudden movements, you got that?” Brian’s captor growled, holding tightly to Brian’s arms as he guided him forward. “You do anything to attract attention to yourself, and you’ll pay.”

Brian flinched as he felt something small and hard shove into the middle of his back. He didn’t even have to see it to realize what it was. It was the barrel of a gun.

The man walked swiftly along beside Brian, one hand behind his back, holding the gun up against his jacket. “This way,” he said suddenly, roughly shoving Brian to his left. Brian saw an exit sign and with panic, realized they were leaving the airport.

He wanted to spin out of the man’s grasp and make a run for it, but he knew what the consequences would be if he even tried. So instead, he cooperated, not knowing what else to do.

They walked to a pair of doors leading out of the airport. It was not the main entrance, some kind of side entrance, rather. There were no people around, no one to spot the gun and realize what was happening. It was just Brian and the man.

The man hurried Brian through the doors and outside. The bright sunlight caused Brian to squint, but the man gave him no time to let his eyes adjust. “Move,” he snarled, pushing Brian forward.

They walked on, and Brian could see that they were approaching a parking lot, with people nearby. He wondered what would happen next. Would the man keep his gun shoved against Brian like that, where people could easily see it?

No. He stopped and slowly drew the gun away from Brian’s body, hiding it inside his trench coat. “Now, listen,” he said warningly. “Just cause I don’t got you at gunpoint anymore don’t mean I won’t use it if I need to. You just better cooperate and make sure I don’t have to use it.”

Brian nodded quickly, unable to answer verbally.

“Now come on,” the man said, dragging him on. They walked through the parking lot and stopped in front of an old, beat-up, black car. The man guided Brian around to the back and opened the right back door. He shoved Brian into the seat behind the passenger’s seat.

“Give me your hands,” he ordered, and Brian reluctantly held out his hands. The man grabbed them roughly and tied a thick cord around his wrists, binding them tightly together. Brian cried out as the cord cut into his skin, for it was too tight. The man showed no mercy. “Now your legs,” he barked, and, clenching his teeth, Brian swung his legs out of the car. The man bent down and tied his ankles together as well, then shoved him back into the car. He buckled the seatbelt around Brian and closed the door. Then he got into the front seat.

“Now, don’t even try to escape cause you won’t make it. Even if you could get untied, I’ve had child security locks installed in the backseat, so the door won’t open, not from the inside at least. So if you know what’s good for you, you’ll just sit still and enjoy the ride.” The man laughed evilly and backed the car out of its parking space.

Brian stared miserably out the window, as the man put the car into drive and sped out of the parking lot.

***

After a good half hour, at least, the car lurched to a stop. Brian glanced out the window to find himself in front of an old abandoned building, which looked like it had once been a convenience store, or some other small place of business. They must have still been in Atlanta, but in a much different part of town. This part was old and run-down, with clusters of tiny old houses squeezed between commercial buildings, many of which were in worse shape than the houses.

As the man swiped his key out of the ignition and climbed out of the car, Brian felt a wave of nausea. To say he was scared would be a gross understatement. Terrified would better describe the emotion, but even that word didn’t fully illustrate his fear.

The man came around to Brian’s side of the car and opened the door. “Okay, I’m gonna untie your legs now so you can walk, but I still have my gun with me, so don’t try anything funny,” the man said. Brian nodded, more afraid than obedient, and swung his tied ankles out. The man bent over and, pulling a pocket knife out of one of the pockets on his coat, sliced the cords.

Brian sighed inwardly in relief as the circulation came back to his ankles. His wrists still ached, but he decided not to mention that.

“Come on,” the man said, pulling Brian to his feet. He dragged him onto the cracked sidewalk and slammed the car door shut behind him with one foot. Then, gripping Brian’s upper arm tightly, he led him through the scraggly grass in front of the building. Instead of going in the front entrance, Brian was led around the building to a door in the back. He kicked open the door and shoved Brian in, quickly closing and locking it behind him.

Brian looked around and found himself in a large, empty room. It had a low ceiling, and the floor was covered with dirty red and white tiles. The man didn’t give Brian much of a chance to survey the rest of the room. Instead, he pushed him forward, leading him to a door on one side of the room.

He opened the door, and Brian saw a set of stairs. “Up,” the man grunted, and Brian miserably trudged up the stairs. At the top, there was another door. The man reached around Brian and opened it, shoving Brian through it.

They were now in another room, this one small. The wooden floors were old and dusty, and the room was empty. Across the room was a door. The man led Brian through it and into another even smaller room. This room contained an old twin bed with nothing but a bare mattress on it. Beside it stood a small wooden chest of drawers. And that was all, except for the heavy curtains that were drawn in front of a small window, which faced the street.

“Lie down,” the man ordered, giving Brian a hard shove that left him sprawling onto the bed. “Now hold still, or I’ll beat the living shit out of you,” he warned, pushing Brian down so that he lay flat on the bed. The man untied Brian’s wrists, but before Brian had a chance to relax them, he grabbed one and stretched it up to one of the posts on the headboard of the bed. Using a piece of cord, he tightly tied Brian’s wrist to the post. Then he did the same with the other wrist.

When Brian’s hands were securely tied, he began on the feet, tying each of Brian’s ankles to the short posts at the foot of the bed. Finally, he took a long piece of cord and lay it across Brian’s stomach. He looped the cord around the whole mattress and tied the ends in a knot beneath the bed. Brian was now stuck, unable to move hardly anything except his head.

“Please, why are you doing this to me?” he demanded, close to tears.

“You wanna know why I’m doing this to you?” the man asked, chuckling. “Well, I’ll tell you.” He grinned evilly. Then, slowly, he removed the do-rag from his head and pulled the sunglasses off his face, exposing his eyes.

As Brian got a good look at his face for the first time, he gasped.

***

Chapter 3

Brian was staring at a mirror image of himself. The man that stood before him was an exact replica of Brian, with the same wavy, sandy blonde hair, the same bright blue eyes, the same facial structure, everything. They were identical.

“Wh-who are you?” Brian gasped.

The look-alike laughed evilly. “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about, isn’t there, Brian?” he asked, smirking. “A lot of family secrets.”

Brian stared at him with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I’m your twin brother, Brian. Your own blood,” the man replied.

Brian’s mouth dropped open. “No way! I don’t have a twin!” he protested, but his voice was tinged with uncertainty.

“Oh yes, you do,” the man insisted, nodding. “My name is Brendan. Brendan Graves. My father was Don Graves. Has your mother mentioned him?”

Brian stared at him in shock, trying to comprehend. “No…” he said dumbly. “I-I don’t understand.”

“Well, it’s a long, long story, bro.” Brendan sneered. “But since it’s obviously been kept from you, I guess I should fill you in.”

Brian nodded, anxiously awaiting an explanation.

“You see, a long time ago, before we were born, your mother… our mother, that is, had a torrid affair with another man, our father, Don Graves,” Brendan started.

“No!” Brian screamed in protest. “You’re lying! My mother would never do that!”

“Oh, but she did,” Brendan replied matter-of-factly. “She did, and she got pregnant. By that time, she and Don had already broken up, and her husband, your so-called father Harold, didn’t know about the affair. She didn’t want to hurt him, I guess, so she kept it from him. She tried to keep the pregnancy from Don, but it didn’t work. It just so happened that Don was good friends with her obstetrician, and he knew of the affair.

“When he told Don that she was pregnant, Don confronted Jackie, wanting to know if the baby was his. Jackie secretly had Dr. Walters run a paternity test, and sure enough, Don was the father, not Harold.

“And then it was found out during a sonogram that Jackie was pregnant with not just one baby, but two. When Don found out this, that he had twin sons coming, he told Jackie he wanted one of them. She protested, of course, but he blackmailed her. He threatened to tell Harold the whole story if she didn’t give him one of the twins once they were born. And so, she agreed. She made a deal with Dr. Walters, and her whole pregnancy, they never told Harold that she was expecting twins.

“Then at 1:37, on February 20, 1975, you were born, the first of the two of us. Dr. Walters made a big show of giving you to Harold and escorting him out to let him show you off to the family. And then he delivered the second baby, me. A nurse took me out through another entrance to the delivery room so that no one would see, and I was taken to Don. And when we both left the hospital, you went with Jackie and Harold, and I went with Don. And that, my brother, is what really happened.”

Brian shook his head in shock. “No,” he murmured. “No way.”

“Yes way, I’m afraid,” Brendan leered. “And look who got the bad end of the deal. You grew up in a nice family. You got the big break. You’re the rich and famous one. And look at me. I grew up with just a father, who worked all the time and never spent any time with me. I dropped out of school when I was sixteen and got a job. I’ve spent the past ten years working at greasy, crummy, fast-food places. While you’re making millions, I’m making minimum wage, barely enough to live on. You’ve got a mansion, and I’ve got a roach-infested apartment. That’s fair, huh?”

“Is that why you’re doing this to me? You’re jealous?” Brian asked in disbelief.

“Jealous? Yeah, I guess that word describes it. It’s not fair. We’re blood… womb-mates, actually. What right do you have to get all this success when I work hard and get nothing?”

“Hey, I’ve worked hard too,” Brian protested.

Brendan snorted. “Oh yeah, you’ve worked so hard. Like singing and dancing and traveling all over the world is ‘hard’.” He rolled his eyes.

“You have no idea how stressful it can be!” Brian argued.

“Oh, I’m sure. Just like you have no idea how stressful it is to worry constantly about not being able to pay your bills, to buy food for yourself, to do anything! You wouldn’t have a clue about that, would you? Of course not,” Brendan said dryly, his voice filled with sarcasm and resentment.

Brian didn’t respond. He felt overwhelmed with this flood of information he had learned, which went against everything he had grown up believing. He couldn’t believe that his mother had had an affair, had cheated on his father, who was not even his real father, as it turned out. And most of all, he couldn’t believe he had an identical twin brother, who he had never seen or even known of.

“Look… Brendan…” Brian started, hoping to reason with this man. “You said yourself that I’m your flesh and blood… your ‘womb-mate’. So how could you do this to me? I’m your brother! I’m your family!” He paused, glancing at Brendan’s face, and added, desperately, “Please, let me go, and everything will be okay. I can loan you some money to help you pay your bills and everything if that’s what you want. In fact, I don’t even have to loan it to you. I’ll give it to you!”

Brian looked at Brendan hopefully, praying his bribe would work. Unfortunately, Brendan could not be reasoned with.

“No way. I don’t want your money,” Brendan replied, glaring at Brian.

“What do you want then?” Brian asked. “Whatever it is, I’ll give it to you if you let me go.”

Brendan snickered. “I don’t think so, Brian. You see, what I want is… your life.”

***

Chapter 4

“What?!” Brian gasped.

“I want to be you,” Brendan said. “And very, very soon, I will be you.”

“You’ll never pull it off,” Brian said, his voice low with anger.

”Oh yes, I will,” Brendan insisted, laughing. “Face it, bro – we look exactly alike.”

“So? Looks aren’t everything. I’m a singer, remember? What are you gonna do about that?” Brian asked, raising an eyebrow.

Brendan snickered. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ve memorized all the words to your songs. It was a pain in the ass and in the ears, but I have them all down pat. I’ll be able to lip sync just fine.”

“We don’t lip sync,” Brian spat, glaring darkly at his twin.

“Oh really? I thought all boybands did. But that’s okay, I can sing if I need to,” Brendan replied.

“Oh yeah?” Brian challenged.

“Of course. You know, you’re a lot dumber than I expected you to be. I guess I got the brains of the family. We’re twins, remember – we both inherited Mommy’s singing talent. See?” Brian watched in shock as Brendan began to sing the first part of “I Want It That Way”. Brian’s heart sank – Brendan’s voice sounded exactly like his.

Brendan stopped singing and laughed at the expression on Brian’s face. “Big shocker, huh? Guess you never expected to hear me singing one of your gay little bubblegum pop songs. It’s not much fun, I’ll tell ya. But in order to be you, I have to suffer through it.”

Brian shook his head, forcing back tears. Brendan seemed to have this all figured out.

“And not only do I look and sound just like you, I can act just like you too. I’ve been watching you all the time over the last few years. I know your personality well. I know your likes and your dislikes. You love basketball. In fact, you’re a pretty good basketball player. Guess what? So am I.” He grinned and went on, “You’re also a real holy guy. Well, I’m not, but I can act like one. You’ve even got that tattoo on your shoulder, the one of the cross. Well guess what…” Brendan trailed off, took off his trench coat, and rolled up his sleeve. There, on his left shoulder, was a tattoo identical to Brian’s.

“No,” Brian murmured, shaking his head in disbelief. This guy had everything!

Brendan glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Oh, look at the time,” he said. “It’s almost six. I need to be getting back to the airport so Leighanne can pick me up. From what she’s heard, your… I mean, my flight was delayed two hours.” He glanced at Brian, studying him. “You know, I think we need to switch clothes. I doubt Leigh will expect me to show up looking like this.” He looked down at his dark clothing.

“No,” Brian declared.

Brendan laughed. “Actually, the answer is yes, my friend. I’m going to untie you for a few minutes here, and you strip. Then you can put on my clothes, okay?”

Brian started to protest, but Brendan pulled his gun out of his coat. When Brian closed his mouth, a smile of satisfaction came over Brendan’s face. “You gonna cooperate now?” he asked.

Brian nodded silently, holding still while Brendan untied him from the bed. He stripped down to his boxers and handed Brendan his clothes. Brendan stripped out of his clothes as well and gave them to Brian to put on.

A few minutes later, they had swapped clothes, and as far as Brendan was concerned, they had swapped identities as well.

Brendan quickly tied Brian back to the bed, slapped a piece of duct tape tightly over his mouth, and stepped back, smiling sickly at his prisoner. “Well, I better run. See you later, Brendan.” He chuckled wickedly, grabbed Brian’s backpack, and left the room, leaving Brian tied down, helpless, and alone.

***

“Brian!”

Brendan looked up to see a pretty blonde woman running towards him, a big smile on her face. He grinned. It was Leighanne, his new wife. Time for his acting job to begin.

“Leigh!” he cried with fake enthusiasm, running towards her. “Oh, baby, I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too!” Leighanne cried, throwing her arms around him. “How was the flight?”

“It was fine. I’m so glad to be home though. I’m tired, from the flying and the tour and all.” He faked a yawn to prove his point. “Let’s go get my luggage and then head home.”

“That sounds good, baby,” Leighanne replied, taking his hand. Together, they walked through the airport towards the baggage claim.

Brendan smiled to himself. Leighanne didn’t suspect a thing. This was going to be too easy.

***

“So, you ready to go to bed, babe?” Brendan asked Leighanne that night, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Sure,” Leighanne replied, a grin spreading slowly across her sleep. Brendan led her upstairs to their bedroom.

“I got you a present,” he said, taking the gift-wrapped box he had put in Brian’s backpack out and handing it to Leighanne.

“Oh, Brian, you’re so good to me,” she said, smiling sweetly at him. She carefully pulled off the gold wrapping paper and took the lid off of the flat, red box. She pulled back the tissue paper inside, and her mouth dropped open.

Slowly, she pulled out the garment inside the box and held it up to get a good look at it. It was a tiny, red, lacy piece of lingerie that certainly didn’t leave much to the imagination.

Brendan looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to suggest she put it on and get in bed with him, but she did not. Instead, she continued to stare at it, obviously shocked.

“Uh… thanks… dear,” she finally said.

“You don’t like it?” Brendan asked, astonished. He would expect the wardrobe of an attractive woman like Leighanne to be full of things like this.

“No, it’s not that. I just can’t believe you would buy something like this for me,” she said, looking at him with surprise.

Brendan grinned. “I guess I’m just exploring my wild side,” he said seductively. “So how about you try it on for me?”

“Well… okay,” she agreed, still looking a little shocked. “Wait out here. I’ll surprise you.” She gave him a seductive wink and disappeared into the bathroom.

Brendan sighed heavily and sank down onto the bed. He had almost blown it. He knew that if he had a wife as hot as Leighanne, he would buy her sexy lingerie all the time. But his twin obviously did not. And he had to pull off acting just like Brian. It was going to be harder than he thought.

But when Leighanne emerged from the bathroom, Brendan immediately felt better.

“You like?” she asked, posing for him, a mischievous expression on her face.

“I love it,” Brendan said gleefully. “So… uh, you wanna try it out?”

“Of course,” she replied, climbing on to the bed. “You know, babe, I think I like this ‘wild side’ of you.”

Brendan grinned devilishly and turned out the lights in the bedroom, leaving only a couple candles burning to provide a dim, romantic atmosphere. He leaned over Leighanne on the bed, giving her a passionate kiss. “So do I.”

***

Chapter 5

Brian’s head turned sharply towards the door, as he heard the knob turn.

“Good morning, brother!” Brendan greeted, smiling evilly at the pitiful figure tied down to the bed and ripping the tape off of his mouth with a sharp yank, causing Brian to wince. “And how are we doing on this glorious day?”

Brian swallowed back a retort and said nothing.

“Did you have a good night last night?” Brendan went on. “I sure did. Your wife is great in bed, you know.”

The blood drained from Brian’s face. “What did you say?”

“I said that Leighanne is great in bed. If she was my wife, I’d f*ck her all the time,” Brendan smirked. “Oh wait, she is my wife.”

“You son of a bitch!” Brian spat.

Brendan laughed. “Do you realize you just referred to your own mother as a bitch? What about all that ‘Perfect Fan’ crap?”

Angry tears rose in Brian’s eyes.

“Oh, that’s right, go ahead and sob, you little pussy,” Brendan said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “You’re gonna cry even more when you see this.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and reached into his backpack.

Brian watched as he pulled out a Kodak envelope, the kind your pictures come in when they get developed.

Brendan smiled evilly. “I knew you might not believe me about fucking your little wifey, so I decided to document it last night with pictures. See?”

Brian gasped as Brendan held a picture up to his face. It was of Leighanne, dressed in a skimpy, nearly see-through piece of lingerie, sprawled out on the bed, a seductive smile on her face.

“Oh, you think that’s bad?” Brendan asked, smiling at Brian’s horrified expression. “There’s more.” He held up another picture, of he and Leighanne lying under the sheets, their arms around each other. They were obviously naked.

Tears streamed down Brian’s cheeks. “How could you?” he asked softly.

“Oh, it was a piece of cake,” Brendan gloated. “She totally bought it. She has no idea who I really am.”

More tears fell from Brian’s eyes, running down the length of his face. He couldn’t believe his Leighanne couldn’t tell the difference between her own husband and this evil look-alike. He would expect anyone who didn’t know him that well to fall for it, but how could Leighanne?

“Fuck you,” Brian said hoarsely.

“No thanks. I think I will go fuck Leigh again though. See ya later!” Brendan replaced the piece of duct tape over Brian’s mouth, grabbed up his backpack, and walked out of the room, leaving Brian all alone once again.

***

Later that evening, the phone rang at Brian’s house. Leighanne answered.

“Brian, it’s for you, honey!” she called after a moment.

“Got it!” Brendan called back, picking up the phone in another room. “Hello?”

“Hey, Frick, it’s me,” came a young man’s voice.

“Hey,” Brendan replied, hurriedly trying to figure out who it was. Who was the one that always called Brian “Frick”? Nick, of course. Nick, otherwise known as “Frack”.

“That you, Frack?” he asked, for confirmation.

“Course it’s me,” Nick said. “How’s it going, dude?”

“Pretty good,” Brendan said. “How ‘bout you?”

“Fine,” Nick replied. “So whatcha been up to?”

“Nothin’ much, just chillin’ out. It’s good to be back home,” Brendan said, smiling at what a good acting job he was doing.

“Yeah, I know, bro,” Nick agreed. He started rambling on about God-knows-what, and Brendan listened boredly, putting in a “yeah” or “uh-huh” every now and then so Nick would think he actually cared.

“Well, I better let you go now,” Nick said finally, and Brendan practically sighed with relief.

“Yeah, okay, dude. See ya later,” Brendan replied.

“Okay. Bye, Bri,” Nick said, hanging up. Brendan hung up as well, rolling his eyes. He could tell that socializing with the other Backstreet Boys was going to get real old, real soon.

But, just like in their stupid song, there were prices to fame, and for Brendan, that was one of them. He would just have to learn to deal with it.

***

I’m going to die, Brian realized, as he lay in the darkness, his stomach growling with hunger, his throat burning with thirst. He’s just going to leave me here to rot and then get rid of my body, and no one will ever know. He’ll spend the rest of his life pretending to be me.

The thought of that, of Brendan making love to his wife, touring with his best friends, and just living as him for who knew how much longer, was horrible. And the worst part was that Brian had no idea what to do about it, how to stop it. That left him feeling helpless and utterly depressed.

Brian wasn’t tired, but sleeping was really the only thing he could do, so he closed his eyes, and eventually, sleep found him.

***

Chapter 6

“Morning, sunshine,” Brendan cooed evilly, sneering down at his sleeping twin brother.

Brian’s eyes quickly opened at the sound of Brendan’s taunting voice.

“Want some breakfast?” Brendan asked, holding up a greasy McDonald’s bag.

Brian’s mouth watered, and his eyes narrowed darkly at his twin. Brendan was teasing him, showing him something like that, letting him smell the hot food.

Brendan harshly ripped the duct tape off of Brian’s mouth once again. Then he set down the McDonald’s bag on the night table and pulled something out. An egg McMuffin.

He’s going to eat that right in front of me, isn’t he? Brian thought miserably. But Brendan didn’t. Instead, he unwrapped the McMuffin and held it up to Brian’s mouth.

“Take a bite,” he ordered.

Brian opened his mouth, then shut it again quickly. What if Brendan had tampered with it somehow? What if it was poisoned?

“Come on, you gonna eat it or not?” Brendan asked impatiently.

Brian’s stomach overpowered his common sense, and he bit into the McMuffin. It tasted heavenly to him, and he savored the small bite, chewing and swallowing it slowly. Feeling more confident that nothing was wrong with it (for it tasted fine), he took another, larger bite, and then another, until it was all gone.

Brian’s stomach felt much better than before, but he was still hungry. And thirsty too.

“Here,” Brendan said, thrusting a small cup towards him. He put the straw up to Brian’s mouth, and Brian took an eager sip. It was orange juice. A little warm, but still delicious. Brian drank it gratefully.

When he was done, Brendan pulled the cup away and set it on the night stand.

“Why the food all of a sudden?” Brian couldn’t help but ask.

“I couldn’t let you starve to death, now could I?” Brendan asked, rolling his eyes.

Why not? Brian wondered, but didn’t ask.

“Not yet anyway,” his evil twin added, snickering wickedly.

Brian didn’t respond. Instead, he tried in vain to hold back the feelings of despair he felt creeping up on him once again.

***

As the days passed, Brendan began to realize that his plan of keeping Brian tied up in the room wasn’t going to work. He couldn’t leave him there forever. He needed to move him somewhere else, somewhere where he would still be confined, but not tied down and unable to move. Eventually, of course, he planned on killing his twin, but not for awhile. He wanted to torture him some more first.

Brendan thought and thought, trying to think of a suitable place for Brian to be transferred. And then he got an idea.

***

“Guess what, bro? It’s moving day!” Brendan announced one morning, when he sauntered into Brian’s room with his breakfast.

“Moving day?” Brian asked curiously, as soon as Brendan had ripped the tape off of his mouth.

“That’s right,” Brendan confirmed. “You’re going to stay with a buddy of mine. He doesn’t live too far away either so I’ll be able to come visit you. You’ll have a great time.”

Brian sighed, knowing he wouldn’t. But at this point, anything seemed better than the hell-hole he was trapped in now.

It had been about a week since his capture. It was hard to keep track of the days, but Brian figured it had to have been about seven. Seven days spent tied to a bed, unable to move, unable to speak, except for when his mouth wasn’t taped, and with a limited amount of food. Brendan usually stopped by once a day, in mid-morning, to bring him some food, and that was all he got for the rest of the day. And sometimes, he brought more than just food. He brought pictures, more pictures of he and Leighanne making out or worse, just to make Brian even more upset than he already was.

“Now, listen up,” Brendan ordered, snapping his fingers in Brian’s face to get his attention. “I’m going to untie you from the bed, and you’re going to cooperate and come with me. I’ve got my gun with me, so don’t even attempt to try anything.” To prove his point, he pulled his gun out of his jacket and showed it to Brian.

Brian gulped and nodded obediently.

“Good,” Brendan said, an evil grin spreading across his face. “Now, let’s get going.”

***

Chapter 7

The drive to Brendan’s “buddy’s” house was only about half an hour long. When the car stopped, Brian found himself in front of an old, ranch-style house, sitting in the middle of a cornfield. He remembered passing other houses a ways back, but this house was at least a mile away from any them. Looking further down the road, he didn’t see any houses ahead either. He was in the middle of nowhere, where there was no one to find him and help him.

“Nice place, eh?” Brendan asked, as he opened Brian’s door and jerked him out of the car. Brian’s wrists and ankles were tied together, and he stumbled, falling hard to the ground.

“Oh, get up,” Brendan said in irritation, kicking Brian in the back.

Brian let out a sharp gasp of pain, as Brendan’s heel drove into his back, and bit his lip to keep from crying out.

“There,” Brendan muttered, slicing the cord tying Brian’s ankles together. “Now get your ass up!” He bent down and yanked Brian up. “Come on.”

Holding his gun to Brian’s back, he shoved him up the driveway and into the open garage. A man stood inside the garage, waiting for them. He was a greasy, fat, disgusting-looking man, and he was holding a beer bottle in one hand.

“This the guy?” he asked gruffly.

“Gee, ya think, Sonny?” Brendan replied sarcastically.

The man - Sonny, as Brendan had called him - just grunted in reply and went inside through the back door. Brendan and Brian followed.

“Take ‘im downstairs,” Sonny ordered, pointing to a door that led to a flight of stairs which went down to the basement.

Brendan nodded and jerked Brian towards the doors. He practically dragged Brian downstairs to a dark, musty basement. The basement was not finished, with cinder-block walls and a cracked cement floor. It was sparsely furnished with a dirty old sofa that smelled faintly of stale cigarette smoke, a wobbly coffee table, and a cheap entertainment center against one wall, which held stacks of old magazines, a small, ancient television, and an equally ancient stereo system. The gray walls were bare, except for a collection of stuffed animals heads mounted on one wall for decoration. Brian supposed this Sonny was some kind of hunter.

Sonny had followed Brendan and Brian down the stairs. He caught Brian looking at the stuffed heads and smiled eerily. “Like my collection?” he asked, snickering. Brian studied him with wide eyes, saying nothing.

“Unfold the hide-a-bed, Sonny,” Brendan commanded.

“Sure thing, boss,” Sonny replied, removing the cushions from the couch and setting up the bed that folded out of it. The hide-a-bed was lumpy and sunk down in the middle. It was covered with a sheet that had probably once been white, but now looked gray with dirt.

“Welcome to your new home, Brian,” Brendan said, pushing Brian on to the bed. Brian cried out in pain as he landed on his still-tied wrists. Brendan rolled his eyes and jerked Brian up into a sitting position, taking out his pocket knife to cut the cords away from his wrists. “Now lie down,” he ordered, pushing Brian back down on the bed so that he was lying flat on his back.

Brian held still and tried desperately to hold back tears as Brendan stretched his arms out from his sides and tied his wrists to the metal legs of the hide-a-bed. He did the same with his ankles and stretched one cord across Brian’s middle so that Brian was once again lying flat on a bed, unable to move.

“There. Comfy?” Brendan asked sarcastically, laughing maliciously. Brian tried his best to ignore his twin, but that was difficult.

“What am I s’posed ta feed ‘im?” Sonny asked, eyeing his prisoner.

“Don’t feed him nothin’,” Brendan replied. “I’ll take care of that. Just make sure he gets some water once a day.”

“Alrighty, boss,” Sonny said. “I won’t let ya down.”

“You better not,” Brendan said, narrowing his eyes at Sonny. “Or else.”

***

“Where have you been, honey?” Leighanne asked, as Brendan walked into the house.

“Just running a few errands,” he replied, leaning over to kiss her cheek.

“Oh. What did you get?”

“Huh?”

“What did you get?” she repeated, looking at his empty hands.

“Oh! Uh… nothing. See, I was looking for some… uh…” He looked around desperately and spotted a small potted plant sitting in the windowsill of the kitchen. “… some fertilizer. Yeah, some fertilizer… for your garden.” He smiled inwardly, relieved. “This clay soil… it just isn’t good for growing plants.”

Leighanne nodded. “So you didn’t find any?” she asked.

“Nope. Couldn’t find the right stuff. Guess Lowe’s is all out,” he replied.

“Oh, okay. Well, I was just about to go out and look for a new soaker hose for the garden. The old one’s got a clog in it that I can’t seem to get out. I should have told you this morning; you could have picked one up while you were at Lowe’s.”

“Oh, yeah, you should have,” Brendan said. “Well, I’ll be upstairs.”

Leighanne watched him hurry up the stairs and shrugged. She grabbed her purse and keys and left the house.

***

Leighanne browsed the gardening section of the local Lowe’s, looking for hoses. She spotted some hanging on the back wall and started towards them. As she walked along, a display at the end of one of the aisles caught her eyes.

She stopped to find herself standing in front of a shelf of large green bags of plant fertilizer, marked down to a special sale price.

“That’s funny,” she murmured, narrowing her eyes at the display. “I thought they were all out.”

***

Chapter 8

One week later

It had been two weeks. For two weeks, Brian had been locked in a room, tied down to a bed. For the first week, it had been in the abandoned building; for the second, in the basement of Brendan’s friend Sonny. Brian wasn’t sure which was worse.

Both were terrible, that was for sure. But lately, Brian was thinking he hated the new place more. Sonny’s basement was dirty, musty, and smelly. Although lately, Brian wasn’t sure which was worse – the stench of the room he was in or the stench of himself. After all, he had not bathed since the morning he had left Mexico City, where the last concert of the tour had been held. Two weeks was a long time to go without bathing, changing, or using deodorant. And it was definitely taking its toll on Brian.

He longed for the heavenly feeling of warm, clean water dripping over his body, the sweet scent of his Dove soap, the silkiness of his hair when it was freshly shampooed. Now his hair was stringy, greasy, and dirty, his face streaked with dirt and tears, his clothes soiled and stained with sweat. Sometimes, just a whiff of the odor rising from his body was enough to make him gag. It was not only gross, but humiliating as well.

But even his lack of hygiene was not as awful as his physical condition. Brian could feel himself getting weaker, from lack of food and exercise. Brendan came by every morning, with a small amount of food for Brian. Then Sonny would come in the evening with a small glass of water. And that was all Brian got. His stomach growled constantly, and he was nauseous with hunger. What he did get to eat provided little relief to him. He now knew what it meant to be “starving to death”. He figured he would not take that expression lightly anymore.

That is, if he got out of this alive.

***

“Hello?” Brendan asked, picking up the phone in his house.

“Brian! Hi, sweetheart, it’s Mom. How are you doing?”

Brendan groaned inwardly, remembering what a mama’s boy his twin was. After all, he was the one who had written that sappy piece of crap, “The Perfect Fan”. This could be a tough act to pull off.

“Hi, Mom!” Brendan exclaimed with faked enthusiasm. “I’m doing great. How’s everything with you and Dad?”

“Oh, everything’s just fine here. We’ve been a little worried about you though. I thought you would call when things wound down after the tour, but I haven’t heard from you in weeks!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mom. Things have just been hectic, and I haven’t had a chance to call,” Brendan lied, mentally scolding himself for not thinking of calling his mother earlier. Of course sweet little Brian would call his mommy and daddy as soon as he got home.

“Oh, that’s okay, honey. I understand. So what have you been up to that has you so busy?”

“Oh… just the usual stuff,” Brendan replied slowly, trying to think of a good lie. Nothing came to him.

“Oh, I know what you mean,” Jackie Littrell said, to Brendan’s relief. “So how is Leighanne?”

“She’s good,” he said.

“And how about your babies?” she asked teasingly.

Brendan drew a blank. Babies? And then, his eyes resting on the little chihuahua sleeping on the floor across the room, he realized what she meant.

“Oh, Tyke and Litty are great,” he replied. Litty Leigh, hearing her name, got up off the floor and scampered over to her “master”. Brendan glared at her, giving her a little kick as she pawed at his leg. Whimpering, Litty slunk off with her tail between her legs.

“That’s good,” Jackie said. “So… the rest of the tour went fine then, I assume?”

“Uh-huh.”

There was a pause. Then Jackie asked, “Is everything all right, Brian?”

“Sure, Mom, everything’s fine,” Brendan said reassuringly. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I don’t know… you’re just being kind of quiet. Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”

Brendan rolled his eyes. “I’m sure, Mom. I’m just tired,” he said.

“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll let you go then. Go get some sleep.”

“Okay, thanks, Mom. I’ll talk to ya later,” Brendan said. He waited for her to say goodbye and then hung up.

He sat there for a few minutes, just staring broodingly into space. He knew he was going to have to try harder to act more like Brian, or people would start to get suspicious. And that couldn’t happen.

***

Chapter 9

The next morning, Brendan got up early, as he did every morning, to go to Sonny’s house and bring Brian his “breakfast”, which consisted of a dry piece of toast. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to keep him alive, which was all Brendan was concerned about right then. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to do with Brian, but killing him was not part of the plan. Not yet, at least.

Brendan shoved the toast into a sandwich baggy and crammed it into his jacket pocket. He grabbed his keys from the kitchen counter and started for the back door.

“Where are you going, hon?” Leighanne asked, coming into the kitchen.

Brendan whirled around, startled. “Oh… uh… I thought I would pick us up some donuts for breakfast. Does that sound good?”

“Sure, babe. That sounds great,” Leighanne replied. “I have an appointment at the salon in a little bit, but I’ll eat when I get home.”

“Okay,” Brendan said. “See you in a little while then.” He gave his “wife” a quick smile and hurried out the door, relieved. With Leighanne leaving in a few minutes for her haircut or manicure or whatever she was getting done, he would have plenty of time to head to pay Brian a little visit and be home before Leighanne was.

He made the decision to stop by Dunkin’ Donuts on his way out of town so that he wouldn’t forget later and show up at home empty-handed. That wouldn’t be too good.

He picked up a dozen donuts and then headed out of Atlanta and towards Sonny’s home outside of town. When he got there, he didn’t park in the driveway, but instead drove around into the backyard to hide his car. Not that anyone would actually drive down the road outside Sonny’s house and see his car there, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

Brendan walked through the shabby backyard to the wooden back porch of Sonny’s house, which sagged precariously in the middle. He climbed the three creaking stairs to the porch and hurried across it to the screen door that led inside Sonny’s house.

He found Sonny sacked out on the couch, sound asleep, an open bag of pork rinds lying on his fat stomach and a couple beer cans sitting on the coffee table beside him. Brendan rolled his eyes in disgust and headed down to the basement.

Brian was lying asleep on the bed. Brendan snickered evilly and crept up to the bed. He bent over Brian’s sleeping form, and, bringing his mouth right up to Brian’s right ear, shouted, “FIRE!!!”

Brian jerked awake and immediately began to struggle, but of course, he was securely tied down and unable to move much. He caught sight of Brendan at his side, laughing hysterically, and realized what was going on. The panic within him died down and was replaced with anger and humiliation.

“Oh, that was too good,” Brendan laughed, slapping his knee. “God, Littrell, you crack me up, you know that?”

Brian just glared up at him. Brendan smirked back for a moment, then reached down and yanked the strip of duct tape off of Brian’s mouth, leaving Brian’s cheeks and lips stinging.

Brendan took off his jacket and tossed it onto the coffee table. “Here’s your breakfast,” Brendan said, pulling the toast out of the pocket of the jacket and taking it out of the baggy. He held it up to Brian’s lips, and Brian eagerly took a bite. He finished off the dry bread in just a few bites and immediately was overcome with thirst.

“Can I have some water now?” he asked hopefully, his voice weak and hoarse from disuse.

“Uh… let me think… NO,” Brendan replied, breaking into another bout of taunting laughter.

Brian stared up at him with miserable, pleading eyes. But Brendan ignored him and glanced at his watch instead.

“Well, looks like I have some time to kill before I have to get home. Leighanne’s at the beauty shop and won’t be back for a little while,” Brendan said.

Brian perked up at the mention of his wife. And then he was overcome with despair. What had Brendan been doing with Leighanne these past two weeks? And how could his own wife go so long not realizing that the man she was sleeping with was not really her husband? They were identical, and Brendan did put on a pretty good act, but it hurt Brian that Leighanne couldn’t tell the difference.

“Oh, and did I mention I have a video shoot with the Boys next week?” Brendan went on, grinning smugly at Brian, obviously pleased at the misery he was causing in his twin brother. “Yup, we’re shooting the video for the next single, ‘More Than That’. What the hell were y’all thinking when you picked that one? Oh well, I guess none of your other songs are any better. But it’ll be pretty fun, I guess. You know, shooting my first video as you and all. You think the fans will notice?” He snickered, obviously thinking that they wouldn’t.

“Ahh, I tell ya, Littrell, I’m enjoying every minute of this so far. Well, almost. There’s some things that suck. Like your… I mean, our damn mother. She called last night, and God, she’s annoying!” He rolled his eyes. “’Is everything all right, honey?’” he mimicked. “God! Why do you have to be such a little pussy mama’s boy?”

Brian stared in horror at Brendan. He had talked to their mom? And she too had believed she was talking to Brian? His depression was getting worse with each passing second, as he realized Brendan’s plan was working. If not even his own wife or mother could tell the difference, who would?

It was hopeless.

***

Chapter 10

After his little chat with Brian, Brendan clomped noisily up the basement stairs. He could hear Sonny snoring on the couch, still sound asleep. Brendan smirked at his friend and, plucking a feather from the pillow that was tucked beneath Sonny’s greasy head, ran it lightly over Sonny’s nose. In his sleep, Sonny’s nose wrinkled and twitched, and his hand came clumsily up to scratch it, knocking over the half-full beer can resting on his stomach. As the beer soaked through his shirt, Sonny woke up.

“What the hell’s goin’ on here?” he slurred, looking around with half-closed eyes. He spotted Brendan, snickering from a few feet away, and jerked himself up into a sitting position. “What the hell was that for, Graves?” he demanded, glaring at Brendan, who just laughed.

“Well, I gotta get going, dude. The wife’ll be home soon, and she’ll get suspicious if I’m not there before she is,” Brendan said. “See ya.”

Sonny didn’t respond, just scowled, as Brendan left.

***

Brendan was already back in Atlanta on his way home when he realized he had left his jacket in Sonny’s basement. “Damnit,” he cursed aloud. “I’m gonna have to go back for it.” Leighanne would surely notice if her husband’s jacket was not hanging on the hook where it usually was and would ask what had happened to it. After all, she had seen him put it on before he left.

Not wanting any suspicion as to where he had been from his wife, Brendan jerked his car around in a U-turn and headed back towards Sonny’s house, hoping he still had enough time to get the jacket and be home before Leighanne was.

***

Leighanne sat at a red light, examining her freshly manicured nails. She suddenly heard the screeching of car tires and looked up to see a silver BMW pull a U-turn on the road in front of her and head back in the other direction.

That’s Brian, she realized, watching the car speed away from her. She squinted, watching as his car got smaller and smaller in the distance. Where was he going?

As the light changed to green, Leighanne decided to follow him and practically gunned her engine, hurrying to catch up to him. Why is he going this way? she wondered, perplexed. This road leads out of town.

Her confusion increased as she followed him all the way out of Atlanta and into the rural area just outside of the city. Never taking her eyes off his car, she drove on, just far enough away from him to still be able to see his car but not be recognized when he looked into his rearview mirror.

Her mouth opened in surprise as he suddenly made a left turn, pulling into the driveway of a small house sitting all alone in a field. She had no idea who lived there or why Brian was going there. And it puzzled her.

***

Brendan climbed out of his car, slammed the door, and hurried into Sonny’s house.

“Forgot my jacket,” he said quickly to Sonny, who looked at him in surprise, as he burst in. He ran down to the basement, taking the steps two at a time, and grabbed his jacket from the coffee table, not even bothering to make a mean comment to Brian, who also stared up at him in surprise.

“Uh… Brendan?” Sonny called, as Brendan hurried back upstairs.

“What?” Brendan asked, coming into the living room.

Sonny pointed out the window. “Ain’t that Littrell’s… I mean… yer wife?”

Brendan looked through the open window blinds to see a familiar car pulling over to the side of the road, just outside Sonny’s house. In the driver’s seat, he could see Leighanne, staring right at the house.

“Oh my God,” Brendan moaned. “She must of followed me! Shit, Sonny, what am I gonna do?! Help me!”

“How?”

“Uh…” Brendan thought fast. “I know! You got gas, don’t you?”

“Gas?” Sonny asked. “Not no more, I don’t. I got me some Beano for-“

“Not that kind of gas! I mean gasoline, you idiot!” Brendan yelled. “Do you have gasoline?”

“Gasoline? Oh, sure. I got some out back in the shed,” Sonny replied.

“Go get some, quick. I’ll just tell Leighanne I was out of gas and stopped here for help,” Brendan said, pleased at his lie.

As Sonny scrambled out the back door, Brendan went out the front.

“Leigh! Boy, am I glad to see you!”

“Brian?” Leighanne asked, looking around in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was just about out of gas and stopped here to see if this man had any. Thank the Lord he does. He’s goin’ to get me some now,” Brendan lied.

“What are you doing all the way out here though?” she asked.

“Uh… well, I can’t tell you, honey. It… it has to do with a surprise I have planned for you. Yeah, that’s it. A surprise.” He flashed her an innocent smile.

“A surprise? What kind of surprise?” Leighanne asked, not looking as if she totally bought it.

“Well, I can’t tell you that, silly,” Brendan replied. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise!”

She smiled, rolling her eyes. “Well, fine then. It better be good though, mister.”

Brendan smiled back, relaxing. She fell for it.

***

Chapter 11

“Sonny, we can’t keep him at your place anymore. We’re gonna have to move him,” Brendan told Sonny on the phone that night.

Even though Leighanne had believed him that morning, he knew she could get suspicious and wonder what was really going on. And if she suspected anything, the first place she would go for answers was Sonny’s house. And that couldn’t happen. Brian needed to be moved.

“Yeah, but where to?” Sonny asked. “Who else’s place could we put ‘im at?”

“Hm…” Brendan thought. He didn’t really have any other friends that lived nearby. In fact, he really didn’t have any other friends. He had always been somewhat of a loner. Sonny, who had grown up in the same trailer park as he, was his best and only real friend.

“I know. What about ol’ Doc Walters?” Sonny suggested, saying the name of the man who had been Jackie Littrell’s obstetrician at the time of Brendan’s birth.

“Doc Walters?!” Brendan asked incredulously. “But he still lives in Lexington, don’t he?”

“Yeah. So? We can drive Littrell up to his house.”

“Yeah, but will he agree to this?”

“Why wouldn’t he? He’s yer Pa’s ol’ friend, ain’t he?”

“Well… yeah…”

“And he went along with that whole scheme when you two was born, din’t he?”

“Well… yeah…”

“So what makes you think he won’t go along with this one?” Sonny asked.

Brendan considered it. Sonny had a point there. Dr. Henry Walters had been a good friend of his father’s for years, and it was he who had helped Jackie Littrell keep the fact that she was pregnant with twins from her husband. He had risked his career for that. So why wouldn’t he agree to keep Brian in his basement for awhile?

“You’re right, Sonny. I’m gonna call him up right now,” Brendan said.

“Alrighty. Tell me what he says. Bye now,” Sonny said and hung up.

***

It was a cool April evening, and Dr. Henry Walters sat in his cozy living room, watching TV, when the phone rang.

Who could that be? he wondered, forcing his fifty-six year old body out of his armchair. He walked across the room to the phone, which sat on an end table beside the couch, and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Hank! How are you?” came a young male voice, tinged with a soft Southern accent.

“I’m just fine, thanks. Who is this?” Dr. Walters asked.

“This is Brendan Graves,” the man replied.

Dr. Walter’s brow furrowed in confusion. Don Graves’ son? He hadn’t spoken to young Brendan in years, since Don’s death. Why would he be calling now?

“Well, hi, Brendan,” Dr. Walters greeted. “Haven’t heard from you in awhile. What have you been up to?”

“Well, I’ve got this little scheme I’m involved in right now,” Brendan said.

“Scheme?”

“Yeah, scheme. It’s got to do with my twin brother.”

Dr. Walter’s eyes narrowed. Brendan’s twin brother was Brian Littrell, the Lexington native who had gone on to become a world-famous Backstreet Boy. “Oh yeah? What about him?”

Brendan snickered. “Well,” he said, his voice lowering, as if he were about to reveal something top-secret, “I kidnapped him.”

Dr. Walters gasped. “Kidnapped?” he asked, unsure if he had heard Brendan correctly. After all, he hadn’t heard anything about Brian Littrell getting kidnapped. He may have been in his late fifties, but he still knew what was going on in the world. Surely it would have been all over the news.

“That’s right,” Brendan confirmed. “And you wanna hear the best part?”

“What?”

“No one’s ever gonna find out. You know why?”

“Why?” Dr. Walters asked weakly.

“Because,” Brendan’s voice dropped some more, “I’ve become him.”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Walters asked in shock.

“Literally, I’ve become him. I’m living in his house, having sex with his wife, talking to his friends, walking his dogs, everything. I’ve become Brian Littrell. And nobody knows.”

“Oh my,” was all Dr. Walters could say.

“Anyway, the real reason I called was because I need your help. See, I’ve been keeping Littrell in the basement of my friend Sonny’s house. But he only lives a few miles outside of Atlanta, and it’s really too close for comfort. We want to move him somewhere else. And you’re just the person to take him.”

“What?!” Dr. Walters gasped. “Brendan, are you mad?! I can’t keep your captive at my house!”

“But why not?” Brendan asked. “You don’t have to do much. Just keep him tied up in your basement.”

Dr. Walters shook his head. “No way,” he said firmly. “I won’t have any part in it.”

“Fine!” Brendan snapped.

Dr. Walters was about to hang up, when Brendan shouted, “Wait!”

“What do you want now?” Dr. Walters asked.

“You know not to tell nobody about this, right? It’s confidential.”

“I know,” Dr. Walters said.

“I’m serious,” Brendan went on. “You tell anyone about this, and you die. I will hunt you down and slit your throat. You got that, old man?”

Dr. Walter’s eyes were wide with panic. “I got it,” he whispered. “I won’t tell a soul.”

“You better not,” Brendan growled. “Or you’ll be sorry.”

***

“Sonny, what are we gonna do? Doc Walters won’t help us, and now he knows!” Brendan cried. He had gotten off the phone with the doctor just minutes earlier and had already called Sonny back. He was glad Leighanne was visiting one of her girlfriends that evening; otherwise there was no way he could keep making these calls without her knowing.

There was a long pause on Sonny’s end. Finally, he spoke.

“Kill Littrell.”

***

Chapter 12

“What?!” Brendan gasped. “Kill him?!”

“That’s right. Why do you need to keep ‘im around anyway? If someone found ‘im, there’d be trouble. But if we killed ‘im, there ain’t no way anybody could ever find out the truth. If you destroy the evidence, there ain’t no proof of anything,” Sonny explained.

“That’s true…” Brendan said slowly. “But to actually kill him? If we did get caught, we’d be in much worse trouble.”

“Yeah, but who’s gonna catch us?” Sonny pointed out. “Ain’t nobody gonna think that Brian Littrell ain’t really Brian Littrell. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So let’s kill ‘im. Then we won’t have nothin’ to worry about no more.”

Brendan swallowed hard. “You’re right, Sonny,” he said. “We gotta kill him.”

***

It was nearly pitch black in the basement where Brian lay, unable to sleep. The only source of light was the moonlight that streamed in through the tiny rectangular windows near the ceiling.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps from upstairs. Two pairs of them. And then, through the heat vents, he heard faint, muffled voices. As the two people upstairs neared the stairs that led to the basement, the voices got louder.

“How ya wanna do it?” Brian heard Sonny ask. “Want me to get my rifle?”

“Nah…” Brendan replied. “Not good enough. Too instant. I want something long and painful. Plus, someone might hear the gunshot.”

“How about we stab ‘im? That’d be more painful,” Sonny said.

“Nah… too much blood.”

Brian listened from below in silent horror, as the two men talked at the top of the stairs. They were coming to kill him! And he was powerless to stop them.

“We could jus’ starve ‘im to death then,” Sonny suggested.

“That would take too long,” Brendan responded.

“Strangle him?”

“Boring.”

“Suffocate him?”

“Even more boring.”

“Let’s jus’ beat the crap outta him then,” Sonny said.

“Alright. But not enough to kill him. Not yet anyway. We want to make him suffer first.”

As then they started down the steps. With each footstep, Brian grew more and more terrified. And by the time the two men entered the room, he was about ready to throw up.

His eyes widened in horror, as they walked slowly closer to him, their eyes narrow and menacing.

“Enough’s enough, Littrell,” Brendan said, his voice low and hateful. “Are you ready to die?”

Brian struggled, grunting and twisting about as much as he could. But with the cords tied around him, he couldn’t get far, and with the tape over his mouth, he couldn’t scream. They could do anything they wanted to him. And he knew they would.

Brendan stepped up first, his fists clenched together. He raised one of them, prepared to get in the first punch. Brian clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, knowing there was nothing he could do to protect himself. It was all a matter of waiting for Brendan’s fist to connect. And so he waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Perplexed, Brian opened up one eye. Right at that moment, Brendan propelled his fist forward. Brian prepared for contact. But, inches away from his face, Brendan’s fist dropped. He just stood there for a moment, staring at Brian.

“Brendan?” Sonny asked, cocking his head in confusion.

“Take care of it,” Brendan said, shoving Sonny up to the bed. Then he hurried upstairs without a glance back.

Brian was confused. What had just happened there? Had Brendan chickened out? He’s a coward, Brian thought.

But unfortunately for him, Sonny was not.

Seconds later, Sonny’s fist was in Brian’s face. Pain instantly radiated through his jaw. But Sonny did not back off. He struck Brian again.

And again.

And again.

With each blow, Brian saw his life flash before his eyes. He saw visions of his mother and father, his brother Harold, his wife Leighanne, his four best friends, Kevin, Howie, AJ, and Nick. He pictured himself as a child, performing in church. He saw himself on stage with the Backstreet Boys. He envisioned himself at his wedding with Leighanne.

Sonny struck him now in the chest and in the stomach. Brian gasped for breath, and blackness appeared at the edges of his vision. As Sonny raised his foot and shoved the heel of his cowboy boot into Brian’s gut, he let out a muffled cry, gasping and choking for air. The blackness spread. With one more blow, it flashed red. And then, finally, everything went black again. And this time, it stayed that way.

***

Chapter 13

One week later

“Let’s try that again. Brian, I need you to give me some more expression.”

That day had been one of the longest of Brendan’s life. It was his first video shoot, for the song “More Than That”, and so far, it was not going as well as he had expected. The director, Marcus Rayboy, was extremely picky and made them repeat the same scenes over and over again until they were exactly perfect. Brendan was so tired of lip-syncing the same thing over and over again, he could scream.

“Fine,” he muttered, going back into his position, as the song started up again.

Pasting a cheesy smile on his face, he began to mouth the words to the song. Well, at least he attempted to.

“Cut!” Marcus yelled. The music cut off. “Brian, why are you smiling? This song isn’t happy. I need some real emotion. And you need to make your lip-syncing look more realistic. Your mouth isn’t lined up with the words.”

Brendan rolled his eyes, but nodded. “Okay,” he said, forcing a tight smile. And then the song started again.

***

“What’s going on with Brian?” AJ asked Kevin. The two were standing off to the side, watching their band mate shoot his verse of the song. It was not going very well.

“I don’t know. He does seem a little off today, doesn’t he?” Kevin replied.

AJ snorted. “A little off? He isn’t even singing the right words half the time, Kev!”

Kevin sighed. “I know. Maybe he’s just not feeling well or something.”

AJ rolled his eyes. “Well, he better get over it. He can’t afford to be sick right now.”

“Come on, Bone, cut him some slack.”

“Why should I? He’s not even trying! Look at him.”

Kevin did. And AJ was right; it didn’t look like Brian was giving it much effort. He stood stock still, mouthing the words at the wrong time, his hands at his side, and his eyes wide open. Anyone could see he wasn’t putting anything into it. Normally, when Brian sang, his eyes were closed, and his fists were going at it. Today, that was just not the case.

When Marcus finally told Brian to take a break, Kevin and AJ approached him.

“Dude, Brian, what is going on with you? Are you sick or something?” Kevin asked, partly concerned and partly annoyed with his cousin.

“Sick? Well, uh… yeah, I have sort of a headache,” Brian replied, color creeping into his cheeks. He was clearly embarrassed.

“I’m sorry about that, Bri, but you really need to put some more effort into this shoot. We only have a couple days to do it, and you’re wasting our time,” Kevin said. AJ nodded in agreement.

“I’m sorry, guys,” Brian said, but he didn’t look that sorry. “I’ll try harder.”

“Good.”

And with that, the guys walked off in opposite directions.

***

What am I doing wrong? Brendan wondered. He knew he wasn’t performing up to Brian’s standards, and that had to change.

Instead of grabbing a bottled water and chilling out like the other guys did on their breaks, he dug his portable CD player out of his backpack and put the “Black and Blue” CD into it. He put on number 8 and listened. He was going to get the lyrics to this song right if it killed him.

Twenty minutes later, he was back in front of the camera, trying once again to get his verse right. This time he at least got the lyrics right. But he could tell the director still wasn’t happy.

When the final “cut!” of the day sounded, Brendan was more than relieved. He and the guys got together their stuff and rode in a limo to the hotel they would be staying at.

The hotel was a nice one, with two pools, one of which they had rented for later that night, so they could swim alone. As Brendan tagged along with the rest of his band mates and their bodyguards, he could not help but stare at his surroundings in awe. He had never been in such a fancy place in his lifetime. Yet, he knew these guys were used to this luxury.

And soon, Brendan thought, grinning inwardly, I will be too.

***

“Hey, Bri, the guys and I are heading down to the pool now. Do you feel up to swimming?” AJ asked later that night. “Or do you still have a headache?”

“No, it’s gone now. A swim sounds great,” Brendan replied honestly. The video was being shot in California, and after shooting scenes in the hot desert for a good part of the day, a plunge in the pool sounded like heaven to him.

“Okay, cool. Get your trunks on, and we’ll meet you in the hall in a few minutes,” AJ said. As soon as he had left the room, Brendan opened up his suitcase and fished through it for his swim trunks. He found them and quickly put them on. He slipped a pair of Nike soccer sandals on, grabbed a towel, and left his room. Kevin, Howie, AJ, and Nick were waiting in the hall.

“Ready?” Howie asked.

“Yup,” Brendan replied. “Let’s go.”

A couple of bodyguards walked along with them down to the pool they had reserved. Then the two burly guards sat down in lawn chairs, while the Boys tossed their stuff down and removed their T-shirts and sandals.

Brendan did the same, relieved. Swimming was something he was used to doing. Shooting a video was not.

Nick, just as mischievous as he seemed on TV, gave Howie a shove from behind, sending him falling into the pool. He laughed hysterically, as Howie came to the surface, sputtering and laughing at the same time.

With a swift motion, Kevin gave Nick a push. Caught off-guard, Nick lost his balance and fell into the pool as well. Playfully sticking his tongue out, Nick splashed Kevin.

The three were so involved in splashing and pushing each other that they did not even notice Brian. But AJ did.

He watched as Brian took off his T-shirt, tossing it over to where his towel and sandals sat. He continued to watch as Brian walked around to the deep end of the pool and climbed up to the diving board. As his friend bounced on the end of the board, AJ cocked his head to the side. Something didn’t seem right. Something seemed different than usual. But what it was, AJ had no idea.

Brian did a cannonball off the diving board, sending water spewing in all directions. AJ shrugged. Brian was sure acting like his normal self now. Telling himself that he was just imagining things, AJ jumped into the pool.

***

Chapter 14

It was not until awhile later, when AJ came up close to dunk Brian underwater, that the feeling that something was different came back to him. And as his eyes traveled up and down Brian’s bare chest, he realized what it was. The scar. The long, white scar that ran down the middle of Brian’s chest, left over from his heart surgery three years earlier, was not there.

“AJ? Something wrong?” Brian asked.

Still staring at the flawless, tan skin of Brian’s chest, AJ dumbly shook his head. Brian gave him a strange look, shrugged, and swam away. AJ swam to the side of the pool and hauled himself out. He sat on the edge for a few minutes, his legs dangling into the water, and thought.

Could it be that the scar had faded so much it was not noticeable? AJ didn’t think so. It had faded a lot over the years, but the last time he had seen Brian shirtless, while they were on tour, it was still easily seen. Surely in just a month, it couldn’t have just disappeared.

Deciding to get another good look before he thought about it anymore, AJ lowered himself back into the pool and swam back up to Brian. He quickly dunked him underwater, and when Brian came back up, spitting out water and rubbing his eyes, AJ stared again at his chest. But, like before, he saw nothing, no trace of the scar. It was like it had never been there.

Brian splashed AJ in return for getting dunked, but AJ barely even noticed. He was dumbfounded.

“Dude, Bone, what is up with you?” Brian asked.

AJ just shook his head. Something told him not to ask Brian about it. Not yet anyway. “Nothing. I guess I’m just tired from the video shoot,” he replied lamely.

Brian nodded. “Me too,” he said.

“Hey, Frick! Watch this!” Nick yelled from the top of the diving board, diverting Brian’s attention from AJ. As Brian turned to watch Nick do a flip off the diving board, AJ got out of the pool.

“Hey, guys, I think I’m gonna go back up to my room. I’m tired,” he announced. Nick and Brian were splashing each other, but Kevin and Howie heard him and nodded in response.

AJ wrapped his towel around his dripping body, slipped on his sandals, grabbed his T-shirt, and left the pool area.

***

In his hotel room, AJ immediately picked up his phone and dialed a familiar number. Moments later, a woman answered.

“Hello?” she said.

“Leigh? It’s AJ.”

“Oh, hey, Aje, what’s up?” asked Leighanne Littrell, sounding surprised to hear from him.

“Oh, not much. Just got back from swimming,” he replied casually.

“Oh, that’s a relief. I was worried something had happened to Brian. I mean, usually he’s the one to call me when y’all are gone, not you.” She laughed a little.

“Yeah, I know. Well, actually, I am calling about Brian. Don’t worry, nothing happened to him. But he… well, he’s been acting sort of funny lately,” AJ said hesitantly.

“Funny? What do you mean?” Leighanne inquired.

“Well, I dunno… he just seemed a little off at the video shoot today. He wasn’t acting like he normally does, and his performance just wasn’t up to standards,” AJ replied, trying to put his observations into words.

“Oh…” Leighanne sounded just as confused as AJ felt. “That’s strange.”

“Yeah. And there’s something else too,” AJ went on. “It’s… well, it’s the scar.”

“The scar?”

“Yeah, the scar on his chest. You know, from his surgery.”

“Yeah, what about it?” asked Leighanne.

“Well, uh… it’s gone,” AJ replied bluntly.

“Gone?? What do you mean?”

“It’s gone,” AJ repeated. “Literally, it’s not there anymore.”

“How could it be gone?” Leighanne asked.

“Well, I don’t know. So it was there last time you saw him?”

“Well… I don’t really know, actually. I never noticed. I mean, I’ve just become so used to it that I never even look at it anymore.”

“Yeah, me too. I didn’t realize that’s what it was right away, but when we were swimming, as soon as he took his shirt off, I had this feeling that something was not quite right. And that’s what it was.”

“Are you sure?” Leighanne asked, sounding as if she still didn’t quite believe what he was trying to tell her.

“I’m positive. I double checked. I was right up by him, and there was not even a trace of it. It’s not there.”

Leighanne was silent, probably because she was as confused as AJ. How could a scar like that just disappear? There were probably medical procedures that could get rid of it, but why would Brian do that? He had never seemed to mind the scar before. And if he had gotten it taken off, why didn’t he tell anyone? Especially his wife. Surely Leighanne would know if he had done something like that.

“Do you think he could have gone to some doctor and had it taken off somehow?” AJ asked Leighanne.

“Well… I guess maybe he could have. But why wouldn’t he tell me about that?” she asked, voicing AJ’s own question.

“That’s what I thought too. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“Well, did you ask Brian about it?” Leighanne asked.

“No. I thought I would call you and ask first. I didn’t want to seem nosy.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. I’ll ask him when he gets home, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks, Leigh,” AJ said. Moments later, they hung up, each with no answers and even more questions than before.

***

Chapter 15

Leighanne had no more hung up the phone, when it rang again. Expecting it to be AJ again, she picked it up with a “Hey, AJ.”

There was a pause, and then the voice of an older man said, “This isn’t AJ.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Leighanne cried, embarrassed. “I just got off the phone with a friend named AJ, and I thought it was him calling back. Who’s this?”

“Uh… I prefer not to disclose that. Who I am isn’t important. The information I have for you is,” the caller replied, sending chills running through Leighanne’s spine.

“What are you talking about?” she asked uneasily.

“It’s about your husband,” the man said. “I have some information that might give you some answers.”

“Answers? About what?” Leighanne asked, confused. Surely this man couldn’t be talking about what AJ had just been discussing with her.

“I think you’ll know once you get the information. I need to send it to you though; can you give me your address? I don’t have it.”

“No,” Leighanne said, her voice shaky. “I’m sorry, but… I prefer not to disclose that,” she added, echoing his words from before.

“I understand. Well, then, I’ll have it sent to a friend of mine, and you can pick it up from him. Do you know where Penny Avenue is?”

“Yes,” Leighanne replied.

“Okay. I’ll send a package to 110 Penny Avenue, which is a clinic where a friend of mine, Dr. Kaufman, works. I’ll have it shipped right away, and it will be there tomorrow afternoon with orders to be given to you. Stop by and pick it up as soon as you can,” the man instructed. “And don’t tell anyone about it.”

“Okay…” Leighanne said uncertainly. Before she could even say goodbye, she heard a click, and the other line went dead.

***

Dr. Henry Walters replaced the receiver of his telephone with shaking hands.

You did the right thing, he told himself, trying to calm his nerves. No matter what happens, just remember that you did the right thing.

***

Early the next afternoon, Leighanne drove to 110 Penny Avenue. She found herself in front of a small gray office building, which had a glass door reading ‘Dr. John Kaufman, M.D.’

This is it, Leighanne thought. She wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous as she walked into the building, but she did. Inside the front door, she found herself in a small entrance area with benches and coat racks. She walked on through another door that led into a waiting room, where several people sat, waiting for their appointments.

Leighanne hardly glanced at them as she walked on to the receptionist’s cubicle on the other side of the waiting room. She stepped up to the window that separated the waiting room from the receptionist’s area. On the other side of the window, a woman sat at a desk, typing something into a computer, a pair of reading glasses sitting low on her nose. She paid no attention to Leighanne.

Leighanne cleared her throat loudly to get the receptionist’s attention. The woman turned away from the computer and removed her glasses. “Do you have an appointment?” she asked.

“No, I-“

“Then, I’m sorry, Dr. Kaufman can’t see you. You’ll have to schedule an appointment first,” the receptionist replied, cutting Leighanne off.

“Actually, I don’t need to make an appointment. I’m here to pick up a package that was supposed to be sent here,” Leighanne said coolly, rather annoyed with the woman’s curtness.

“Mrs. Littrell?” the receptionist asked, her tone softening.

“Yes.”

“Of course. Here you are,” the woman said, handing a manila envelope through the window to Leighanne.

“Thank you,” Leighanne said, taking the envelope. Then she turned and left the doctor’s office, eager to get home and find out what information it contained.

***

“Hey, Brian, can I talk to you a minute?” AJ asked, grabbing Brian’s arm as he passed by.

“What?” Brian asked in annoyance.

“Come here,” AJ said, dragging him away from the others.

It was the second day of their video shoot for “More Than That”, and things were not improving much. Something was going on with Brian, and AJ was determined to get to the bottom of it.

“What is up with you, man? You’re acting really weird,” AJ said, decided not to mention the scar. Not yet.

Brian’s face reddened. “Nothing!” he exclaimed defensively. “Leave me alone!” He twisted out of AJ’s grasp.

“Wait!” AJ yelled, grabbing him again and pulling him back. “I need to ask you something.” He took a deep breath. “What happened to your sc-“

“AJ! You’re needed on the set!” shouted a crew member, before AJ could get the rest of his question out.

He rolled his eyes. “We’ll talk later, okay, Brian?”

“Whatever,” Brendan muttered, glaring darkly at AJ as he hurried off to get back to work.

They were getting suspicious. Especially AJ. What if they found out the truth?

That’s ridiculous, Brendan assured himself. How could they find out? It’s impossible. He grinned maliciously. His plan would not fail. It couldn’t. Even if AJ was suspicious, there was no way he could find out what was really going on. It would be too hard to believe.

Still, Brendan thought, I need some assurance. AJ’s getting too close for comfort.

Sneering again, he sat back and began to conspire a plan to make sure AJ would never find out who he really was.

***

Chapter 16

At home, Leighanne sat down at her kitchen table and opened the envelope. Gingerly, she reached into it and pulled out a small packet of papers and other items. The top paper was a copy of a medical file, she realized. She looked at the name at the top, and her eyes widened in surprise and confusion.

Littrell, Jacqueline.

Brian’s mother?

Perplexed, Leighanne skimmed over the file, not understanding what relevance it had. She set it aside and looked down at the next thing in the pile. This was not another form, but a sonogram, with Jackie Littrell’s name on it.

Squinting at it, Leighanne could make out the shape of a baby on one half of it. And on the other half… another baby? Her heartbeat rising, Leighanne leaned down close to the sonogram and stared hard at it. She could be wrong, but the shape on the other half of the sonogram looked very similar to the first. It was a baby. Two babies. There were two babies.

“Two babies,” Leighanne whispered aloud, her eyes never leaving the sonogram. “Twins.” She saw the date on the sonogram. December 19, 1974. Just three months before Brian was born. Jackie would have been about six months pregnant then with him… and his twin?

“No way,” she said. “There’s no way he could have a twin. He would have told me!”

And then another thought came to her. Maybe Brian didn’t know. The baby could have died at birth, and Brian’s parents had for some reason decided not to tell him about it.

Leighanne shuffled through some more papers, hoping to find some answers. And then, she found something. A note, written in the handwriting she recognized as Brian’s mother’s.

Dear Dr. Walters,

I don’t know how to go about asking this, but I need your help. It’s about the twins, obviously. Don knows the truth now, and he’s blackmailing me. He’s threatening to tell Harold about our affair if I don’t let him have one of the babies. I don’t want to give up one of my children to him, but if Harold finds out what I’ve done, it would ruin our marriage. That’s the last thing I want. I’ve made some mistakes, but I love Harold. And I have my little boy to think of. I don’t want him growing up in a broken family. He deserves better than that.

I’ve made my decision – I’m going to let Don have one of the babies as soon as they’re born. But I need your help. Harold can’t ever know about Don or the twins or anything. So please, I’m begging you, help me. I know I’m asking a lot, but I’ll give anything to keep Harold from knowing the truth. Will you help me? I’ll be in touch.

Sincerely,

Jackie Littrell

When Leighanne finished reading the letter, her jaw was nearly on the floor. Sweet, loving Jackie Littrell had had an affair? Brian’s true father was a man named Don, not the kind, gentle father-in-law Leighanne had come to love like her own father? And more shocking than anything else, Brian had a twin that had been given away at birth?

She could hardly believe it. And yet, the note was in Jackie’s own handwriting. The sonogram had her name on it. And there were definitely two babies there.

Once the initial shock at what she had discovered wore off, Leighanne thought back to the strange phone call she had received the night before…

“Who I am isn’t important. The information I have for you is.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s about your husband. I have some information that might give you some answers.”

“Answers? About what?”

“I think you’ll know once you get the information…”

Leighanne’s brow furrowed. What did it all mean? Why was it so important that she find this out now?

And then, she began to think back to everything that had happened in the past few weeks. She remembered the night Brian had come home after the tour, when he had surprised her with the lingerie. He had been acting strange then, much more seductive than usual.

And then she thought about all the mornings he had disappeared and come home later on, with strange explanations and sometimes no explanations at all. Like the time he had said he went to get plant fertilizer, but the store was out. She had gone later and found a whole supply of it. And then there was the time he had gone out to get donuts and ended up in the driveway of a run down little house out in the middle of nowhere, supposedly out of gas. Had he really been out of gas? Or was he up to something?

Brian had been acting awfully strange these past few weeks, she realized. Before, she had never really thought about all the incidents and added them up. But now, as she thought back to all the times when he said things she didn’t quite believe, she realized it had been happening a lot. Something was not right. Brian was not acting like himself.

And then, a horrible, terrifying thought came to her. What if the man she had been living with was not really Brian?

***

Chapter 17

When the video was finally finished, the five Backstreet Boys rode back to their hotel, tired and hungry.

“I’ve got a craving for pizza,” Nick said in the limo. “How ‘bout y’all come to my room, and we order a few pizzas?”

“Oh, pizza sounds good,” AJ replied, his mouth nearly watering at just the thought of it.

“Yeah, it does,” the others agreed.

When they got back to the hotel, they dropped their stuff off in their own suites and then went to Nick’s to order the pizza. While they waited, Nick hooked up his Nintendo and challenged AJ to a game of Mortal Kombat.

Meanwhile, Brendan snickered to himself. This was his chance.

“Hey, AJ, do you have your Limp Bizkit CD with you?” he asked.

“Yeah,” AJ replied absently, his attention focused on the game.

“Well, could I borrow it?” Brendan asked.

“Sure. It’s in my bag in my room,” AJ said, still staring at the TV screen.

”Okay. Can you give me your room key then?”

“Just a minute.” AJ paused the game and dug into his pocket for his room key. He tossed it to Brendan and started playing again.

“Thanks,” Brendan said and left the room. He stopped first at his own room, got something out of his bag, and slipped it into his pocket. Then he jotted down a quick note and stuck it to the outside of his door, where the guys would be sure to see it.

Then he went to AJ’s room.

***

“Hey, where did Brian go?” Nick asked, when the pizzas arrived.

“He went to get one of my CD’s,” AJ replied.

“Yeah, but that was like twenty minutes ago,” Howie pointed out, glancing at his watch.

“That’s weird,” AJ said.

Kevin sighed and stood up. “I’ll go see if he’s in his room. He won’t want to miss out on the pizza.” With that, he left the room.

Minutes later, he was back, holding a little, yellow note in his hand. “I found this stuck to his door,” he replied, showing the others the note. “He’s taking a nap.”

“What about his pizza?” Howie asked.

“Screw him. More for me,” Nick said simply, practically drooling as he opened the box of extra-cheese pizza.

Kevin laughed. “Good point,” he said. And they all dug in.

***

An hour later, AJ returned to his room, exhausted. Brian had had the right idea in taking a nap. AJ wanted nothing more than to crawl under his covers and go to sleep.

But no more had he sat down on the bed, when his cell phone rang. Groaning, AJ dug it out of his bag to answer it and sat back down on the edge of the bed.

“Hello?”

“AJ?” came a shrill female voice.

“Yeah. Who’s this?” AJ asked, frowning.

“It’s Leighanne,” she said, then hurriedly went on, “Listen, AJ, we’ve got a big problem. It’s about Brian. I… I found out some things today that I think you need to know.”

AJ’s heart pounded rapidly. He knew it. Something was really going on with Brian. And he had a feeling it was more than he ever expected.

“What is it?” he asked.

But he would never get to hear the answer. For at that moment, a strong arm wrapped around his neck from behind.

AJ began to struggle in panic, when he felt a horrible stabbing sensation in his back. First it was a sharp pain, then pressure, and then it felt like fire was running up and down his spine. He cried out in agony and tried to struggle, but the pain just got worse. His body going weak, AJ crumpled over.

He felt another excruciating burst of pain as something was jerked harshly out of his back. And then, another, as he was stabbed again.

Suddenly, it was as if all of the air in the room was sucked out, leaving AJ gasping for breath. His back and chest burned with pain worse than anything he could have ever imagined. He wasn’t even aware of the thick, warm blood that gushed from the wounds in his back or the fact that there was still something big and metal sticking out of him. The only thing he felt was the crushing pain, and the inability to get any air.

And as he gasped and choked, desperately trying to breathe, everything around him began to fade, until all was black. And it was not until he had slipped into unconsciousness that AJ found relief from the unspeakable pain that had been bestowed upon him.

***

Chapter 18

Leighanne gripped the phone so hard that her knuckles were white.

“AJ?! AJ!?” she screamed, calling his name over and over again. “AJ, please say something!” But all she could hear on the other end was heavy, gasping breaths.

Just moments earlier, she had heard his scream and several more following it. But now the screams had stopped, and she heard only the ragged breathing. And within the next few seconds, there came a click, and all went silent.

Choking back a sob, she hung up the phone, then picked it back up again and dialed another number.

***

Kevin was alone in his hotel suite when his cell phone rang.

“Hello?” he asked, answering the phone.

“Kevin!” screamed a panicked female voice.

“Who is this?” he demanded, sitting up abruptly.

“It’s Leighanne! Kev, something happened to AJ! He’s hurt!” cried Brian’s wife.

“Huh? What are you talking about?!” Kevin asked, fear clutching at his heart.

“Please, go get help! Hurry!” Leighanne begged, her voice shaking with terror.

Kevin tossed down the phone and ran down the hall to AJ’s room. He banged on the door, which was locked on the inside. “AJ!” he yelled. “AJ, open up!” But AJ didn’t.

Terrified, Kevin raced back to his room, grabbed the phone that was sitting on the desk, and dialed 911. He hurriedly asked for an ambulance, giving the operator the name of the hotel and AJ’s room number, and hung up. He was about to run back out of the room, but stopped when he saw his cell phone lying on the floor, still turned on.

“Leighanne?” he asked breathlessly, putting it to his ear.

“What happened? God, is he okay?!” she cried.

“I don’t know. I can’t get into the room. But I called 911, and they’re on their way. I’ll call you when I know more,” Kevin told her and hung up.

Desperate to get to AJ, he ran down several flights of stairs to get to the lobby of the hotel, where he hurriedly explained as well as he could what was going on to the receptionist, who gave him a room key to AJ’s room. Grabbing it out of her hand, Kevin raced back up the stairs, running faster than he knew he was able to.

He fumbled with the little keycard, desperately jamming it into the lock. Finally, the door clicked open, and he burst inside. “AJ!” he screamed, looking frantically around the suite.

Upon entering the bedroom area, he let out a bloodcurdling scream.

AJ was lying half on the bed, his legs dangling over the side, his body slumped forward at an odd angle. The back of his shirt ripped and stained bright red with the sea of blood that covered him and the bedspread beneath him. And with every blink of Kevin’s eyes, the amount of blood seemed to double.

Kevin began to breathe in rapid gasps, all the color draining from his face. His stomach turned at the gruesome sight, and he felt nauseous. Suddenly, uncontrollably, he began to vomit. Feeling dizzy and queasy, he sunk to the ground, vomit dripping from his mouth.

“AJ?” he heard a voice call, but it sounded far away and distorted.

“Oh, my God! AJ!!”

“Oh, God!”

“AJ, no!!”

Through blurry eyes, Kevin saw three figures hurry past him to the bloody body on the bed. And then, he passed out.

***

On the outside, Brendan was just as shocked and horrified as Nick and Howie were. But on the inside, he was smiling. AJ would never find out the truth now. If he wasn’t already dead, he surely would be soon. And sweet, kind, religious Brian was the last person anyone would suspect.

I’ve committed the perfect crime, thought Brendan with pride. It seemed too good to be true. It had all been too easy. He had gotten AJ’s extra key, hidden under his bed, and when AJ had come into his room, stabbed him. AJ never even knew what was coming. And he never saw who had done it. So even if he did somehow make it, he wouldn’t be able to tell who his attacker was.

“Someone call 911!” Howie shouted, his voice high and shrill.

But there was no need to. Kevin must have done it before his collapse because at that moment, three paramedics arrived, wheeling a stretcher. Two of them rushed over to AJ, while the third pushed Brendan, Howie, and Nick back, then went to check over the unconscious Kevin.

Within a few minutes, Kevin had woken up. But things did not look so good for AJ. Brendan felt a sick sense of satisfaction as he watched the paramedics perform CPR on AJ, knowing that the man was on the brink of death. And even if they did manage to resuscitate him, Brendan figured he would probably die anyway.

Perfect.

***

Chapter 19

How could this have happened?

That was the thought that refused to leave Kevin’s mind, as he sat with his band mates in some random hospital waiting room, awaiting word on AJ.

He did not know the answer to his question. They had top bodyguards, the hotel had seemed safe and secure, and AJ had been in his suite, which locked from the inside and only he had a key too. So how could anyone have gotten in? When did they get in?

The questions just kept running through his mind. Nothing like this had ever happened to them before. It was terrifying.

Kevin glanced down the line of his solemn-faced brothers. Nick and Howie had their heads in their hands, and although he could not see their faces, he knew they were crying. Kevin’s own face was tearstained as well. Brian was the only one who had not yet shed any tears. He sat at the end of the row, staring blankly into space, his chin resting on his palm.

Kevin wondered why his cousin wasn’t weeping along with the rest of them, but he shrugged it off. Everyone had their own way of grieving. You didn’t have to be crying on the outside to be upset.

Kevin looked away from Brian and took to staring down at his hands instead. He had them clasped tightly together in his lap, and still, they trembled. His whole body felt shaky.

And again, his mind went back to that same question.

How could this have happened?

***

Leighanne sat still at her kitchen table, her head bowed, her eyes closed, her hands clasped tightly together.

Please, God, let AJ be okay. Please, God…

She repeated the simple plea silently over and over again, praying that AJ was all right. It had been an hour since she had called Kevin, and she had not yet heard back from him. She wanted to call, but something stopped her. She knew Kevin would call her back eventually. But with every minute that passed, her hope slowly faded.

Opening her eyes, she glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning already, but in California, where the Boys were, it was only eleven. Still, she sat up, knowing she would not be able to sleep anyway.

Her thoughts suddenly drifted back to the reason she had called AJ in the first place. Brian. Or rather, Brian’s twin. Leighanne wasn’t sure, but the idea that the twin had somehow taken Brian’s place seemed more and more realistic. But then, where was Brian? If the Brian in California was an imposter, what had happened to the real Brian?

The new question made Leighanne begin to tremble, and suddenly, she feared more for her husband than for AJ. What had happened to him? What had the twin done with him? She had not realized it until just then, but the twin had to have somehow gotten rid of Brian to do what he had done.

Leighanne absently chewed at one of her long nails. What was she supposed to do? Call the police? But it was two in the morning. And what would she tell them? She had no real proof of anything.

Suddenly, another thought came to her. If the twin had done something to Brian, had he done something to AJ as well?

Leighanne’s blue eyes widened in terror. If he had, then all the Boys could be in danger!

Immediately, she grabbed the cordless phone that sat on the table and punched in Kevin’s cell phone number. She got the busy signal.

Sighing, she turned off the phone, turned it back on again, and tried Howie’s. It came up with a message saying the phone was not turned on. She tried Nick’s. It rang over and over again, but no one answered.

Leighanne hung up the phone again in defeat, sighing miserably. Feeling helpless, she buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

***

Four heads shot up as the door to the waiting room opened, and a nurse walked in.

Since they were the only ones in the room, Kevin figured she had come to talk to them. He felt immediately relieved and scared at the same time, not knowing if he wanted to hear the news or not.

But he had no choice.

“How is he?” Nick asked immediately, looking ready to pounce on the poor nurse.

“Mr. McLean was just taken up for emergency surgery, sir,” she said. “The doctors stabilized him as best they could in the ER and now need to operate to try to fix his injuries.”

“Do you think he’s gonna make it?” Nick asked anxiously.

The nurse shifted uncomfortably. “Uh… well, I’m not a doctor, sir. I really can’t say,” she replied haltingly.

But that was enough for Nick. He could already tell she didn’t think AJ would live.

“How long will the surgery take?” Kevin asked.

“It could take a long time, sir,” she said. “It’s a very delicate procedure. I suggest you all go back to your hotel and get some sleep. There’s nothing you can do right now.”

“No,” Nick said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’re not leaving.”

But Howie was more sensible. “Come on, Nick,” Howie said gently. “She’s right. We’ll just make ourselves sick staying here all night, just waiting and worrying. Let’s head back and come back in the morning, when they’ll be able to tell us more.”

Kevin nodded, his head telling him to side with Howie, but his heart wanting to stay there with AJ, even if he wouldn’t be able to see him. His practical side took over though, and he took charge, insisting they go back to the hotel.

“You’ll be sure to call if anything goes wrong though, right?” he made the nurse promise.

“Of course,” she said sympathetically.

“Okay,” Kevin said. Sighing, he turned to his three band mates. “Let’s go, guys.”

***

Chapter 20

Kevin walked slowly into the hotel lobby, his feet dragging tiredly. He felt dead on his feet. Brian, Nick, and Howie walked along behind him, followed by a few of their bodyguards.

“Excuse me, Mr. Richardson?”

Kevin looked up to see that a police officer had come up to him.

“I’m Chief Robinson of the Los Angeles Police Department. Can I ask you a few questions?” the officer continued.

“Please, not tonight,” Kevin said softly, looking at the officer with pleading green eyes.

“But, Mr. Richardson, sir, we need-“

“You heard him,” Nelson, Kevin’s bodyguard, said sharply. “Not tonight.”

Chief Robinson opened his mouth to protest, but, glancing at the four men’s tired and upset faces, closed it again and nodded.

“Thank you,” Nelson said coolly.

As they started towards the elevator, they were interrupted again by the hotel manager.

“Excuse me, gentlemen. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I thought you might like to have these,” he said. Kevin saw that he was holding a large suitcase and a backpack. AJ’s things.

“Thank you,” Kevin said appreciatively, taking the luggage from the man’s arms. Then they took the elevator upstairs to their floor.

Even before the group made it down the hall to where their rooms were, Kevin knew immediately which room was AJ’s, for their was a trio of grim-faced police officers standing outside it, and a yellow police tape was spread across the door, signaling that the room had become a crime scene. The sight of it made Kevin’s stomach turn.

The policemen looked at the men in sympathy, as they passed by. Kevin refused to look any of them in the eye. He kept his head down and walked swiftly on past them to his own room.

He mumbled a quick “goodnight” to his bandmates and bodyguards and ducked into his room, immediately setting AJ’s bags on the floor and sinking down onto his bed. He felt like he could cry at any moment, yet he seemed to have no tears left. That was what being emotionally drained actually felt like. It was an odd sensation.

Kevin turned off the light, lay down on the bed without even changing his clothes, and closed his eyes. He was exhausted, but sleep would not come to him. And so, after about an hour, he got back up and turned the light back on. His sight immediately rested on AJ’s suitcase and backpack, sitting forlornly in the middle of the room, right where Kevin had set them.

Sighing, he got up and sat down on the floor in front of them. He picked up AJ’s backpack first and pulled it into his lap. He slowly unzipped one of the pouches and opened it up. Inside, he saw AJ’s portable CD player, CD case, and a few magazines. He took out the CD case and opened it up. Flipping through all of AJ’s favorite CD’s, a lump rose in his throat. AJ’s taste in music varied so much. He had everything in there, from Boyz II Men, to Limp Bizkit, to…

Limp Bizkit?

I thought Brian wanted to borrow that CD, Kevin thought, as he looked at Limp Bizkit’s latest album. In fact, I’m sure Brian went to borrow that CD. He could still remember the conversation from earlier that night in his suite…


“Hey, AJ, do you have your Limp Bizkit CD with you?” Brian asked.

“Yeah,” AJ replied absently, his attention focused on the game.

“Well, could I borrow it?”

“Sure. It’s in my bag in my room,” AJ said, still staring at the TV screen.

”Okay. Can you give me your room key then?”

“Just a minute.” AJ paused the game and dug into his pocket for his room key. He tossed it to Brian and started playing again.


That’s funny, Kevin thought. I wonder why he didn’t take it after all. Kevin remembered that Brian had never come back that night. Instead, he had gone to his room to go to bed early, according to the note he had left. And that meant he probably still had AJ’s key with him. One of the three copies of the key that he knew existed. AJ had the second, and Kevin had given the third, which he had gotten from the hotel receptionist, to one of the police officers when they had first arrived.

That brought Kevin back to the question of how this had happened. If there were only three keys, and he knew who had them, how could the attacker get into AJ’s room? Since the locks were not keyholes, but slots to slide cards in, there was no way someone could pick the lock. And even if there were more keys, Kevin was sure the hotel staff had them somewhere, in a secure place that no attacker would be able to get to. So how did he get in?

Perplexed, Kevin closed AJ’s CD case and put it back into his backpack, zipping it back up and shoving it back aside. He stood up and headed back to his bed, ready to try to fall asleep again. But before he could get there, something else caught his eye. It was his cell phone, lying right on the floor where he had dropped it after Leighanne had called.

Leighanne! Oh no, I forgot to call her! Kevin suddenly realized. She has to be frantic!

He picked up the phone, but, having been turned on the whole time, it was dead. He turned it off and plugged it up to be charged, then picked up the line in his room and dialed out to Atlanta.

As the phone rang, Kevin sheepishly realized it was past midnight for him, which meant it would be after three in the morning in Georgia. But at that moment, Leighanne picked up the phone, and it was too late.

“Hello?” she asked, sounding surprisingly alert.

“Leigh? It’s Kevin.”

“Kevin! Oh, God, how is he? What happened? Is he gonna be okay?!” Leighanne fired questions at Kevin faster than he could process them.

“He was stabbed,” Kevin answered gravely. “And I don’t know if he’ll make it or not. He’s in surgery now.”

“Oh my God,” Leighanne gasped. Then she fell silent.

“You still there, Leigh?” Kevin asked after a long pause.

“Yeah,” she replied shakily. Then, her voice thick with tears, she spoke again.

“Kevin, I think I know who did this.”

***

Chapter 21

Kevin’s mouth dropped open. “What?!”

“Kevin… Brian has a twin,” Leighanne said.

“What are you talking about?” Kevin cried. “A twin?!”

“Yes, a twin,” Leighanne repeated. “And I think somehow this twin has done something with the real Brian and has been posing as him for God knows how long.”

Kevin’s mouth dropped open. “That’s insane!” he spat.

“I thought so too. But, Kevin, it makes sense. Brian’s been acting funny for weeks. And… well, AJ called me two nights ago to ask me about something. Have you noticed that Brian’s scar has disappeared?”

“Huh?”

“His scar. The one on his chest. AJ told me it’s gone.”

Kevin was silent, thinking back to the last time he had seen Brian shirtless, just two nights earlier, when they were swimming. He hadn’t really looked closely enough to notice. He had gotten so used to the scar that he never noticed it anymore.

“It’s gone?” he asked in disbelief.

“I guess so. I never noticed it either, but the only time I’ve seen Brian’s chest in the past few weeks has been when we’re making love, and… well, I was thinking of other things then. But AJ swore it wasn’t there, and I believe him. Something’s not right. The man that’s there with you now is not my husband.”

“So what are you saying?” Kevin asked, still in a state of shock and confusion. “That Brian has an evil twin who’s kidnapped him and taken over his life and that he was the one who did this to AJ?”

He was making it sound like a joke, but as he said it, he couldn’t help but think of how serious Leighanne sounded. Leighanne may have been blonde, but she definitely wasn’t dumb, and if she believed it, it could be true.

“Yes,” Leighanne said, her voice grave. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Kevin, we have to do something. If this is true, he’s done something to Brian and to AJ. You, Howie, or Nick could be next!”

A chill ran through Kevin’s spine, as her words echoed through his ears. You could be next!

He swallowed hard and gripped the phone tightly to his ear.

“So what do we do?”

***

Kevin was up at the crack of dawn the next morning, after less than two hours’ sleep. He had talked to Leighanne for hours, and they had decided the best way to make sure Brian’s twin didn’t hurt anyone else was to go to the police.

But to do that, they needed proof that he really had stabbed AJ. Otherwise, if the police arrested him only to find they were unable to prove he was the attacker and released him, there would definitely be trouble. If they were going to get rid of him, they had to do it right. And that meant finding evidence.

But Kevin’s first concern was AJ. He had called the hospital as soon as he woke up and was told that his friend was out of surgery, but in critical condition. Kevin was just relieved that AJ had made it through the night and could only hope he would get better.

He wanted to go to the hospital to be with AJ, but first, he had to get into “Brian’s” room. He waited until six and then knocked on “Brian’s” door.

It took a few minutes, but finally, the door swung open, and there stood a sleepy-eyed Brian look alike.

“It’s six in the morning! What the hell do you want!?” the man asked irritably, rubbing his eyes and glaring at Kevin.

Kevin tried his best not to glare right back. But he was now certain that this was not Brian. The real Brian never would act like that.

“Don’t you want to go see AJ?” he asked. He inwardly smiled, for he was actually testing the imposter. Obviously, he didn’t care to go see AJ at all, but the real Brian would want nothing more than to be there. He was curious to see how well this twin could act.

As it turned out, pretty well.

“Yeah, of course,” “Brian” said, his tone softening so that he almost sounded compassionate. “We’re leaving now?”

“Pretty soon. Go get ready,” Kevin said. Slyly, he added, “And make sure you take a shower and get freshened up. You look like shit, cuz.”

I’m a pretty damn good actor too, Kevin thought smugly, as his cousin (who actually was still his cousin, since he was Brian’s twin) nodded and walked back into the room, heading for the bathroom. Normally, the door would have clicked shut behind him, but Kevin caught it with his foot and silently stepped in before letting it shut.

He hid just inside the doorway until he heard the imposter shut the bathroom door. When the shower water began to run, he hurried into the room to find Brian’s luggage.

He found Brian’s suitcase and hauled it onto his bed, flipping the latches up and opening it. Kevin sorted through piles of wadded up clothes, looking for AJ’s key, a knife, or anything that would prove “Brian’s” guilt.

At the bottom of the suitcase, he found a shaving kit and opened it up. And lying inside, right between a bottle of shaving cream and a razor, was a knife.

Kevin stared at it in awe, his body beginning to tremble. This was it. He had found the weapon. He started to reach into grab it, but stopped himself. The police would need to fingerprint it, and he sure didn’t want his prints on it.

Just as he was trying to figure out how to get a hold of the knife without touching it with his bare hands, the door to the bathroom swung open, and “Brian” walked back into the room. And there stood Kevin, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“Kevin?” the twin asked in shock.

And then his eyes came to rest on what was laying on the bed right in front of Kevin. The suitcase, the shaving kit, and… the knife.

***

Chapter 22

Leighanne lay awake in bed, just thinking. She had gotten only a couple hours of restless sleep the night before, and now it was nine in the morning. She knew that out in California, Kevin was planning to find evidence to get the Brian imposter arrested. It was her job to try to find the real Brian. But what should she do? Who should she call? Where should she go?

That was what she was thinking about. And just as she was about to call the police, a flashback came jolting into her memory…



Leighanne sat at a red light, examining her freshly manicured nails. She suddenly heard the screeching of car tires and looked up to see a silver BMW pull a U-turn on the road in front of her and head back in the other direction.

That’s Brian, she realized, watching the car speed away from her. She squinted, watching as his car got smaller and smaller in the distance. Where was he going?

As the light changed to green, Leighanne decided to follow him and practically gunned her engine, hurrying to catch up to him. Why is he going this way? she wondered, perplexed. This road leads out of town.

Her confusion increased as she followed him all the way out of Atlanta and into the rural area just outside of the city. Never taking her eyes off his car, she drove on, just far enough away from him to still be able to see his car but not be recognized when he looked into his rearview mirror.

Her mouth opened in surprise as he suddenly made a left turn, pulling into the driveway of a small house sitting all alone in a field…

“Leigh! Boy, am I glad to see you!”

“Brian?” Leighanne asked, looking around in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was just about out of gas and stopped here to see if this man had any. Thank the Lord he does. He’s goin’ to get me some now.”

“What are you doing all the way out here though?” she asked.

“Uh… well, I can’t tell you, honey. It… it has to do with a surprise I have planned for you. Yeah, that’s it. A surprise.” He flashed her an innocent smile.

“A surprise? What kind of surprise?” Leighanne asked.

“Well, I can’t tell you that, silly,” Brian replied. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise!”

She smiled, rolling her eyes. “Well, fine then. It better be good though, mister.”



Now, Leighanne frowned. She had never gotten any surprise. She doubted “Brian” was even out of gas that day. He had been up to something. And it took place at that house.

***

Brendan stood in the bathroom doorway, his eyes flicking from Kevin, to the bed, to his suitcase, to his shaving kit, to his knife, and back to Kevin, whose face was a mask of guilt.

He knows.

Brendan knew then that his charade was over. With Kevin, at least. And that meant one thing - one of them was going down. And as far as Brendan was concerned, it wasn’t going to be him.

***

Kevin’s eyes widened as the imposter’s eyes narrowed.

He knows I know.

Kevin knew then that his plan wasn’t going to go exactly how he wanted it to. There was going to be trouble. One of them was going down. And as far as Kevin was concerned, it wasn’t going to be him.

The twin glared levelly at Kevin. And suddenly, he made a move, darting forward, his eyes focused on one thing – the knife.

But Kevin was quick. With one swift motion, he snatched the knife away, no longer caring whose fingerprints stained it. He held it out menacingly and saw the imposter freeze.

Kevin couldn’t help but grin darkly. He had control. He had power. It was a good feeling.

“Who are you?” he asked, making his voice as low and intimidating as he could.

The imposter was not as easily scared as Kevin had hoped though. He glared back at Kevin with just as much intimidating. But although Kevin was slightly afraid of this man, who had done such horrible things, he didn’t back down. He kept telling himself that he had all the advantages – he was armed, he was angry, and he was much bigger than the imposter, who had the same small frame as Brian.

“I said who are you?!” Kevin boomed.

He saw the imposter flinch ever-so-slightly, and he smiled in satisfaction. Underneath his bravado, this man was a coward. And that was another advantage.

“Brendan,” the man muttered, his voice so low Kevin could barely hear him.

“Brendan?”

“Brendan Graves,” the man spat, his voice rising angrily.

“Brendan Graves,” Kevin echoed, saying the name with utter disdain. “Now tell me, Brendan Graves, did you attack AJ last night?”

Brendan stood with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at Kevin in complete defiance.

Kevin took a step forward, holding out his knife. “I asked you a question,” he said through gritted teeth, taking another step forward.

Brendan continued to glare at Kevin and did not move. Maybe he was not so much of a coward after all.

But Kevin did not back down. He took yet another step forward, thrusting his knife forward. It was close to touching Brendan. He glared at the look-alike, his green eyes boring into Brendan’s blue ones, which were so much like Brian’s.

Brendan took a step back.

Kevin stepped forward.

Brendan stepped back again. Before he knew it, he was up against the wall, and Kevin was standing in front of him with a sharp knife.

Brendan swallowed hard. How am I going to get out of this? he wondered, a sense of panic rising within him.

But then, suddenly, came the distraction he had been looking for, as the door to the suite swung open.

“Kevin!?”

***

Chapter 23

Kevin looked up to see Nick just inside the room, his eyes wide, his mouth dropped open.

“What the hell are you doing!?” he cried, rushing over to Kevin.

Kevin’s eyes widened. If anyone could ruin this situation, it was Nick. He was Brian’s best friend and bigger than Kevin. And he had no idea of what was really happening. He was going by what it looked like, which Kevin knew was not good. To Nick, it looked like Kevin was holding his best friend at knifepoint.

“Get back, Nick!” Kevin screamed, keeping the knife out towards Brendan’s throat.

Nick’s eyes widened even further, but he obeyed and took a slight step back. “Kevin,” he said, talking as if he were speaking to a three-year-old. “Put down the knife. You don’t want to hurt Brian with that knife now, do you?”

Kevin clenched his teeth in frustration. Nick just didn’t get it. “Nick, this isn’t Brian!” he shouted.

Nick stared at Kevin in shock. “Kevin, are you insane? What the hell is wrong with you!?” he cried, his “put the gun down, Kevin” tone gone.

“He’s the one that’s insane!” Kevin shouted, thrusting the gun towards Brendan.

“Kevin, stop!” Nick shrieked, rushing towards Kevin again.

Terrified that Nick was going to grab the knife away and ruin everything, Kevin did the only thing he could. He turned on Nick and held the knife out.

“Get back, Nick,” he growled.

Nick stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes glued to the gleaming knife blade. “Kevin, please,” he pleaded. “You don’t want to do this.”

“Shut up!” Kevin yelled.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Brendan raise his fist. And too late, he realized his mistake of taking the knife off the true threat. Before he knew it, Brendan’s fist was in his face, and everything was black.

***

Nick let out a shuddering breath. “God, Brian,” he gasped. “That was good! Where did you learn to hit like that?!”

Brian smiled strangely. “Oh, I dunno. I’ve just had a lot of practice lately on my brother.”

Nick’s head shot up, and he cocked his head at Brian. “Huh?” Nick was confused. “Did you just say you’ve had a lot of practice on your brother? You hit Harry?!”

“No, not that brother. I meant my twin brother. I think you might have met him before. His name’s Brian. That name ring a bell?”

Nick stared at Brian. “Dude, that’s not even funny,” he said.

“It wasn’t a joke.”

“Brian, stop it!” Nick cried, completely confused and a little scared by the weird things his best friend was saying.

“Oh, Nicky,” Brian sighed. “You messed up, buddy, you know that?”

Nick stepped back from Brian. “I gotta go finish getting ready now, I think,” he said, his voice sounding shaky.

“No, I don’t think you do,” Brian replied, picking up the knife that lay next to Kevin’s unconscious body.

“Brian, what are you doing with that?” Nick asked, his eyes widening.

“You really aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed, are you?”

“Brian, what are you talking about?” Nick cried. Was he missing something here? What was going on?

“Will you stop calling me Brian already?!” the man exploded.

Nick froze. “What?”

“My name is Brendan! Brendan, you retard! Kevin was right! I’m not Brian! Jesus, maybe you should listen to the old fart from now on!”

Common sense told Nick to turn and run at that point. But he couldn’t. Not only was he frozen in place, but he couldn’t leave Kevin there in the clutches of this psycho that he had once thought to be his best friend.

“What are you talking about?” Nick asked, his voice soft and wavery.

“God, don’t tell me I have to explain this again!” Brendan cried, throwing his hands up in the air in mock exasperation.

Now, Nick might have been portrayed as being “not the brightest crayon in the box” by the media and the fans. But in real life, he was actually pretty smart. And he was a quick thinker too. And that’s why, in that split second that Brendan had his hands up, Nick choked back his fear and punched Brendan right in the gut, as hard as he could.

Brendan let out a choked scream and doubled over in pain, the knife falling from his hand. Nick darted forward and grabbed it with lightening speed. And then the tables were turned again, with Nick in Kevin’s position, his knife outstretched and pointed at the imposter.

“Gee, Brendan,” he said in a taunting voice, “that was a pretty stupid move. Guess you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed either.” He grinned smugly down at Brendan. And as Brendan let out a hoarse cry and lunged at Nick, Nick thrust his arm out and plunged the knife into Brendan’s flesh.

***

Chapter 24

Nick watched in shock as Brendan reeled back, clutching his stomach. When he pulled his hand back, Nick could see bright red blood covering it. Blood had already seeped through his gray t-shirt. Gasping, Brendan sunk to his knees, then collapsed to the floor.

Nick just stared in disbelief, as his foe lay curled in a ball on the floor, wreathing in pain. He had caused it. He had actually stabbed someone.

But then, looking at Kevin, who was just now waking up, Nick remembered why he had done it. It was self-defense, he told himself with confidence.

“Kevin,” he called, hurrying over to his fallen friend.

Kevin sat up slowly and gingerly touched his face. His eye was already beginning to swell, and Nick knew it would be black and blue in a short while.

“You okay, Kev?” Nick asked, reaching a hand down to help the older man up.

“Yeah,” Kevin said softly, looking around in confusion. He took Nick’s hand and got to his feet. Then he looked over at Brendan. “You did that, Nicky?” he asked.

“Yeah. It was self-defense!” Nick protested.

“Hey, I didn’t say anything,” Kevin said, holding up his hands. “That asshole deserved it. He’s the one that attacked AJ!”

Nick’s mouth dropped open, and he turned to glare at the bleeding man on the floor, while wicked thoughts ran through his head. That mother f***ing bastard! I’m glad I stabbed him! In fact, I hope he dies!

“Come on; we need to go call the police,” Kevin said, grabbing Nick’s shirt and tugging him along.

Nick nodded absently and followed Kevin towards the door. He couldn’t help but give Brendan a little kick on the way out. Brendan let out a moan of agony, but Nick didn’t care. He just gave Brendan a little smirk and followed Kevin out the door.

***

Meanwhile, Leighanne pulled into the driveway of the run-down little house out in the middle of nowhere that “Brian” had stopped at just days earlier.

Please, God, let him be here, she pleaded, terrified of what she might find inside the house.

Now, remember, Leighanne had not had much sleep the night before, which was probably why she was going all alone to the doorstep of an unfamiliar house that might be the home of Brian’s kidnapper. Common sense was the last thing she cared about at that point.

What do I do now? Leighanne wondered, when she had made it to the front door. She shrugged and tried the doorknob. To her relief, it was unlocked. Out in the country like this, she supposed people wouldn’t bother to keep their doors locked.

Please, don’t let there be anyone here, Leighanne silently pleaded, thinking of any accomplices Brian’s twin might have had.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she silently turned the knob and pushed the door open. She found herself inside a dark, tiny living room, which reeked of a sickening blend of mothballs, fried chicken, sweat, and B.O.

Trying not to gag, she made her way through the living room and into a kitchen. Her shoes crunched down on the layer of grit that covered the kitchen floor, and she wrinkled her nose at the piles of dirty dishes, greasy fast food containers, and beer cans that littered the counters.

Next, she went down a short, narrow hallway that led to two tiny bedrooms and a bathroom. One was a virtual storage closet, with heaps of cardboard boxes and pieces of furniture covered with sheets. The other contained a twin bed with stained yellowish-white sheets, a cheap dresser, and some other tacky mismatched furniture.

No sign of Brian or anyone else yet.

She peeked into the bathroom on the way back up the hall and found it to be just as tiny and gross as the rest of the house. Back in the kitchen, there was another door, which led to a flight of stairs.

She went down the stairs to the basement, her heart pounding. If he was anywhere in this house, he would be in that basement.

Towards the bottom of the stairs, there was a landing and a corner to turn. Leighanne made it to the landing and sucked in a breath, afraid of what she was going to see when she turned the corner.

Swallowing hard, she turned the corner. It was very dim in the room she found herself gazing into, too dim to really see anything. But there was a light switch on the wall next to her. And so, she flipped on the light. And when she looked back into the room, her mouth dropped open. And then she let out an earth-shattering scream.

***

Chapter 25

It was Brian.

He was indeed in the basement, just as Leighanne had hoped. But the situation he was in was worse than she had expected.

He lay flat on his back on a twin bed with a bare mattress on it, his arms and legs stretched out from his body, his wrists and ankles tied, his whole body bound down. His skin was pasty white, and there were dark circles under his eyes. His body looked bonier than she remembered, and his cheekbones jutted out from his gaunt face, making him look more like a skeleton than a flesh-and-blood human. His hair was plastered to his head with grease and perspiration, and his skin was soiled with dirt, sweat, and tears.

Leighanne choked back a sob as she ran to him. Her first thought was that he was dead. But as she got closer, she saw that it was not so, and her knees went weak with relief. His slow, ragged breathing told her that he was alive, but barely.

“Oh, Brian,” Leighanne sobbed, reaching a shaking hand out towards her husband. But she drew it back, too fearful to even touch him in his weakened condition. He looked fragile enough to break.

“Ambulance,” Leighanne muttered subconsciously, looking around for a phone. She saw none.

“Brian, I need to go find a phone upstairs. I’ll be right back,” she told him, even though Brian was unconscious and could not hear her.

Scared to leave him, but even more terrified of not getting help in time, she turned and raced up the stairs to the main floor of the house. She found a phone in the kitchen, but to her despair, it was dead.

Struggling to keep from crying, she raced out to her car, knowing she had a cell phone in her purse. She got to the car, flung open the door, and grabbed her purse from the front seat. She dug through it blindly, tossing Kleenex, makeup, and mints every which way as she scavenged for her phone. She found it finally, yanked it out, and turned it on. Her heart sank as she saw that it was not charged up. The phone was dead.

“No!” she cried. “Please, don’t do this to me!” Bursting into tears, she hurled the phone down and started to run back into the house.

But something lying in the driveway caught her eye and made her stop and turn back to look. It was a little pair of scissors that she kept in her purse, one of the things she had tossed out while looking for the phone. But they would help her out now more than the phone could. Picking them up and running into the house, she felt a new sense of hope come over her. She could do this. She could get Brian out herself.

Blinking back her panicked tears, Leighanne hurried down the steps to the basement and over to the bed. With the scissors, she sawed away at the cords that tied Brian down and managed to slice them away from Brian’s wrists and ankles. Then she cut the cord going across his torso so that his body was free.

“Okay,” Leighanne said breathlessly, surveying the situation. She was going to have to get her unconscious husband off of the bed, across the room, up the stairs, and all the way out to her car. She swallowed nervously. It was going to be tough. But she could do it. She had to. It was either that, or Brian was going to die.

Ignoring the sweat, the dirt, and the smell surrounding Brian, Leighanne slid her hand under his back and pulled him up into a sitting position. His head hung forward limply, and she had to hold onto him to keep him from collapsing back down again. Breathing hard, she held him up with one arm and slid the other under his legs. Then, grunting with exertion, she hoisted him up from the bed.

Brian was heavy, but not as heavy as she had imagined. She wasn’t sure if it was because he had lost so much weight or because of the adrenaline surging through her body, but somehow, she managed to carry him.

Her back and arms aching with each step, she carried him to the stairs and painstakingly went up, taking each step slowly. When she made it to the top of the stairs, she let out a breath of relief; the worst was over. Then, at the high of her adrenaline rush, she carried him through the kitchen, through the living room, and out the front door.

When she finally made it to the car, she nearly collapsed with relief. She let Brian’s lower half down, still supporting his back with her right arm, and used her left to open the back door of the car. Then she carefully slid Brian into the car so that he was lying across the backseat. She slammed the door shut and hurried around to the driver’s side. She got in, shut the door, started the car, and headed for the nearest hospital.

***

The heart monitor beeped in a constant, rhythmic pattern, sending a thin green line peaking and falling steadily across the screen. The respirator hissed over and over again. The IV dripped slowly. And Kevin, staring at the pale man in the bed, cried.

Why AJ? he asked himself over and over again. Why not me instead? Kevin would have given anything to trade places with his younger friend, putting himself in that hospital bed instead of AJ. But he could not. He could only sit there. And wait. And pray.

It had been hours since he and Nick had called the police. Brendan had been rushed to the hospital, and he, Nick, and Howie had been briefly questioned. As it turned out, Nick had heard Kevin and Brendan yelling at each other and had known something was very wrong. He had gotten a key to the room from downstairs and come up to see what was going on.

Now Nick, Howie, and Kevin were at the hospital, with AJ. They had spoken to AJ’s surgeon, who had informed them that although AJ’s surgery had gone well, he was not out of the woods yet. He had been stabbed twice, and both times, the knife had missed his spinal cord by centimeters. One stab had punctured his lung though, causing him to go into respiratory arrest. There had been other internal damage done, but the doctors hoped they had fixed it all. Still, they were uncertain as to whether he would make it or not.

“Kevin?”

Kevin turned around suddenly to see that Howie had come into the room.

“Sorry to bother you, but Leighanne just called,” Howie said, shifting nervously.

Kevin bit his lip. He could tell just by the expression in Howie’s big brown eyes that something was wrong. And he had a good idea of what that something was.

“Brian?” he asked, his voice hoarse and shaky from crying.

Howie nodded.

“Is it bad?” Kevin asked worriedly.

Howie pressed his lips together grimly. And he nodded again.

***

Epilogue

Three days later

It was a cold, rainy day, and the cemetery was dark and dismal. The tall, new marble headstone did not look shiny and beautiful, but dull and stark. The atmosphere seemed to be a perfect match for the mood of the people who stood in front of the headstone, their tears mixing with the raindrops that fell from the cloudy sky.

That could have been us, Leighanne thought, as she watched the video for Eminem’s latest single, “Stan”, on MTV.

She glanced over at Brian, who had dozed off to sleep, and turned off the television, sending the hospital room into silence.

It had been three days since she had found Brian, and he was doing much better. His prognosis had been grim at first, for he was dehydrated, malnourished, and bleeding to death from the inside, but after successful surgery to repair the internal injuries caused by his beating and many IV’s full of fluids and nutrients, he was predicted to make a full recovery.

Meanwhile, AJ lay in a hospital bed across the country in California, slowly getting better as well. He had been taken off the respirator and attached to an oxygen tank instead to help him breathe with his still-healing lung, and although he was sore and weak, his doctors expected him to recover as well.

Brendan was also in the hospital, recuperating from his injury. And as soon as he did, he would be taken straight to jail to await his trial on the charges of kidnapping and two counts of attempted murder. Howie could not wait until Brendan was taken to jail, for they had seen his name on a chart outside of one of the doors just down the hall from AJ’s fifth-floor room. Although Howie was sure he was in restraints and too weak to do anything anyway, it made him nervous knowing that the man who had kidnapped Brian and attacked AJ was so nearby.

Besides Brendan, the police had also tracked down a man by the name of Sonny Forrester, who was the owner of the house Brian had been found in, and were holding him in custody too.

Overall, it seemed things were going to be okay. They weren’t good, but they could have been a lot worse. Howie knew they had been lucky.

***

Later that day, Nick, Kevin, and Howie were walking down the hall of the fifth floor at the hospital, on their way to the elevator, when suddenly, Nick heard a chorus of high-pitched squeals.

The three of them turned around to see a group of five or six girls, about thirteen or so, running towards them and shrieking, “Ohmygod, ohmygod, it’s the Backstreet Boys!!”

Kevin groaned. Howie sighed. But Nick grinned.

“Ohmygod, can we, like, have your, like, autographs?!” one little girl asked breathlessly.

“Well, girls, we don’t really-“ Kevin started, but Nick interrupted him.

“Of course you can!” he said, smiling at them.

They all broke into squeals again and dug around in their purses for pens and something for them to sign.

The three guys signed autographs for each girl. It was then that one of them asked, “Hey, like, where’s Brian and AJ?”

Kevin and Howie exchanged glances. They had not yet held a press conference concerning what had happened, so they weren’t sure whether to tell the girls the truth now or wait.

Nick had a better idea. “Well, Brian’s here in the hospital,” he said. “He got hurt.”

Panic spread across their little faces. “Ohmygod! Is he, like, gonna be okay?!”

“Yeah, he’s gonna be fine,” Nick assured them. “But I’m sure he’d love it if you all would go to his room and cheer him up.”

“Ohmygod, really?!” they squealed, their eyes lighting up.

“Sure,” Nick said, grinning devilishly. “His room’s right on this floor, actually. Number 508.”

“Ohmygod, thank you!” they shouted and raced down the hall, one girl turning back to yell, “I love you, Nick!”

Nick just grinned… and waited.

Seconds later, he heard the familiar chorus of teenybopper squeals coming from Room 508.

And then came Brendan’s scream.

Kevin and Howie burst out laughing as they realized what Nick had just done. But Nick just shook his head and tsked.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell him there are prices to fame?”


The End


AN: Hope you guys liked it! Please review! Thanks! :)