I groaned under my burdens. I was on my way up the steps to my apartment. I was trying to balance my backpack, gym bag, laundry basket, and my mocha. I got to my door and banged on it with my foot. Kyung should be home and I waited impatiently for her to let me in. It was crisp out and my wind pants and thin sweatshirt weren’t really enough to keep me warm. There was no answer so I sighed and dumped the laundry basket and gym bag on the ground so I could fish my key out of my pocket. Normally I wasn’t carrying this much stuff, but the laundry facilities at my apartment complex were “Temporarily closed due to renovations.” Perfect. I had to drive all over town to find a Laundromat that wouldn’t make my clothes come out dirtier than they had gone in. It was dark now outside so it was dark inside the apartment I shared with Kyung also. That was weird, she should have been here.

“Kyung??” I called. No answer. I wasn’t too worried though. My bigger concern was checking my e-mail. I haven’t heard from Nick in two days. It had been five months since I had seen him. That was in the hospital. I had finally gotten released, but he still went in as an outpatient for physical therapy. Ever since then, we had talked every day. At the very most we had skipped a day. Either on the phone, but more often by email. Even if it was just a quick one to say hi. Now it was almost the end of Wednesday and I hadn’t heard from him since Monday morning. He hadn’t returned an e-mails and both his and Brian’s cell phones only rang. I was worried.

I left the front door open, leaving my gym bag and laundry basket on the porch. When I tried to flip on the light, nothing happened. “Damn.” I muttered. Was the power out? But, no, the neighbor’s lights were on. I had noticed because they always leave their blinds open and you can see everything. I started to go find a flashlight when I felt a monstrous arm circle my neck. I gasped at the sudden lack of oxygen.

“We’ve got a little surprise for you.” A deep voice growled, in my ear.

I struggled to break free, but whoever was holding me was huge. I couldn’t even budge him. My heart was pounding. I increased my struggle.

“I wouldn’t if I were you.” He stated menacingly.

Out of desperation I threw my hand back and my nails connected with something. I dug my nails in.

“YOU BITCH!” My assailant screamed as he let go of me. I took my chance and started to run. I didn’t make it two feet before I felt something crack down over the back of my head. I didn’t even have time to react as I pitched forward, falling unconscious.

~*~*~*~*
Okay, this laying around was driving me crazy. I spent most of the past two
days trying to figure out how to break free of the handcuffs that were
forced on my wrists and the thick chain that went from my left ankle to the
outer bar on the steel cage I was locked up in. I looked over at Brian. He was
still sleeping in his confinement, the same predicament as mine. I had yet to
meet the person that had done this to us and still had no idea why this was
happening.

Searching the dimly lit room, I could see two more cages off into a corner.
From what I could tell, they were both empty. I was still trying to figure out
where we were. It had to be an older house of some type. It smelled dank
and musty. I could hear water constantly dripping and the mold was
definately not doing great things for my allergies. It had been two days
since I had taken my anti-seizure meds and I was starting to wonder how
long I could go without those.

A heavy wooden door that evidently led to freedom creeked open. A short,
fat man came lumbering in with a female’s body slung over his shoulder. Her
arms drooped lifelessly. I narrowed my eyes hoping to make out who this
person was.

“HEY!” I yelled at the man. He continued his work, ignoring me. “HEY!”

The man threw the cage door open and tossed the woman’s body onto the
floor. He methodically handcuffed her wrists and placed a shackle around
her ankle and then attached a chain to the brace and then to the bar of her
cage.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?” I yelled again. The man slammed
her door closed and waddled over to where I was. He looked dirty and
sweatty. He picked up a steel bar and poked me in the side. I flinched away
when the steel met my skin.

“SHUT UP!”

The bar made an echoing clanging noise as he dropped it to the floor. He
turned on his heels and walked out the door, slamming it loudly when he
closed it.

The commotion woke Brian up, he slowly sat up, coughing and holding the
back of his head.

I just stared at him, helplessly.

“Still hurt?” I asked quietly. I was afraid he had a concussion from the blow
to his head.

Brian cleared his throat to talk. “Yeah. You have any clues yet?”

“All I’ve seen is some fat guy and he just brought in a woman and put her
over there,” I said as I pointed towards one of the cages in the dark.

“This is just too weird, who would want to do this and why only you and I?”
Brian asked.

“I don’t know. I wish I did, I’ve been trying to figure this out and I still have
no reason why this is happening,” I replied as I shrugged my shoulders.

Before Brian could answer, the door creaked open again. The fat man
reappeared holding a camera. He pointed it at me and snapped a picture, the
flash of the camera nearly blinding me. He did the same to Brian and then to
the woman.

“HEY! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” I took a gamble at asking the man again.

“Where are we?” Brian asked in a more calmer tone of voice than mine.

The man didn’t answer, only walked out the door and once again slammed it
shut.

“Nick, how are you feeling?” Brian asked as he pulled on the chain around his
ankle.

“I’m more concerned about you,” I replied.

Brian shook his head no. “I am more worried about you and your seizures.”

“Maybe they are gone now, don’t worry about me, I’m okay,” I tried to
reassure him as well as myself. I was feeling a little funny earlier, but I was
hoping that it was just a case of nerves.

Suddenly, a loud moan came from over in the dark corner from the woman.

“Hey, are you okay?” Brian and me asked simultaneously.

“Nick? Brian?”

“Oh my god! Lizz!”

~*~*~*~

I slowly sat up, immediately feeling dizzy. I reached my hand up to the back of my head and felt a good sized knot. My thoughts were still fuzzy and I felt disoriented.

“You too?” I squinted into the room and as my eyes focused, I made out the shape of three more cages. Nick and Brian occupied two of them. The more my eyes focused, the more I could see that they were shackled much as I was. Brian was motioning to the bump on my head. His hand was resting gently on the back of his own head and I guessed that whoever had done this, had hit him too.

“I feel like I’ve been slammed in the head by a two by four.” I mumbled.

“Are you okay?” Nick asked anxiously.

“I think so. What’s going on? Are you guys okay?” My head was beginning to clear now.

“We’re fine and we have no idea what is going on. We’ve both been here for two days. We’ve only seen a short fat man and once a woman that looked to be about his age. They won’t answer any of our questions.” Brian explained.

I looked around the room. There were no windows and it felt damp. Not to mention, it had a rather unpleasant smell. “What day is it?” I asked.

“As far as I know, late Wednesday night. Maybe early Thursday morning.” Nick suggested.

“I was just getting home and when I let myself into my apartment someone came up behind me and grabbed me. He was huge. I don’t think he was the guy you described because this guy was tall. He wasn’t fat either, just huge. I scratched him and when I tried to run he must have hit me. I don’t remember anything after that.” I said, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice.

“Lizz, we...” Brian started. He was interrupted when a large door over in the corner of the room opened. A tall, younger looking guy strode in, something draped over their shoulder. As he walked closer I could see that the something was a someone. He opened up the cage next to mine and dumped the unconscious figure in and chained her up. I gasped when I saw who it was.

Kyung.

Without thinking, I jumped up in the tiny cage. “You bastard!! What the hell did you do to her?!”

The guy walked over to me and I could see his face now. Angry, red claw marks went down the length of his cheek and I knew he was the one who kidnapped me.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” Nick yelled at him.

“Who are you?” Brian also demanded. Neither one of them had seen this guy before.

“You asshole! If you hurt her, I swear to you...” I continued to holler. The guy grinned at me. He might have been decent looking if his eyes weren’t so cold and hard. I tried not to shudder. “Why did you bring us here? Who are you?!” I yelled.

His grin disappeared and was replaced by a menacing glare. “You know what happened to the cat when it got curious?” He sneered at me.

“Do I look like a cat to you?!” I shot back.

Once again his look changed and this was one I did not like. I shrank away from him in my tiny cage.

“Oh, maybe.” He then purred at me. “I can see you’ve already used your claws. Don’t think you are getting away with that.” He rubbed his cheek.

“You’re a fucking sicko.” I whispered. I was scared, but I didn’t want him to see that.

He grabbed a metal pole that I had missed before. “You’re gonna get the same treatment as your loudmouth friend over if you don’t watch your mouth.” He snarled. With that he jammed the pole into the cage and into my side. I sucked in my breath and dropped back to the floor of the cage. No way was I going to show him my pain. Instead I glared at him.

He whirled around and stalked off to the door. “I have a surprise for you guys. Someone who has been waiting a long time for this. I’m sure you will be very glad to see her.” He opened the door.

~*~*~*~*~
"Okay, I could see Nick skippin' out on this, but Brian? AJ commented as he looked at his watch.

"I wonder if the two of them rode together and are just stuck in traffic," Howie defended.

"For two hours?" AJ replied. "And no call at all?"

"I hate to say it, but I agree with AJ," Kevin stated. "Have you tried either one's pager yet?"

"No, but I will now," AJ said as he picked the phone up. First he dialed Brian's pager and then Nick's. After he finished with his task, he started back up with pacing the floor as Howie sat on the backwards chair, watching.

A sharp knock on the door snapped Kevin out of the trance he had put himself into with his thoughts of what was happening with Nick and Brian.

"I'll get it," Howie announced as he stood up. Looking out of the peep hole in the door, he saw Susan, their appointment secretary in the hall. As soon as she entered the room, AJ started making comments about Nick and Brian botching up their schedule.

Susan wordlessly held out a blue slip of paper, her face ashen.

Kevin took the paper from her and read it outloud.

"Do not worry, Brian and Nick are fine. Their friends Kyung and Lizz are with them as well. I got screwed over once and it won't happen again. This is not a demand for money, this is just a letter to let you know that they will be staying with me until the paper meets my demands."

"This was in the envelope too," Susuan said softly as she held out two polaroid snapshots.

AJ took the pictures from Susan.

"Oh shit, this is Nick and Bri, I can't tell where they are, but there's like a chain link fence behind them," AJ stated as he handed the photos to Kevin.

"Where did you get this?" Kevin asked.

"It came through the mail, I guess maybe one of them gave the kidnapper the office address," Susan explained.

Kevin looked at the white envelope and the postmark on it. "This isn't any help, it's got a generic postmark on it," Kevin sighed.

"We better call the police," Howie advised.


~*~*~*~*~

Terri stepped into the room, a smug grin pasted on her face. I couldn’t believe it was her. How did she get out of jail? She was the one behind this?! But why? I glanced over at Nick and Brian. Brian looked as shocked as I felt. Nick looked just plain pissed off.

“YOU BITCH! THIS IS YOU’RE DOING?!” He screamed at her.

The guy I had scratched walked over to Nick’s cage and picked up a metal bar that was lying near it. “I don’t think you better be talking to my girlfriend like that pal.” He stated angrily, brandishing the pole.

Nick backed away from the front of the cage, although he only had room to move about two feet.

Terri smiled sweetly at him. “You’re looking so much better. I didn’t think you would ever be normal again.” Her gaze shifted towards me. “You either. You were supposed to die.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want that pole in my side again.

“Well, I suppose you are all wondering why I brought you here. You see, I was supposed to get a lot of money because of you guys, but no, you had to go and ruin it for me. Well, I will get what I deserve. The National Enquiror was supposed to give me a lot of money. I was promised a job there. I would have had it all. But, NO, you had to ruin that didn’t you?! Instead, I lost my job at the hospital, I lost my money, I lost my offer to be a reporter, I WENT TO JAIL!” Terri paced back and forth in front of our cages. Thankfully Kyung was still out. I knew she would be freaking out when she woke up.

Just then an older woman peeked her head into the room. “Terri, sweetie, the letters were delivered. They should be reading them now. I even postmarked the envelopes so they won’t have any idea we are so close.”

“Thanks mom. We won’t be here for much longer anyway.” Terri replied as her mom went back through the door.

What the heck was that?! What did she mean by so close? If the mom had delivered them, but postmarked them, does that mean we were in Florida? That didn’t make sense. Did it? And what did they mean about not being here for much longer? Were they going to kill us or move us or what? My head was pounding and trying to fit the pieces together only made it hurt worse.

Terri turned back to us. “Don’t think we are going to make this easy on you. The four of you ruined my life and while we are waiting for my demands to be made, I am going to put you all through just what I went through. Do any of you know what it’s like to be in jail?! Trust me, you’re going to find out.” Terri was getting more and more agitated. Apparently she didn’t have a good jail experience. Sarcasm noted. The more she said, the more uneasy I got. What the hell did she plan on doing with us?

After her little speech, she turned around and flounced out of the room. Her boyfriend followed her. After he slammed the door it was silent for about two seconds when I heard a sob.

“Kyung?! Oh god, are you okay?” I called to her.

She was breathing hard and repeating over and over, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”

I looked over at Nick and Brian and they both looked pained. How could we do anything when we were in these damned cages? “Kyung. Kyung! Listen to me! Hey!” I called sharply.

She continued to breathing in the same fashion. Shit. “Kyung, sweetie, you gotta stop hyperventilating. Besides, that’s my thing. C’mon, hun, breathe. Take in a deep breath okay? Slow. C’mon babe. Look at me okay?” I coached.

Finally she looked up, her eyes wide with fear. “Kyung, I am not gonna let them hurt you okay? We’re going to get out of this. All of us. Okay? Sweetie, do you hear me?!” I said sternly.

She nodded, breathing a little more regularly. I ran my hands through my hair. “What now?”

“I don’t know. What are they gonna do? I can’t believe this, I really can’t. That girl is totally psychotic and she’s got her whole family into it. And her boyfriend I guess.” Nick replied.

I shuddered. “He scares me.” I whispered.

Brian nodded. “It seems as though they have it all figured out. That woman, the mom, said she delivered the letters. I’m guessing ransom letters? And delivered them how? Are we local and she dropped them off today and they were delivered today? She said whoever was getting them should be reading them now. They have this planned to a ‘T’.”

“But they said something about us going somewhere else? Why? When? Where?” I countered.

Brian shook his head. “I don’t know...”

“She’s got so much anger in her. She is going to take that out on us.” I said, wrapping my arms around my knees.

The next hour went by painfully slow. I was getting hungry and my head was still pounding. Kyung had barely said two words and I was getting really worried about her. Brian had fallen back asleep and Nick mentioned that he thought that Brian might have a concussion.

“Nick?” I called quietly, breaking the silence.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t have my meds.” I have to take a bunch of immunosuppresants for the rest of my life now. They keep my body from rejecting my kidneys and lungs. If I didn’t take them, I risked rejecting the organs. That could kill me.

“Shit, Lizz...” He was quiet for a second. “I don’t have mine either.”

I shook my head. “You haven’t had a seizure have you?”

“No, but...”

“But what?” I pressed.

“I felt kinda funny earlier.” He said so quietly, I could barely hear him.

I shut my eyes. “This is really bad.” I hadn’t cried yet, and I was determined not to now.

Before Nick could answer, the door burst open. A guy walked in that appeared to be about Brian’s age. He looked a lot like Terri and I wondered if he was her brother. Terri’s boyfriend was behind him. Terri pushed her way around both of them and announced “Time for some fun!”

~*~*~*~*~

I stared at the two of them standing before us in the center of the
basement. Terri had an evil smile on her face and her eyes looked dark. I
could tell that each of us were sitting on the edge of apprehension, not
knowing what she had in store for us.

I glanced over at Brian, wondering if he was thinking of a way out of this
mess. His eyes looked funny to me, I knew he had a splitting headache going
on and it worried me about the concussion. He was sleeping quite a bit. Brian
just shrugged his shoulders.

“I bet you guys have never done man’s work in your life have you? Terri
laughed menacingly. “Kurt, I need you to open the doors on Brian’s and Nick’s
cells.”

I watched Kurt open up Brian’s cage and removed the paddle lock on the
shackle releasing the chain that had him attached to the cage. He left the
shackle back on, be re-threaded the thick chain back through the shackle
and clamped a new shackle on the other ankle and did the same with the
chain.

Lizz was starting to panic in her cage as they did the same to me and then
commanded Brian and I to get out of the cages.

“What are you going to do with them? Why are you doing this to us?”

“Because you ruined it for me, you and your best friend here ruined it and
took six months of my life away from me. I’m gonna see that you pay for it,
and pay for it dearly,” Terri spat.

“Then leave them alone, it’s me you evidently want to hurt,” Lizz argued.

“NO LIZZ, JUST LET IT GO,” I pleaded. I saw Terri’s boyfriend enter the
room holding the metal rod and I knew damn well he was itching to use it.

“Yeah, listen to Nick here, odd that they always label you as the goofy dumb
blonde in the group, you’re actually kinda smart,” Terri quickly replied.

Then I saw that woman that was Terri’s mom come into the room holding a
camcorder. “Here honey, I thought maybe home videos of this could be an
added touch.”

“Thanks mommy, okay now Nick and Brian, you have to follow me, I’ve got
wood that needs to be chopped and stacked. You shouldn’t have any
problems, I think they predicted the temperature to only be in the mid
90’s,” Terri laughed. “And that’s in the shade!”

It was difficult to walk with the heavy chains linking my ankles together. I
looked over towards Lizz, wanting to tell her not to worry about us, but was
stopped from doing so when the tall man poked me in the back with the steel
probe.

“Keep moving, Carter,” the man growled.

~*~*~*~
Katie Anderson shuffled through the endless stacks of letters on the oak
desk. A courier approached her with a Fed Ex package.

“This had specific instructions to be hand delivered to you and read ASAP,”
the young man stated as he handed the package over to Katie.

“Super,” Katie sarcastically mumbled as she glanced at the big envelope and
then up at the courier.

She set the envelope on the corner of her desk and picked up her coffee
mug, taking a quick sip. The sender’s name caught her eye and she set the
mug down. She recognized the name as the girl that had supplied her with
the Nick Carter information from the double suicide attempt this past
spring.

“I thought she was sent to jail,” Katie said quietly to herself as she tore
open the folder. Inside, she found a letter and two snapshots. She looked at
the photos first. One was of Nick Carter and the other was Brian Littrell.
There was nothing out of the ordinary in the pictures, so Katie set them
down and unfolded the letter that was enclosed.

Hi Katie,

I never received payment for the layout I did for the Enquirer and I was
hoping you could help me get it. I figure for all of my hard work, plus the
fact that I lost my job and wound up in jail, serving 6 months, I’m thinking
2.5 million is a fair price, don’t you?

I have a new idea for a new story. I am working on a kidnapping story of Nick
and Brian along with the girl that followed Nick in trying to kill himself. I
think you would be generous in your compensation for that story. I plan on
hitting the media with it if you refuse to pay me for my services. Don’t
contact anyone either or something will happen.

I expect the payment within 7 days or something terrible could happen to
Brian or Nick but I can’t say what or who yet. I will be contacting you. You
can reach my pager and leave a voice message at (719)-243-1253.

Katie gasped when she read the letter. “Oh my god, she’s crazy!” She was
trying to think of how she was going to get help. She took the envelope and
the pictures and headed towards her manager’s office.

~*~*~*~*~

“Marcus, if they start slacking feel free to do whatever you want okay?” I heard Terri call from outside the room. A moment later she returned. She turned to Kurt. “Sweetie, if you want to join in on the fun, you can go with.”

“I might enjoy that. Loudmouth gets under my skin.” Kurt leaned over and kissed Terri before going out the door.

I glared at Terri. She stood just out of reach of me. I wanted her to step just a couple feet closer so I could strangle her. “You’re making them chop firewood?! Why the hell would you do that when it is almost a hundred degrees outside, dumbass?” I couldn’t keep my contempt for her out of my voice.

She only smiled back at me. “So they can suffer like I did. They made me fold laundry in a steaming hot room for hours on end. Do you know what that’s like? Don’t worry, you and your little friend will get to have some fun too.”

“If you think I am going to chop firewood for you, then you have another think comin.” I snapped.

Her smile faded into a snarl. “You better watch how you talk to me. My boyfriend is already pissed off for what you did to his face and so am I. Like he said before, you aren’t getting away with that and wait until you see what we’re gonna do.” She grinned again. Then her eyes lit up. “Oh! I almost forgot! Look what I’ve got.” She went over to a fanny pack that was sitting on the floor by the door. How had I missed that? She opened it and pulled out several bottles of pills.

My eyes grew wide. I recognized a couple of those bottles. “Oh my god. My pills. And Nick’s?!” I breathed.

“Yup. To tell you the truth I might even have more pills than that. Kurt and Marcus raided your stash and the guys’ stashes. So who knows what all’s in here.” Terri was grinning at her accomplishment.

“Terri, please, we need those pills. You know full well what could happen if we don’t take them.” I pleaded.

“Forget it. You think I am going to just hand them to you? You are going to have to earn them.” Her smile grew and I felt sick inside. Nick had already said he felt funny earlier.

“Laters!” She called as she danced out of the room. I was forced to sit there worrying to death about Nick and Brian.

“Kyung?” I called. She was still sitting there motionless, almost as if in a trance. She had been this way ever since she tried to hyperventilate. I kept talking to her, but I still wasn’t getting any response. I think she must have been in some sort of shock.

The door flying open made me jump. I don’t know how much time had passed since Brian and Nick had left, but it had to have been at least an hour or two.

“You bastards! If he’s...” Nick was yelling. I could hear the anguish in his voice. I immediately jumped up and grabbed the bars of the cage.

Nick came in first, fighting Kurt, who finally out frustration, pulled out a gun and shoved it into the back of Nick’s head.

“If you don’t shut up I’m going to blow your fucking head off.” He yelled.

“NO! NICK!” I screamed.

Immediately behind Kurt and Nick, Marcus came in carrying Brian, who appeared to be unconscious.

“What happened?! Brian?!” I cried.

“He passed out. From the concussion. He’s...” Nick started to tell me.

“Shut up!” Kurt yanked open Nick’s cage and shoved him inside. He shackled him back up to the cage and slammed it shut. Nick immediately jumped up back up. He opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by the gun pointed in his face. I felt my breath catch in my throat.

Marcus opened Brian’s cage and dumped him roughly inside. Then he shackled him just as he did Nick.

“What the hell?! They need to be alive!!” Terri ran in the room, screaming. Her mother followed, wringing her hands.

I turned to them. “Please. Let me go over there. What use will he be to you if he dies? Please! You have to let me help him.” I begged, my voice cracking. I wished Kyung was with it. Even though I had a lot of medical knowledge, Kyung was the one that majoring in med.

“Forget it.” Terri snapped.

“Sweetie, she’s right. If the guy dies, that isn’t going to help our cause.” Her mom calmly explained.

“But mommy!” She whined. But then she stopped when she saw the look on her mother’s face.

Her mom nodded at Kurt. He walked over to my cage, touched the scratch on his cheek, and grinned at me. Why the hell did he keep doing that?! He open the cage and undid my shackles. Then he grabbed me and dragged me out, not even giving me a chance to stand up. I looked over at Nick and his eyes shone with unshed tears. I tried to smile at him to let him know that it was going to be okay. I guess you could call it a smile. Sort of.

“Don’t think you are staying. You are only in there long enough to make sure he isn’t going to die on us.” Terri spat at me. I could tell she was pissed. I was getting my way here and she was not happy about it. I knew she was going to make me pay for it later, but right now I didn’t care.

I held my breath as I watched Lizz get shoved into Brian’s crate. As she picked up an arm, the hand flopped around like it wasn’t connected to his body. “He’s burning up you assholes! He’s probably got sun poisoning. Didn’t you give them any water?!” “They didn’t give us anything Lizz, we were out in the ...” the metal bar striking the cage where I sat stopped me from finishing my sentence. “Shut your mouth if you know what’s best for you, Carter,” Marcus hissed. “Can I have some water, a cold cloth, something? He needs to cool down,” Lizz begged. I could tell she was holding back tears, hell I was holding them back myself. Brian was so pale, I’ve never seen anyone look that white. He looked better after his heart surgery than what he does right now. Marcus reached in and tried to pull Lizz out of the cage. She let out a scream something short of what a wild animal would make. As he pulled on her waist, Lizz clung onto the fencing of the cage with her hands. Marcus ended up winning the battle, ripping her hands from the sides, tearing the skin in the palm of her left hand. Terri’s mother approached where Brian laid, a compress in one hand and an ear thermometer in the other. She crouched down and placed the thermometer in his ear. After the quick beep, she looked at the reading. She cleared it and tried it again. “What is it?” I tried to calmly ask the woman. She ignored me, pressing her hand onto Brian’s forehead. “Terri, we need to put him in my room, someplace cool, fast,” the woman said with quiet urgency. “What’s his temperature?” Terri asked. “105.8 and we need to cool him down or he could have some serious problems,” the woman replied. I looked at Lizz and Kyung’s reactions to the temperature. Kyung’s mouth dropped open, but she didn’t say anything. This was frustrating since she was a nurse. Lizz started to let the tears she had been keeping held in finally free. ‘WHERE ARE YOU TAKING HIM? HE NEEDS TO GO TO A HOSPITAL. HE HAS A HEART CONDITION!” I yelled after them as I watched Marcus sling Brian’s body over his shoulder. They ignored my shouts and carried Brian off, out into another section of the place we were being held in. I don’t know if it was because we had been chopping wood out in the heat or if my medication levels were completely off, but that weird feeling was coming back and the room was starting to turn grey. I could barely hear Lizz yelling at me before everything went dark. ~*~*~*~*~ “Stand him up in the shower stall and I’ll turn the cold water on him,” Terri ordered her brother. It was difficult for them to manuever Brian in the shower, his body was completely limp and although he was light, Marcus felt as if he was moving thousands of pounds. He finally managed to pull a plastic chair into the shower and placed Brian’s body into it. Terri turned on the water to the coldest setting and stood and watched Brian as the water beat onto his face and head. “If that don’t cool him down, I don’t know what will,” Terri smirked. Brian started choking on the water when he was beginning to come around. Terri quickly shut the water off. “Welcome back to the real world, Brian,” she cheerily stated. Brian looked around the stall, trying to get his bearings. The last thing he remembered was feeling dizzy and then everything went black. He started shivering, he felt hot and cold all at the same time. Terri pressed the thermometer into Brian’s right ear. “Let’s see what your temp is now.” A blood curdling scream that was coming from the basement, made Brian lean forward to get up off the chair and to where his friends were. Marcus held him back by placing a firm hand on Brian’s shoulder. “Hold on there, you aren’t going anywhere.” “What the hell is going on down there now?” Terri sputtered as she placed the thermometer down on the counter. “Watch Brian, I have to find out what is going on down there,” she called out over her shoulder.

~*~*~*~

“Oh god!! Nick!! NICK“ I screamed. I was still standing in front of Brian’s cage. Marcus had given me to Kurt before taking Brian away. My arms were pinned behind me, but as soon as I saw that Nick was having a seizure, I started to struggle again.

“Shit. What the fuck is wrong with him?” Kurt growled.

“He’s having a seizure. Nobody bothered to give him his meds since he has been here. He could hurt himself. You have to let me help him.” The bitterness and then desperation in my voice was showing.

“What the hell is all the racket?” Terri cried as she came flying into the room. She saw Nick and her eyes grew wide.

“Please, Terri, let me go in there.” I begged.

She glared at me and I could tell she was having a hard time deciding. On one hand, she didn’t want to give into me, but on the other, she didn’t want anything to jeopardize her plans. And if anything happened to Nick, then she might lose out on some of her money. “What if I said I would give you a dose of his med or a dose of yours? One or the other? Then what would you do??” She sneered.

“Give me his.” I replied without hesitation. “Look, just let me go in there long enough to make sure he is okay, then you can do whatever you want with me. Please.” I pleaded. I hated begging her for anything, but my pride was the least of concerns right now.

“Shit! If he dies, he isn’t any good to me. I’m just going to add this to the list of shit you gotta pay for though.” She sighed heavily as she pulled a couple pills out of one of the bottles.

Kurt dragged me over to Nicks cage and shoved me in. Then Terri handed me a glass of water and two pills. “If he isn’t okay, then you are gonna pay, got it?”

“I got it.” I replied. I leaned over Nick and patted his face gently. He had stopped seizing, but he wasn’t conscious. “C’mon Nick, wake up okay? You gotta take these.” After a few minutes I managed to rouse him and get him to take the pills. He was still pretty out of it and I knew it would be a little bit before he totally came around. I crossed my legs Indian-style and pulled his head into my lap. Then I leaned against the back of the cage, totally drained. Terri had since left, followed by Kurt. I wondered where Brian was and what was going on. Kyung was still being unresponsive so I was pretty much alone. My hand was throbbing and I finally took a look at it. The skin was torn up pretty nice and I grimaced. I wadded up the bottom of my sweatshirt in my fist and held it as tight as I could to stop it from bleeding. God, I wished Nick would wake up. The meds would help, but it would take more than one dose. I wondered if I could somehow bargain with Terri to get her to shell out some more doses.

~*~*~*~*~

Terri’s mom paced around the room while Brian feverishly slept in the bed. She kept changing the cold compress and it was helping. His temp had gone down, but not all the way. “Marcus?” She called her older son.

“Yeah?” He appeared a moment later.

“Do any of those bottles of pills belong to him?” She jerked her head towards Brian.

“Hell if I know.”

“Well go check.” She snapped.

Terri came in a moment later with a bottle of pills. “Mommy, he is supposed to be working and so is Nick.” She glared at Brian’s sleeping form.

“Terri, baby, when his concussion goes away, he will be more than able to keep working. Until then we have to keep him still. He isn’t any good to us dead. And as for Nick apparently he needs those damn seizure meds.” Her mom explained.

“Well, it’s gonna cost him then. And that little bitch too. She’s gonna get what’s coming to her. I hate her momma.” Terri’s face twisted to show her anger.

“I know sweetie and don’t worry, they are both gonna pay. They all will.” Terri’s mom promised.

At that point Brian started to come around.

Brian’s eyes quickly darted around the room. The last thing he remembered was sitting in a shower with cold water beating on his face. It took him a few moments to put the pieces together. Terri shook the brown vial of pills she had in her hand. “Hey Brian, what are these pills for?” Brian’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the bottle. “It says: Brian T. Littrell, Dr. Sherman Stephanovich, take one 25mg table twice daily. Lasix. What’s that for?” “They’re mine,” Brian mumbled. “No shit, I just read your name. What do you need them for?” Brian’s eyes started drooping. He was struggling to keep awake. He had a terrible headache and he reached up to touch his forehead but drew his hand back when it came in contact with the cold compress. “So is this life and death medication or what?” Terri persisted on answers. “Eventually,” Brian quietly replied. “Eventually? What the hell kind of answer is that?” Terri snapped. Brian weakly cleared his throat. “It’s a water pill, it keeps the fluid levels down in my body. My heart can’t take excess fluid and it’s compromised and this just helps it out.” “So what do you mean by eventually?” Terri questioned. “Meaning, the longer I’m off it, the more fluid can build up in the pericardium, as if you’d know anyways,” Brian snapped back, irritated at having to explain something to this girl that wasn’t understanding or realizing the seriousness of her situation. Terri pasted a fake smile on her face, tossing the vial of pills on the dresser. “Well, Brian, you have to make a choice here. I’m leaving the entire sacrifice in your hands. Either you get your lasix on schedule or I can make sure that Lizz gets her medication on sechedule, OR, Nick gets his anti-seizure meds on schedule. By the way, he just got finished having a seizure, just thought you’d want to use that in your judgement of who gets what.” “You can’t make me chose! That’s not fair.” Brian argued. “Oh yes I can, don’t you see Brian? I control everything, I have you guy’s meds and I can do what I damn well please. I mean I don’t plan on killing any of you, I just plan on you getting really sick and then I rescue you for a bit and let you get sick again. Pretty simple, huh? So, who’s it gonna be?”

“Definately skip my meds, I can live without them, but please, for the love of God, give Lizz and Nick their meds. They desperately need them.”

I woke up to rain splashing on my face. I struggled to open my eyes and when
I finally managed I realized that I was still in this damn crate. I had been
drifting in and out of it. But how could it be raining in someone’s basement. I
shifted my eyes to look at the ceiling and came face to face with Lizz, bent
over me. It was her tears, not rain hitting my face. I wanted desperately to
tell her not to cry but after a seizure, I was pretty much as weak as a
newborn for the next day.

“Bullshit Nick,” Lizz softly remprimanded. “I’ll cry when I want to.”

I was shocked to think she could read my mind. I wanted to ask her a million
questions, my voice would be too weak to be heard. Damn I hate this. I only
have myself to blame for the seizures, I wasn’t gonna let this get me down.

Not now.

Not here.

“I wished someone would come and tell me what’s going on with Brian,” Lizz
sighed.

The door creaked open and Marcus was helping Brian back into the room. He
ushered him into the pen and shackeled him back to the sidewall of the pen.

“There ya go and they wanted you to have a blanket too. Hell next I’ll be
warming up milk for you or something.”

Terri entered the room with a large bag. She dumped it’s contents out onto
the table, a few of them managed to roll off down onto the floor. I
recognized them as being prescription bottles.

“Boy y’all take a lot of drugs,” Terri observed.

“AND YOUR POINT IS?” Lizz couldn’t stand to look at Terri anymore. She
was growing more and more hateful towards this person and her patience
was wearing thin.

A steel probe got smacked at the fencing on the side, causing me to jump.
“Pipe down there smart ass,” Marcus hissed.

“My point is, Brian here has to make an adult decision on which one of you
guys get the meds like they’re supposed to. He’s got to pick either you, Nick
or himself. My money’s on you cause it’s a guy thing to do.”

Lizz stared at a sweaty Brian laying on the floor of his prision. “You can’t do
that to him, my god are you that sick and twisted? He would carry guilt
forever if something would happen to me or Nick because we couldn’t take
our meds on time.”

“Let’s see, he’s been without his meds for two days, Nick could start another
seizure at any given moment, and you, well you could start rejecting your
liver or whatever the hell they put into you in about a week’s time according
to the big Journal Book of Medicine. So Brian really has his work cut out for
him. His own predicament would be a slow, lingering death. I guess the heart
finally gives out after it’s been taxed too much by the fluid that is probably
building around it right now as we speak. So, my advice to you is get a good
night’s rest. I’m leaving you in his cage for tonight and only tonight so don’t
think this is a permanent sleeping situation.”

~*~*~*~*~

“Stupid bitch, do you not know the difference between the liver and the kidneys? And you completely missed the lungs. My god, you’re pathetic.” I sneered.

“Lizz, shhh.” Nick whispered weakly, knowing what was coming next.

“DON’T PUSH ME! I swear to you, you are going to get it good. Just wait, you’ll be sorry you ever met me.” Terri screamed at me.

“Oh don’t worry, I already am.” I shot back.

“Lizz!“ Nick urged.

Marcus laid a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Not now. Later.”

Terri sighed and stormed out of the room. Marcus turned to me, his eyes daggers.

“Your smartass mouth is going to get you in trouble. Next time I hear anything out of your mouth that I don’t like, I am going to personally beat the shit out of you, do you hear me?” His voice was ominous.

I felt the color drain from my face. He wasn’t kidding. I had no doubts that he really would beat me to a pulp.

“DO YOU HEAR ME?!” He bellowed.

“Yes.” I whispered. He nodded, satisfied, and followed after his sister.

“Well, I’m out.” I stated as soon as Marcus left. I was shaking. It was useless to hide it because with Nick leaning on me, he could feel it too. I tried to push it away and focus on the matter at hand.

Nick looked up at me with raised eyebrows.

“What do you mean you’re out?” Brian called warily.

“I mean just that. Don’t pick me to get my pills.” I said flatly.

Nick started to shake his head just as Brian started protesting. I cut them both off.

“Look you two, at the present time I am in better shape than either one of you. Let’s be logical here. We know for a fact what is going to happen if you don’t take your meds, Brian. And Nick, you’ve already had one seizure. If you don’t get your meds, then you will more than likely have another one. At least with me there is a chance that my body won’t start rejecting stuff. You guys don’t really have much of a choice at this point.” I explained. I didn’t want to even think about rejection factors.

“Lizz, no.” Brian continued to argue. I knew he was going to be stubborn about this and I tried to think of a way to reason with him.

“Look Bri, I haven’t missed my meds as long as you guys have either. You both are in a more serious situation right now and you know it. It just makes sense. With me it is only a risk and there is more time, but with you both it is a definite thing.” I stressed.

“It’s pretty definite with you too.” Nick whispered. God, it killed me to seem him like that. I don’t know who I was more worried about at the moment.

I narrowed my eyes at Brian. “If you pick me, I’ll never forgive you.”

Brian glared back at me. “Lizz, you are so damned stubborn. I hate that what you said makes sense in a way, but what if something happens and you do reject your lungs or your kidneys? That would be my fault!”

“No it wouldn’t! I am telling you to not pick me. A real gentleman would respect my wishes.” I wasn’t going to give this up. I could hold my own for now, but these two weren’t doing so hot. They both needed their meds.

Brian hung his head in defeat. “Nick, I am going to tell them to give the meds to you. But Lizz, if anything happens...” He trailed off.

“It won’t.” I assured him.

“No, Brian! No!” Nick cried. He tried to sit up, but it was clear he didn’t have the strength. His whole body trembled from the exertion. I rested my hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him back down.

“Nick, don’t argue with me cause you aren’t gonna win.” Brian stated quietly, setting his jaw.

“Brian, please.” Nick wouldn’t give up.

“Drop it Nick, I’ve made up my mind.”

“Then give them to Lizz! Don’t waste them on me.” He pleaded. He was getting worked up, yet he didn’t have the strength to get worked up. My heart started beating faster. I leaned close to Nick and whispered softly. “Hey, you gotta calm down. The last thing either one of us needs is to panic. You need to conserve your energy for tomorrow okay? Don’t worry about Brian. I’ll think of something.”

He shut his eyes and I could tell he was struggling. He was beyond upset and he was also having a hard time staying awake. The effects of the seizure would hopefully be gone by the morning. Upon glancing over at Brian, I saw that he was out too. I didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved. He still looked awful. He needed his meds. And soon. Kyung was awake, but still in that trance. “Kyung?” I called softly. I didn’t want to wake up either of the guys. She remained unresponsive. “Damn it.” I whispered. This was probably something similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I wondered how long she would be like this. I was emotionally exhausted and wanted to be able to sleep more than anything, but I knew that sleep wouldn’t come. Kyung wasn’t in any immediate danger, but I had to watch over Nick and Brian, the best I could.

I don’t know many hours passed. I knew what I had to do, but I was scared. My eyes were heavy, but every time I heard a moan from Brian’s cage or Nick stirred against me, I was jarred awake. The longer it went on, the more sure of my decision I was. That was when I finally fell into a fitful sleep.

~*~*~*~

“Rise and shine!!!”

For the umpteenth time I jolted awake. I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep this time though. Terri was standing in the middle of the room. Kurt stood in the doorway next to Marcus.

“Sleep well?” She grinned at us. Brian rubbed his eyes and looked around, confused. He looked even worse and that only strengthened my resolve to stick with my plan. Nick started to wake up and I groaned. He needed to not be awake yet. He was not going to like my plan. Neither would Brian, but I had planned on explaining it to Terri very quietly so Brian wouldn’t hear what I was saying.

I motioned to Terri to come towards me. She glared in return, but complied.

“What, bitch?” She snarled.

“I have an idea.” I started, pushing the lump in my throat back.

“Yeah?”

“I know more than anything right now you want to just tear into me huh? Well, if you give both Nick and Brian their meds, you can do whatever you want with me. Come on, you know you want to.” My voice betrayed me. I wanted to come off cool and calm, but my voice was trembling.

A smile played on her lips.

Terri turned and whispered something to her brother. He nodded and left
the room. I looked up at Lizz, she must have sat up all night long inside my
crate, holding my head in her lap. I was still a little out of it from the
seizure, but I was sure that once I was able to get up and move around, I
would be fine.

Terri’s mother came into the room carrying some cups. She stopped at
Brian’s crate first and handed him a small cup of what I was guessing was
water and another cup.

“Take these and I’ll let you get up and go use the bathroom,” she growled at
Brian.

Brian looked into the cup and then he looked at Lizz questionably. “I thought
we said the meds go to Nick.”

“Don’t worry, he’s getting his next. Hurry up, I’m gonna miss the Today
show,” the old woman barked. “Marcus, this one’s ready to go!”

The woman moved over to me next. She opened the door and ordered Lizz
out of the cage. She shoved a cup at me and it was filled with all the meds I
needed to take. “I don’t need them, make sure Lizz takes her meds.”

“But the deal is that you’re to get them boy,” the old woman snarled.

“I don’t give a shit what the deal was, I told you, Lizz and Brian need the
meds, you give them their meds, I will be fine.”

“Nick!” Brian growled from his cage.

“Bullshit Brian, I don’t want your deaths on my hands! Give Lizz her meds,” I
said as I picked up the cup full of medications and threw them across the
room.

I suddenly felt a sharp stab at my back making me jerk around too see
where it was coming from. Marcus stood on the giving end, a sick smile on his
face.

“Good going there Nicky, now neither one of you get your medicine!”

I could tell by the looks on their faces that Lizz and Brian were just a
little upset with me. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Okay hero, I need you out of here, NOW!” Marcus hissed as he uncuffed my
ankle from the cage.

After Marcus put the chains around my ankles, he went over to Brian’s cage
and ordered him out as well. I was thankful that he at least got his meds
after being off them for two days. His skin was looking pale and his face
looked a little fuller to me, which I knew was the effects of the fluid slowly
building up because of his heart.

“What are you doing!? That’s not what the plan was!” Lizz cried out from her
cell.

Marcus slapped the bar across the front of her cage sending Lizz shrinking
towards the back. “Well, Nicky here ruined your little deal by refusing his
stuff, but don’t worry, Terri will be here in a few minutes to deal with your
ass.”

As if almost on cue, Terri appeared in the room and walked over towards
Kyung’s cage.

“God, I swear she is so damned worthless. I knew that from the first day I
started working at that god forsaken hole of a hospital.”

“What are you doing with Nick and Brian? You know what the deal was!” Lizz
shouted at Terri.

“What deal?” Brian snapped. “Lizz, you better not have done something you
weren’t supposed to!” Brian looked at her with fear in his eyes.

“What are you doing with Nick and Brian? Can’t you see that both of them
are too sick to be doing anything?”

“That’s none of your concern missy,” Marcus snapped.

“If you need to know, I have a rock garden that I want built,” Terri smiled.

“A rock garden? Are you that crazy? You nearly killed Brian the other day in
that heat! Take me and leave them!”

“LIZZ!” Both Brian and I shouted at the same time.

“Bitch, I have my own plans for you, simmer down!”

I was worried about both Brian and Lizz. I was also hoping that I had the
strength in me to pull off moving around rocks in the sun. Every misstep that
either Brian or I made the other day, the other person paid for the mistake.
I didn’t want Brian to have to pay for my weaknesses, he was took sick to
have anything happen to him.

~*~*~*~*~

I watched helplessly as Marcus herded Nick and Brian out the door. Terri’s mom had already left and I had no idea where Kurt was. Terri kept tossing irritated looks towards Kyung. I was getting more and more concerned about her, the longer this catatonic state lasted. And now Nick and Brian were being forced back out into the heat.

“Do you have any idea what you are doing?!” I narrowed my eyes at Terri. “Do you have any idea the danger you are putting Brian in? And Nick’s already had one seizure and this could provoke another one!”

“That’s his own damned fault. He had the chance to get his meds.” Terri glared back at me. She walked over to my cage.

I didn’t know what to say to that. I was a little more than upset that he refused them. I realized it was out of good intentions, but I had it all set up. He was going to get the pills! “Then try again damn it. You aren’t doing jack with me until he gets his meds.” I folded my arms defiantly. I bet the dumbass didn’t even realize that no one bothered to put the shackles back on my wrists.

“Oh no, I’ve got plans for you.” Terri smiled. She opened my cage and undid the shackles on my ankles. I fought with everything in me not to try anything, but I needed to gather my thoughts first.

She grabbed my arm and yanked me out. “Go.” She pointed towards the door, holding one of those metal bars. I glanced helplessly at Kyung, but she didn’t return the look of concern. Terri pushed me out the door and into a hallway. It was long and only one dim light lit it. The paint on the walls was peeling and it smelled much like the room we had been held captive in. She walked behind me.

“Where are we going?” I asked. My legs felt rubbery from the lack of movement and I was weak from the lack of food.

“Bitch, if I wanted you to know I would tell you. Maybe I’ll show you how much your friends are suffering out there. Maybe Nick had another seizure huh? Or maybe Brian kicked the bucket.” She laughed as she said it.

That was it, really. That was all I needed to hear. I got a sudden rush of adrenaline, angered solely by her words. I whirled around, catching her off guard. Without thinking, throwing all caution to the wind, my fist shot forward. It made a sick crunch and she reeled backwards, her hand over her nose. Blood oozed through her fingers.

I barely had time to get over my shock. Never in my life had I hit someone, but never in my life had I felt such anger, fear, desperation, hatred, and vengeance all at once. It threatened to take me out of control. Before I knew it, she had recovered and I felt her fist connect just under my eye. If at all possible, my rage doubled. With that same unfathomable adrenaline, I shoved her into the wall with everything in me. It shouldn’t have been, but it was enough. Terri was a good several inches taller than me and she definitely out-weighed me. But right now my anger was greater. She hit her head against the wall and sank onto the floor. Without a moment’s hesitation I took off running. The first door I opened, led outside.

“HEY!” Kurt’s voice rang out.

I ran outside and around the side of the house. It was the first time I had seen sunlight in I don’t know how long. My eyes have always been light sensitive so this was blinding. It was hot outside and all I could make out in my blurred vision were trees.

“BITCH! GET BACK HERE!” Kurt screamed after me.

In the distance I could make out three blurry figures. As I got closer I could see that it was Brian, Nick, and Marcus. Nick and Brian were hauling rocks. I couldn’t seem them very well, but it was obvious that they were struggling.

Then, a lot happened all at once. Nick and Brian both saw me and shouted my name. A loud noise was heard. Then, with a fiery pain in my arm, I stumbled forward and fell into the ground. I looked down in shock and sure enough, my upper left arm was bleeding. I was shot. The bullet looked like it had barely grazed me, but you’d never know it with the pain. I tried to pull myself back up to my feet, to no avail. All my strength had left me. I was too woozy now. Nick and Brian were both running towards me. Both of them were still yelling, but I couldn’t make out their words anymore. There was also yelling behind me, but that too, seemed all jumbled up. Everything was happening in slow motion, but yet it was all going too fast. Nick reached me first and immediately closed his hand over my arm. I winced, but before I could say anything I felt someone grab me from behind and pull me up. With his other hand, Kurt shoved Nick away. Brian started to react, but Marcus seemed to appear out of thin air.

“Now you’ve done it.” Kurt hissed in my ear.

I could do nothing but watch as Marcus literally dragged Lizz back into the building. Kurt
forced Brian and I back towards the rock pile, forcing us to continue to work in the
unbearable heat. I was feeling sick to my stomach and getting that funny feeling again, but
there was no way in hell I was going to mention it to Brian or anyone for that matter.

I glanced over at Brian to see how he was holding up during all of this. Sweat poured off
his face and his shirt was soaked. The only color his skin had was chalky white. I knew he
had suffered heat stroke the other day and here they were sending him back out in this
heat. Water to drink was pretty much non-existent to Marcus, although he drank it freely
in front of us.

Just when I thought we had reached our breaking point, Kurt called out to Marcus that
Terri needed us back inside.

“You heard him, move it,” Marcus hissed.

Brian walked ahead of me. He swayed once in the hallway, the wall breaking his fall.

“Brian, are you alright?”

“Just move it Carter, worry about yourself,” Marcus spat as he shoved something into my
back.

Upon entering the basement, I immediately saw Lizz sitting in a chair, a white bandage
around her upper arm, tinted with a small circle of blood. She smiled weakly at me. I was
guessing it was her way of silently letting me know she was okay.

“Okay Lizz,” Terri began as she paced the floor in front of the three of us. “Because of
your decision to try and leave, you have to be punished. You know we’ve tried everything
to teach you a lesson, withholding your medications just doesn’t seem to bother any one
of you. I think the best way to prove my point and teach you is to take something that is
near and dear to you.”

I narrowed my eyes at Terri wondering where this was going. I was ready to kill Terr or
any of them for that matter if they tried to harm Lizz.

Terri walked over towards me and smiled.

“Since you thought Nick here was good enough for you to die along with him a few
months ago, I’m guessing that he means something to you. I want to teach you a lesson
not to screw with me----”

“How the hell will doing something to Nick teach me a lesson? Leave him alone!” Lizz
yelled.

“Lizz!” I glared at her, trying to convey that she was treading on thin ice with Terri.

“Listen to your friend here Lizz, you’ve already got yourself into hot water by trying to
run away. Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted. I want to teach you a
lesson not to screw with me. Kurt, you know what to do.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect as I was led over to the opposite side of the room. There was
a long metal bar suspended from the ceiling. A handcuff was placed around each of my
wrists and the opposite ends of the cuffs were attached to the bar. Brian and Lizz were led
over to a bench that faced me. I heard a crack of what sounded like a whip behind me and
I suddenly realized what Terri had planned for me.

~*~*~*~

I stared in horror at the scene that was unfolding before my eyes.

Kurt cracked the whip again and grinned sadistically.

"NO!" I screamed, jumping up. Marcus grabbed my
shoulder and forced me back onto the bench.

"You're going to kill him!" Brian cried, his eyeswide with fear.

"You should't have tried to escape.
And you definitely shoulndt have messed with my sister." Marucs growled.

Tears were flowing freely down my face. This was all
my fault. If I hadn't tried to escape, then Nick
wouldn't be going through this. Terri stood just out
of reach. She turned around and grinned at me. Her
nose was all bruised up from when I hit it. "Bet you
wish you hadn't done that huh?" She sneered.

"Oh god, please Terri. Dont do this." I sobbed. It
killed me to knowing I was causing this to happen to
Nick. I struggled against Marucs again.

"Let me guess, you want to run up
there and stand in the way dont you? You stupid
bitch. Fine, your next." Terri threw her hands up in the air.

"No! Lizz! Damn it if you..." Nick was cut off when
Kurt snapped the whip. It hit Nick with the worst
sound I have ever heard in my life.

"Lizz don't say anymore!" Brian said, horrified.

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" Terri
screamed. "You want to go to?!" She snarled at Brian.

I sucked in my breath. Before Brian could reply Kurt
cracked it again. Nick shut is eyes and ground his
teeth to keep from crying out. Thin stripes of blood
started to appear through his shirt.

"Please, stop this. God, I'm sooo
sorry. I won't try anything again. Please don't hit
him again." I begged. My left eye was so swollen I
could barely see out of it. I almost wished Terri
wouldpunch the other oene so I didn't have to see this.

"It's your fault Lizz. You shoulnd't
have tried to leave. You fucking near broke my nose.
You think I am going to lket you get away with
that?!" Terri started pacing back and forth.

Kurt grinned and snapped the whip
again. Every time Nick flinched and it was getting
harder and harder not to make a sound. I turned away,
unable to watch the blood soaking through the back of his shirt.

"Please, stop this before you kill him." Brian pleaded. His voice cracked and I could tell he was having a hard time controlling his emotions.

I felt sick. He had to blame me for this. I had
caused this. I would never forgive myself. Never.

Kurt snapped it a few more times and then looked over
at Marcus. "You want a go?" He nodded.

Nick's face was completely drained of
color and his jaw was still clenched. A single tear
slipped out and I felt my heart shatter.

Marucs nodded. "Sure. Maybe this will shut Loudmouth up huh?" He glanced at me. "She's not getting away with attacking my sister. Her next or Brian?" Terri beamed at her older brother.

Nick's eyes flew open. "No." His
voice was barely a whisper, but the agony showed through as clear as day.

Kurt strode over to where the bench
that Brian and I were sitting on. He looked at both
of us in turn, smiling like it was Christmas.

"You sick bastard." I whispered, my voice dripped with hate.

"Dig yourself in deeper, girl. That's it.
You'll be lucky if you survive this one." Kurt glowered at me.

Marcus poised his arm over his head
and cracked the whip with more strength than Kurt had.
Unable to keep it in any longer, Nick cried out.

Simultaneously Brian and I yelled out.

"No more. No more. Please." I
sobbed brokenly.

Terri turned around and looked at
me, then Brian. Both of us had tears streaming down
our faces. She glanced at Nick thoughtfully, then her her eyes lit up.
"Okay Nick, your turn for the hard
decision. You get to choose who gets to follow after
you. I will let one of them off the hook. One! If
you don't choose, they both get it. Think real hard
Carter. Brian here is in terrible shape. It could
likely kill him. But Lizz here, she's a girl. What's it gonna be?"

It took everything I had in me to remain halfway standing. Terri’s face was
blurry and I couldn’t understand what she had said to me. I wound up just
staring at her, I could see the anger slowly build in her face.

“I said make a choice here Carter, Lizz or Brian, who gets it now?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She wanted me to make a choice
between the two people I cared about. She also wanted me to pick someone
that was either very sick or having a girl step in my place.

“Take me again,” I mumbled.

“Oh, so we have a martyr here huh?” Terri laughed.

“Nick! NO!” Brian shouted.

“Don’t be crazy Nick,” Lizz argued.

Brian stood up, holding his hands out. “Take me instead, you know you want to
do this.”

Terri smiled at Brian. “Well, I do want to make Lizz suffer and watching her
two friends suffering would be the best possible way.

“Brian! No, I’ll take it, I know I can do this again,” I argued as they undid my
handcuffs. One of them placed his hand on my back and shoved me towards
the bench. I drew a sharp breath in to avoid crying out. It felt like a million
pins and needles sticking into me.

I watched helplessly as Kurt chained Brian up to the bars. I could see the
fear of anticipation in his eyes and my heart ached for him. I tried to sort
through my thoughts thinking of a way to stop them from hurting Brian, but
before I could actually act on it, the room started spinning and getting dark.

Brian tried to go to Nick to help him when he fell forward to the ground, but
was stopped quickly by the handcuffs around his wrists. He was at first
thinking that Nick was having another seizure, but was a little relieved when
he figured he was more than likely overcome by the heat and the blood loss
and lack of water.”

“God you killed him!” Terri snarled as she looked at Nick laying on the floor.
She walked over towards him and kicked him in the side, trying to make sure
that Nick wasn’t playing games to take the attention off of Brian.

“Haven’t you done enough?” Lizz hissed as she knelt down next to Nick trying
to protect him from Terri. “You realize it’s only a matter of time before he
has another seizure, dumbass. He needs his meds and Brian, he needs his as
well. Please, I’m beggin you to give them their medications. You already are
worried about them dying on you. Let me be the first to educate you that
without their meds death is inevitable.”

“Lizz, you need yours too, I can live without mine but yours has more serious
consequences,” Brian agrued.

“Oh please, let’s stop this martyr bullshit,” Terri interrupted, her gaze
shifted. “At least we haven’t heard from your friend Nurse Kyung here.”

“Leave her alone!” Lizz screamed.

Terri spun around, her gaze now fixed on Lizz. “Oh, so I struck a raw nerve?
Here I thought you cared about only Nick.”

“Terri! I’m begging you to leave Kyung alone. She has nothing to do with
this!”

“Like hell, I tried to run and she stopped me. I will never forgive her sorry
ass for that.”

~*~*~*~

Terri walked over to Kyung’s cage, her steps slow and deliberate. The look on her face was one of sick pleasure. Kyung didn’t even flinch. I jumped up.

“Terri, leave her alone. You want to blame someone here? Blame me. The entire reason that all of this happened was because of me okay? I didn’t stop Nick several months ago. If I had, you never would have gotten the opportunity to get all this money or publicity or whatever the hell you’re after.” I exploded, running towards her.

She glared at me. “How true, but ya know what? Kyung is going to pay for her part she had in this too. I never liked her. She always thought she was better than me.”

“She is.” I muttered.

Terri heard me. I thought she was going to come after me, but she was stopped by the door flying open. Her mom and that short, fat guy both rushed into the room. I had almost forgotten about him.

Terri, Marcus, Kurt, get over here!” He barked. The mom had urgency written all over her face and she was wringing her hands together again. Brian and I watched as the five of them engaged in a heated conversation over in the corner of the room. They were speaking to quietly for me to hear what they were saying. Satisfied that Kyung was momentarily safe, I darted over to Brian.

“Lizz, don’t, you’re going to get into trouble.” He whispered as I tried to find a way to get him off that damned bar.

I ignored that. “What’s going on?” I whispered.

“I don’t know, something bad.” He whispered back. I could tell that it was taking every ounce of strength he had to keep standing. Not that he had much choice, suspended from the bar.

Marcus looked up and saw what I was trying to do. “Nice try you dumb kid.” He marched over to us and shoved me roughly away from Brian. I crashed hard into the wall against my bandaged arm. The impact cause me to cry out from pain shooting all down my arm.

“Lizzie?!”

I had started to slump down the wall, but my head shot up when I heard her voice. Kyung was staring at me, her eyes wide with horror. Her gaze shifted to my arm and her eyes filled with tears. My jaw dropped. This is what broke her from the trance that had held her captive since this nightmare started? Not Nick’s seizure, Brian’s heat stroke, my attempted escape and being dragged back in to be bandaged up after being shot, not Nick’s whipping and Brian’s near whipping, but this, me being shoved into the wall.

“Kyung, sweetie, are you okay?” I exclaimed. Her eyes filled with tears and as looked at Brian, chained to the bar, Nick unconscious on the floor, then back at me, slumped against the wall.

“Welcome back to the land of the living. Too bad it won’t last.” The mom said brusquely as she hurried over to Kyung’s cage.

“NO!” I howled. Before I could go anywhere, Marcus yanked me up and held me tight.

“We’re running out of time here! Drug them.” The fat man snapped.

“Wait! What’s going on?” Brian looked around as everyone flew into action. Kurt undid the handcuffs around Brian’s wrists and Brian nearly collapsed. Kurt shoved him into the cage and before Brian could react, he slammed it shut.

I watched as the mother pulled out a syringe and injected something into Kyung’s arm. Kyung tried to fight her, but in the end she lost and the drug started to take effect.

“Shit, I don’t want his blood all over...” Terri’s mom glared down at Nick. She looked at me. “Clean him up.”

Marcus released me, left the room, and returned with a couple washcloths, some water, some gauze bandages, and a roll of medical tape. He dumped it in my arms and then the fat man whispered something in his ear and they both left the room. I knelt down by Nick, but looked back up when I heard the mom say, “you’re turn,” to Brian.

“What are you doing?” I cried. Why were they suddenly in a frenzy and drugging us? I was terrified about what was going to happen.

“Shut up and take care of what we told you too before I knock the shit out of you.” Kurt snapped, turning around to me.

I started to say something back, but the look on Brian’s face told me to keep my mouth shut. Saying anything else at this point was useless. The mom pulled out the syringe, but suddenly swore under her breath. “We need to give them their meds first. We don’t need anything happening while we’re...”

“Mo-om!” Terri yelled, cutting her off.

“Shut up Terri. We knew this could happen so be a good girl and get the pills.” The mother returned.

Terri huffed and snatched the pills off the table. As she walked by I couldn’t help but smile in relief. She glared at me in return.

The mom saw me. “Don’t look so happy. You think this is bad now? Wait until you wake up again. This is nothing.” She snapped.

After the pills were given to Brian, he was given the knockout drug. I busied myself with my task. Slowly I peeled up the back of Nick’s shirt, cringing when it stuck to his skin. There was blood everywhere. Not only was my own blood all over me from before, but now I was covered in Nick’s. God, there was so much of it. I poured some of the water on one of the washcloths and gently started to wipe some of the blood away. The stripes across his back were raw and deep.

“Bet you feel like shit huh?” Terri smirked at me. Both she and her mom were watching me now that Brian was knocked out. Kyung had long since been out.

My eyes filled with tears. Once again, Nick was hurting because of me. I would never be able to forgive myself for this. He was still unconscious and I was worried. How much blood had he lost? As carefully as I could, I taped the gauze over the marks. I felt like I had no fight in me left. Trying to escape was the stupidest thing I had ever done. What the hell was I thinking? Was I going to get away and go free Brian and Nick? Please! And what about Kyung? How had I planned on getting her out? I had to face it, my plan was desperate and foolish. My sole thought was to stop these bastards from hurting my friends any longer. I didn’t even have a plan. Now this had happened to Nick and Brian had almost gotten the same punishment. I didn’t deserve to live.

“That’s good enough.” Terri’s mom said as she walked over and pulled me away from Nick. I didn’t even fight her mother as she jabbed me with the needle. It didn’t take long before the blackness took me away.

~*~*~*~*~

A tremendous amount of noise brought me out of my drug-induced sleep. The jerks and rocking motions played a part in it also. I opened my eyes are slowly moved them around my new surroundings. The first thing I saw was a chair back. I looked around and saw that I was in a plane. Actually a jet, guessing by the size. It looked to be about the size of a Concord. Only enough room for one seat on each side of the aircraft and about 5 rows deep. Nick sat to my left, Brian in front of him, and I guessed Kyung to be in front of me. There was a homemade curtain hanging one extra seat in front of Kyung and Brian. I was shocked to think these people had enough money for their own jet. I could hear talking on the other side of the curtain and I recognized our kidnapper’s voices, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

The turbulence was pretty strong since the jet was so small. I hoped Nick and Brian would stay asleep until we reached our destination. My hopes were shattered when I heard my name a moment later. It was Nick. I looked down, unable to face him. How could I?

~*~*~*~
I looked around trying to figure out where I was and why the hell I was on a
plane. I figured that Brian was sitting in front of my seat and Kyung was
sitting in front of Lizz’s. My back ached and me being hot and the salt from
my sweat only made the pain worse. I glanced across the aisle and looked at
Lizz. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.

“Lizz?”

Instead of looking over at me, she looked down at her handcuffed hands in
her lap. Maybe she didn’t hear me, I knew my voice was weak. I tried again.

“Lizz?”

The slow shaking of her head was evidentally Lizz’s way of letting me know
she heard my voice. She still didn’t answer me though.

“Lizz, are you alright?” I whispered, I dared not speak any louder.

Finally after a few moments, she looked at me. I could see hurt in her eyes.
Someone or something had hurt her tremendously and she looked so scared.
I wanted to go to her at that moment to comfort her but I could only feel
the pain in not being able to do so.

“I’m so sorry I got all of us into this mess,” Lizz began.

My eyes narrowed at her. “You? Oh Lizz, you didn’t do anything!”

“Exactly, I didn’t do anything. I could have stopped you from taking that
overdose and I failed at it. Because of my failures you are all suffering for
it. I should be dead, this would all be better if I were dead,” Lizz mumbled.

As I opened my mouth to correct her thoughts, the plane started shaking
violently as lightening flashed in the sky. I closed my eyes and swallowed
hard. God I hated flying so much.

“Poor Nickolas is such a wuss he can’t take a little shaking on the plane?”
Terri mocked my insecurities.

I tried to push the fear out of my mind. “Wha...where are you ta..taking us?”

“Wha...wha...wha...ta..ta...talk much?” Terri laughed as she imitated my
nervous stuttering.

“Leave Nick alone bitch!” Lizz hissed.

With a quick, sweeping movement, Terri slapped Lizz across the face. The
sound was so hard I swore I could feel the sting on my own cheek.

“I’ve just about had enough of your insubordinate ass!”

As Terri raised her hand again to slap Lizz, the plane suddenly took a quick
dip in a pocket of turbulence causing Terri to fall down on the floor. I
couldn’t help but laugh at her despite my fear of the dip of the plane.

“You asshole! No one laughs at me! You understand me, boy?”

“Why the drugs and the sudden move Terri?” Lizz questioned her as she
watched her get up off the floor.

“None of your damned business, bitch!” Terri spat.

A flash of lightening and the immediate boom indicated to me that the
lightening struck the plane. Suddenly, there was the unmistakeable sound of
an engine sputtering and finally dying out. The plane started to lull to the
right side.

“What the hell?” Terri mumbled outloud. As she turned to walk towards the
front of the plane, another pocket of turbulence was hit and the plane
dipped and Terri fell onto Kyung.

“TERRI!”

The shout I heard was definately from her mother. “We lost an engine, we
have to crash land! Get in your seat and put the pillow between your face and
your knees,” the woman urged.

“Oh shit,” I mumbled under my breath. I tried not to show panic because I
knew Lizz was watching me out the corner of her eyes. I leaned forward and
closed my eyes tight, silently praying that Brian, Lizz and Kyung would be
okay.
~*~*~*~*~
“D, this is absolute bullshit!” AJ shouted as he paced the floor in his house.
“No phone calls, no demands, nothing.”

“AJ, calm down, the police are looking into this,” Howie quietly consoled.

AJ laughed sarcastically. “That’s another issue altogether. We haven’t heard
jack from that asshole Detective Swanson. I want some answers!”

Howie eyed AJ warily, watching him pick the telephone up and looking at a
business card on the table, punching the numbers into the phone.

“Who you calling?” Howie questioned.

“That dickhead from the FBI,” AJ grunted.

Howie shrugged his shoulders as he watched AJ pace while he waited for
the detective to answer the phone.

“Oh this is sweet!” AJ snapped.

“What?”

”Leave your name and telephone number at the tone followed by the
freakin pound key,” AJ snarled. “That asshole is screening his calls!”

“Like you don’t?” Howie observed.

“Well, that’s just different,” AJ defended.

“Sure it is AJ,” Howie laughed.

After AJ left a brief message, he slammed the cordless phone onto the
table.

“Now we wait.”

~*~*~*~*~

Crash landing?! I risked a glance over at Nick. He was trying to hide it, but I knew better. He was terrified. Hell, I was too. Not for myself because I didn’t deserve to live anymore, but for Nick, Brian, and Kyung. Lightning flashed again, illuminating the whole sky. It was immediately followed by thunder so fierce that I swore it cracked the sky wide open. The plane shook violently. Kyung and Brian had woken up by now and were putting their pillows between their faces and knees. Terri was already sitting down in her seat.

The plane took another dive and Nick gasped. He was fighting the panic that was in him. I wanted to reach out to him, but my handcuffs wouldn’t let me. “Nick! We’re going to be okay!” I hollered, straining to be heard over the racket.

He didn’t get a chance because the plane made one last dive. At least that was the last one that I was conscious for. I think I hit my head or something because I felt a sharp pain and that was it.

I felt the air first. It was cold enough to take your breath away. It made a whooshing noise and I thought that was weird. Why would I be hearing such an odd noise. Next came the pain. Actually, that might have been what was taking my breath away. It was really hard to breathe, I noticed. Finally, I opened my eyes. Big mistake.

There was a lot of white all over. It was on the ground, blowing in the air, and even starting to accumulate on me. What disturbed me is a lot of the white was tinged red. I didn’t think snow was supposed to be red. I shut my eyes, trying to block out the pain and confusion. After a few haggard breaths, I opened my eyes again and looked down at my hands. They still had the handcuffs on them, but the chain that held them together in the middle was broken. Everything was starting to click now. Our plane crashed. That realization hit me with a sickening clarity. Immediately I turned my head to the right. Nick was still strapped in his seat. He was unconscious and there was blood all over him. A sob caught in my throat.

“Nick!!“ My voice was barely audible. Shit. Why was I the first to wake up? My head was pounding and I felt blood running down my face. It still hurt to breathe and my ribs felt like someone had slammed them with a two by four.

“Lizz?! Are you okay?” Brian’s anxious voice called.

“I don’t know. I think so. Are you?” I rasped back.

“I’m pinned. The seat in front of me was shoved back and it’s stuck. I can’t even budge it.” He sounded like he was in pain. “Is Nick...”

“I don’t know Bri. There is a lot of blood.” My eyes welled with tears, but blinked them back. I needed to stay focused. “Kyung?”

“She’s breathing, but other than that I don’t know.” He replied. I could barely see his outline from being across and in front of me. I felt like my vision was messed up or something. I had been in so many planes in my life and I knew that they weren’t supposed to be spread all over the place like this. There were sharp chunks of metal everywhere.

I decided that I needed to get up. I very cautiously eased out of the seat. The pain in my ribs was excruciating and my shirt was all bloody. My face was sticky with it too.

I looked closely at Nick and was relieved to see that he was breathing. I gently shook his shoulder. “Nick, come on wake up.” He stirred, but didn’t open his eyes. I felt a little relief that he was at least responding so I turned my attention to Brian. He was a mess of cuts and lacerations, much like I was.

“Anything broken?” I whispered.

“I can’t tell, everything hurts too much.” He smiled wryly. I tried to pull the seat that was keeping him pinned to his. The strain sent shooting pains through me and that made me dizzy.

“Whoa Lizz!” Brian exclaimed, watching me sway. “Take it slow okay?”

I shook my head and tried to move the seat. It wouldn’t budge. Damn! Brian’s color wasn’t looking very good. It might have been from the biting cold though.

“Lizz, you’re going to have to wait until someone can help you. It isn’t moving at all.” He whispered. I turned around to Kyung’s seat next to Brian. To my shock and relief, she really didn’t look that bad. Her chest was rising and falling at a steady pace. I wondered if it would be better to let her wake up on her own, considering the shock that she had just come out of. I looked at Brian, my eyebrows raised.

“I’d let her be, she looks okay for the most part.” He said softly. His color was growing paler and paler. That really worried me, but I didn’t want him to see that. I looked around the rest of the plane and then something dawned on me.

“Brian, we’re alone. Where’s Terri and Marcus and all them?” They were nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t know. That isn’t good.” He mumbled in return. He shut his eyes. I was extremely concerned, but I didn’t want him to see how upset I was. That might make him even more upset. I started walking back towards Nick, but stopped when another wave of dizziness hit me full force. A fit of coughing, much like I haven’t had much experience with for months, overwhelmed me and I leaned over an empty seat. I put my hand over my mouth and when I was done I noticed flecks of blood on the back of my hand. Shit! I was coughing up blood?! That was serious.

“Lizz?” Brian called, worried.

“I’m fine.” I choked out. Right fine. Covered in blood, messed up ribs, and now coughing up blood. Granted, I had done that before, but this was from a different reason. I turned my attention to Nick.

“Come on Nick. Wake up okay?” I gently patted his face to try to get him to come to. His eyes started to flutter and I smiled. Then I was slammed with another wave of pain, this one so intense that it brought me to my knees, gasping for breath.

“Lizz?!”

~*~*~*~
Brian could only watch as Lizz crumbled to the floor. Her body was wracked
into coughing fits and then he saw the blood in her hand.

“Oh my god, Lizz!” Brian cried out.

Lizz could only cough, periodically broken by her gasps for air. She weakly
held up a hand, hoping that Brian would just leave it alone for now, she didn’t
want to cause a panic in anyone at the moment.

The wind was whipping through the broken cabin of the plane. The snow was
starting to drift. Kyung slowly got up, her hands were still handcuffed.

“Dammit,” she mumbled as she tried clumsily to grab some blankets that
were stored above the seats. Taking a thick blanket, she covered Brian as
best as she could. His color was almost drained from his face and he was
nodding in and out of consciousness which indicated two of several
possibilities to her. One, he was suffering from the effects of the cold or
hypothermia and two, he could have internal bleeding. Kyung was hoping it
was just the cold.

Kyung made her way over towards Lizz and Nick. Lizz was leaning against a
seat, gasping for air. Her breathing was coming in short, quick gasps,
wheezing with each breath she took. Looking at her throat Kyung knew
instantly that one of Lizz’s lungs had to have collapsed.

“Shit!” Kyung cried out.

Lizz looked up at her questionably, she was worried that Kyung saw
something wrong with Nick that she hadn’t noticed yet.

“Wha.....what’s....(cough)....Nick?” Lizz gasped.

“Hush, try to concentraite on breathing Lizz,” Kyung sternly reprimanded,
praying she wasn’t letting onto the panic that was filling her mind. She was
hoping that the lung hadn’t been punctured by a fractured rib. “Lizz, honey,
I’m just going to check something okay?” Kyung stated as she slowly raised
the left side of Lizz’s blood stained shirt.

Lizz watched the expression on Kyung’s face, trying to decide what she was
thinking.

Kyung ran her fingers lightly across Lizz’s ribs, trying to determine as best
as she could whether or not any rib was broken. After doing so, she didn’t
feel 100% comfortable with the next request but figured it was the only
possible thing she could do to help Lizz.

Taking ahold of her hands, Kyung looked into Lizz’s face, their eyes locked.

“Lizz honey, I know this is going to hurt like a bitch, but I need you to do
this for me, okay?”

Lizz stared, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“I need you to take a deep breath for me, as deep as you can like you’re
gonna blow up a balloon.”

Lizz shook her head violently. “Gonna..... hurt.... too... much!”

“Lizz! Listen to me! You’re lung is collapsed and you have to take a deep
breath and expand it again otherwise you will die!”

The word die shook Lizz up. At first she decided to herself that this was
what she deserved, she knew that this would be her ticket out of living, but
when she looked into Kyung’s eyes and then over at Brian, she knew that she
had to live, at least for now. She closed her eyes tightly, and braced herself
for the worst pain she could imagine and took a deep breath in.

~*~*~*~*~

My breath caught before I could make it deep enough. It hurt too much. “I can’t Kyung... it hurts.” I whimpered. I was taking rapid, shallow breaths and the pain was getting worse.

“Lizz, you have to! There is no choice here!” Kyung cried, her eyes filled with terror.

I shook my head miserably. “It...won’t...work...” I gasped.

“You have to have faith Lizz! You have to try! Please. I almost lost you seven months ago and it nearly killed me. I cannot lose you!“ She pleaded.

I shut my eyes and the image of my family flashed through my mind. I knew they had to be worried sick about me. Then images from seven months ago flashed. It was people’s eyes that I remembered. My family’s when they finally could make it down to see me. Kyung’s when she broke down after hearing that I was more than likely going to die. Brian’s when I would ask him about Nick and he would have to give me bad news, knowing that every time, my heart broke a little more. Then Nick’s when our eyes locked right before I passed out in his room the day Terri got caught. My eyes still shut, I used every ounce of strength and determination within me to take the breath that would keep me alive just a little longer.

Kyung watched with a mixture of relief and horror as her best friend opened her eyes and took that breath. It was Lizz’s eyes that Kyung couldn’t tear herself away from. They were so filled with pain that Kyung wondered how Lizz was strong enough to do it. The torment was a merciless onslaught that tried to beat her down. Kyung was almost relieved when Lizz passed out. She couldn’t look into those eyes any longer.

Kyung’s medical knowledge kicked in and she busied herself with seeing how bad condition Lizz was in. She had a nasty cut just above her eye that left a trail of blood all down her face. She definitely had a few broken ribs. Lizz was very fortunate that it was a small puncture to her lungs because otherwise taking a deep breath would have had no effect. Kyung shook her head. Lizz was a walking miracle it seemed. Only now, if she didn’t get help soon she wouldn’t make it through this one. Other than that, she just had a lot of scrapes. She noticed a bandage on her arm and wondered what had happened. The last several days were a blur to her and she couldn’t recall very much. She made sure Nick was covered up as much as possible. She had a hard time telling what was wrong with him since he hadn’t woken up yet. She didn’t want to disturb him too much cause that might send him into shock.

“Kyung?”

Kyung jumped up and made her way to Brian. His was sheet white and he didn’t look like he was breathing very easily. “Brian! Are you okay? Do you need another blanket?”

Brian shook his head. He was frustrated that he was pinned into the seat and it was starting to make him claustrophobic. He tried to push it away. “Lizz...Nick...?”

“Lizz’s lung collapsed and if she doesn’t get help soon, it will happen again. It is reinflated now, but I am really nervous about it. Nick is still out. I covered him and we’re just waiting for him to wake up. It shouldn’t be too much longer.” Kyung explained.

Brian nodded, his eyes falling shut. He tried to fight it, but it wasn’t doing any good. He was out a moment later. Kyung was the only one awake now so she decided to go look outside the plane. All she could make out was snow and trees. She guessed they were in the mountains somewhere. Who knew where? For all she knew they were in the friggin Alps. Her eyes scanned the surroundings and then did a double take when she saw movement towards the plane she started to yell out for help, but when they got closer, her words died on her lips. It was their kidnappers.

“Oh shit,” Kyung cursed under her breath. These were the last people on
earth she wanted to see approaching. Her eyes scanned the snow that was
building up outside the wrecked plane and stopped when she saw the
unmistakeable vision of a hand sticking out of the snow. She gasped.

Kyung turned around and headed back into the plane. She silently prayed
that the kidnappers were only returning to grab their belongings and head
out to a highway that could miraculously be nearby. Her heart sank as she
heard them coming closer. Nick was starting to moan from his seat, this was
not a good time for this to be happening, Kyung thought to herself.

Adjusting the blankets around his neck, Kyung spoke soothingly to Nick,
hoping she could buy time until he became conscious.

“Sh-h-h Nick, it’s gonna be okay, you need to keep quiet.”

Kyung winced when she heard Terri’s shrieking voice.

“I don’t care if it’s murder or not, he has to pay for this! First my money and
now my Kurt! I hate him! Nick Carter better have died in this crash if he
knows what’s good for him!” Terri broke down into heart wrenching sobs.

Kyung stepped away from Nick. She hoped he remained quiet, maybe she
would think he was dead. She wondered if she could pull it off.

“So I see one of you survived the crash,” the mother spat at Kyung.

Kyung dared not say anything to agitate her kidnappers, she stood there,
staring at them, her mouth agape.

Marcus and Terri walked directly to where Nick was sitting. Terri poked her
finger into his side.

“Well, what about mister perfect? Did he make it?”

“No,” Kyung lied, hoping she would take her word.

“How come his skin is still warm?”

“He just died you bitch, can’t you see that? He’s dead! And if we don’t get
help soon, Brian will be and Lizz next,” Kyung urgently added.

“Whoppee shit, do I look like I care?” Terri glared.

As the kidnappers started grabbing blankets and other belongings, Nick
moaned again. They stopped short, Kyung’s heart caught in her throat.

“That was Lizz, she’s got a punctured lung,” Kyung stated quickly.

“Awful deep moan for a girl,” Marcus observed.

“She’s in pain, you’d do the same if you were too,” Kyung corrected.

It was unfortunate that Nick decided it was time to start coughing. All eyes
were fixed on him at that moment. Marcus rushed over to Kyung and slapped
her across the face with an open hand.

“You damn lying bitch!” Marcus spat.

“So the wonderful Nick Carter is still alive?” Terri laughed. “We are gonna
have fun now, aren’t we mommy?”

“Just like a party, ain’t it? We will make him pay for his crimes. That Lizz
has gotten everything she wanted in life and you didn’t get squat,” Marcus
observed.

Nick’s eyes fluttered open and then they grew wide as he sureveyed his
surroundings.

“Wha...what ‘appened?” He whispered.

“Plane crashed, are you okay?” Terri asked sweetly.

Nick thought for a moment. “I think so.” He looked over at Brian and then at
Lizz laying on the floor. “Are those people okay or are they dead?”

”He said those people” Terri thought to herself.

“Honey, I think they’re going to be alright. I’m just more worried about you,
babe.” With the words spoken, Terri smoothed the hair off of Nick’s
forehead and kissed it.

When I opened my eyes, realization that the nightmare had gotten worse yet again, struck me. They were back. The fat man, the mother, Terri, and Marcus. Terri’s boyfriend, Kurt, was nowhere to be seen. Kyung was standing over me, her hand on her cheek. I looked up at her and she motioned for me to keep still. That was funny because I hurt too bad to move anyway. Then something else caught my attention. Something very very wrong.

Terri was kneeling in front of Nick’s seat. She was smoothing his hair and holding his hand. He looked mildly confused, but not totally disgusted like I would have expected. I forgot I was supposed to keep still.

“What the hell are you doing?! Get your hands off of him!” I glared at her. My voice was weak, but my tone icier than the frigid air.

Terri whirled around and glared at me. “Haven’t you done enough you heartless bitch?! He is nearly dead because of you.”

Her words hit home and I lowered my head, unable to reply to that one. But her next words burned right into me.

“It’s okay Nick, I won’t let that little bitch hurt you anymore. She and her friends think they can kidnap my boyfriend and put you through this? Well, don’t worry baby. We’ll see they get what they deserve!” She smiled at him.

My jaw dropped. “What the hell are you talking about?! Nick??” I was scared now. Maybe more so than ever before.

He looked at me, his eye narrowed. “You kidnapped me??”

I shook my head, the panic rising. “No! God, Nick, don’t you remember...”

“Shut up whore!” Marcus slapped me hard. He kneeled down in front of me and spoke in a low, menacing tone. “If you know what is good for you, you’ll keep your mouth shut. I won’t hesitate to kill Kyung, Brian, or even Nick so don’t play with me.”

Nick looked around. “I- I can’t remember anything.”

Terri’s mom put her hand on his shoulder. “Sweetheart, it’s going to be okay. That little bitch kidnapped you and Brian. You remember Brian right?”

Nick’s eyes widened. “Oh god, is he okay?”

Terri shook her head. “Baby, I don't know. Lizz and her friend made him have a heat stroke. They didn’t give him his meds and they were going to whip him too. He is really really sick.”

I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. Kyung looked sick. “Nick...” I started weakly.

He looked down at me, his eyes hard. “I swear to you, you’re going to pay.”

My eyes filled with tears, my heart breaking. He didn’t know me at all.

Terri exchanged pleased glances with her mother and then Marcus. “That’s right baby. Together, we will make her pay.”

Nick nodded. “I say we leave them here. Just let them die out here in the cold.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

His words hit me with more force that Marcus’ slap. This wasn’t Nick. He never would have made a comment like that. Never. “Please, Nick...you have to snap out of it. It’s Lizz! Don’t you remember all our chatting? The hospital? What she did to us?! Nick, please!!” I burst out.

Marcus immediately grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me away. “NOOO!!!” I howled. “NICK!!!”

Marcus kicked me roughly in the side. “Shut up!!! Damn you are stupid!”

Kyung started to run towards us, but Terri’s mom stopped her. “I know you’ve got a good head on your shoulders girl. You aren’t quite as impulsive as your friend. Maybe you will do the smart thing and keep your mouth shut.” She stared into Kyung’s eyes.

Nick was watching the whole thing wide-eyed.

Marcus finally let me go and marched back over to where everyone else was. I could see them still, but I was too weak to move. Helpless tears streamed out of my eyes and I sunk deeper into despair.

Brian, hearing all these new noises, moaned. Nick jumped up and swayed unsteadily. Terri grabbed him and held him steady. Slowly they made their way to Brian. Terri’s mother was already there and they were moving the other seat that had him pinned. It was hard to see his face from where I was, but as far as I could tell, he looked worse.

Terri’s mom glanced at her daughter. “I don’t think he’s gonna make it.” She tried to sound upset about this, but I could hear the fakeness in her voice.

Nick looked at her sharply. “What?! Oh god...” Sheer horror was written all over his face. Brian only moaned again. His eyes fluttered a moment and fell shut again.

“I’m sorry baby.” Terri hugged Nick.

Nick tried to push the tears that were forming away. Behind his back, Terri rolled her eyes at her brother. Then her face lit up.

“Baby, you have to make her pay. She is stealing Brian away from you. This is all her fault.” Terri whispered to Nick.

“Yeah, man. you’re like a brother to me and so is Brian. We can’t let that little bitch get away with this. She has put you both through so much. Brian’s dying because of her.” Marcus encouraged, taking full advantage of Nick’s amnesia and uncharacteristic behavior.

Nick turned sharply and glared at me. “You are going to pay!!!“ Tears of rage and sorrow streamed from his eyes and he started walking slowly towards me.

~*~*~*~ As I walked closer towards my kidnapper that was sitting on the floor, I saw defiance in her eyes, well, that and a little bit of a hurt look on her face. She was so damned convincing. I knew that she was gonna try her best to get out of this situation by lying to me. I bent over to grab her shirt and a wave of dizziness came over me, causing me to take a step backwards. “Let’s just leave them bitches here to die, no sweat off my back,” I said to Terri. “Fine with me, if that’s what you want Nicky sweetheart,” Terri replied with a grin. “I just want to get Brian some help, he’s not looking too good,” I observed. Kyung couldn’t stay quiet any longer. She knew that they had cut Lizz down and with her feeling that she had caused all of this in the first place, Lizz was willing to accept the decision to be left to die. “You can’t do that! That’s murder Nick, do you want murder on your hands?” As I raised a hand up to hit this girl, something inside of me clicked. I knew that this was just not right. This girl had her eyes closed, waiting for me to hit her and I just couldn’t do it. “Maybe next time I won’t feel so generous,” I said laughingly as I dropped my hand. “You are not to address me in that manner, got it?” Kyung stared at Nick. She did not like the person he became with this amnesia. Brian’s moans turned everyone’s focus onto him again. “I don’t know if I can budge this seat, he’s really wedged,” Marcus sputtered as he looked at the seat that was pinning Brian. “I’ll just yank the hell out of it and see what happens.” As Marcus started to violently pull at the seat, Brian’s moans grew louder and then suddenly into screams. When the seat finally was pulled back, my knees started to give out on me. Blood was everywhere on Brian’s legs. “Come on Brian, we need to go get you some help,” Marcus directed. Brian’s chest was rising and falling quickly with the short gasps that he was taking. “Leave me alone,” he faintly whispered. “Bri, we have to get you some help!” I insisted, hoping I could get through to him. Brian just shook his head no in reply. “Let me die.”

“What?! Brian, no! You don’t mean that!” Nick cried. Brian didn’t reply, only struggled for breath.

“Hey, Nick, man, I’d like to leave them up here to die too, but we may run into a problem.” Marcus interrupted.

“What’s that?”

“Well, there could be rescue workers out looking for us since the plane crashed. Ya know, the little black box? Well, the authorities will just take Lizz and Kyung away and they won’t have to pay for what they have done. Not like they should. You have to avenge Brian.” Marcus replied, a gleam in his eye.

Terri’s mom spoke up. “We’ve got something figured out. We can get Brian here to hospital and then we can make these two pay. We need to start making our way down the mountain. Normally the walk would take about two days, but in our condition it could take a lot longer. The next town is about 30 miles away. Our destination is about six. But, I’ve got something planned when we reach our destination.” She grinned evilly. Nick smiled back, not knowing her intent.

I laid there, watching everything unfold, completely helpless. When Nick had reached down to grab me, something had caused him to stop. I knew that somewhere deep down inside him, the real Nick was trying to get out. He had almost hit Kyung, but again he couldn’t bring himself to do it. I didn’t know whether to be encouraged by that or not because, after all he did say he wanted to leave us here. With every second that passed, my heart sank deeper into despair.

Terri’s mother and the fat man had disappeared for a few moments. Nick’s face turned a few shades paler than white when Marcus had pulled the chair away from Brian. I gasped as well when I saw the blood. There was too much of it.

Kyung started to go over to Brian. “We need to find out where he is bleeding from.” Nick glared at her and marched over to her, standing over her menacingly.

“I don’t give a flying shit what you have to say. This is your fault and you had better stay far far away from him.” He said icily. Terri stood behind him, grinning smugly. Marcus used that moment to find out where his parents had gone to see what they should do about Brian. Temporarily forgotten, I made my way over to Brian. I was half dragging myself, but it didn’t matter. I had to get to him.

Weakly standing on my feet, I gently shook Brian. “Bri! You gotta wake up. Please don’t give up on me. We are in a shitload of a mess here.” I whispered urgently. I was going to get discovered any minute.

Brian looked at me, his eyes pleading. “It hurts...” Was all he said.

I nodded, squeezing his hand. “Can you tell me where?”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I looked up to see Nick glaring at me, his eyes full of hate. “Don’t you dare go anywhere near him!” He raged, stomping over to me. He roughly shoved me away and I let out a yelp as I slammed into the seats across from where the aisle used to me.

“Nick?!” Brian stared at Nick in shock, not believing what he just saw. Terri immediately caught on and hurried over.

“Brian, you’re delirious, sweetie. Don’t talk.” The last sentence was more of a menacing command then a concerned suggestion. She didn’t have to worry because he was already slipping back out of consciousness. Kyung didn’t get a chance to say a word, as Marcus appeared by her side instantly.

“You are just looking for your deathwish aren’t you!” Nick exclaimed as he stood over me. I no longer had the strength to as so much as move from my crumpled position on the ground. I lifted my head. I was losing control of everything and I didn’t want to live anymore. I had to try again though. I believed in Nick. He had to come through. He always had before. It was something that I depended on.

“Nick, fight this. I know this isn’t you.” I whispered. This was getting harder and my hope slipped a little further.

“You don’t know me.” He stated flatly.

“If you are so sure that this is right, then why are you so confused? Why is your stomach so tensed up that it hurts?” I shot back.

His eyes narrowed. “How the hell do you know that?!”

Oh god, I couldn’t do this. “Because Nick, I feel it. Don’t you remember? The hospital? The panic attacks? It never went away! Remember you afflict me?! I feel almost everything Nick!” My voice cracked. You afflict me was the joke that we always had about the whole unexplainable phenomenon. No one could explain it, but ever since that first panic attack, this had become a part of our lives.

Nick shook his head. “You’re lying. Stop lying!” Her words unnerved him. How could she know what he was feeling?

I shook my head. “You know it’s the truth.” I whispered. My strength was slipping away.

“You’re crazy.” He hissed.

“Like a shithouse coon.” My voice broke. Another inside joke. I don’t even remember where this one came from. I had told him one day about something that I had done and he said something about how I was crazy as a shithouse coon. He always called me that now.

He blinked twice and my heart flip-flopped. A small flicker of hope filled my heart, but was immediately put out when he shook his head and his eyes grew hard. “No. More. Lies.” His hand raised up in the air to strike me and every glimmer of hope and fight that was in me was now shattered. As was my heart.

~*~*~*~
I slapped her across the cheek with the back of my hand and I instantly
regretted it, it didn’t seem right. The look on her face pretty much said it
all to me. It wasn’t a look of hatred or anger, it was more of total shock.

Something about this whole deal wasn’t right and I couldn’t put my finger on
it. How did she know how I was feeling. I didn’t know her, but she seemed to
be able to describe every detail of what I was feeling at that exact moment.
And her stories about stuff she said we did together, she thought that up
too awful fast in my opinion.

Brian’s moans directed my thoughts away from the girl. His pants were
soaked with blood and his skin was almost a grayish color. I remember the
one girl had a medical authority type attitude about her.

“Hey, you! Go check Brian and see where he’s bleeding from,” I growled at
her and reached out and braced myself to keep from falling when a wave of
dizziness swept over me. She jumped up rather fast and rushed over to my
friend.

Kyung wasted no time in trying to assess and evaluate Brian’s situation. His
color wasn’t looking very good and he was soaked in sweat and was definately
running a fever. She gingerly lifted the edge of his shirt and immediately
gasped. This was definately not a good situation he was in.

“What?” I asked her when I heard her take a breath in.

“I need something to use as a pressure bandage, he’s loosing too much blood,”
Kyung replied as she looked around the plane.

“What’s wrong? Where’s he bleeding from?” I asked, afraid to look.

She lifted Brian’s shirt and exposed a gaping hole.

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach and my legs could no longer support me.
Everything went black as I dropped to the floor.
~*~*~*~
I opened my eyes and was greeted by Terri’s smiling face.

“There you are hon, you gave me a little scare,” she smirked.

“Wha...what happened?”

“Evidently you couldn’t stand seeing Brian’s injury, you fainted.”

It was slowly coming back. I still felt sick to my stomach and had this
pounding headache.

“Well, while you were sleeping it off, Marcus and Dale made a portable
stretcher thingy for Brian and we are just about ready to go. Instead of
leaving Kyung and Lizz here for dead, we just decided we could use Kyung’s
nursing skills to help Brian so he won’t die and both of them could pull the
stretcher for us.

“That sounds like a good idea,” I replied. I couldn’t decide why, but this
whole thing seemed weird. This Terri hanging on me and all those others
were being cheerful. Terri kept reminding me that this was Lizz and her
friend Kyung that were the masterminds of kidnapping us but I was finding it
harder and harder to believe.

Terri led me to Brian, they already had him placed in the makeshift
stretcher and had him covered in thick blankets. He was unconscious and still
looked pretty gray but now besides his labored breathing, he was starting to
cough every so often. Kyung mumbled something about pneumonia setting in.

“Go ahread and get yourself situated, bitch” Terri ordered Lizz. “I need you
to drag this stretcher.”

Terri handed me a heavy wool blanket. As I wrapped it around my body, I
noticed that everyone had a blanket except for Kyung and Lizz.

“What about those guys?” I asked.

“There wasn’t enough to go around, they don’t need one,” Terri snapped back.

I knew she was lying when I saw a cabinet on my way out stocked with
blankets. “But there’s some more here,” I pointed out.

I looked out to where Kyung and Lizz were standing. The snow was up to
their hips. I grabbed two blankets and headed out the door, sinking into the
snow.

“Here, use these,” I said as I tossed the blankets to the girls.

“Hey, I told you Nick to leave them alone, they don’t need blankets,” Terri
sharply reprimanded.

“But they aren’t any good to us dead though, let’s use what we can of them
and worry about them later,” I argued.

Something just didn’t seem right with this whole situation but I couldn’t
figure out why. I did notice that Terri seemed to be a little obsessed over
the dead guy laying partially covered in snow.

Kyung gratefully wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, but immediately sighed with frustration when Lizz didn’t move. She started to wrap the blanket around her, but Lizz stepped away.

“Lizz! You need to keep this around you!” Kyung exclaimed.

Lizz shook her head. “You take it. I don’t care.”

Kyung was shocked at the tone in Lizz’s voice. It was flat and hollow. Her back was turned and her shoulders hunched forward. Kyung knew she was in a considerable amount of pain, but that wasn’t even half of what she was going through emotionally. “Lizzie, you can’t give up on this!” Kyung pleaded, putting a hand on Lizz’s shoulder.

Lizz whirled around. “Why?! Why shouldn’t I? You give me one reason why I should keep fighting this! I’m going to die anyway! My lung has a gaping hole in it and my heart is fucking broken. I can’t do it anymore! Everyone tells me how strong I am! Bullshit! If I were strong I could do this!” Lizz stopped and shut her eyes. “But I can’t.” She finished with a whisper, a single tear slipping out.

Kyung ached inside. Lizz always pushed people away when she was hurting. She would never admit to needing anyone because she felt she had to be strong. She didn’t ever want anyone else to feel any pain because of her. She always knew how afraid Lizz was of letting people in. Letting them get close to her heart. She had lost so many people that now she did everything in her power to keep it from happening again. Even if that meant pushing them away. If you push someone away, they can’t leave you first. Kyung saw the despondent look in her eyes. Her spirit had been totally crushed and all the fight was taken from her. She saw Nick backhand Lizz and the look of hurt in Lizz’s eyes. It had left a mark on her face, but a much deeper one on her soul.

“Okay!! Let’s go. Time’s a wasting. There isn’t much sunlight left.” Terri’s mom ordered.

Marcus was talking to Nick and the fat man was making sure that they had everything they needed. Kyung watched with interest as Terri knelt before a figure in the snow. She surmised that it was her boyfriend, Kurt. Terri was bitterly crying and kept throwing poisonous looks towards Lizz. After a few moments Nick noticed and started walking over towards Terri.

“Who is that?” He glanced at the body.

“It’s uh...he was a friend of Marcus’. He didn’t survive the crash.” Terri lied.

Nick nodded uncertainly. “I’m sorry.” The more he thought about his, the more things didn’t add up. These two girls certainly didn’t act like kidnappers. The Korean one seemed to care too much about Brian’s welfare. Why was she so worried about him if she was just after his money or whatever? And the look on her face when Nick had started to go after her. She didn’t even try to resist him. She only stood there, silently. And then there was this other girl, Lizz. She looked like the wrath and not just physically. Yeah, she had a black eye, a nasty gash above that same eyebrow, a bandage around her arm and was covered in blood. The bandage caught his attention. It looked like it had been there for at least a little while. Why would a kidnapper need a bandage? But then Terri had a bruised nose. Maybe they had fought. But above all this, Lizz’s behavior was just not right. Terri was so cocky and bitter towards Lizz. Why not the other way around? Wouldn’t the kidnapper be the cocky one? Lizz just looked wounded. And vulnerable. He had to turn away from her eyes. He felt like he had looked into them before and that unnerved him.

Terri got up from her spot next to Kurt and walked over to Lizz. She could feel Nick glancing at them. She turned and smiled sweetly. He frowned back and then swayed a little.
“Nick?!” Terri called anxiously. She didn’t need him passing out again. That risked the plan. She whirled back around to Lizz and now Kyung, who had appeared protectively by Lizz’s side. “What the fuck is wrong with him?” She hissed.

“He needs his meds Terri.” Lizz said quietly.

Terri rolled her eyes. “You still willing to give yours up so he can get his?” She mocked in a teasing tone. She fully expected Lizz to tell her to forget it.

“Yes.”

Kyung widened her eyes and cursed herself for not being with it while everything was happening before. Nick started to walk over to the three girls. Marcus stopped talking to Dale and his mother. He nudged them both and all three watched.

“What’s going on?” He looked at each of them in turn. Kyung stared at him sadly. Terri smirked at him. Lizz turned away.

Terri pulled a bottle out of her pocket. “You need these.” She said to him. “Come on.” She pulled him away from Lizz and Kyung before one of them could say anything. Kyung looked over at Lizz, hoping for a reaction, but Lizz wouldn’t look at her.

~*~*~*~*~

They had been walking for a little over an hour. It seemed like a lot more, but that was probably because it was getting colder. Lizz hadn’t said two words the entire time. Her coughs seemed to mix in with Brian’s. Every so often they stopped so Kyung could check on Brian’s injury. Nick didn’t know this, but Terri and her family were trying to keep Nick and Brian as far apart. They didn’t want Brian to say something to ruin it. Kyung was level-headed enough to keep her mouth shut. And Lizz wasn’t any worry anymore either. Terri was pleased that things were going perfectly. Nick didn’t remember a thing and Lizz was suffering unimaginably.

Marcus was busy rambling to Nick about nothing as Kyung and Lizz checked on Brian yet again. He couldn’t help but notice how careful Kyung was to make it as painless as possible for Brian. And even though Brian wasn’t fully with it, he was still in visible pain. Nick watched in surprise as Lizz knelt in front of him and encouraged him with soothing words. She held his hand when it hurt the most and brushed his hair off his face. Nick thought it was an awful tender gesture for someone as evil and cold-hearted as Terri said she was. For some reason Terri seemed to get mad when he tried to go near Brian. He reasoned that she just didn’t want him to be upset by his best friend’s condition. Still...

Terri came over and pulled Marcus away, giving Nick a perfect opportunity to try to get some answers. He pushed through the snow over to his “kidnappers.” Brian had slipped back into unconsciousness. Kyung eyes widened in surprise as Nick approached, but Lizz wouldn’t even look up at him.

“How is he?” Nick asked, afraid to know.

“I’m afraid he is getting pneumonia. He’s lost a lot of blood too. I’ve been able to make it stop, but he needs to get to a hospital.” Kyung said softly.

Nick nodded, swallowing back the lump in his throat. “And you guys?”

“We’ll make it. You worry about yourself, Nick.” Kyung stared at him.

Nick paused, debating whether to ask this next question. It had been bugging him. “Why did Terri have my pills? What was up with that?” He figured that his “girlfriend” wouldn’t have them if she had been kidnapped. Wouldn’t one of these two had them? Maybe Terri had forced them to surrender the pills...But why wait so long to bring it up if he obviously needed them?

Kyung hesitated. Nick picked up on that right away. “Also, why am I on seizure medication?” He pressed.

Again there was no answer. He looked at Lizz. “Answer me!” He barked, immediately regretting how harsh his voice came out. She actually shrunk away from him. His heart sank when it dawned on him that she was afraid of him. That made him even more upset. Why the hell should he care what she thought or felt?

Terri’s voice rang out, breaking the confrontation. “Nicky-poo! I have an idea on how you can get even with her for what she did to Brian.” She ran up to him and threw her arms around him, smiling with sick pleasure.

I returned her smile. She was obviously excited about revenge on our
kidnappers and I could see that Brian was in so much distress, I was willing
to do anything to fix all of this. An eye for an eye.....

“Okay, tell me about your little plan, I’m game,” I replied.

“Well Lizz is really sick besides that cough and stuff from the crash,” Terri
started.

Something was clicking when Terri started talking. This definately did not
seem right to me.

“Go on,” I encouraged.

“She had lousy lungs and kidneys and had to have them replaced. She is
supposed to take these so that her body don’t reject them,” Terri said as
she pulled some tiny prescription bottles out of her coat pocket.

I narrowed my eyes at the bottles and then looked over in the direction of
Lizz and then at Kyung and then back at Terri.

This was starting to get a little crazy. Now Terri knew specific details about
our kidnappers? This is all too weird. “How the hell do you know that kind of
info and how come you have her medications?”

Terri’s eyes shifted back and forth as she tried to quickly think of an
answer to dig herself out of the hole she was digging herself into.

“We overheard those two talking and I stole them off her after the plane
crashed,” Terri smiled as she lied, obviously impressed with her quick
thinking skills.

I was still having trouble with this whole scenario. “So, um what was your
plan to get even with Lizz?”

She was about to answer me when suddenly Lizz cried out in pain. My first
reaction was to go to her and help her, but Terri held me back. I pulled my
arm away from her grasp and knelt down beside Lizz. She was rocking back
and forth and shaking her head no.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered.

“Nick just leave her alone, she’s done plenty to us, I think it’s good to see
her hurting for a change. She didn’t seem to care too much when she had you
whipped with a leather strap,” Terri screamed.

I turned around and stared, not saying a word, just stared at Terri. She was
so cold and heartless sounding and I couldn’t believe that anyone would whip
someone with a strap. Sure, my back was sore, but that was from the crash.

I looked at Kyung as she was checking Lizz over. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She needs her meds, her body could be starting to reject the organs,”
Kyung replied with tear filled eyes.

“Terri give me the bottles,” I calmly asked.

The look in her eyes nearly knocked me off my feet. She was obviously
pissed. They were hard and cold looking.

“Dammit, she needs her pills! You can’t keep them from her, that would be
murder!” I was desperate. I jumped to my feet and rushed as best as I could
through the deep snow towards her.

Terri pulled the pills out of her pocket and a sick smile played across her
lips.

“NO!” I shouted, afraid that she was going to do what I was thinking.

I was inches away from Terri when she threw all of the bottles far away.
They were airborne and almost looked like they were sailing in slow motion.
“There,” Terri sneered. “Now no one gets their medications.”

“How could you do that!?” I yelled.

Terri laughed. “Like this,” she replied as she imitated the act of throwing
the bottles out into the snowbanks.

I started feeling funny and sank back into the snow. “But she needs those
Terri, what are you doing?”

“She threw them all out, Nick!”

Kyung knew she was going to be punished for calling out, but she didn’t care
anymore, she couldn’t stand to see this unfold in front of her and just stand
there doing nothing.

I turned and looked at Kyung, her face mirrored an image of pure defiance.

“She threw out yours, Lizz’s and Brian’s,” Kyung stated as she stood her
ground.

“Brian’s? Terri, why?”

“Why the hell not,” Terri laughed as she shrugged her shoulders.

“What will happen Kyung,” I asked quickly, as if my knowing would stop
anything bad from happening to my friend.

“Well, Brian’s helps to keep fluid from building up around his heart and Lizz’s
stops her body from rejecting the transplanted organs. And Nick, yours is to
keep you from having seizures,” Kyung recounted quietly.

That was all I could take hearing. I lunged at Terri like a wounded animal. I
heard Marcus yell and then everything went dark.

I sat by Brian's side waiting for him to wake up. I just checked his
injuries and I wanted to give him a little water. Our kidnappers
decided
that now was a good time to take a break for the night. As soon as
Terri
had launched our pills out into the nothingness, her mom went off on
her.
Saying that we needed to be alive. Marcus had slammed into Nick full
force,
knocking him out cold. To punish Kyung for opening her mouth against
Terri,
she was ordered to go find them. The bastards sent her off by herself
with
a flashlight and a blanket. She was told not to return until they were
found.

They dragged Nick's unconscious body over to where they set up their
little
camp. It was nearing sunset and they had set up two tents for
themselves.
Brian and I were about 20 feet away from them. Far enough away from
the
fire that they built as to not feel it.

Brian moaned softly and I glanced at him. He screwed up his face and
tried,
unsuccessfully, to shift himself into a more comfortable position.

"Brian, try not to move too much okay?" I said softly.

"Is Kyung back yet?" He whispered.

I shook my head. "I don't think Nick has woken up yet either. How are
you
doing?"

"Cold." He watched my expression carefully, knowing that I was
carrying
everything inside. "It's going to be okay. We can't give up."

I shook my head miserabley. Kyung was out god-knows-where on a
hopeless
mission, Brian was in serious trouble, and Nick wasn't even Nick. I
choked
back a sob. "He hit me." Now why the hell did I go and say that?!
That
was the least of what I was upset about. It was that he didn't know me
and
that he had looked at me like he wanted to tear me apart.

Brian reached over and squeezed my hand. "He didn't mean to sweetie.
You
know he would never to anything to hurt you. He isn't himself." He
remembered the look on her face and the hurt in her eyes after he had
backhanded her. It wasn't the sting of the slap, but it ran much
deeper.
Lizz knew that this wasn't really Nick, but she had been cut down when
she
was already at the breaking point.

~*~*~*~*~

Nick opened his eyes and looked around groggily. Almost immediately
Terri's
tear-stained face came into view. They were both inside a
blue tent.

"Why Nick? What the hell does she matter?" Terri wept bitterly.

Nick had stop and get his bearings, but then it all rushed back and his
face
flushed with anger. "You threw all our pills away! Terri, that is
murder.
I don't care what Lizz did, she needs those pills! And Brian! And
mine?
Why did you throw mine away?" He exclaimed.

"She took everything away from me. My job, my money, six months of my
life,
my Kurt, and now she is taking you away!" Terri yelled.

My Kurt?! Nick thought. "What do you mean your Kurt?"
Nick
asked, his eyes narrowed. "And what the hell are you talking about?"

"I tried to make you believe what a horrible person she is and that I
am the
good one here. And you still fucking want to believe that that little
bitch
is the better one. Tell me what is so damned special about her!"
Terri
glared at Nick.

Nick now knew that Terri had been lying to him about stuff. "I want to
know
the truth and ALL OF IT!" Nick bellowed at her. He expceted Terri to
get
all weepy on him, but instead she jumped up, her eyes wild.

"Alright! You want the truth. Fine." She stormed out of the tent and
marched over to where Lizz and Brian were sitting. She grabbed Lizz
roughly
by the arm and dragged over in front of Nick. She glared down at Lizz,
kneeling in the snow, trembling. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT BITCH!" She
screamed, kicking her in the side.

Lizz cried out and tried to curl up to protect herself. Nick started
to go
to her, but Terri held her hand up, stopping him. He didn't want to
agitate
her any further.

"Here's your truth, Carter. Seven months ago you tried to kill
yourself.
Lizz here tried to stop you by saying she was going to drink some
medicine
that would kill her. Well she was too late. She didn't quite do the
job
because you still took the pills. You both ended up in the hospital.
You
both almost died. I would have made a shitload of money off of both of
you
selling information to the National Enquiror, but you and your stupid
friends had to ruin that. See?! It is her fault. If she would have
stopped you, none of this would have happened." Terri screamed.

Lizz was still kneeling next to Terri, about 6 feet away from Nick.
She
looked at his face and it was drained of color. She bowed her head.

"No nooooo!" Terri snapped, grabbed Lizz's hair and jerking her head
back
up, forcefully. "You look at the misery you have caused him."

Lizz's tear filled eyes met with Nick's horror filled and she wanted to
die
right then.

"And you know what else I wasn't lying about?! The whips. She tried
to
escape. Why? Did she think she was going to try to rescue you guys?
Please. Well, since nothing we did to her made her learn her lesson,
we had
to hurt someone dear to her heart. You got whipped because of her!!
What
do you think of that huh?! She isn't so special anymore is she!"
Terri
ranted like a crazed lunatic. Then she stopped and smiled. "Even
after
that she still had some fight in her. You know what Nicky? I should
have
known all along that all it took was you. You were the one that broke
her
spirit Nick. It was all you."

She laughed at the stunned look on Nick's face. "Now, I'll be happy to
finish the job." With that, she turned on Lizz and attacked her with
wild
fury.

~*~*~*~*~
I felt almost as if I was detached from the entire situation. None of this
made any sense to me. This girl was telling me I tried to kill myself and then
Lizz stopped it, or at least tried to stop it and I caused her problems and
nearly killed her. Brian, well he just looked terrible. I remembered he
needed his meds to prevent fluid from building around his heart. It was
slowly taking its toll with him no being on his meds.

I was jerked back into reality when I hear Terri’s screams at Lizz. Lizz had
coward down into a ball, trying to protect her body from the blows that
Terri was pummeling. Blow after blow was thrown and every time her fist
connected with Lizz’s body, she cried out in pain.

Terri stood up and started to kick Lizz in the side. That was when I finally
couldn’t stand it any more.

“STOP IT, YOU’RE GONNA KILL HER!” I screamed. Terri laughed and kept
on kicking and stomping Lizz, half of the blows were hitting her and the
other half striking the ground beneath her body.

Seeing a large rock nearby, I jumped up and grabbed it. At that moment in
time, I didn’t care about anything but stopping Terri from what she had set
out to do. I heaved the rock at her, hitting her squarely in the back. Terri
immediately cried out and her body went limp. She landed on the ground, her
legs sprawled out in an odd position.

“I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!” Terri screamed.

I stared at her in disbelief. I felt a hand clamp tightly around my arm. I was
quickly spun around and was looking face to face at Marcus.

“What the fuck did you do to my sister?!” he demanded.

It didn’t help with Terri screaming in the background, I was groping for
words. Terri’s mom and that fat man rushed up to her, the look she shot at
me made my blood run cold.

“I was defending Lizz, an eye for an eye,” I spat back, staring at him
squarely in the face.

Marcus balled his hand up into a fist and punched me in the face, sending me
reeling backwards, landing ontop of Brian. I instinctively put my hand to my
nose and gasped when I pulled it back and saw the bright red blood.

“Come on Carter, let’s have at it,” Marcus taunted as he stood over me, his
fists tightly clenched.

I glanced over at Lizz, she was still curled up, Kyung kneeling next to her,
rubbing Lizz’s back. The anger was building in me and I knew I would have a
hard time controlling it. I looked at his waist when the campfire cast a
reflection of the gun in Marcus’s belt. Before I could change my mind, I
jumped up and grabbed for the gun.

My hands shook as I held the gun and pointed it towards Marcus. At first he
looked shocked, then he smirked.

“Carter, you don’t have the balls to use that,” Marcus laughed.

I swallowed hard. “I will if you push me.”

Marcus just stood there, laughing. “Like hell you will.”

He pushed me too far with his taunting. Making sure I aimed past him, I
closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger.

“Next one goes between your eyes.”

I think it shook him up, because his eyes grew wider. Terri suddenly became
eerily quiet. Her mother kept rocking back and forth and glaring at Lizz and
I.

“Just leave us alone!” I directed.

Marcus shook his head. “No deal Carter. You’re gonna pay for this, that was
assault and battery with intent to commit murder!”

“Well then, we’ll have a cell side by side cause there is no way in hell you’re
getting away with kidnapping charges!”

Terri’s mother started screaming at me. “What am I going to do now? She
can’t move! You’ve ruined her life!”

I narrowed my eyes at this woman that accused me of ruining her daughter’s
life. This same girl ruined Lizz’s life by taking something out of context for
money and had it published in a rag newspaper. Lizz’s life was forever
changed by that, it had to be. I shook my head sadly.

“Lady, you have absolutely no idea.”

Kneeling down beside Lizz, my heart broke as I heard her whimpers. I looked
at Kyung and mouthed the words, “how is she.” The tears in her eyes and the
shrug of the shoulders basically told me what I needed to know.

“Any luck with finding the meds,” I asked.

Kyung shook her head no. I could tell she was emotionally as well as
physically exhausted.

“Do you think she will be able to travel? Help must not be that far away,” I
stated as I looked over towards the glow of what had to be a town in the
distance.

“She has to be Nick, we have no other choice,” Kyung replied.

“Try and get some rest, we’ll head out when daylight hits,” I ordered.

“Shouldn’t we be worried about Terri and her family?” Kyung asked warily.

I looked over towards Terri and saw that the family was busy attending to
her. “I think they’re pretty much preoccupied.

Leaning against a rock, hanging onto the gun, I situated myself so I could
keep an eye on the three of them and Terri’s family. Folding my arms across
my chest, I was determined to keep awake. I was also determined to fight
that weird feeling that was creeping up on me again

~*~*~*~*~

Kyung knew she had to be professional, but it was hard when it was her best friend that she was trying to help. Terri had nearly beaten her within an inch of her life. Terri’s family were back in their own tents, tending to Terri. Nick had settled against a rock, watching all of them warily. He was shooting poisonous looks towards the tents and looks of concern towards Brian and Lizz. Kyung felt for him. He now knew the truth, but his memory was still shoddy. He knew Terri and her family had kidnapped him, Brian, Lizz and her. On the other hand he didn’t know her or Lizz or any part of the past seven months that had to do with that.

Kyung went back to Lizz. Lizz’s breaths came in short gasps and she kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Her right arm was broken, right in the middle. Kyung set it as carefully as she could, but Lizz still screamed in torment. Her shoulder on the same side was dislocated and Kyung had to pop that into place. Almost immediately Lizz passed out and Kyung used the opportunity to put her arm in the sling that came in the first aid kit that Nick had forced away from Terri’s mother. Lizz came back around shortly after. She still wasn’t breathing very well. Kyung was sure that more ribs had been broken and by the labored breaths, it looked like there might be a leak in one of Lizz’s lungs. Her face and body were bruised and even more blood coated Lizz’s clothes. Kyung wanted to cry. After an hour Kyung felt herself nodding off. She tried to fight it since she had to keep checking on Brian and Lizz, but with each passing second, it got more difficult. After awhile Nick came over and sat down by them. There had been no noise from the tents.

“Kyung, you need to get some rest.” Nick said softly.

“I need to stay awake and watch them.” Kyung argued, her eyes falling shut involuntarily.

“You sleep, I’ll watch.” Nick insisted. He was tired too, but he felt like he needed to stay awake and protect them. He had a huge headache and guessed it was caused by a lot of reasons. One, his memory was full of holes. At least he was on the right side now. Two, he was tired as hell. Three, he also kept getting dizzy spells. He was afraid it had to do with whatever he needed seizure medications for. The more he tried to make sense of everything, the more his head hurt.

I woke up for the umpteenth time, but this time it wasn’t Kyung that was watching over me, but Nick. I widened my eyes and automatically tried to scoot away. I gasped at how bad it hurt to even move at all.

“Hey, hey, keep still.” Nick admonished softly. “You’re pretty hurt.”

I watched him warily, afraid that he would lash out at me again.

“I’m not going to hurt you. God, I’m so sorry Lizz.” He looked at me, his eyes full of remorse and sorrow.

I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from filling with tears.

“Oh god, don’t cry either. You’re going to make me feel even worse. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me and why I don’t remember everything. I know that it was Terri and her family that kidnapped us. But...” He paused, his eyes downcast. “...I don’t remember you or your friend. I’m sorry.”

I still didn’t say anything. Silent tears continued to slip down my face.

“Is what she said true? That I tried to kill myself and you tried to stop me? But we both ended up in the hospital? And a newspaper printed the story and now your life is totally changed?” He asked me.

“Our lives Nick, our lives. Everyone new what had happened. I lost a semester of school, some friends, and my privacy. You had it harder than I did though, being in the public eye. But we stuck it out. We helped each other when a new article was printed or someone else cut us down.” I choked out.

His eyes were wide as I tried to get this out. “But how is this your fault like Terri said?”

“Because I should have been able to stop you before it was too late. And I didn’t. I failed you Nick. As a friend.” I looked down.

He tipped my chin with his finger until our eyes met. “That doesn’t sound right to me. If I tried to kill myself, then that is my own fault. Not yours.”

I shook my head. “Nick, it doesn’t matter what you say. I will always blame myself.”

“What did I do?” He whispered.

“What do you mean?” I replied.

“I mean, how did I make it worse for you? She said I...I broke...made it worse for you.” He could barely get the words out.

Damn it! How could I answer that? That would only make him feel worse. Cause you didn’t know me. After seven months and everything we have gone through. And you didn’t know me. Not only that, but you loathed me. You wanted to tear me apart because you thought I hurt Brian. I would die before I would ever do anything to hurt either one of you. I let you get closer to my heart than most people ever have and you left me. And you still don’t know me. Right! Like I could say that to him. It would kill him and it wasn’t even fair. It wasn’t like he made a choice to have amnesia. Sure, tell my heart that. It was the look of hate in his eyes when he shoved me away from Brian. Of course he didn’t know any better. He was looking out for his best friend. Trying to defend him from a psycho kidnapper, which he thought I was. Hell, I would have done the same thing. Man, I have some serious issues.

“Lizz?” He waited, worried by my silence.

I shook my head. “Nick, you didn’t do anything wrong.” I whispered.

He didn’t look convinced, but my harsh coughing fit distracted him. By the time I was done, I was breathing in short, shallow gasps again.

“Shit, this isn’t good. I’m going to go over that hill to see about how far the next town is from here. I thought I saw one in the distance.” Nick pointed off in the direction away from us and the tents.

I shook my head weakly. “Please don’t leave.”

“We don’t have a choice here. You and Bri aren’t looking so hot and we need to get you some help fast.” He argued. “I’ll be back soon okay? I’m taking the gun. I don’t think anyone will mess with you, but if they do, scream as loud as you can and I will be back asap.” He assured me.

I watched his retreating figure. I glanced at Kyung asleep next to me and Brian on the other side of me. I shut my own eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing. I didn’t even notice Marcus slip out of his tent and go after Nick. I had no idea that Marcus surprise attacked him and that a struggle ensued for the possession of the gun. The air was still and calm until a gunshot echoed through the night. A bolt of fire exploded in my chest. On the right side, just under my collarbone. I screamed out in agony, my hand over my chest.

Kyung bolted upright, her eyes wide with terror. She had heard the gunshot and saw me with my hand over my chest, crying out in excruciating pain. Brian was immediately awake too and focused his eyes on me.

Terri’s mom and dad scrambled out of the tent. “WHAT THE HELL?”

I continued to moan and I could barely hear Kyung.

“Lizzie! LIZZIE!! Let me see!” She cried, prying my hand of my chest. We both looked at my hand, then chest, shock. There was no blood. What the- ?! NICK!!

“Oh god, oh god!! It’s Nick. He’s...he’s...” I gasped, panic setting in.

Suddenly a voice traveled through the air, from the other side of the hill. “Dad?” It was Marcus and he sounded stunned. He appeared a moment later, carrying Nick in his arms. “I...I shot...him.” He stammered. “I didn’t...m- mean...to.”

“NO!” Brian cried, his face crumpling.

Terri’s parents immediately rushed over to their son and they laid Nick in the snow. His eyes were open and darting around fearfully, not sure what had just happened. I painfully stumbled to my feet, but only made it two steps before my knees buckled and I collapsed. I sat on my knees in the snow, my chest burning with this new pain. Kyung flew past me over to him. I watched in utter horror as a dark red stain spread on his right side, just under his collarbone.

~*~*~*~ God, the pain was incredible. It took me a few moments to get my bearings before I finally realized that I had been shot by Marcus. We were fightning over the gun and then suddenly a shot went off, making my ears ring and then I felt the pain, it felt like my chest was on fire. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe with each passing minute. I looked for Brian, I needed him more than anything in this world at this moment. Instead, Marcus and his parents were staring down at me, none of them moving, their mouths hanging open. Suddenly, Kyung shoved them aside. I guess at that moment I felt a little bit of calm wash over me. I was feeling so sleepy. “Nick, you gotta stay with me here,” Kyung shouted. I struggled with everything in me to get my eyes open. It was so hard, I felt so drained. Kyung cursed under her breath as she looked at the gaping hole under Nick’s collarbone. He was losing blood and losing it fast. Kyung was afraid it nicked a major artery that ran along the shoulder. Nick’s face was becoming drained of color, almost matching the snow on the ground near him. He was losing consciousness and losing time. Out of frustraition for the entire mess they were in, Kyung screamed which totally unnerved Marcus. “He’s not gonna die is he?” Marcus asked hesitantly. Kyung glared at the man hovering over Nick and herself. “Thanks to you, probably.” “Shit, you can’t let that happen, I don’t want to go to jail and go to the gas chamber,” Marcus rambled. “Well it’s a little late for that kind of thinking asshole,” Kyung spat. “You’ve got Brian, Lizz and now Nick. I am guess Nick will go first and then Lizz. Brian is definately going struggle for some time with the strain that has been put on his heart,” Kyung surmized. “No, no, we can’t let that happen, tell me what to do, I don’t want anyone to die,” Marcus begged. “We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Kyung yelled. “What they need is a hospital and they need it now!” “Middleton is just nort of here, only three or four miles, I can run there and get help for everyone,” Marcus offered. Kyung didn’t answer, she was too busy trying to stop the bleeding. Blood was oosing between her fingers. “I need compresses, I need something to help stop this,” she cried. “Ma!” Marcus yelled as he ran towards his mother. ~*~*~*~ After feeling so cold for hours, suddenly I felt warm. I looked over towards my left and saw that mom had put the Christmas tree up already and had it decorated, presents laid underneat the tree. I wanted to get up but I felt hands pushing against my body. “Stay down Nick, we’re trying to help you,” the female paramedic said calmly. She put an oxygen mask over his mouth and Nick tried to pull it off. I decided a nap would do me some good, maybe that feeling of someone pushing me down would go away after I slept. “Nick, you gotta stay with us buddy, come on Nick, open your eyes.” I opened my eyes and stared at my mom’s face. Why would she bother me about not taking a nap, this was really strange. I just wanted to sleep for a bit, why wouldn’t she let me? Finally I was drifting off to sleep...... “Shit! He’s coding dammit!”

~*~*~*~

I sat there in the snow, watching as Kyung tried to stop the bleeding. I was scarcely aware of my own sudden difficulty in breathing. I wanted to go over to them, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get up. I had no strength so all I could do was pray. Marcus was flipping out and I heard Kyung scream. That scared me and I felt the panic rising. I couldn’t lose him. Not after all this. We had gone through so much and had made it. He couldn’t die now. Then I heard her swear and yell something about not being able to stop the bleeding. I think that’s when I started to hyperventilate. The shorter and faster my breaths became, the harder it got to take in any air at all. My entire chest felt like it was on fire. It got steadily worse and I knew my lung had collapsed again. Unable to keep myself upright, I toppled over into the snow. Everything seemed to be spinning. I heard someone call my name, but I couldn’t tell who it was. The last thought I had before I became unconscious was a prayer that Nick would be okay. If he wasn’t, I didn’t want to either.

Kyung whirled around when she heard Lizz start to lose it. “Damn it! Not now. Lizz! Lizz, don’t do this to me!” She watched, horrified, as she crumpled over. “LIZZ!” Kyung was torn. She heard Lizz struggling to breathe and her sudden collapse was a very bad sign. On the other hand she couldn’t leave Nick as he lay there bleeding to death. Brian was in no condition to move with that gaping hole in his stomach, not to mention his already precarious situation. His eyes darted back and forth between Lizz and Nick, crying out of the sheer helplessness of his position.

“Get over here and hold this on him as tight as you can!” Kyung barked at Terri’s mother. Terri’s mom quickly took Kyung’s spot and Kyung dashed to Lizz’s side. Her breathes were growing weaker and her pulse was thready.

“I can’t stop it! It’s coming out too fast!” Terri’s mom screamed, frantically. Kyung jumped up from Lizz and started to go back to Nick. Meanwhile, Marcus was pacing all around, in near hysterics about not wanting to get the gas chamber. Terri was still in the tent, screaming to know what was going on. Dale was wasn’t doing anything, but staring at the whole scene like he couldn’t believe what was happening.

Somehow, through all the racket and chaos that was going on, a much louder noise was suddenly heard. Two bright circles of light swept over their little campsite. It was two helicopters.

“Thank God!” Kyung exclaimed, finally breaking down into tears of relief. She looked up as the two helicopters circled around, trying to find a place to land. She felt a rush of relief, believing that this would finally be on its way to being over.

“Shit. Shit!! I can’t go to jail!” Marcus cried frantically. “I won’t got o jail!”

Terri’s mom looked at her son and the helicopters nervously. Then she looked at her husband. “We can’t let it end this way. They haven’t paid enough!”

Kyung’s eyes nearly fell out of her head. “What the hell are you talking about?! You have no idea how much they have suffered. They might die!”

“It isn’t enough! My Terri will never be the same.” Came the angry mother’s cry.

“You don’t know that. It may be temporary!” Kyung snapped.

Terri’s mom ignored her and turned to her husband. “We are not going to let it end this way.” She pulled him close and began whispering urgently. Dale started to protest, but his wife cut him off. “It has to be this way. It’ll work out, we still will have the upper hand.”

Dale finally nodded. Kyung had no idea until they were talking about until Dale approached her. Marcus had already started off into the woods. The choppers were still circling. Kyung started to scream as Dale grabbed her and pulled her away from Nick and Lizz.

Terri still cried from inside her tent and her mother abandoned Nick and Lizz to see to her. “It’s okay baby. Mommy’s not going to leave you.”

~*~*~*~*~

“Lizz? Can you hear me? Lizz? Please open your eyes for me honey?” A faraway voice kept calling me. I felt warmer and there was a loud beating noise all around me. I don’t know how it was possible, but it felt like I was moving. I couldn’t feel anything at all and that seemed wrong. Why did nothing hurt?

“Shit! We’re losing her!”

A sensation of warmth washed over me. I felt really peaceful and I wanted to be closer to the source of it all. I started to drift towards it, but something held me back. As wonderful as this felt, it wasn’t right. Somehow I knew that going towards this wonderful, bright, peace would mean leaving people behind that I couldn’t leave. There were still things I needed to do and see and accomplish before I could go this way.

“Get the paddles...charging...300...clear!”

I tried to turn around, but it was hard. A lot harder than I thought it would be. It hurt, but for some reason that made me more determined. The further away I went from that wonderful peace, the more painful it got. It was almost too much, but then faces flashed through my mind. I had to get back to these people. Help them. That gave me strength.

“We’ve got a rhythm!!”

~*~*~*~*~

Terri’s mother stood outside Lizz’s room in ICU. Terri was having tests run so her mother had used this opportunity to find out what was going on. Lizz had just come out of surgery to repair her lung. Her chart, hanging in a slot outside the door, said “kidney rejection” in bold letters on the outside. Terri’s mother smiled. Lizz’s right arm was in a cast and then in a sling. Her other arm was treated for the bullet wound and wrapped up. The gash above her eye was deep and had to be stitched up. Thick gauze covered that and more was wrapped around her head to keep it in place. There wasn’t much they could do for the broken ribs or the dark bruises that seemingly covered every inch of her body. Terri’s mom had also heard that Nick and Brian were in the ICU somewhere. They had both undergone surgery as well and were also in critical condition. Dale and Marcus had managed to disappear into the woods with Kyung so all was not lost. They were long gone and Terri’s mom grinned again. The hell was far from over and she was pleased that these three would continue to suffer as much as possible. More than anything, at that moment she wanted to wake Lizz up and tell her that her best friend was still being held captive.

“Excuse me? What the hell do you think you are doing?!” A vaguely familiar voice appeared behind her. She whirled around to confront him, but her jaw dropped when she saw who it was.

Terri’s mom came face to face with AJ McLean. She knew it was one of Nick and Brian’s bandmates, Terri had shown her tons of pictures of them. She had heard his voice the other day when the news showed a public plea for any information on finding Nick and Brian. “Nothing, I’m just checking on her to make sure she is okay,” she stated in a calm, cool voice. “Why do you have so much interest in her?” “She’s a good friend of mine,” Agnes lied, smiling. “I have a hard time believing you on that,” AJ replied. “Why? Whatever do you mean by that?” This old woman was coming off a little too smug for my satisfaction. AJ shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno, just skip it.” He brushed past her to walk down to the ICU rooms where Brian and Nick laid. Agnes followed AJ, desperately wanting to know what room they held the two men in. AJ, hearing footsteps behind him, turned around. “Why are you following me? I thought your interest was with that girl,” he asked. “Why goodness no, my daughter is a patient here and I was going down to see her,” Agnes replied. AJ still had difficulty in trusting the old woman. “Oh, what did you say her name was again?” Agnes smiled sweetly. “I didn’t.” With that said, Agnes turned down the corridor to the left and walked away from AJ. “I’ll just have to find out where they have those two later,” she said quietly to herself. As AJ neared the elevators, he looked at the slip of paper the receptionist had given him. It instructed him to take the staff elevators off of ICU to the 8th floor. From there he was to turn left and walk down the hall until he came to a room with a uniformed state trooper seated outside the room. He absently played with the bright blue laminated pass that hung around his neck. Getting off the elevator, AJ took a deep breath in as he neared the room. They had placed Nick and Brian in a room together because of security reasons. They were both technically in ICU, but this was a better set up to keep them safe from fans or from those individuals that had kidnapped them. The police had told the group that the kidnappers were still at large and Brian, Nick and Lizz were still unable to give them an interview so they were uncertain of how many were involved. The trooper stood up as AJ neared the room. AJ wordlessly held up the pass and the officer nodded him in. He slowly entered the dimly lit room. The only lights that were on were around both Nick and Brian’s headboards on their beds. Monitors were surrounding both of them towards the top and each had their own beats which weren’t in sync. One would beep and then the next. AJ had never seen so many IV’s in his life. He finally brought himself to look at each of them. Brian’s face was a ghostly white, a tube going into his mouth and the steady hiss of the machine it was attached to caused his chest to rise and fall with every mechanical inflation of his lungs. He had a few minor scratches, AJ assumed it was from the plane crash. The doctors told him that Brian had to have major surgery to stop the internal bleeding and to close the wound from the crash. The other main and difficult part of the surgery was to drain the excess fluid that had built up in the sac surrounding his heart. They were confident that once his medications were back to normal levels in his bloodstream that he should be out of the woods from complications for his heart. Their main concern now was infection, that and the replacement of the blood he had lost. AJ shuddered as he saw a bag of blood hanging from the IV pole. Nick was looking in as bad of shape as Brian. He also had a tube in his mouth helping him to breathe. His face was bruised and scraped. The doctors told him that Nick had taken a bullet to the shoulder and it caused signifcant internal bleeding. He had suffered two seizures since he had been admitted to the hospital and so the doctors decided it was best to keep him in a drug induced coma until the anti seizure medications were leveled off in his bloodstream. Finding a chair in the corner, AJ dragged it over and positioned himself between the beds. He rested his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands.

~*~*~*~*~ Dr. Johan entered Terri’s room, clipboard in his hands. The look on his face indicated to Terri and her mother that he was not going to have good news to relay. “I have just read the MRI results with Dr. Richards, our cheif radiologist and I’m afraid the prognosis isn’t very good.” Agnes scooped her daughter’s hand in hers. “The fracture was at the T twelve L one level. It compressed into the spinal cord. We will have to perform surgery to stabelize the vertabrae, in other words a spinal fusion,” Dr. Johan quietly stated. “But then she will walk again after that, right?” Agnes asked anxiously. Dr. Johan shook his head. “I’m sorry, but there is permanent damage to the spinal cord. She will never walk again.” “NO...NO!” Agnes cried out. Terri just laid in bed, tears streaming down her face. “It was that Carter fellow that did this! He’s the one! He should be arrested!” Agnes screamed. “What are you saying? I thought you insisted this was the result of the plane crash,” Dr. Johan replied. “I lied, it was Nick Carter, he threw a huge rock at my Terri’s back. He is guilty of this! He needs to be arrested,” Agnes screamed. “Arrest him!” “Ma’am, you need to calm down, I’ll have the State Troopers come to interview you, but you must calm down.” “I will not calm down! My daughter’s life is ruined!” Agnes snapped.

Terri continued to cry, then suddenly burst out. “And my boyfriend! She killed my boyfriend!”

Dr. Johan and even Terri’s mom looked at Terri in question.

“Whoa whoa. Who killed your boyfriend?” Dr. Johan asked her.

“Lizz. After the crash. Kurt was hurt and Lizz used that opportunity to kill him. She strangled him!” Terri’s cries grew more intense.

“Oh boy...” Dr. Johan looked mildly overwhelmed. “Well, ah, we’ll have the Troopers check into that too. I need to go write some orders. Call me if you need anything at all.” He could help thinking that the accusation had come out of nowhere as he left the room.

As soon as the doctor had shut the door behind him, Agnes focused an angry glare on her daughter. “What the hell was that?! She didn’t kill him. There is no credibility to that at all, Terri! What the hell did you just get us into?”

Terri stared defiantly back at her mother. “She needs to pay too. Her and Carter belong in jail.”

“Strangled? Terri...”

“No mommy, it’s works perfectly. You didn’t see Kurt up close. His seat belt was wrapped around his neck. That’s how he died. I’m sure his body is frozen or decayed pretty bad by now. All they will be able to tell is that he died by strangulation.” Terri replied smugly.

Agnes stared at her daughter in shock. The way she talked so callously about her deceased boyfriend amazed her. But, she had to admit that Terri’s plan was brilliant. Nick and Lizz would get what they deserved.

~*~*~*~*~

Shelia adjusted her patient’s IVs and couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness. She didn’t know much about the situation, but it didn’t matter. No one did and it seemed like everyone was waiting impatiently for this girl, Nick, or Brian to wake up. There were a lot of questions floating around, but no one knew the answers. There were police, reporters, and hoards of people milling around. Of course tight security kept the majority of the people out of the hospital, but people were crafty. Some of them had managed to get a little too close. Sheila almost dreaded Lizz waking up. She remembered what had happened the past spring. She knew that the four involved had formed a pretty tight bond. The news seemed to know everything, even that Lizz and Nick had continued to talk nearly every day. Now she was going to have to wake up and not only were both Nick and Brian in critical condition, but the fourth one involved was still missing. Sheila knew that this girl, Kyung, was Lizz’s best friend.

Her thoughts drifted to the other two patients up on 8. She wanted to call up and see how they were. Just as she started to leave the room, Lizz moaned. The sound was almost missed as it was muffled by the ventilator. Sheila immediately went to her side. Lizz’s eyes were darting around the room and she looked very scared and very alone. Sheila didn’t know how to relay the news that would only worsen those feelings.

~*~*~*~*~

Kyung woke up, unable to move. She started to panic, but then realized it was because she was tied down. The room she was in was dark, but not pitch black. After giving herself a few minutes to let her eyes adjust, she was able to determine that she was in a hole in the wall motel. And she was alone. She was in one of those recliner chairs with handcuffs and even torn sheets to tie her down. She was mildly disoriented, but she forced herself to clear her mind as much as possible. Then everything came flooding back to her. Dale dragging her away from Nick and Lizz. The last thing she remembered was being shoved through the snow as Lizz lie there not breathing, Nick bleeding to death, and Brian watching the whole thing, but unable to do anything to stop it. Kyung’s eyes filled with tears as she imagined that there was a good chance that any one of them might not have made it. It was likely that the helicopters didn’t make it in time.

“Ah, it’s nice to see you finally awake.” Marcus grinned at her as he stepped into the room.

“Where are we? What the hell is going on?” Kung whispered.

“Oh, not a whole lot. Let’s see, unfortunately none of them are dead yet. They are hovering though. All three of them could kick off at any time.” He smirked.

Kyung’s mild relief of hearing that they were alive changed to dismay when Marcus mentioned their condition. She was shocked at the change in his demeanor. It wasn’t too long ago that he was freaking out about them dying, but now he was back to being flippant about it.

“What else? Oh, Terri is paralyzed.” His expression suddenly turned bitter.

“Good.” Kyung snapped.

Marcus slapped her across the face without thinking twice. “Well I wouldn’t be too pleased. Carter is having charges pressed against him for it.”

“What?! That is ridiculous. He was defending Lizz!” Kyung cried, her cheek burning from the slap.

“Oh it gets better. Lizz is going to go down for Kurt’s death. See, he had the belt wrapped around his neck and it is being said that she strangled him. Isn’t that a hoot?!” Marcus laughed.

Kyung shook her head slowly. “That isn’t possible. They can’t prove that.”

“Oh yeah? My uncle is one of the best lawyers around and he is already on the case.” Marcus retorted smugly. “His colleague, with almost a perfect record also, is on Carter’s case.”

Kyung wanted to scream at him that he was lying, but the look in Marcus’ eyes told her it was the truth.

“Oh it get’s better. We’ve got the families involved now too. We have gotten in to contact with all of them and they have been instructed not to go anywhere near the hosptial that your friends are in. If they do, you die. They don’t really have a choice in the matter. This is really going to be hard for your friends ya know? They are practically dying and they can’t even have their families there to comfort them. They are all alone and it is all your fault. Don’t you feel like shit now?” Marcus gloated at her.

Kyung didn’t respond, only closed her eyes and let the endless river of tears flow.

AJ hurried down the hallway of the 8th floor of the hospital. The guys had gotten a phone call an hour earlier advising them that the doctor would be taking Nick out of the drug induced coma he had been placed in a week ago. Knowing that the police officers were anxious to talk to Nick as well, AJ wanted to make sure he was there to protect Nick’s interests. Upon entering the hospital room, AJ’s heart sank. Nick was awake and his bed was surrounded by an assortment of policemen, FBI agents and crash investivgative agents. Nick had a bewildered look on his face.

~*~*~*~ When I woke up, I wasn’t expecting to see what I was seeing. The last thing I remembered was laying in the snow and feeling cold. I couldn’t remember how or why I came to being in the snow. They told me I was shot in the shoulder. I could barely see Brian laing beside me in another bed. They told me he had a belly injury. They wouldn’t tell me anything else. They said something about investigative procedures. “I told you guys, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said softly. I was suprised at how weak and hoarse my voice sounded. “Mr. Carter, can you tell me who your kidnappers are or how many there are?” I tried to think, I was so confused as to who was and who wasn’t the kidnappers. I closed my eyes and sighed loudly, hoping they would take the hint and leave me alone for awhile. “Okay then, do you recall throwing a rock at somebody?” “HEY! LEAVE HIM THE HELL ALONE!” AJ barked. I opened my eyes and was never any happier than what I was right now when I saw AJ rushing into the room. “He isn’t gonna speak until his attorney is present,” AJ stated, standing between Nick and the investigative officers. “Fine,” a tall red haired man in a business suit replied. “We are stationing an officer out in the hall.” “They already have all the protection they need,” AJ hissed. “Oh, the protection wasn’t to keep people from coming into the room. It’s for keeping Mr. Carter from leaving the room,” the red headed detective smiled. “What the hell are you implying by that? For god’s sakes he just came out of a freakin coma! I’m sure Nick’s not going anywhere!” AJ spat. “He is a suspect.” “A suspect for what?” “Intent to cause bodily harm not less than murder,” the red haired officer stated crisply. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “What do you mean?” “Nick, don’t say anything, just keep your mouth shut,” AJ advised. ~*~*~*~*~ Lizz woke up to unbearable pain in her back. She restlessly moved her head from side to side, trying to get comfortable. Her nurse softly rubbed her shoulder. “Lizz honey, where does it bother you? Where are you hurting?” Unable to speak because of the tubing in her throat, Lizz gestured towards her back. She was upset that she couldn’t communicate and pointed weakly towards the tubing in her mouth. “I’m sorry, I’ll check with Dr. McMasters and see if he will issue orders for it to be removed.” Relieved that something would be done about the tube, Lizz closed her eyes momentarily. A sharp stab of pain hit her and her eyes flew wide open. Her nurse was busy about with the several IV’s that were hanging on the pole and she had a syringe in her hand, getting ready to administer something into her IV. The nurse caught the look in Lizz’s eyes. “It’s morphine for the pain dear.” As the medication was flowing into her veins, Lizz suddenly felt warm and calm. Sleep eventually won over and her world once again went dark. ~*~*~*~ “Okay Miss Miller, we need to speak with you again about the details for your accident,” a short, dark skinned police officer stated. Terri psyched herself up for an act of being upset and appear distressed about the accident. “It’s awfully hard to go through this again,” she tearfully started out. “It’s alright honey, do the best that you can,” Agnes coached. Terri swallowed hard, sorting through her thoughts before she began. “Well, um, it was in the morning and he became really moody for some reason.” “Who is this he person?” The officer interrupted. “Oh, sorry, Nick... Nick Carter became really moody. I was starting to get used to his mood swings, I think he’s like a manic depressive or something cause he was always taking some pills and stuff but he would just get really violent and start swearing and stuff. Another office was furiously scribbling down notes while Terri spoke. “Please, keep going.” Terri nodded. “Mommy, I’d like a sip of ice water please,” she asked sweetly. Agnes dutifully placed the cup with a straw in her lips. “So sorry about that,” Terri apologized. “Well, I think I said something Nick didn’t like because he started to swear and I walked away because I didn’t want to get hit by him again....” “He physically hit you?” “Oh yeah, see this bruise on this arm here?” Terri lifted the sleeve of her gown, revealing a grapefruit sized, purple bruise that had happened from the plane crash. “I got this when Nick shoved me against a wall.” Terri managed to choke back a sob and Agnes immediately rubbed her daughter’s shoulder and smoothed hair away from her face. “Are you okay to go on with this, Terri, dear?” Terri nodded. “I turned to leave and then I felt the rock hit me and everything went numb from my chest down and it hasn’t come back.” “Did he say anything after that happened?” Terri nodded. “Oh, it’s so awful, I don’t want to Mommy,” Terri lied. “It’s okay sweetheart,” Agnes coached. “No, mommy, I can’t,” Terri lied again. “I will then because it needs to be told. Nick Carter smiled and said to her, ‘I was aiming for your head, bitch, you’re lucky I was distracted.’ Terri forced herself to cry into fitful sobs. ~*~*~*~ Marcus had been arguing with Dale about their next move for over an hour. Kyung wished she could block the conversation out. She was worried about Lizz and prayed that she would be getting the medical attention she needed. The way Dale and Marcus had talked, Lizz was dying and it was going to be all Kyung’s fault. Kyung moved her arms, trying to loosen the heavy tape that bound her wrists together. She knew her skin was raw and each move she made sent jolts of pain towards her shoulders. “We just wait it out, Marus, as soon as the coast is clear Aggie will be giving me the signal on my pager, so just relax. I don’t want to have to explain it to you again, boy,” Dale huffed. Marcus glared at Kyung. “If it wasn’t for your sorry ass, I would be sitting in my warm house, but NO, you have to ruin this for everyone involved here.” Kyung jutted her chin out defiantly. “I’m so happy I’ve inconvenienced you.” Marcus glared and then slapped Kyung’s face with the back of his hand. “I don’t like your insolent tone!” Kyung gasped when his hand made contact. The tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. I kept hearing voices fading in and out like a bad radio transmission. I still felt like I was half out of it and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to be with it. Every time I was awake, I was overwhelmed with pain from some part of my body. If I could, I would have had no qualms about cutting off everything below the neck. But even my face hurt so that was no good. My nurse said that I had to get stitches on that gash over my eye. Nice.

“Hey look she’s waking up.”

“God, it almost hurts me to look at her.”

I know it couldn’t have been, but it sounded like one of them was snickering. I forced myself to open my eyes. At the foot of my bed stood two men in business suits. The one on the left side was tall. Way over six feet. He might have been good looking if he didn’t look so cold. The one next to him was just a just barely shorter and had jet black hair. Unbelievably, he was smirking. His eyes scanned over me and the smirk seemed to grow wider.

“Looks like Carter got to you too, huh?” He snickered softly.

What the hell did he mean by that?! I wanted to ask him, but the vent was still down my throat. Who the hell were these people? They were very intimidating and I know I should feel safe in a hospital, but these creeps were making me very nervous.

“Nice to see you are awake, Miss Hulford. Lizz right? So, Lizz, I see that you are unable to communicate verbally.” The black-haired, smirking guy started, not wasting any time.

Duh! Dumbass. I wanted them out of my room, but the call button was out of my reach. I know for a fact it wasn’t over on my bedside table earlier.

“How about you answer me by blinking twice for yes and once for no.” He continued.

I was starting to shake. Where was everyone?! Why didn’t someone get these guys out of here? The taller guy followed my gaze to the call button.

“After you answer some questions...”

“Now, does the name Kurtis Sloan ring a bell with you?” Second guy asked.

My eyes darted around the room helplessly. I wanted them to leave.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?!”

All eyes were focused on the guy standing in my doorway. He had a white lab coat on and had a stethoscope around his neck.

“Who are you?” The tall guy snapped.

“I’m her doctor, Doug McMasters. Who are you?” He shot back.

“I’m David Bord and this is my colleague, Jason Whise. We represent Terri Miller. We need to ask Miss Hulford some questions regarding her involvement in the death of Kurtis Sloan.” The tall guy, David, replied hotly.

My involvement?! What did he mean by that?

The doctor looked at his visibly shaken patient. “Well she isn’t in any condition to be answering any questions.” Dr. McMasters barked. “I suggest you leave before I call security.”

“Fine, we’ll talk again Miss Hulford.” Jason gave me that smug smile again as they exited the room.

“Asses.” Dr. McMasters stared out the door after them. After a moment he turned back to me. “Well.”

I studied him carefully. He was young, but he carried himself with confidence. He sort of reminded me of George Clooney on “ER.” I liked him already and was grateful to him for kicking those men out of my room.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking. Just call me Dr. Ross.” He stopped and laughed. “I get it all the time. ‘Ohmigosh you look like that guy on ER’ Well we have the same first name anyway. I’ll be Doug Ross instead of Doug McMasters.”

I had to smile at that. He had a good bedside manner. It helped set me at ease. After he listened to me with the stethoscope and basically checked me over, I made motions towards the vent. I wanted it out.

“I knew that was coming. Let me set up the oxygen here and we’ll take that out for ya.” He fiddled with the oxygen that came out of the fixture on the wall and came back over to my side. “This is going to be tough because your lungs are pretty weak. One of your broken ribs punctured it more than once. I’m sure you know the routine. Blow out your candles nice and easy.” He instructed.

He swiftly, but gently pulled it out and I coughed and gagged on it. For a very frightening moment I couldn’t get any air, but then Dr. McMasters put an oxygen mask over my face and nose. It helped. After a few moments I was breathing a little more evenly so I tried to use my voice. It came out scratchy, raw and barely audible.

“What...did they...mean?”

“I don’t know sweetheart, but I wouldn’t let them corner you into a room by yourself like they just did.” He advised.

I nodded. The pain was starting to catch up with me again, but I had one last request. “Can you find out if my friends are okay?” It was a lot to get out all at once and I was proud that I did. He had to lean in to hear my pathetic voice though.

He glanced at me, then the clock, then back at me again, then he puffed out his cheeks and blew his hair off his face. “Okay, tell ya what. I’ve got one more patient to check, then I will go check on them. They are on 8 right?”

I shrugged. No one had told me anything.

“Okay, I’ll figure it out. Either me or someone else will get right back to ya okay?” He promised.

I really liked this guy. I’ve met my share of doctors and I have seen some real idiots. This guy was awesome. There wasn’t many doctors who would take the tie out of their busy schedule to do something like this. Dr. McMasters left and I was alone with my thoughts. That is something I did not like right about now. I didn’t want to have to think about what had just happened. As much as I was concerned about Nick and Brian, I wouldn’t be able to face them. This entire thing was my fault and I didn’t want to look at them hurting like this when it was my fault. And I don’t know if I could have handled seeing Nick after all that had happened. Cause he didn’t remember me, but I know he blamed me. I know that he didn’t mean them. He couldn’t have. But those words he flung at me about Brian.

“You kidnapped me??”

“I swear to you, you’re going to pay.”

“This is your fault and you had better stay far far away from him.”

I couldn’t face him. My eyes filled with tears and I felt really alone. Where was my family? Then it dawned on me. Where was Kyung? Miraculously she had escaped most of everything without serious injury so she shouldn’t be in here too. Not as a patient. Where was she?! My sudden change in mood seemed to amplify my pain and I hit the call button.

~*~*~*~*~

True to his word, Dr. McMasters went to find out how Lizz’s friends were. He didn’t know much about the situation until he had found Lizz’s nurse, Sheila. She told him all that she knew, including that two of the kidnappers were still at large and one of the victims was still missing. The eighth floor was absolutely full of people. People in business suits and police officers. Then there were more people trying to get those people out of there. Dr. McMasters shoved his way through them, ignoring the question that they fired at him.

He pushed open the door to 802. He vaguely recognized the two patients and also the other three guys that were in there. Both patients were asleep and the other three looked exhausted, worried, and slightly pissed off.

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat.

~*~*~*~*~

Terri and her mother were finally alone now. Terri was grinning a mile wide. After her marvelous performance of twisting the events that led to her paralysis, she had fabricated another story of how Lizz brutally killed her boyfriend. Her two attorneys assured them both that they had an excellent case going.

“Sweetie, you did so great. I almost believed you myself. They are going to suffer just like you did.” Agnes reassured Terri.

“Good.” Terri had even forgotten that she was paralyzed for a few moments, she was so happy about making her enemies go down too.

Suddenly the door burst open and David Bord marched in the room. He had a piece of paper and he was waving it around. “What the hell is this?! You never mentioned this! As your attorney, I need to know everything. Damnit!” David exclaimed.

Agnes held her hand out for the paper and sucked in a breath when she saw what it was.

"Do not worry, Brian and Nick are fine. Their friends Kyung and Lizz are with them as well. I got screwed over once and it won't happen again. This is not a demand for money, this is just a letter to let you know that they will be staying with me until the paper meets my demands."

It was Terri’s letter that was sent to the National Enquiror.

~*~*~*~*~

Kyung was exhausted, but she refused to let herself sleep. Dale had left about twenty minutes ago to call his wife back from a pay phone. Marcus was asleep on one of the beds and was snoring loudly. Kyung wanted to scream at him to shut up, but didn’t dare.

“MARCUS! GET UP!” Dale burst in the room, his face red with anger.

Marcus jumped and sat up, glaring at his father with sleep-filled eyes. “What the hell, pa?”

“We just got screwed over bad by your mother and darling little sister!” Dale hollered.

Kyung watched with interest, but also in fear. Dale was a loose cannon waiting to go off.

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Marcus demanded.

“They found Terri’s ransom letter and they put two and two together that we were the kidnappers. That Terri and your mom were involved. Well get this! They are telling everyone that we kidnapped these four idiots plus them too. You and I kidnapped Terri and your mother! So then, all events continue the way it was, only they were victimized also. ‘It was the perfect plan. My husband said everyone would suspect it was Terri because of what happened last spring. So of course Nick and his friends were bitter at my Terri and that is why Nick paralyzed her and Lizz killed her boyfriend.’ BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT!” Dale screamed.

Marcus stared at his father in shock. “Terri is going along with this too?”

“Oh yeah.” Dale laughed bitterly. “Ag convinced her that ‘her daddy and big brother left her there to die.’ You know how easily manipulated she is by her mother. We need to get out of here before the cops get here.”

“What about her?” Marcus jerked his head towards Kyung.

“She comes too. She can be our safety. Who’s gonna touch us when we’ve got a hostage?”

Blind Rage - Part Two
~*~*~*~*~
I woke up with an awful headache. I wanted to touch my forehead with my left hand, but something clanked on the rail and stopped my arm abruptly. I looked over to see what had stopped it, figuring I had my IV line hung up someplace. What I saw totally confused me.

I suddenly realized I wasn't in the same room I had been in. Brian wasn't next to me and the machines that were by my bed were no longer there. A lone IV pole was situated next to the bedside. There was someone that looked like a police officer dressed in a dark blue uniform sitting in the room next to an open door.

I looked for my call button and couldn't see one. I went to sit up and discovered that my right ankle was handcuffed to the bed.

"What the hell?" I mumbled out loud. "Hey! What the hell is going on?"

The policeman peered over the newspaper he was reading. "Settle down," he barked.

"Where's Brian?" I snapped as I was trying to figure a way to get free of the handcuffs.

"He's still in the ICU room you shared," the young police officer grunted.

I nodded, indicating I had heard, I then realized something was definately wrong.

"Where the hell am I then?" I demanded.

"You're in the hospital, in a secure wing, private room," he replied, not looking up from what he was reading.

"Then, what's up with this?" I asked as I pulled my left hand up and pointed at the handcuff with my right hand.

"Policy," was all he said to me.

"POLICY?!"

I was starting to get a little worried here. This guy was obviously not going to say a word to me about anything and now I was handcuffed like a criminal and he wasn't telling me what sick joke someone was playing on me.

"You owe me an explaination!"

The policeman lowered the newspaper and glared at me for a few moments, and I returned a glare that was equal to his. For some reason, he decided he was going to be a little more civil with me and he cleared his throat.

"It was a request by Ms. Miller's attorneys for her protection. They filed a motion to keep you restrained a the hospital until you could go to arrainment."

"Arraignment?! But I didn't do anything!"

As I panicked, I fought harder and harder with the restraints. The policeman started yelling at me and told me to settle down. Suddenly a team of nurses and orderlies and police officers filled the room. The orderlies took a hold of the arm and leg that wasn't chained to the bed and took leather restraints and wrapped them around my wrist and ankle and secured them to my bed rails.

"You have to calm down so you can get better and get discharged," a young nurse soothed.

"Dishcharged? Where the fuck to?"

"HEY! Don't talk to them that way," the police man reprimanded me.

I guess I was thrashing around too much in my attempts to be free because I suddenly felt a sting in my leg and dizzy. The next thing I knew was it went completely dark as sleep overtook me.

~*~*~*~*~

As I was waiting for my nurse, a new panic washed over me. It was becoming familiar now, but it still unnerved the crap out of me. It intensified for a few minutes until my stomach was clenched up so tight that it was almost unbearable. Then almost instantly it disappeard. That wasn’t very comforting either. Why the hell would it just go away unless he became unconscious. I hit the nurse call button again.

“Someone please.” I called out weakly.

“What’s wrong honey?” Sheila burst in, anxiously.

“What’s wrong with Nick?” My voice came out all beathy.

She knitted her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Something’s wrong. He’s upset. And it just went away.” I tried to explin. I felt like a dumbass. She was going to think I was a total fruitcake.

“I’ll see if I can find out for you okay?” She smoothed out my blankets.

I nodded. Then I remembered the source of my previous concern. “Sheila, where’s Kyung? And my parents?” The pain medication was wearing off and I was starting to hurt again. I didn’t want to be knocked out until I got some answers, though. I grimaced against the pain and she saw it.

“Sweetie, you need some more...”

“No! I want to know what the hell is going on! And also, who were those men in my room and why were they talking about my involvement with Kurt’s death?” I demanded.

“I can answer that.”

I looked up and one of those men were back. He was with a security guard. My heart automatically started to beat faster and that showed on the heart monitor.

“I’m not sure if you remember, but I am David Whise and I am Ms. Miller’s attorney. Considering the serious charges against you, there will be a security guard positioned outside your door for my client’s protection.”

“Yeah, you better protect that little bitch from me.” I muttered without thinking.

“Lizz, shhhhh!!” Sheila admonished.

“Keith!” He nodded towards the guard.

The guard, Keith, walked over to me and pulled out a bunch of handcuffs. Upon seeing those, I began to panic. “No!! What are you doing?!” I tried to inch away from him in my bed, but that made me gasp out in pain.”

“Hey!” Sheila demanded. “Why is that necessary?”

“You heard her threaten my client. All precautions must be taken to protect my client.” David stated simply and coldly. "Carter is getting the same treatment. We weren't going to cuff her, but she threatened my client. It's her own fault.

Keith was putting the cuffs on my wrists and my panic increased. Immediately I was slammed with flashbacks of the cage that I had spent so long in. Being tied down like an animal with Marcus and Kurt taking every opportunity to use that metal pole. I never used to be claustrophobic, until this.

“But she can’t even get out of the bed. Look at her!” Sheila exclaimed. She turned her attention to me and I could barely hear her try to calm me down, to no avail.

“Please! No more! Don’t tie me up! Please not again! Please!!” I desperately cried, my pathetic voice turning into an even worse wheeze. I couldn’t catch my breath! “Oh god...”

Sheila cursed under her breath and hollered out the door for some help. Her patient was gasping for air and not getting it. She was twisting all around, trying to escape the hell she she was reliving in her mind.

The room filled with more medical personnel and they managed to sedate Lizz and regualte her breathing again. She would be sore as hell when she woke up, but that was going to be the least of her problems.

~*~*~*~

A few days had gone by since I was moved from Brian and my room. Everytime I asked a
question about his condition or Lizz's, I was basically denied information. It was as if I had
no rights. AJ had placed a call to my attorney and he met with me and told me that I was
being charged with bodily harm with intent to commit murder on Terri Miller.

My first question to him was who the hell is Terri Miller. My mind was
becoming like swiss cheese lately and I was having trouble remembering
things. The nurse reassured me that this was natural and would get better in
time.

I did finally remember Terri, but I couldn't recall the specific events about throwing a rock
at her and hitting her in the back. They told me that she was permanently paralyzed.

A fat policeman with a clipboard and a heavy set of keys approached my bed. Wordlessly,
he uncuffed my leg first and then my wrist. He tossed a piece of bright yellow clothing
onto onto the bed.

“Put this on,” he barked.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been discharged and you’re having your arraignment this afternoon,
we’re moving you to the county jail infirmary, your injuries aren’t life
threatening anymore. Now, start stripping Carter.”

~*~*~*~
Agnes met with the attorneys in Terri’s hospital room. She had just had her
back surgery that morning and was still under sedation.

“You remember us telling you that the FBI found Kurt Sloan’s body at the
scene two weeks ago, right?”

“Yes,” Agnes replied, not sure where this was heading.

“I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear that the autopsy results showed that
Mr. Sloan‘s death was from blunt force trauma, consistent with the plane
crash and not strangulation, which is what Terri kept saying that Lizz was
guilty of.”

Agnes stood up and fussed with her daughter’s blankets, trying to buy time
to come up with an answer.

“Well, um, I didn’t quite understand where she came up with that idea to
begin with, I think she was despondent over his death and wasn’t thinking
clearly. I’m sure she just hated Lizz because she was close to that Nick
fellow and she just wasn’t thinking right with the drugs she’s on and all,”
Agnes ran her words together, hoping the attorney was buying the story.

“Well, if what you’re saying is the truth---”

“Of course it’s the truth, I never lie,” Agnes smiled sweetly at the
attorney.

“Then I need to get the police removed from that girl’s room and fast
before she counter sues or something.”

With that said, the attorney left the room quickly and hurried down the hall
towards Lizz’s room.
~*~*~*~
Dale and Marcus pushed Kyung into the old, rusted out suburban. Her knees
were skinned and her pants torn. The hair she had once taken so much pride
in, hung in her face, matted and dirty.
br>
“Why do you keep running? They will find you,” Kyung spat angrily at her
captors.

“If they get that close, they’ll never get us alive, I can guarantee, Missy.”

As Dale spoke, he smoothed the hair away from Kyung’s dirt streaked face.
She tried to duck her head away from his hand, but he still managed
contact. The touch made her skin crawl.

“So where are we going now?” Kyung asked.

“None of your damn business, just shut your mouth,” Marcus hissed.

“Just a question, don’t get upset over it,” Kyung shot back. She knew that
she was playing with a loaded gun, but that was natural to her, when she was
clearly agitated by something, she kept picking away at it until she got the
answers she needed.

As Marcus raised his hand up, Kyung closed her eyes, waiting for the blow.

“Boy, put your hand down, it’s a waste of time, save it for Terri or your
mom,” Dale reprimanded.

~*~*~*~*~

Jason Whise let himself into Lizz’s room. He was a little nervous at how she was going to react when he told her that she had been falsely accused of murder. What if she did sue? Almost to his relief, she was asleep. At least he wasn’t going to have to deal with her just yet.

“What are you doing in here?”

Jason jumped at the angry voice. He turned around and immediately recognized the woman standing there as Lizz’s nurse, Sheila. She was glaring at him.

“Some of our information was misunderstood and the charges against your patient have been dropped. You can remove the restraints.” He informed her, his voice cold and hard.

“Oh that’s nice!” Sheila spat. “The damage has already been done! Do you realize the severity of the situation? I seriously doubt that you even have the slightest notion so let me clue you in. This poor girl, along with her friends, was kidnapped and terrorizied. Someone beat the hell out of her and shot her. I can’t even begin to understand what she went through. She can’t talk about it. Anytime someone tries to ask her about it, she starts shaking. Not only is her physical health in very serious condition, but her emotional health is extremely fragile. Tying her down caused her to have a panic attack and she had to be sedated. When she woke up, she panicked again and had to be sedated again. And now you are telling me that we can remove the restraints?! Well how nice of you!”

“Oh spare me the sob story. My client went through equally as tramatic experiences. She lost her boyfriend and will probably be paralyzed for the rest of her life.” Jason retorted.

“You came down here to tell me that I could remove the restraints right? Well you did, now get the hell out of my patient’s room.” Sheila narrowed her eyes into angry slits.

Jason smiled cockily at her and left the room. Sheila sighed heavily and went to remove the restraints from Lizz’s wrists and ankles. Being under sedation still, Lizz didn’t even stir. Sheila brushed a strand of hair of Lizz’s face and sighed again. Lizz was so alone. Her best friend was still missing and everyone’s families that were involved were not allowed near the hospital. If they did, Kyung died. Sheila knew at this time that there were only three people that Lizz would let near her without panicking. She didn’t know anything about Brian’s condition and the last she heard about Nick was that he had amnesia. That was what they had said when he was admitted. Sheila left Lizz’s room finally, trying to come up with something.

~*~*~*~*~

“Damnit, I could kill her for screwing us like this.” Dale muttered as they drove down the winding dirt road. They seemed to getting further and further out in the middle of nowhere. He was driving and Marcus sat shotgun. Kyung was tied down in the seat behind them. The suburban’s heater was broken so the three of them suffered in the cold temperature.

The longer this went on, the more Kyung worried that she wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. Macus was growing steadily more angry with her as every hour passed. It was only a matter of time before he let all his anger go on her. Kyung’s thoughts drifted to Lizz, Brian and Nick. She was so worried about them and not knowing what was going on was killing her.

~*~*~*~*~
Nurse Laura Shelton hung a new IV bag on her patient’s pole. He had been
slipping in and out of consciousness for the past few days, but he had finally
woke that morning. He was still very weak from surgery and the damage
from the fluid that had built around his heart and, by the looks of the
dampness of his hair, Laura suspected that he was running a temp.

“Nurse?” Brian called out weakly. His nurse obviously didn’t hear him so Brian
tried calling out for her again. “Nurse?”

“Hi, what can I get for you?” Laura asked cheerily.

Brian attempted to clear his throat, hoping that would make his voice sound
a little stronger.

“My friends?”

Laura nodded at Brian’s question. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know too much
about them right now. Do you want me to check for you?”

Brian managed a slight nod.

“Okay, I’ll do that, but first I need to check to see if you’re spiking a temp,
your face looks pretty flushed,” the red haired nurse said as she placed a
thermometer into Brian’s ear. Instantly, the beeper went off on the small,
white device.

“Ah, just as I thought, 102.4,” Laura remarked as she looked at the reading
on the thermometer. “Okay, let me tell your doctor about the temp and then
I’ll check and see how your friends are, okay?”

As Brian watched his nurse leave the room, his thoughts went back to Nick
and Lizz. The last he remembered was hearing a gunshot and a man carrying
Nick’s body saying he accidentally shot him. Brian couldn’t remember
anything after that and wondered how long he had been out of it.

~*~*~*~*~
The police officer’s voice had a harsh edge to it. I didn’t waste any time
getting the hospital gown off and slipping into the boxer shorts and the
bright yellow coveralls. I couldn’t help but notice the words LARGO
COUNTY JAIL PRISONER in bold black letters across the back of the
coveralls.

“Snap to it Carter, I don’t have all day,” the guard grumbled.

I started to speed up on putting my socks on, then something struck me as
being odd and I stopped.

“What gives you the right to force me to jail? I haven’t done anything!” I
insisted.

“You wanna play tough guy now woman beater?” The officer had a sick sneer
on his face. “Guys in there lump you in the same category as a child abuser,
they’re gonna have fun playing with your candy ass. Don’t make me have to
call for back up cause we’ll drag you screaming from here if we have to.”

I still couldn’t understand why they were accusing me of hitting a woman, it
made my head hurt trying to make sense of it. I sat on the edge of my bed
and folded my good arm across the sling on the other one, I didn’t plan on
moving for no one.

“Okay, then the fun begins Carter, you ass,” the guard said sharply before
he pulled his walkie talkie off his belt. “Mike, we need six backup room 815,
stat!”

Within a course of a few minutes, six uniformed state troopers entered the
room. I tried my best to plant my feet on the ground, my body on the bed to
no avail. Whether I wanted it or not, they were going to take me from the
hospital to the jail.

Desperate, I started jerking my body up and down, tried to squirm away
from their grasp. One officer grabbed deep into the shoulder that had been
shot, I screamed out from the firey pain it produced.

I was oblivious to the stares and the flashes of light, which I assumed were
camera flashes. I didn’t care I needed to get away from these people that
were taking me away and had no right to do so.

Once on the elevator, they literally dropped my body to the floor.

“Now Carter, you can either cooperate or you can make an ass of yourself
when we hit the main floor, your choice,” a short, fat county police office
smirked.

“I’ll be good...... I’ll be okay,” I lied. I had better plans when we reached the
ground floor.

“Just in case,” a policeman said as he wrapped a thick, heavy chain around my
waist twice and then linked it through handcuffs and snapped them onto my
wrists.

The door ringed as it opened up to the hospital lobby. I ducked my head and
bolted past the policemen in the elevator, running as fast as I could towards
the doors. I could hear the footsteps ensuing behind me as I ran barefooted
across the tiled floor. People were standing off to the side, staring and
gasping as I ran past them. They must have thought I was a murderer or
some really bad criminal.

I set my sites to the exit doors, but to my dismay, it was packed with people
standing in front of it either entering or leaving the hospital. I had no other
choice as I lowered my head and took the large plate glass window next to
the door....
~*~*~*~

My eyes flew open as I felt like a thousand needles
were stabbing my body all at once. I had been awake
for the past hour feeling incredibly uneasy. That
clenched feeling that I had grown accustomed to had
come back, full force. I knew that it had to do with
Nick. I wasn’t having a full blown panic attack like
I had done before so I just laid there and tried to
stay calm. When this sudden explosion of pain hit me,
I started to panic. I heard the beeps of the heart
monitor get more rapid.

“Lizz? Sweetie, what is it? Shit!“ Sheila
burst in the room. She took in the monitors and then
her patient breathing hard, eyes wide with fear.
“Lizz you need to calm down. What is it? What’s
wrong?”

“Hurts...please...he...he...” I gasped.

“What hurts? Who?” Sheila pressed.

I couldn’t even reply to her. I couldn’t catch my
breath. All I could picture was that something had
happened to Nick and visions of Dale, Marcus, and
Terri only heightened my panic. It was like we were
all back in that basement.

“Lizz breathe!!” Sheila tried to remain calm
herself. In her 7 years of being a nurse, she had
never seen a patient react this way. She called in
some help and once again, the only thing they could do
was sedate Lizz. Lizz wasn’t doing herself any good
by getting so worked up. Her injuries were already
serious and they were playing with some kidneys that
were on the verge of failing. Now these panic attacks
were only adding to the danger. If this kept getting
worse like this, they were going to lose her.

~*~*~*~*~

Brian’s nurse Laura headed downstairs to the main
floor. She thought Nick Carter would have been on the
same floor as Brian, but he wasn’t there. She tried
to call down to admitting multiple times, but after
being put on hold a half a dozen times, she decided to
just go down and see for herself. As she exited the
staff elevators and walked around the corner, her jaw
dropped at the scene before her. A man in bright
yellow prison garb was running through the lobby with
six troopers and a couple of county policeman on his
tale. Her shock doubled when she saw that the escapee
was Nick Carter. He seemed to hesitate briefly when
he saw the press of people up against the main doors.
Camera were flashing at a blinding rate. Then seeing
no other choice, he ducked his head and charged
through the plate glass window. Everyone seemed
frozen in motion as he let out a cry as the glass
shattered upon impact. Laura gasped and raced over to
him. The troopers were already surrounded him. A few
more were trying to get the crowd to back up.

“Let me through! Let me through! I’m a nurse!”
Laura cried, shoving past the people that stood in her
way.

Nick was hunched over on the ground, covered with
blood. She knelt down by him.

"Let me see, hun." Laura tried to get a look at where
he was bleeding from. He was covered in tiny glass
shards.

He shrank away from her touch, yelling out.

"I'm a nurse! I'm not going to hurt you. Let me see
where you are hurt." She said softly, yet
urgently.

He finally looked up at her. He was going to say
something, but one of the officers cut him off.

"He did this to himself. The prison infirmiry will
check him over." He said gruffly.

"Absolutely not! You don't have any idea how injured
he is. He needs to stay here at least until we can
make sure that he didn't do some serious damage."
Laura argued.

"Forget it lady. He has already proven that he is a
threat." The same officer snapped at her.

"What are the charges against him?" Laura demanded.
"That's none of your..."

A short, fat officer cut off the first one. "He
attacked two women. One of which is in critical
condition and the other is a parapalegic now."

Nick's head shot up. He beat up two women? What the
hell?! There has to be some mistake! He
thought to himself.

Laura immediately noticed the look on Nick's face. It
was of total confusion. He had no idea what they were
talking about and he looked horrified that they would
insinuate that he would do such a thing. That made
her even more determined to help him.

"Whatever the case, he needs to be checked out first."
She insisted.

"No can do." The troopers scooped him up and dragged
him through the crowd of people toward the van that
had pulled up alongside the curb. Camera flashes were
going a mile a minute and Laura could see the tears of
humiliation streaming down Nick's face. She stood
there helplessly as the van pulled away. Almost
immediately people started to ask her questions and
she ignored them all as she ran back inside the
hospital. There were a ton of security around now.
Some were cleaning up the glass, but most were trying
to control the crowd.

Laura couldn't stop thinking about what had just
happened as she headed for the ICU floor. She just
couldn't believe that Nick Carter would beat two women
as seriously as they say he did. When she reached the
ICU's front desk she asked to see Lizz's nurse. To
her mild relief it was Sheila. Sheila had worked on
Laura's floor before moving to ICU so they knew each
other well.

"How are you doing Laura?" Sheila looked very tired
and weary.

"Been better. How's your patient? Brian Littrell is
my patient and he has been asking about her." Laura
replied.

"Not so hot. I don't even know what to make of it.
Her kidney's are on the brink of failure and she was
beaten pretty bad. She's got punctured lungs, broken
bones, the whole nine yards. I'm more worried about
her mental state though. She woke up awhile ago
calling for Nick. She said that something was wrong
and then started having a panic attack. She had to be
sedated. Then when she woke up, she was having
another one and she kept repeating 'hurts' and
'he...he' over and over. She hyperventilated and had
to be sedated again. Her lungs are already weak and
this is making things a lot worse for her. She won't
even talk to anyone. Whatever happened when they were
kidnapped, she seems like she keeps reliving it. Or
she is convinced that something is wrong with Nick
Carter." Sheila explained.

Laura's eyes widened. "Do you know that he has been
arrested for assault on the daughter of the kidnapper
and also Lizz? A bunch of troopers were trying to
escort him out and he tried to make a run for it. He
ended up jumping through a plate glass window. I
tried to insist that he be taken care of before he
left, but they wouldn't hear of it. There wasn't
anything I could do."

"What?! You have got to be kidding me! Is he okay?
He wouldn't attack a woman though! Besides, remember
what happened last spring? He and Lizz stayed really
close friends after that!" Sheila exclaimed.

"Maybe that is why she keeps freaking out. You said
she won't talk to anyone right? Still...I can't
believe that either." Laura frowned. "Brian keeps
asking about them. Shit! How the hell do I tell him
that his best friend is in jail and his other friend
is..."

"Getting worse? I don't know. How bad is Brian? I
don't know who else that could reach her at this
point." Sheila interjected.

Laura shook her head. "He's not in that good of
condition himself. He's spiking a temp and he's
really weak from the surgery."

"And what about Nick? Are the parents still being
instructed to stay away? Where are the other band
guys? Can they help?" Sheila asked.

"I don't know..." Laura rubbed her eyes.

"So, basically we're in trouble here..." Sheila
sighed. "They are the only ones that know what is
going on with each other and none of them can even
help each other."

By the time Laura returned to Brian’s room, pulmonary services were already
there giving him a breathing treatment. She thumbed through his chart and
read the report that indicated that the pneumonia had settled into both
lungs. His condition further complicated the pneumonia since Brian was
unable to move around as of yet.

Brian’s eyes met hers and she knew exactly what her patient wanted.

“Just wait and relax and do the treatment, we’ll talk after that, okay?”

Laura laid his chart on the counter, her back to him. She was wondering how
she’d be able to explain what was going on with Nick. This was going to be
difficult no matter what she told him. She felt her body tense as she heard
the final hiss of the medication going through the mask.

“You sound much better, I’ll be back in two hours to give you another one,”
the respiratory tech stated to Brian as he placed his stethoscope around his
neck.

“Thanks,” Brian replied, weakly.

Brian waited for the tech to leave the room.

“How’s Nick?” Brian blurted.

“Shhhh,” Laura said as she placed her stethoscop on his chest, preparing to
chart his progress.

Brian waited anxiously for her to finish, he dutifully took deep breaths and
let them out for her, coughing each time. After Laura finished writing in his
chart, she walked over to his bed and sat down beside him.

“Okay, I’m not sure how to begin this, but I guess it’s just better to say it
instead of beating around the bush,” Laura said. “Initially, Nick was in this
room with you, do you remember that?”

Brian shook his head no, afraid of where this was leading to.

“Well, once Nick didn’t need ICU services anymore, you know, sort of like
graduated from intensified medical care, they moved him to a private room
towards the end of the hall on this floor,” she paused, making sure the
information was registering.

“Okay, do you remember anything about possible charges being brought
against Nick?”

Again, Brian shook his head no.

“Well, they placed him under house arrest, which was another reason why
they moved him from this room to a new one.”

“Why?”

Laura shook her head. “I’m not totally sure, they were saying that he had
beaten to women, one of them was Lizz and another woman was named Terri,
who is permanently paralyzed because of the assault.”

“I don’t understand,” Brian stated slowly, struggling to breathe. “Nick
didn’t.”

“I’m sure Nick’s lawyer is looking this over, try not to worry about his,” Laura
said as she patted Brian’s arm.

“Can I see him?” Brian asked.

“Sorry, he was just discharged a little bit ago,” Laura apologized.

“Why didn’t he stop here?” Brian asked, softly.

“He, um, couldn’t, they have him in custody, remember?”

Before Brian could respond, AJ walked into the room.

“Hey Bri! Wow, you should see the lobby! Man, there’s broken glass and blood
all over the place! They said some dude from jail tried to escape.!” AJ stated
as he dragged a chair from the corner of the room over to Brian’s bed.

“Nick,” Brian said quietly, looking at his nurse.

Laura nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry, I tried to help, but they wouldn’t let
me.”

“Holy shit, that was Nick that went through that window?” AJ asked.
“He’s okay though, right?”

“From what I could see, he had a lot of cuts and scrapes, but they really
wouldn’t let me go near him,” Laura replied.

“How’s Lizz?” Brian asked.

“Ironically, I ran into her nurse right after seeing the commotion in the
lobby. She said that Lizz was holding her own, but was having setbacks of a
possible kidney rejection and the panic attacks she’s been experiencing. I
found out from her that when Nick has one, or when something happens to
him, she feels it too.”

“Yeah, we know all about that,” AJ replied. “It’s kind of been a long standing
thing between Nick and Lizz.”

~*~*~*~
“End of the road, Carter,” Officer Lamb stated as he opened rear door of
the police car. “Hey, Steve, grab me some latex, he’s got blood all over him
and everything.” The officer shot a look at me. “Sit tight for a minute.”

I waited quietly as the officer put surgical gloves on both hands. I felt like
some sort of animal with a deadly disease. He grabbed my by my good arm
and steadied me once I was out of the vehicle.

“So, Steve, did you catch the end of the Knick’s game last night?” Officer
Lamb asked as they walked me through the sliding glass doors on the
entrance of the jail.

“Yeah, boy it sure was touch and go during the second period,” Steve replied.

As we walked in, the stale smell of the air in the building first caught my
attention. I looked around the room quickly. There were dozens of people in
police uniforms walking around the room. Long steel benches were on either
side of the walls, big hooks jutting out from them. Two people on opposite
sides of the room were sitting on the benches, one wrist handcuffed to the
hook.

“Okay, step up here,” Officer Lamb pointed to a white line on the floor. “You
can either co-operate with us or we can do this the hard way.”

As I stepped up to the glass window, Officer Lamb did a quick swipe on the
side of my face, wiping up some of the blood that was dripping down.

“Hey Steve, I could sell this on ebay for some cash,” my arresting officer
joked.

“Name?”

The clerk that sat behind the window barely looked at me, she sat and
waited for my answer, fingers poised over the keys.

“Nick Carter,” I mumbled.

Officer Lamb jerked my arm a little. “Full name,” he barked.

“Nickolas Gene Carter,” I replied.

“N-i-c-h-o-l-a-s?” the woman asked.

“No, N-i-c-k-o-l-a-s,” I replied, cursing my mother’s decision to spell my
name differently under my breath.

After they finished going over the info of my name, social security number,
date of birth and address, I was led down the hall to another room with
some more steel benches. Officer Lamb unhooked the handcuffs and then
attached one to the hook on the bench as he directed me to sit down.

“Hey Beth, need for you to get this one done first, he’s going directly to the
infirmary,” Officer Lamb stated as he tossed a chart down on the counter.
~*~*~*~
Kyung shivered as she listened to Dale and Marcus bickering in the front
seat of the surburban. She was cold, tired and stressed out. Not a good
combination for her. She ran a short fuse when she was stressed out and she
was desperately fighting the urge to lash out at her kidnappers.

“Ya know, old man, you’re towing a thin line here. I’ve just about had it with
you, I’m sick of you, sick of mom and especially Terri. To hell with all of this!
I’m stopping at the next town and dropping your ass off. I don’t need your
sorry ass dragging me down.”

“Think again boy!” Dale yelled as he jerked the steering wheel sharply
towards the right.

Kyung barely had enough time to brace herself for the certain impact that
was coming. There was yelling, swearing, tires screeching, the sound of steel
crunching and then it was silent.

Dazed, Kyung found herself on the roof interior of the flipped over vehicle.
As the smoke and dust started to settle, she quickly took inventory of her
arms and legs, checking to see if everything was still in place and functioned.
Moving her right arm caused a great deal of pain and Kyung decided that
since it looked definately deformed, she must have broken it.

Getting her bearings, Kyung looked around towards the front of the
overturned vehicle. Dale was laying half in and half out of the passenger side
window, the fixed look in his eyes told Kyung that he didn’t survive the
crash. Hearing moaning, Kyung looked for Marcus. She couldn’t see him from
the inside of the car. She crawled towards the back and after kicking out
the shards of glass from the broken rear window, she gingerly eased her
body through.

She found Marcus laying on the ground, his body pinned underneath the
surburban, only his upper torso exposed. There were short puffs of steam
that escaped from his mouth, so Kyung knew that he was still alive and
breathing.

Marcus turned his head from side to side, moaning loudly. His eyes finally
fluttered open and then focused on Kyung.

“Bitch, get me out of here,” Marcus demanded.

~*~*~*~*~

Why is it that during the day there is nothing good on TV? I don't watch soap operas and I liked talk shows even less. They were all the same. Either the woman’s husband was cheating on her with her sister and then it ends up being a double cross because he was cheating on her with that sister’s husband or something gross like that. There was a knock on the door and I welcomed the distraction. “Come in!” I called out.

“I bet you thought you were rid of us didn’t ya?”

My blood ran cold as I looked towards the door. Dale was standing in the doorway and he had Nick in front of him, his arms pinned.

“No!” I gasped.

“Or how about your best friend here?” Suddenly Marcus appeared, carrying Kyung’s limp body in his arms.

“Kyung?” I whimpered.

“She isn’t dead, but she’s gonna be!” Marcus barked.

“Where’s Brian?” My eyes darted back and forth between them.

Marcus laughed. “We already took care of him.”

“No.” I whispered.

“See, we’re giving you a choice.” Dale began, releasing Nick’s arms. Surprisingly, he didn’t try to escape or anything. But then I saw why. Dale was holding a gun. At the end of the gun was a silencer.

“You get to choose which one we kill next.” Marcus continued, grinning sadistically.

“No! No! I can’t...You can’t make me...” I cried.

“Fine! Then they both die. Say goodbye Lizz!” Dale yelled.

“NOOOOOO!!!!” I screamed as the muted sound of a shot rang out. It as immediately followed by another and I started to struggle in my bed. Dale grabbed me by the arms and I knew I was next. I thrashed in attempt to tear free of his grasp, ignoring the pain I was causing myself.

“Lizz! Lizz, calm down!” Sheila tried to hold Lizz down. She was thrashing all around and was going to bust her stitches if she kept it up.

“LET ME GO!” I hollered frantically.

“Lizz you need to stop thrashing! It’s Sheila! Lizz!!” Sheila persisted.

Finally I opened my eyes and sure enough, Sheila was standing over me. Dale and Marcus weren’t anywhere to be seen. I sagged against the pillows behind me and let out a choked sob. “They...they were here...he shot...he killed them...my fault...all my fault!” I gasped between my sobs. The pain from moving around so much was starting to catch up with me.

“Shhhhh. There’s no one here okay? You’re fine now. I’m going to give you some Demerol for the pain, alright? I want you to concentrate on taking slow deep breaths. Can you do that for me?” Sheila soothed.

“Where are they? Where are my friends?” I choked out.

“Sweetie, you need to worry about yourself right now.” Sheila started as she pushed the pain medication through my IV.

“No! Don’t you understand? All of this is my fault. I need to know what’s happened to them! Is Kyung in the hospital too? And where’s Brian? They didn’t give him his meds and he got hurt in the plane crash. And what happened to Nick? Something’s wrong! I know it is. I can feel it.” My voice got more and more frantic.

“Shhhh. You need to try to stay calm sweetie.” Sheila rested her hand on my forehead. “You are really warm.”

I started to feel sleepy from the Demerol, but I didn’t want to sleep anymore. I wanted answers. I didn’t care how much pain I was in. I needed to know where my friends were. Sheila stuck that temperature thing in my ear and waited for the beep. I tried my hardest to fight the drowsiness, but it didn’t matter. The drug was winning and I barely heard her tell me I had a temperature before I fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~

“So you’re saying that Nick was taken to jail?” AJ demanded.

Laura sighed. “Yes. I tried to convince the state troopers that he needed to stay longer, but they wouldn’t listen.”

“He went through a window?” Brian whispered, still shocked at what he was hearing.

Laura immediately noticed the look on his face. “I don’t think he was seriously injured though. Just some cuts and scrapes from the glass.” She added quickly to allay his fears.

“Does he even know why he was taken to jail? He had amnesia.” Brian could feel tears stinging the back of his eyes.

Laura looked away from him. “I don’t think he did.”

“He’s gotta be totally freaked out.” AJ muttered darkly. “I wish I was in here when they tried to take him away.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you really would have helped matters.” Brian raised an eyebrow at AJ, knowing how he was around authoritative figures.

“I could’ve done something.” He insisted.

“What about Kyung? Is she okay?” Brian asked suddenly

.
Laura flinched. She didn’t want to have to be the bearer of bad news once again. It occurred to her that he might have assumed that Kyung had been with Lizz this entire time. He didn’t know that she was still being held by the kidnappers.

~*~*~*~*~

“Excuse me?!” Kyung narrowed her eyes at Marcus.

“I said, get me out of here, bitch“ He repeated, putting emphasis on the last word.

“I don’t think you are in any position to be talking to me like that.” Kyung glared at him.

“I don’t care what position I’m in. Get your ass over here and get me out of this. What do you think you are gonna do, wander off and get help all on your own? We’re out in the middle of fuckin nowhere. You’ll die.” Marcus sneered.

“Oh is that right? Looks to me that I will have a better chance at surviving than you will, pinned under that suburban.” She retorted.

“If you don’t get me out of here...” He threatened.

“You’ll what? Shout more insults at me?” Kyung laughed bitterly. “My friends are probably dead because of you! Our plane fucking crashed and instead of giving up your vendetta against us, you continued on. You sick shit, I should leave you here to die. You deserve it!”

Marcus looked shocked at the amount of hatred that resonated from this girl’s voice. She wouldn’t really leave him here to die would she?

“You didn’t give a shit about Lizz when she was freezing to death in the snow. You didn’t care when Terri almost beat her to death. You only pretended to care about Brian being pinned against that seat, only to carry on that stupid charade. You freaked out when you shot Nick only because you didn’t want to go to jail. But then you proved that you didn’t give a shit when you had a chance to escape and you left him there to bleed to death. MY FRIENDS
ARE PROBABLY DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!!!” She screamed as she turned on her heel and started walking away.

A sense of panic started to creep over Marcus. “Kyung. Don’t leave me here. Don’t let me die.” His voice cracked.

Kyung halted midstep. As much as she wanted to leave him there, she couldn’t. She wasn’t like them. She couldn’t kill. She sighed loudly and turned back around.

~*~*~*~
After I was processed into the system, they led me to a small room telling
me that I had a visitor. I was guided towards a plastic chair across from my
attorney, Spencer Marshall and sat down.

“Take the cuffs off him!” Spencer growled.

The guard sighed and quickly snapped the hand cuffs from my wrists.

“Now leave the room,” Spencer ordered.

“Hey, I got explicit instructions to stay with this inmate during the
interview,” the guard replied.

“I don’t give a shit about your instructions, I’m taking full responsibility for
my client, now get the hell out of here,” Spencer demanded.

We waited until the guard had left the small room and then Spencer leaned
forward, evidentally looking over the cuts and scrapes on my face.

“That doctor did a piss poor job stitching your forehead up,” he remarked as
he brushed the hair away from my forehead. “That’s definitely gonna leave a
nasty scar.”

I didn’t answer him, I didn’t care at this point about scars or anything else.
Here I was stuck in a jail and I had no idea why or what I did.

After he pulled out a yellow legal pad and uncapped a pen, the attorney
sighed and started asking me questions.

“Nick, do you have any idea of why you were sent here?”

I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head no.

“Do you remember being kidnapped?”

I tried to think but nothing came to me. My memory was still pretty fuzzy.

“You know who you are though, right?”

I laughed at the stupidity of his question. “Yeah, I know who I am.”

He didn’t seem to believe me, he stared at me over the top of his glasses
that had slid down his nose.

“Nick..... Nick Carter, okay?”

“At least you have that figured out. I don’t understand why you can’t
remember specific events over the past few months. For right now, I need
to stall for time so we can gather a good defense for you. I’m going to
request psychiatric evaluation to declare you instane and unable to stand
trial. Don’t worry, it’s only to show that you’re mentally unable to defend
yourself, not to have you committed.”
~*~*~*~*~
AJ, Kevin and Howie took a seat in the crowded courtroom, waiting for Nick
to appear.

“I still am having a hard time believing they can pull this shit on Nick,” AJ
whispered harshly to Kevin and Howie.

“I know, AJ, I know,” Kevin replied.

“I mean the guy has fricken amnesia for crying out loud. How the hell is he
supposed to defend himself?”

A restless AJ kept shifting his weight in his chair and drumming his fingers
on the armrests. “What the hell is taking them so long?”

Howie nudged AJ and pointed towards the doors that were opening. “Here he
comes now.”

The threesome focused their attention to the opening doors. Nick slipped
through, escorted by two uniformed county deputies. His hands were
handcuffed together in front of himself. His face was scraped and red
looking. The fat lip with the cut across the corner of his mouth didn’t help
matters much with him looking like a trouble maker.

AJ wanted to get Nick’s attention, but he was walking with his head bowed,
not making any eye contact with anyone or anything in that courtroom.

“All rise for the honorable Justine Briggs,” the baliff called out.

~*~*~*~*~

“I don’t know what the hell you expect me to do. Especially with a broken arm.” Kyung huffed as she stared at Marcus.

“I can feel my legs. They’re just trapped.” He replied.

“Too bad they aren’t broken.” Kyung muttered.

Marcus started to respond, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to run the risk that she would leave him.

Kyung leaned down and tried to lift the part of the suburban that was covering his legs. Of course with only one arm, she couldn’t budge it.

“What if you put that bar under here and then put your weight on it and maybe I can slide out.” Marcus gestured to a piece of the suburban that was broken off. It was as long as the bumper and had a similar shape. Kyung wondered what part of the car it came from. She could shove one end under the car and put something there to see-saw it. Then she could put all her weight on the other end and see if it was enough for him to get himself out.

After many failed efforts and frustrated words, Kyung finally managed to use that method to budge the suburban. It just barely slid a little, but it was enough. Marcus slid out and shakily stood up. Amazingly he didn’t have any broken bones. Only some scrapes and bruises.

“Nice job bitch, now lets go before we get caught.” Marcus smirked at her as he grabbed her good arm.

Kyung balked. “What the hell are you doing?! I just saved your life you asshole!” She yelled as she tried to twist out of his grasp.

“Yeah and thanks, but that doens’t change anything. So shut up before I get mad.” Marcus shrugged.

Kyung boiled with rage. “Fuck you!” She twisted around and kicked him, as hard as she could, between the legs. Marcus let out a high-pitched scream and dropped to the ground, curling into a ball and moaning. Kyung took that oppurtunity to escape. She started running as fast as she could. To her dismay, his angry voice begane to follow.

“YOU BITCH! YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!” He screamed as he ran to catch up with her.

The lack of food, sleep, and level of emotional stress was taking its toll on Kyung. He was gaining on her and she couldn’t do anything about it.

~*~*~*~*~

Agnes walked brusquely towards Lizz’s room. She had been advised to stay away from her, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to make sure that she was suffering as much as her Terri. Agnes smiled at the thought of Nick in jail. He was going to get it in there alright! She wanted to pay a visit to Brian as well, but security around him was too tight. She had to settle on Lizz.

I was just starting to wake back up when I heard a knock at my door. Before I could answer, the door opened. Terri’s mother walked in and smiled at me. I felt my heart move to my throat.

“What are you doing here?!” I whispered. I didn’t want her to see that I was afraid.

“Oh I just wanted to see how you were.” She smiled sweetly at me.

“Bitch, liar.” I glared at her.

Her demeanor changed. Her eyes narrowed and her lips curled into a viscious smile. “Oh but I did. I just wanted to see if you were suffering as much as you should. I’ve heard you are having a rough time of it. Poor baby.” She sneered. “It could be worse. You could be missing still. Or you could be in jail.”

Oh god, what did she mean? What was she talking about?! I started to shake.

Her grin turned even more sinister. “Oh! You mean you didn’t know?!”

~*~*~*~*~

“What’s wrong? Is she...is she?” Brian didn’t want to finish the thought.

“No! Well, I don’t know.” Laura said finally. “The kidnappers still have her.”

Brian felt sick. “No.” He whispered.

“We haven’t heard much.” Laura said, somewhat apologetically.

“And Lizz...” Brian trailed off. “Who’s with her?”

Laura shook her head.

“Oh god. I have to see if she is okay.” Brian shifted his eyes back and forth between AJ and his nurse.

“No way. Not yet anyway. Not until you are in better condition.” Laura stated firmly.

“AJ will you go check on her?” Brian asked anxiously.

AJ nodded. “Just stay calm okay?”

“Nick, god, what do you think is happening with him?” Brian felt even more sick at the idea of his best friend sitting in jail for something he didn’t do.

AJ froze when he heard Brian remark about Nick’s predicament. He didn’t
have the heart to tell him what had happen earlier in the afternoon in court.

“I’ll be back in a minute after I check on Lizz for ya,” AJ managed to call out
as he left the room.

As he walked down the hall, AJ’s mind filled with the scenes of the court
hearing earlier in the day. Nick never made eye contact with them, he just
stood in front of the judge, his head hanging down. They had chains wrapped
around his waist, connected to his wrists and they made a noise that AJ
decided he would never forget for the rest of his life. He shuddered when
the memory of the noise crept into his mind.

”Your honor, I wish to declare my client emotionally uncapable of
defending himself. He was insane at the time the alleged events took
place.”

”Nickolas Carter is remanded to Fulton State Emotional Rehabilitation
Institution for observation and testing and if need be, treatment. Court is
postphoned for a period of no less than thirty days and will reconvene at
that time on 20 June, 2001.”

AJ squeezed his eyes shut as the door to the elevator closed. The last image
he had was of Nick being led away to some state nuthouse and there wasn’t a
damn thing any of them could do to prevent it. How could he tell that to
Brian? That would kill him.

“Yes, your little perfect friend, or should I say your six foot tall friend has
been arrested. I can’t believe you don’t know about that, it’s been on the
news,” Agnes taunted as she turned on Lizz’s television set. “Oh, and don’t
worry, he did put up a fight as they were taking him away from the hospital.
You see though, Nick isn’t very bright, he jumped through a plate glass
window on his way out instead of taking the door.”

Lizz narrowed her eyes at Agnes. “What are you talking about?”

“You again? What are you doing in her room?” AJ’s voice boomed from the
doorway.

“She’s the one AJ, she did this to us!” Lizz cried out.

Agnes tried to laugh Lizz off. “Oh, the stuff they put these people on,
makes their minds a bit crazy,” she made a circle with her finger next to her
temple.

“AJ! Her name is Agnes and she kidnapped us! Her and her daughter and the
rest of her freaked out family!”

AJ hadn’t moved from when he entered the room, his mouth hanging open.
Anges laughed.

“See Lizz, see how farfetched your story is? I mean, who would think a
fragile old woman like me would kidnap young and vibrant people like
yourself? Even this boy has difficulty comprehending your story.”

Almost as if on que, CNN showed a video of Nick, in bright yellow prison
grab, running in the hosptial lobby and then jumping through a window. Lizz
gasped when she watched it.

“I think you need to come with me and talk to the police,” AJ finally spoke.

“You seem to be forgetting our deal here,” Agnes whispered harshly to him.

“Huh?”

“No one, no family or friends are supposed to be here at the hospital! You
broke that and so now watch Brian or Lizz get their just rewards,” Agnes
spat.

“Lady, you just admitted you are one of the kidnappers!” AJ glared.

“Tsk... tsk.... tsk,” Agnes reprimanded. “Now, be a good little Backstreet Boy
and mind your own business or Brian could end up with a big ole injection of
air in his IV line, that could foul things up really bad. You know that would
travel to his heart and kill him in seconds.”

With that being stated, Agnes stormed past AJ, leaving him standing in the
doorway, stunned.

~*~*~*~*~
I stared out the window at the huge brown brick building. FULTON
STATE INSTITUTE was printed on a sign in the front. This was all a
really bad dream and I couldn’t wake up from it. I stared at the man as he
unhooked me from the heavy bolt on the floor in front of my seat.

“Okay, come along with me,” he said, glancing up as he handed a folder to me.

I glanced down at the big tan folder. It had my name and ID number written
across it. It looked odd, Carter, Nickolas Gene, 360825246.

They led me to a windowless room, two chairs and a table was situated in it.
The humming of the florescent lights made it sound like one of those
interrogation rooms you see on police movies and stuff. As I sat down in a
chair, a young woman with striking blue eyes and long dark hair entered the
room. She was dressed in tan khakis and a dark blue shirt with the word
Fulton embroidered on the left side of the shirt in white lettering. An
indentification tag had her picture on it and the name Mandy.

“Please, you can take those stupid handcuffs and chains off of him, I’m sure
he will behave,” Mandy said as she sat down in front of me.

She slid the folder away from me and opened it up, taking the papers out and
placing them in front of her.

“Hi Nick, my name is Mandy, I’m one of the counselors here at Fulton,” she
smiled.

I had a big lump in my throat and I knew if I opened my mouth to speak I
would either start crying or nothing would come out. I kept quiet.

“Okay, looks like you’ve been recovering nicely from the accident you had in
that plane crash, that’s good. You have no other medical history besides
that, right?” Mandy spoke aloud to me as she read through the chart. “Oh,
wait, you’re on meds for seizures? Okay, we’ll make sure you get those like
you should,” she looked up and smiled.

There was something about her that made me feel at ease. For the first
time in weeks, I found myself smiling. It wasn’t much but it was more than I
had been doing.

“Okay, looks like these people can come and see you, that’s good, we
encourage family and friends,” Mandy remarked as she continued to look
through the papers.

“He’s not to have any contact,” the man that brought me here remarked.

Mandy shot her head up and gave the man a not-so-pleasant stare. “Why are
you still here? He’s my patient and he’s in my care, go, your job is done now.”

I smiled again, I liked Mandy’s style...... a lot.

~*~*~*~*~

I barely noticed Agnes march past AJ. My whole focus was the television. They showed Nick running through the plate glass again and I flinched.

“That’s what I felt.” I said softly.

“What?”

I turned my eyes to AJ. He still looked stunned by Agnes’ confession. His gaze flickered from me to the television.

“A thousand needles stabbing my body all at once. It scared the hell outta me. Until now, I didn’t know what happened. It was him jumping through the window though.” I murmured. Her last words sunk in. “Where’s Brian? Oh god, AJ, you can’t let her hurt him.”

“I’m not letting her near him. Lizz who was that woman? She was involved in the kidnapping?” AJ pressed.

I nodded. “That was Terri’s mother. Remember, Terri is the one who sent the Enquiror pictures of Nick and I in here. She, her mom, dad, brother and boyfriend kidnapped us. They...they...” I stopped, my voice choking up. I shut my eyes, but that made it worse. Images of that basement, the cages, Kyung’s trance, Marcus carrying an unconscious Brian after he collapsed in the heat, Nick having a seizure, them whipping him when I tried to escape. Then the plane crash and when I first realized Nick had amnesia. How my heart sank when he thought I was the kidnapper. How he blamed me. And he was right. It was my fault. And now all this...I didn’t even realize I was crying until AJ put a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey, shhhhh, don’t cry. It’s going to be okay.” He soothed.

“What happened AJ? Why is Nick in jail? Where’s Kyung? Where’s Brian?” I whispered.

He looked pained. I know he was afraid of my reaction and hell, I was afraid of what I was going to hear. I rested my hand on his arm. “Please, AJ, I need to know.”

~*~*~*~*~

There was a knock at the door and both Nick and Mandy looked to see who it was. One of the employees opened the door partway.

“Carter, you have a visitor.”

Mandy looked at Nick and he shrugged. “Well I am going to go make a few phone calls and I will be back alright?”

Nick nodded, wondering who his visitor was when he wasn’t supposed to have contact with anyone.

His question was answered when a scruffy man walked in and sat down. He didn’t speak, but waited for the orderly and Mandy to leave. The door was shut behind them and it was only Nick and the scruffy guy in the small room. He was wearing dirty jeans and a blue shirt that indicated that he worked at a car repair shop. There was dirt and grease underneath his fingernails. Nick stared at him, trying to figure out who he was. The man didn’t make him feel very comfortable. The stranger seemed to take notice of that and was amused by it.

“Trying to figure out who I am?” The man smirked. “Trying to trying to work through all those holes in your head to place me? Well, don’t worry, you won’t. You have never seen me and you are going to forget my face as soon as I leave here. I am only delivering a message for my sister. I guess it sucks to be sitting in this nuthouse and being on trial when you have no idea what you did.”

Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What the hell was going on?! He wanted to jump up and shout at this person to leave, but he felt frozen to the chair. The man continued.

“You’re on trial for the assault of two women, huh? You don’t believe you did this right?” When Nick didn’t respond, the man barked, “I asked you a question!”

Nick’s eyes widened and he shook his head slowly.

“Well I don’t give a shit about this Lizz person, but you messed up my niece. Don’t think you are getting away with it.” The man snapped.

Nick’s mind reeled. His memory was trying to come back and he vaguely remembered the scene that had transpired in the snow before they were rescued. He remembered Terri dragging Lizz over in front of him and yelling like a crazed lunatic at the top of her lungs.

“ Here's your truth, Carter. Seven months ago you tried to kill yourself. Lizz here tried to stop you by saying she was going to drink some medicine that would kill her. Well she was too late. She didn't quite do the job because you still took the pills. You both ended up in the hospital. You both almost died. I would have made a shitload of money off of both of you selling information to the National Enquiror, but you and your stupid friends had to ruin that. See?! It is her fault. If she would have stopped you, none of this would have happened." Terri screamed.

Then she started beating the crap outta Lizz. Nick’s jaw dropped. He didn’t assault Lizz! It was Terri. He didn’t really remember Lizz, but he knew he wouldn’t attack her.

The man narrowed his eyes. “I just have a little advice for you, Carter. It would be in your friends’ better interest to not fight these charges. See, my sis is pretty upset about her daughter and you still need to pay. Both Brian and Lizz are in the hospital and from what I have heard, they are having a pretty rough time. Brian has pneumonia and as you know, he was shot. Not to mention the complications of missing whatever the hell meds he takes. And Lizz hasn’t been able to even get off the morphine yet. You should see her. Ha! Oh, I heard her body might be rejecting her kidneys now too. The best part is that has to be sedated every time she wakes up. I guess she is having a hard time dealing with this.”

“How the hell do you know all that?!” Nick demanded hoarsely. He hadn’t expected to hear any of this.

“Don’t ask questions Carter. Just know that if you are declared innocent, then you will make things a lot more complicated for your friends. Weigh your options carefully boy. And if I hear that you have told anyone of this conversation, either Lizz or Brian won’t be leaving the hospital.” The man smiled sadistically at Nick and let himself out.

Nick’s heart was pounding and the tiny room seemed to get smaller. He knew that Mandy would be back so he tried to get a handle on his emotions, but he couldn’t get past that man’s words. He felt like he was about to unravel.

~*~*~*~*~
“Marcus, why don’t you just give it up and turn yourself in?” Kyung sighed wearily. She was carefully holding her broken arm. Any sort of movement gave her chills, not to mention intense pain. Plus her face still stung from Marcus’ slaps when he finally caught her after she had kicked him. He was absolutely livid and he had let her have it good.

“Shut up.” He said sourly.

“Seriously, do you have any idea where we are going?” Kyung pressed. They had been walking for the past half hour into the middle of nowhere. It was very woodsy and Kyung was afraid they were lost.

“Shut up.” Marcus repeated.

“What happens when it gets dark and we are out here in BFE?! You don’t know where we are do you?!” Kyung continued stubbornly. God she was turning into Lizz.

“Shut up.”

“You ever think about expanding your vocabulary?” Kyung glared at the back of his head as she tried to keep up.

“Alright. Shut the fuck up.”

Kyung shook her head as they continued deeper into the forest. She knew it was pointless to try to escape, as she had gotten caught twice already. She was no match for Marcus and she knew it. She didn’t want to, but she let her mind drift towards her friends. Her eyes filled with tears and she wondered if they were alive and if they were would she would ever see them again?

~*~*~*~
I sat at the table, stunned. My best friend’s life was at stake and I was the
only one that could save him. I didn’t hear Mandy when she came back into
the room.

“Nick, I have your locker assignment and your room. There are a couple of
things I need you to do first before I show you to your room,” Mandy stated
as she sat back down at the table.

I must have been staring off into space because suddenly, her face was
directly in front of mine.

“Nick? Are you with me?”

I straightened myself up in the seat. ’I gotta stay focused, Brian needs me
to be focused.’ I kept coaching myself. “Oh, sorry what did you say
again?”

“Okay, this is just a quick assessment to check your cognitive level,” Mandy
said as she looked down at the chart. Okay, I need you to give me your full
name.”

“Nickolas Gene Carter.”

“Okay, when’s your birthday?”

“January 28.”

“Year born and how old are you?”

“1980 and I’m 20.”

“Okay, who’s the president?”

I was beginning to get bored with all the questions, this was getting a little
silly. It was almost like a mini interview. I hated those. “Bill Clinton.”

“Okay Nick, last question. Do you know what the date is today?”

That was a question I don’t think I could answer. Things had been mushed
together from the kidnapping to the hospital stay. I honestly didn’t have any
idea. With it being Florida, I definitely didn’t have a clue as to what time of
year it was either by looking out the window.

“I honestly couldn’t tell you,” I replied.

“Fair enough, how about the year then?”

“2000.”

“Very good Nick, let’s take you down to your room now,” Mandy said as she
walked over towards the door and held it open for me. “You seem to be okay
to be on a level c18,” Mandy said as we stopped at a scale. “I need you to
step up on the scales please.”

I did as I was told.

“Two twenty-eight,” Mandy said as she scribbled the numebrs into the chart.
“Okay Nick, with you being a level C18, you get to wear these,” she said as
she handed me a pair of dark green hospital scrubs. “you can change in this
room here.”

Once I changed into the green scrubs, Mandy led me down to another room
with a blue screen that was rolled down and a camera. “Nick, stand where
the white mark is on the floor and look at me please. Smile?”

I didn’t feel like smiling. I was sort of shocked to think that she would even
suggest it. Here I am, locked up in some mental hospital knowing that any
decision I make will affect either my life or the lives of two other people.

Mandy held a laminated identification badge out for me to look at before she
pinned it to my shirt. It was white with bold black lettering: PATIENT:
CARTER,NICKOLAS G 1/28/80 4976851-C18. It also had a picture of
me that she had just taken.

“You have to wear this at all times Nick, for your safety and for ours. Okay,
now we get to go to your room. You are in the green section of the hospital. I
forgot to tell you that our sections are in different colors for each level.
You should be grateful you’re not in the purple section. Ah, here we are,
room number G23.”

As we entered the room, I noticed there were two single sized beds with a
brown dresser separating them. The room had white walls and dark green
carpet. A narrow window that overlooked the parking lot was covered with
thick steel bars.

“Nick, this is your room mate, Jalen. Here’s a list of rules and a layout of the
building. I’m sure he can help you if you have any questions. Dinner is at six,
I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With that stated, the door was closed and locked shut.

Welcome to my new world, this definitely was going to suck.


~*~*~*~*~

I waited as AJ shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t blame him. I was willing to bet he was familiar with my state of being as of late. He probably didn’t want to be the one to set off another panic attack. I was pretty upset with all this and I also had that familiar tense feeling. That, I knew, was Nick. I was used to that and it didn’t bother me so much. Ever since it started last spring he always apologized all over the place whenever it happened. I couldn’t say it enough. It wasn’t his fault and this happens for a reason. The only thing I hated about it is that everytime it happens, I know something is wrong. Nick is upset about something and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to make it better. I’d take it all away if I could, but at the same time, I’m sure he wouldn’t give it to me. “AJ, I need to know. Not knowing is worse than anything.” I urged.

“Okay, let’s start with Brian. He’s on a different floor, but it still treated like ICU. On top of missing his meds, and the injuries from the crash, he has pneumonia in both lungs.” AJ watched me carefully for a reaction.

I nodded. Pneumonia is bad. I’ve had to battle that on more than one occasion. “But he’ll be okay right?” I didn’t even want to think otherwise and I was relieved when he nodded.

“He’s going to be fine okay.” Even though he tried to sound reassuring, the worry in his voice was evident. “Nick...he’s in a state institution right now.”

I gasped.

AJ’s eyes widened. “Hold on, let me continue. His attorney wanted to stall for time so he could build up a good defense. Besides with Nick still having amnesia there is no way that he could stand trial and try to defend himself.”

I shook my head as the news settled in. “He can’t be there. Not a mental institute. You know what that’s gonna do to him on the inside? How that’s gonna affect him!”

“I know, but there isn’t much choice Lizz.” AJ shrugged helplessly. “I don’t like the idea any more than you do, but what other choice is there?”

I shook my head again, more vigorously. “AJ you don’t understand! You know what it’s like to not feel ‘normal’? It’s one of the worst feelings in the world. Being in that place, for whatever reason, is going to make it so hard. Whatever the reason.” My voice was reaching the point of desperation. What was going to happen when his amnesia started to wear off? It was something that I didn’t even want to fathom.

“Hey, you gotta stay calm okay? You won’t do yourself any good by getting worked up.” AJ tried to reason.

I took a couple deep breaths and winced at the pain it brought. I guess those saintly pain meds were wearing off. I didn’t want to freak out. If I did, they would sedate me and I wouldn’t hear the rest. “Where’s Kyung?” My voice was very small.

AJ sighed. “They still have her. We don’t know anymore than that. And your parents...none of you are allowed outside contact or harm could come to one fo you guys in here or Kyung. That was reported back from who has Kyung.”

Tears sprung to my eyes. “Dale and Marcus. They’re the only ones that are left. Oh god, what if she...if they...” I couldn’t finish the words. I never felt so alone. I pointlessly tried to fight the tears that were streaming down my cheeks. Agnes’ threat sprung to mind. “AJ you have to go make sure Brian is okay. You can’t let her hurt him again.”

He looked torn, but finally relented. “I’m going to get your nurse. I’ll keep you updated okay?”

I nodded, anxious for him to get back to Brian. Besides, I didn’t want him to see me cry. I hated when people saw me cry. I felt like my mind was in a whirlwind. It was torn between Brian, Nick and Kyung. They were all in trouble and I couldn’t help them. I pounded my fist down on the bedrail and then cried out when a sharp pain knifed through the lower side of my back. It was a pain I felt more than seven months ago. Same place. I bit my lip and reached my good arm back to feel the area. Every part of my body was sore from Terri’s beating and I was already tender to the touch. I pushed on the spot where my kidney was and tried not to gasp. This was bad. Very bad...

~*~*~*~

Before AJ went up to Brian’s room, he snuck outside near the hospital
employee’s entrance to get a quick cigarette and to call Kevin and Howie and
let them know what was going on at the hospital. After a few minutes of
debating back and forth, Kevin and AJ decided it would be okay for Howie
and himself to come up to the hospital.

“I seriously doubt that old lady even knows the rest of us guys, it was just
dumb luck on my part or something and with her daughter being out of
commission with her surgery, my theory is tht one of us can cover Brian and
the other cover Lizz,” AJ stated to Kevin.

“Sounds like a good plan to me AJ. I’ll call Howie and we’ll be there as soon
as we can,” Kevin replied.

AJ closed up his cell phone and too one more deep drag off his cigarette
before flicking it to the ground.

“I gotta stop one of these days,” he sighed and then walked back towards
the hospital.
~*~*~*~
I sat on the edge of my bed, facing this Jalen person. He looked like a
bookworm, I didn’t know if he was crazy or semi crazy like me.

“So Nick, obviously Mandy didn’t formally introduce us,” he held his hand out
for me to shake. “My name’s Jalen, but I perfer to be called Jay.”

Jay? God that name sounded so familiar to me but I couldn’t place it at the
moment.

As I shook the hand that was offered, I couldn’t help but notice the tons of
freckles that ran up and down his arm and hands. He had deep red hair, wore
braces and was wearing glasses like the actor Drew Carey wore all the time.

“Oh, you like these?” Jalen asked. “I noticed you staring at them. They’re
requisitioned here. You can’t have any things that belong to you here at the
nut farm. Have you had your medical eval yet?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Medical eval?”

Jay let out a long sigh. “God, you know, medical evaluation?”

I folded my arms across my chest. “I dunno, she asked me some questions
and stuff, wasn’t that it?”

Jay started to chuckle. “Oh not even close, you’re gonna hate every bit of
it.” He looked at my face closer, pushing his thick glasses up with his finger.
“You wear contact lenses?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Kiss them goodbye after tomorrow,” Jay laughed.

A ringing bell, similar to ones you would hear in a school building caught his
attention. There was a strong buzzing noise and suddenly the door swung
open.

“Dinner Nick, come on, green block goes first this week!”

I stayed planted on the bed. “You go on, I’m not really hungry.”

Jay stopped and stared at me. “You better go cause they watch everthing
you do and I mean everything. If you don’t eat they’ll put you in the hole and
force you to eat.”

I shrugged my shoulders and stood up and followed Jay to the cafeteria. I
had a feeling this was going to be rough.
*~*~*~*~*
Agnes returned to her daughter’s room, her face flushed with anger. Her
plans were starting to unravel.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Terri asked, she could tell by the look on her
mother’s face that something was wrong.

Agnes sighed. “I just met that weird Backstreet Boy again,” she snapped her
fingers, “the one with the tatoos on his arms.”

“AJ mama, it was AJ. Why is he hanging around here, I thought you told
them no outside visitors.”

“Evidently this one isn’t too bright. I caught him in Brian’s room and Lizz’s
room. I think I fixed it this time though, I told him I might have to inject
air into Brian’s IV line,” Agnes grinned as she recalled.

“Better yet mommy find someone that’s dying of some disease and take their
needle and stick it into both Brian and Lizz,” Terri plotted.

Agnes gasped at the thought. “You sure are the evil little one.”

“Just like daddy is,” Terri piped up.

“Speaking of, I have tried their cell number and it just keeps ringing, I’m
starting to get a little pissed off at them,” Agnes stated.
~*~*~*~
Suddenly, the over head lights in the room flickered on.

“What the hell..” I mumbled as I took my pillow and placed it across my face.

“It’s six-thirty, rise and shine,” Jay mumbled.

“What the hell are we getting up for?” I questioned.

“Breakfast, therapy, med line and the most fun, work stations,” Jay replied
as he pulled his scrub pants on.

I heard the distinct sound of keys rattling outside our door. Quickly the
door was opened and Mandy entered our room, holding a chart.

“Nick, still not dressed yet? I need you to get dressed and follow me, you
will have your breakfast during our evaluation. Hurry, I will wait for you
outside this door,” Mandy cheerfully requested.

I slowly dragged my body out of bed and went over to the commode that was
in the corner of our room, no doors to aid in privacy. I got dressed and
quickly splashed water on my face and brushed my teeth and raked my hands
through my hair. I definately was not looking forward to this medical
evaluaton at all.

~*~*~*~

Officer Mallow sped down the long stretch of highway toward the station. He was pretty much in the middle of nowhere and his shift would be over by the time he made it back. He usually disliked patrolling this stretch because it was out in the boonies and he never got to see anything good. Today, however, he was relieved because that meant he would actually get off on time. He heard ESPN and a cold beer calling his name.

"What the hell?" He mumbled to himself as a very large object came to view in the distance. As he approached it he realized that is was a van. An overturned van.

"Shit." He cursed when he realized that this would prolong his shift. He could kiss that beer goodbye. He picked up his radio and called for backup.
When he reached the vehicle he could see broken glass everywhere. He turned on his flashing lights and the strobe effect stood out in contrast to the darkening area. He finally pulled to a stop behind the van and caustiously made his way towards it.

"Police! Anyone injured?" He called out, shining a huge flashlight over the crash scene. He was met with silence. The van was turned so that passenger side was closest to him. When Mallow shined his light into the window he saw a man leaning half inside it and and half out.

"Shit! Sir? Sir?" Mallow carefully leaned over and put the pads of his fingers agianst the man's throat. It was cold to the touch and it was obvious that he had been dead for awhile. Mallow shined the light further and noticed that there was a lot more blood than there should have been for just one man. Mallow walked around to the other side of the mangled vehicle and shined his light around some more.

Damn it! Where is my backup?! He thought to himself. As he tried to peer inside the van, his light fell onto the victim's face.

Mallow gasped. He recognized him from the picture that had been flashed all over the news.

~*~*~*~*~

This was not something I wanted to deal with right now. There was far too much going on for my kidneys to decide to start failing on me. They hurt, but with everything that had happened to me recently, I was getting used to constantly being in pain. It was going to have to wait. I was going to go see Brian.

I pushed the blankets away and gasped at the sight of my legs. They were a mess of black, blue, and faded yellow. Terri's beating. Gross. I carefully edged them over the side of the bed, wincing as I did so. If I hadn't been on some pretty decent pain meds, there was no way I would be doing this. I could barely move as it was. Very slowly and deliberately I went into the long process of turning all the alarms to silent and removing the bloodpressure cuff and oxygen that was attached to me. Man, was I going to get it good when I got caught. Then it hit me that Kyung wasn't here to catch me and my eyes filled with tears.

"Not now!" I berated myself outloud.

I was very dizzy on my feet, but I held tight to my IV pole. I'd just put my weight on it. As I inched towards the door I caught my face's reflection in the dark window, almost as clear as an actual mirror. Wow. Sick. I already knew about the white bandage that covered the stitches above my eye. The black eye from Terri was starting to fade, but the rest of my face was still pretty bruised. I guess I wouldn't be winning any beauty contests any time soon.

The hallway was pretty clear and I barely missed a nurse disappear into someone's room. I walked unsteadily towards the exit to the ICU, trying to act like I was supposed to walking around. It worked. I made it to the ICU doors and went right through. Call it practice from years of sneaking around hospitals or call it dumb luck, but I made it through. I was so floored that I had made it out, that it seemed to give me a boost of adreniline. I was still unsteady and dizzy as hell, but I had made it further than I thought. The elevators were right outside ICU and I pushed the button to go up. When the doors opened I noticed only one person inside. As soon as she saw me, she turned quickly away. Okay, I know I looked bad, but sheesh! That was rude. I didn't even get a good look at her until the doors shut and we started moving.

"Well well..."

The blood froze in my veins. That voice. I looked up and Terri's mother stood in front of me.

"What a pleasant surprise." She smiled, menacingly as she hit the stop button on the elevator.

Shit.

~*~*~*~
By Marcus’s stupidity, he allowed Kyung to walk in front of him for the last
hour of the hike. He had no idea where he was and was wishing that maybe
Kyung would figure a way out of the mess they were now into.

Kyung’s heart caught in her throat when she thought she saw a disinctive
flash of red and then of blue. She decided before Marcus noticed, she
grabbed her bad arm with her good and started running down the path, the
branches on the trees that hung across where beating unmercifully across
her face.

“HEY WHAT THE HELL!” Marcus called out from behind. “I THOUGHT YOU
WERE FINISHED WITH THIS DUMB ASS GAME!”

“I see a highway, maybe we can find help!” Kyung yelled over her shoulder.
She fell down once into the soft dirt as she climbed the hill, grunting when
she hit the ground.

“Take it easy,” Marcus hollered. He realized he was losing control of the
situation.

As Kyung crested the hill, she started screaming. A state trooper’s car was
parked alongside of the road, investigating an accident. She starting running
blindly towards the car.

Marcus was about ready to yell at Kyung but stopped. He crested the hill in
time to see her furiously running towards a policeman standing near an
overturned suburban.... their suburban! He suddenly realized that they had
been wandering through the woods in a complete circle. Marcus immediately
did a quick turn around and ran into the dense woods, trying to put distance
between himself and his hostage.
~*~*~*~
“Well, well, look what we have here,” Agnes glared at Lizz. “You look pretty
sad and pathetic, I guess that Nick Carter really did a job on you.”

Lizz narrowed her eyes at Agnes. “Don’t play that shit on me! You forget, I’m
not the one with trouble remembering things.”

Agnes laughed sarcastically. “Oh yeah, it slipped my mind. Well, you know
what? We have things fixed up pretty good for your friend Nick and your
friend Kyung too.”

Lizz felt her heart starting to beat faster, her chest was tightening.

“What do you mean?” she asked, trying to keep her composure.

“Well, Kyung is out in a cabin in the middle of the woods in Tennessee and as
for your young friend Nick, we have him convinced that the only way to save
his friends is to take the guilt and spend the rest of his life in prison. He’s
accepted it and he will be talking to a judge before the week is done. You can
kiss any chance of seeing him again in oh, about forty to sixty years from
now.”

“He won’t,” Lizz gasped, unable to get air into her lungs.

“Ah but he has to. You see, we told him if he screws with us Brian gets it.
Brian is his best friend and it will be easy to do him in unsuspectingly. A
little puff of air in his IV line and,” Agnes snapped her fingers, “poof, bye
bye Brian.”

Agnes pushed the button on the elevator to start up again.

Lizz was clinging onto the IV pole, trying to keep from falling over as a full
blown panick attack was building. By the time the elevator stopped on a
floor, Lizz was now doubled over, coughing and hyperventilating.

“Oh dear lord, somebody please! Someone help her! Help!” Agnes barely
yelled out as the doors opened. As she stepped out, she ran head on into a
man. She appologised quickly and then looked into the face and gasped.

I couldn’t catch my breath. God, I hope Nick isn’t feeling this. My heart was threatening to pound out of my chest and my legs were shaking so bad that I could barely keep standing. I heard Agnes start hollering for help and then apologize when she ran into someone. When I heard the reply, my head shot up at the familiar voice.

“YOU?!” Brian glared at Agnes as she stood there, looking uncomfortable. He was out on physical therapy rounds. The therapist was hovering behind him since he wasn’t very steady on his feet. He was ghostly pale and looked exhausted, but determined. His eyes shifted to mine and his jaw dropped.

“Brian.” I choked out, stumbling towards him. I started to fall, still gasping frantically, but his therapist caught me before I hit the ground.

“Easy now. Just try to breathe.” She urged. “Hey we need some help over here!”

Brian very slowly and carefully knelt down in front of me. “Lizz what’s wrong?”

“Brian...she...can’t...she...can’t...” I couldn’t even get the words out. I was totally panicking and everything was spinning around me.

“Shhhhh. Lizz, breathe!” Brian said softly, trying to calm me down.

“No! You...” I clung to him, determined to keep Agnes away. The frustration of not being able to get any air was too much. I was so afraid that Agnes was going to do something to Brian.

“Lizz, just take it easy. You’re gonna be fine. Take deep breaths.” He coaxed.

Meanwhile other nurses had appeared, one with an oxygen tank. I felt someone put a canuala on me and it got a little easier to breathe. The PT looked at Agnes.

“What exactly happened here?” Marilyn had a bad feeling about that woman that was standing there. The look of horror on her face when she ran into Brian was odd. It wasn’t fear of what was happening with this girl, but a fear of Brian’s reaction.

Agnes shifted her feet and wrung her hands nervously. “I...I don’t know. She stepped on the elevator and suddenly started freaking out. She doesn’t even look like she should be up and around.”

Brian looked up and glared at her. He was about to open his mouth to inform the small crowd that this woman was lying, but he stopped when he felt Lizz grip his arms harder. He looked at her questionably and she shook her head vehemently. Her eyes were wide with fear.

“What did you do to her?” Brian demanded angrily.

Agnes looked shocked. “What do you mean? I don’t even know her.” The last part was said with a hint of malice. None of the nurses seemed to notice it, but Brian heard it and obviously Lizz did because she began to tremble.

“Brian, please.” Lizz said softly, pleading.

The look in her eyes was desperate and he finally relented. Agnes smirked at them. How pathetic. She thought to herself.

Marilyn noticed the look on Agnes’ face and grew uncomfortable. Her patient looked furious and the girl that was clinging to him was obviously terrified for some reason. Two of the nurses began to lift Lizz onto a gurney so they could take her back to her room. They covered her up with a blanket and attended to the IV pump which began beeping shrilly.

“No! You can’t make me go back! Please!“ Lizz cast a pleading look towards Brian.

He watched helplessly. She needed to go back to her room, but he also wanted to know what had happened. He was totally spent and Marilyn noticed.

Let’s go back to your room okay?” She said softly, taking his arm.

He nodded and turned back to Lizz. He wanted to tell her it was going to be okay. That he would figure something out. She was already being pushed down the hall though, her voice softly carrying through the hall. He glared at Agnes, wanting to say something. The look that Lizz had given him stopped him though. He needed to find out what was going on first. She smirked at Brian and went back to talking to one of the nurses.

Brian sighed in frustration. His stomach hurt and he felt so tired suddenly. Too much had happened so fast. He and Marilyn walked slowly down the hall and upon turning the corner, he was relieved to see the familiar face that rushed towards him.

~*~*~*~*~

I was so disoriented. Things seemed to spin in and out of focus around me and every fiber of my being hurt. Was I ever going to get better? Probably not if I kept causing myself this damage. At least I accomplished something by doing this; I found out Agnes’ little scheme. My eyes filled with tears. I needed to warn them, but how did I do that without endangering their safety?

“Oh sweetie, I’m so glad you are okay. You sure gave me a fright!” Agnes suddenly appeared alongside the gurney and my chest immediately tightened. Damn it, I was just finally being able to breathe. I glared at her, but didn’t say anything.

She leaned close and whispered in my ear. “Don’t worry, you’ll be getting a nice visit later. Brian too. Too bad, he was the least annoying of all of you. Tsk tsk...You’ve already lost Kyung and now Nick, very soon Brian will be gone too.” She patted my shoulder and then walked down the hall.

Shit. Shit. She wasn’t going to do this. I couldn’t catch my breath all over again.

“Lizz? Lizz?” Their voices were a blur and I couldn’t stop the spiraling darkness.

~*~*~*~*~

“Help!!! Please!!! Help me!!” Kyung screamed frantically.

Mallow jumped a mile, dropping his flashlight, when he heard the sudden noise from the woods. “What the...” Ghosts? Surely not...

Kyung stumbled up to the accident site and dropped to her knees in fatigue. Her broken arm was throbbing her, but she didn’t care. She found someone. “Please, help me!” She cried.

Mallow retrieved his flashlight and shined it towards the young girl’s voice. His eyes bulged when at what the beam of light revealed. A young Oriental girl, not more than her younger twenties, smeared with dirt and blood. Her tear-streaked face was etched in a mixture of fear and relief. Realization dawned on him, it was one of the girls that was kidnapped. The one that hadn’t turned up. Until now.

“Miss? Shit, are you okay?” He mentally smacked himself for such a dumb question as he rushed towards her. She was shaking and crying.

“He...he’s out...there...” Kyung gestured over her shoulder into the woods.

“Who? Who’s out there?” Mallow demanded.

“Marcus...kidnapped...” She stopped and started to sob. Mallow took his jacket off quickly and wrapped it around her. She looked like she was going into shock.

“Miss? Look at me okay? Can you look at me?” Mallow tried to get her attention to no avail. Her sobs started to subside, but she had begun to rock back and forth, staring blankly ahead.

“Shit.” He reached for his walkie talkie. “I need backup!!”

Blind Rage 3
~*~*~*~
As I walked alongside Mandy, my mind was racing with questions of what I
was going to do. Was giving up my life and my freedom the right choice?
There weren’t any options, I thought to myself. This was something I had to
do, Brian’s and Lizz’s lives depended on what I did.

“Okay Nick, you can sit there,” Mandy pointed to a hard chair in front of a
small wooden desk. She placed a thick folder down and walked over and
closed the door behind me. I noticed my name was printed in the upper right
hand corner of the yellow folder.

The room was plain, white walls, dark navy carpet and no decorations on the
walls at all. A white office phone hung by itself on the wall furthest from
the desk.

As Mandy shuffled through the papers, occasionally marking things with her
pen, I swallowed hard, as if it was going to give me the courage I needed to
do what needed to be done.

“I want to make a confession.”

My voice sounded too shaky to me. I cleared my throat and spoke the
sentence again, this time with a touch of confidence to make it sound more
believable.

Mandy looked up from the paperwork, setting her pen down and folded her
hands together. “Okay Nick, what is it you’d like to tell me.”

I made sure my eyes locked directly onto hers. “I intentionally wanted to
hurt Terri. I wanted to see her dead, but my aim wasn’t so damn hot so I
ended maiming her instead. I would have done something to the rest of them
too if I had the chance. I wanted to shoot and kill Marcus but he was a
little stronger than me and he ended up shooting me in the shoulder.”

“What about Kurt, they found dead outside of the plane,” Mandy asked.

I tried to remember that person before I spoke. I recalled Terri kneeling
down by his frozen body, weeping and I remember accusing Lizz of
strangling him with a seatbelt.

“I got sick of his mouth and I took a seatbelt after the crash, and I choked
him. He was a little too hard to kill because of his size. I know you’re
wondering why I’m confessing to you now and why I didn’t say anything to
anyone sooner.”

Mandy didn’t speak, she only nodded.

“I thought I could skate through the system. Play insane and get off of jail
time with mental instabilities and serve a short time here and then be off
scott free. It was only after spending the night here I realized that I
couldn’t stand living here for another hour. Jail has to be far better than
this place.”

“Do you realize what you’re saying Nick?” Mandy asked.

“Yeah, that I’m a murderer and I need to be locked up for the rest of my
life,” I stated quietly. Deep inside of me I was scared to death. Deep inside
of me I wanted to cry out.

Mandy calmly got up and walked over to the telephone and punched in a
three digit number.

“Scott, I need you in conference east. Transfer to ISO nine for a d/c to
county. Thanks.”

“Okay those were all codes to me. I figured we were in conference east, but
the rest went over my head.

“What’s an iso nine and county?”

Mandy answered me and as she wrote notes in my chart. “ISO nine is
isolation unit number nine and county is county jail.”

My heart dropped. I was going back to the county jail. She bought my story.
My life was now officially over.
~*~*~*~
Brian was happy to see AJ’s face as he rounded the corner. He was starting
to feel sick to his stomach, which he remembered from back when he had his
heart surgery, it was his body’s way of telling him that he had done a little
more than he should have.

“That was a short walk,” AJ commented as he walked alongside Brian.
br>
His physical therapist was holding onto the strap that was around Brian’s
waist. “Just a little further to go, do you think you can still make it?”
Marilyn, the therapist asked.

Biting his lower lip in concentration, Brian nodded. His legs felt like he was
dragging chains behind him.

Brian appeared a little unsettled to AJ. He decided to fish a little to see if
Brian would break and tell him what happened.

“Meet up with autograph seekers in the hallway?”

AJ rushed to Brian’s side to help the therapist guide him back into bed. He
sat on the edge of the bed for a moment. As Brian lifted his legs to get back
into bed, his face contorted with pain.

“You did good Brian, I’ll be back later this afternoon,” the PT stated as she
left the room.

Brian waited until the girl had left before he told AJ what had happened.

“I ran into Lizz while I was out,” Brian stated.

“Oh god, what was she doing out of her room? She’s too sick to be wandering
the halls and besides, she isn’t on this floor. Was she alone?”

“Kinda sorta,” Brian replied. He was vague in his reply because his nurse came
into the room with a syringe.

“Boy Brian, Marilyn was right, you do look like you’re hurting,” the nurse
observed. “Okay, pain scale time. What do you rate it right now?”

“Probably a seven,” Brian sighed.

“Okay, I need you to face your visitor for a sec please.”

AJ winced when he figured Brian was getting the shot. He hated shots,
always had, especially when he saw someone else getting them.

AJ waited until the nurse left the room. “So, kinda sorta meaning she wasn’t
alone?”

Brian straightened his blankets, pulling them up to his chest. “Well, that
woman was....,” he trailed off, not sure what to tell AJ. He remembered the
look in Lizz’s eyes when he was going to tell the crowd outside of the
elevator about Agnes.

“That woman? The one that is always hanging around and stuff!? She was
with Lizz?”

“Agnes,” Brian stated.

“That nasty bitch! She threatened to do something to you guys if she felt
that things weren’t going the way she intended them,” AJ spat.

Brian started feeling drowsy from the pain medication. “AJ, go down to her
room, I don’t trust her and I want Lizz to be safe. Make sure she’s safe,
okay?”

“But what about...” AJ stopped in midsentence when he saw that Brian had
fallen asleep. He stood up and pulled the blankets up to Brian’s chest and
turned the lights off that were shining from the back of the bed. He walked
quietly out of the room towards the elevators.
~*~*~*~
Agnes stood in the doorway to ICU room number 18. The patient was fast
asleep, no doubt from all the medications that had been given. A slight
smiled played across her lips as she clutched the small white paper sack she
held in her grip.

‘This was going to be far too easy,’ she thought to herself. ‘Way too easy.’

~*~*~*~*~

It didn’t take long for the scene to be swarmed with police, state troopers, a wrecker, a fire truck, and an ambulance. Emergency lights flashed and commotion was wild. The obese man in the front seat of the suburban was immediately determined dead on the scene. Pictures were being taken of everything and glass from shattered windows was being swept off the road.

Kyung sat inside the ambulance, a thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She slowly rocked back in forth, not comprehending anything around her. Any attempt to get through to her had proven futile. She had retreated within herself like she had done before. It was a form of protection. After being terrorized and watching her friends be terrorized for that long, she simply couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Sweetie, I need to see your arm. I think it might be broken.” Lisa gently spoke to Kyung. She started to reach for her arm under the blanket and Kyung started to get upset.

“It’s okay, we’re here to help you. No one is going to hurt you anymore. We need to take a look at you okay?” Rick added soothingly.

Kyung wouldn’t have any of it though. Without knowing what she was doing, she fought against the paramedics. Worried that she was going to cause further physical damage to herself, the paramedics had no choice but to tie her down to the stretcher. They were unsure of her injuries and her violent struggling could cause her more injuries. It didn’t matter anyway because almost immediately she passed out from exhaustion. It was then that the medics were allowed to put her arm in a splint and see to the rest of her injuries.

“Is she going to be okay?” Lisa asked anxiously. She had only been a paramedic for a couple months and she was slightly overwhelmed.

“She should be. It looks like she’s got Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s no wonder with what they’ve been through.” Rick explained.

“Are we taking her to the same hospital that everyone else is in?” Lisa had been following it all and knew of the chaos that surrounded the hospital that was treating Brian, Lizz, and Terri. And previously Nick.

“No. First off, too much chaos. Secondly, Memorial is closer.” Rick glanced outside the ambulance to see what the sudden commotion was. “Shit! How did the press get wind of this already?”

~*~*~*~*~

AJ stepped off the elevators outside the ICU. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that something wasn’t right. His conversation with Brian was unsettling. He knew that Brian was holding something back. Brian had started to tell him what had happened in the hallway when he had seen Lizz, but stopped, unsure of himself.

He buzzed into the ICU and they let him go right on in, recognizing him. AJ pushed softly on the door to Lizz’s room and stepped around the curtain.

Agnes heard the door and whirled around.

AJ froze in his steps, seeing Agnes standing by Lizz’s bed. She was holding Lizz’s IV line in her hand and the sick feeling in AJ’s stomach grew.

“I wouldn’t make a sound if I were you.” Agnes stated quietly. She held up the IV line where she held a syringe in one of the infuser ports.

“What the hell are you doing?!” AJ hissed. “If you put air in her line you are going to kill her!”

Agnes shook her head and smiled tightly. “No no, dear AJ, I said I was going to put air in Brian’s line. This isn’t air.”

AJ glanced at the door behind him then back at Agnes.

“Oh it’s okay, no one will be in here for another 15 minutes. I have it timed perfectly. And you had better just cooperate with me.” Agnes addressed AJ’s thoughts smugly.

“What is that?” AJ nodded at the syringe. He was trying to stay calm. If he got upset then she might and then she might inject that stuff into Lizz.

“Do you know what it was that got Lizz into this mess in the first place? A medication called Albuterol. People take it in breathing treatments, much like Brian is getting right now. In fact, I happened to get this bottle out of his room while he was sleeping earlier today.” Agnes’ voice was slow and calculated.

AJ took in a sharp breath. She had been in Brian’s room?!

“See, the first time Lizz swallowed slightly more than three quarters of the bottle. Unfortunately this is merely a quarter. It isn’t enough to kill her, but it will definitely make her very very sick. She needs to suffer for what she and Carter did to my Terri.” Her voice was strangely calm.

“She did suffer. So has Nick. None of this is going to help your daughter.” AJ tried to reason with her.

“Yes it will. It makes me feel better already to think of what this is going to do to her. Even though it is only a quarter of the bottle, it is going to go straight into her bloodstream. She won’t die. But she is going to wish she would.” Her voice was flat.

“Lady, you are going to go to jail for this! You are going to leave your daughter all alone in here if that happens. Is that what you want?!” AJ tried to keep the desperation out of his voice.

Agnes ignored him. “Isn’t it ironic that the same drug that landed her in the first place is going to teach her a lesson now? This is only a fraction of what is going to happen if she opens her big fat mouth.”

AJ raised his eyebrows. This had something to do with what had happened earlier. Whatever had made Brian so uneasy. “You don’t want to do this. You don’t want to leave your kid in here by yourself do you? That’s what will happen if you get caught. She’ll be here all alone.”

Agnes let her eyes soften. “She can’t be alone. She is afraid of hospitals. She is hurting so bad and I can’t leave her.”

“Then put the needle down and walk out of here right now. I’ll make you a deal. You leave this room and stay the hell away from Brian and Lizz, and I won’t tell anyone you were in here.” AJ tried to bargain with her. He let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding when Agnes pulled the needle out of the infuser port.

“I can’t leave Terri.” She mumbled.

“That’s right. Go be with her.” AJ said, trying to keep his voice calm. He was livid, but if he blew up at her, that would not help. Then to his dismay, Lizz’s eyes began to flutter open.

I blinked and looked around. There was someone standing over my bed, but I couldn’t tell who it was at first. When it registered, my heart skipped a beat. I looked frantically around and AJ was standing a few feet from her. He was looked shaken.

“AJ?” I whispered.

Agnes whirled around to face me, eyes hardening. “Little bitch, you should have stayed asleep.”

“It’s going to be okay Lizz.” AJ tried to reassure me. I glanced at what Agnes was holding in her hands and my eyes widened, my chest growing tight. A syringe. She was going to kill me.

“Breaking news from the Backstreet Boys kidnapping case! I am here live at the accident scene. This white suburban you see here was the vehicle that carried the final missing victim and the last two kidnappers. The cause of the accident has not yet been determined...“

All three of us stared at the television, none of us moving. All I could think about at that moment was Kyung and if she was okay.

“The accident was fatal. One of the kidnappers, this man, was killed instantly when the vehicle rolled before it came to it’s final stop.“

The same picture that had been flashed all over the news since this whole mess started was shown. It was Dale. Dale was killed. Agnes gasped, tears forming in her cold eyes.

“The final victim in the kidnapping is alive, but her condition has not been released. It has also been stated that the deceased’s son, one of the kidnappers, has escaped and it still at large.”

Agnes turned to me, tears running down her face. “You. Will. Pay.” With that, she plunged the needle into my IV line pushed the liquid in.

When he saw that Agnes injected the contents of the syringe into Lizz’s IV
line, he didn’t stop and think about his actions, he just reacted by diving at
Agnes, throwing her onto the floor and ripping the IV line out of Lizz’s hand.

AJ was fine until he saw the blood running off of her hand and pooling onto
the sheets. He suddenly became nauseous and fainted.

Agnes scrambled to her knees. “You’ll pay now, I’ll make sure you pay!”

With that said, she quickly darted out the hospital room’s door.

“Lizz? What’s all the commotion going on in here---oh my god!”

Lizz watched helplessly as her nurse rushed over to an unconscious AJ,
slumped against a wall.

“What happened here Lizz?”

At first, Lizz didn’t want to tell the nurse anything, worried about putting
Brian at risk. Then she quickly decided that Brian was probably already in
trouble.

“Brian Littrell, he’s in trouble and you’ll find her there,” Lizz choked out.

“Find who Lizz?”

“Agnes, she said she was going to kill him, make him pay,” Lizz cried out.

Her nurse didn’t move from AJ’s side, waving smelling salts under his nose.
Lizz grew more upset and impatient at the way the nurse was purposly
avoiding her statement.

“Please, you have to get someone to help Brian, please!”

Blind Rage - Chapter Sixteen

~*~*~*~*~

Jason Whise let himself into Lizz’s room. He was a little nervous at how she was going to react when he told her that she had been falsely accused of murder. What if she did sue? Almost to his relief, she was asleep. At least he wasn’t going to have to deal with her just yet.

“What are you doing in here?”

Jason jumped at the angry voice. He turned around and immediately recognized the woman standing there as Lizz’s nurse, Sheila. She was glaring at him.

“Some of our information was misunderstood and the charges against your patient have been dropped. You can remove the restraints.” He informed her, his voice cold and hard.

“Oh that’s nice!” Sheila spat. “The damage has already been done! Do you realize the severity of the situation? I seriously doubt that you even have the slightest notion so let me clue you in. This poor girl, along with her friends, was kidnapped and terrorizied. Someone beat the hell out of her and shot her. I can’t even begin to understand what she went through. She can’t talk about it. Anytime someone tries to ask her about it, she starts shaking. Not only is her physical health in very serious condition, but her emotional health is extremely fragile. Tying her down caused her to have a panic attack and she had to be sedated. When she woke up, she panicked again and had to be sedated again. And now you are telling me that we can remove the restraints?! Well how nice of you!”

“Oh spare me the sob story. My client went through equally as tramatic experiences. She lost her boyfriend and will probably be paralyzed for the rest of her life.” Jason retorted.

“You came down here to tell me that I could remove the restraints right? Well you did, now get the hell out of my patient’s room.” Sheila narrowed her eyes into angry slits.

Jason smiled cockily at her and left the room. Sheila sighed heavily and went to remove the restraints from Lizz’s wrists and ankles. Being under sedation still, Lizz didn’t even stir. Sheila brushed a strand of hair of Lizz’s face and sighed again. Lizz was so alone. Her best friend was still missing and everyone’s families that were involved were not allowed near the hospital. If they did, Kyung died. Sheila knew at this time that there were only three people that Lizz would let near her without panicking. She didn’t know anything about Brian’s condition and the last she heard about Nick was that he had amnesia. That was what they had said when he was admitted. Sheila left Lizz’s room finally, trying to come up with something.

~*~*~*~*~

“Damnit, I could kill her for screwing us like this.” Dale muttered as they drove down the winding dirt road. They seemed to getting further and further out in the middle of nowhere. He was driving and Marcus sat shotgun. Kyung was tied down in the seat behind them. The suburban’s heater was broken so the three of them suffered in the cold temperature.

The longer this went on, the more Kyung worried that she wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. Macus was growing steadily more angry with her as every hour passed. It was only a matter of time before he let all his anger go on her. Kyung’s thoughts drifted to Lizz, Brian and Nick. She was so worried about them and not knowing what was going on was killing her.

~*~*~*~*~ Nurse Laura Shelton hung a new IV bag on her patient’s pole. He had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past few days, but he had finally woke that morning. He was still very weak from surgery and the damage from the fluid that had built around his heart and, by the looks of the dampness of his hair, Laura suspected that he was running a temp. “Nurse?” Brian called out weakly. His nurse obviously didn’t hear him so Brian tried calling out for her again. “Nurse?” “Hi, what can I get for you?” Laura asked cheerily. Brian attempted to clear his throat, hoping that would make his voice sound a little stronger. “My friends?” Laura nodded at Brian’s question. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know too much about them right now. Do you want me to check for you?” Brian managed a slight nod. “Okay, I’ll do that, but first I need to check to see if you’re spiking a temp, your face looks pretty flushed,” the red haired nurse said as she placed a thermometer into Brian’s ear. Instantly, the beeper went off on the small, white device. “Ah, just as I thought, 102.4,” Laura remarked as she looked at the reading on the thermometer. “Okay, let me tell your doctor about the temp and then I’ll check and see how your friends are, okay?” As Brian watched his nurse leave the room, his thoughts went back to Nick and Lizz. The last he remembered was hearing a gunshot and a man carrying Nick’s body saying he accidentally shot him. Brian couldn’t remember anything after that and wondered how long he had been out of it. ~*~*~*~*~ The police officer’s voice had a harsh edge to it. I didn’t waste any time getting the hospital gown off and slipping into the boxer shorts and the bright yellow coveralls. I couldn’t help but notice the words LARGO COUNTY JAIL PRISONER in bold black letters across the back of the coveralls. “Snap to it Carter, I don’t have all day,” the guard grumbled. I started to speed up on putting my socks on, then something struck me as being odd and I stopped. “What gives you the right to force me to jail? I haven’t done anything!” I insisted. “You wanna play tough guy now woman beater?” The officer had a sick sneer on his face. “Guys in there lump you in the same category as a child abuser, they’re gonna have fun playing with your candy ass. Don’t make me have to call for back up cause we’ll drag you screaming from here if we have to.” I still couldn’t understand why they were accusing me of hitting a woman, it made my head hurt trying to make sense of it. I sat on the edge of my bed and folded my good arm across the sling on the other one, I didn’t plan on moving for no one. “Okay, then the fun begins Carter, you ass,” the guard said sharply before he pulled his walkie talkie off his belt. “Mike, we need six backup room 815, stat!” Within a course of a few minutes, six uniformed state troopers entered the room. I tried my best to plant my feet on the ground, my body on the bed to no avail. Whether I wanted it or not, they were going to take me from the hospital to the jail. Desperate, I started jerking my body up and down, tried to squirm away from their grasp. One officer grabbed deep into the shoulder that had been shot, I screamed out from the firey pain it produced. I was oblivious to the stares and the flashes of light, which I assumed were camera flashes. I didn’t care I needed to get away from these people that were taking me away and had no right to do so. Once on the elevator, they literally dropped my body to the floor. “Now Carter, you can either cooperate or you can make an ass of yourself when we hit the main floor, your choice,” a short, fat county police office smirked. “I’ll be good...... I’ll be okay,” I lied. I had better plans when we reached the ground floor. “Just in case,” a policeman said as he wrapped a thick, heavy chain around my waist twice and then linked it through handcuffs and snapped them onto my wrists. The door ringed as it opened up to the hospital lobby. I ducked my head and bolted past the policemen in the elevator, running as fast as I could towards the doors. I could hear the footsteps ensuing behind me as I ran barefooted across the tiled floor. People were standing off to the side, staring and gasping as I ran past them. They must have thought I was a murderer or some really bad criminal. I set my sites to the exit doors, but to my dismay, it was packed with people standing in front of it either entering or leaving the hospital. I had no other choice as I lowered my head and took the large plate glass window next to the door.... ~*~*~*~ My eyes flew open as I felt like a thousand needles were stabbing my body all at once. I had been awake for the past hour feeling incredibly uneasy. That clenched feeling that I had grown accustomed to had come back, full force. I knew that it had to do with Nick. I wasn’t having a full blown panic attack like I had done before so I just laid there and tried to stay calm. When this sudden explosion of pain hit me, I started to panic. I heard the beeps of the heart monitor get more rapid.

“Lizz? Sweetie, what is it? Shit!“ Sheila burst in the room. She took in the monitors and then her patient breathing hard, eyes wide with fear. “Lizz you need to calm down. What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Hurts...please...he...he...” I gasped.

“What hurts? Who?” Sheila pressed.

I couldn’t even reply to her. I couldn’t catch my breath. All I could picture was that something had happened to Nick and visions of Dale, Marcus, and Terri only heightened my panic. It was like we were all back in that basement.

“Lizz breathe!!” Sheila tried to remain calm herself. In her 7 years of being a nurse, she had never seen a patient react this way. She called in some help and once again, the only thing they could do was sedate Lizz. Lizz wasn’t doing herself any good by getting so worked up. Her injuries were already serious and they were playing with some kidneys that were on the verge of failing. Now these panic attacks were only adding to the danger. If this kept getting worse like this, they were going to lose her.

~*~*~*~*~

Brian’s nurse Laura headed downstairs to the main floor. She thought Nick Carter would have been on the same floor as Brian, but he wasn’t there. She tried to call down to admitting multiple times, but after being put on hold a half a dozen times, she decided to just go down and see for herself. As she exited the staff elevators and walked around the corner, her jaw dropped at the scene before her. A man in bright yellow prison garb was running through the lobby with six troopers and a couple of county policeman on his tale. Her shock doubled when she saw that the escapee was Nick Carter. He seemed to hesitate briefly when he saw the press of people up against the main doors. Camera were flashing at a blinding rate. Then seeing no other choice, he ducked his head and charged through the plate glass window. Everyone seemed frozen in motion as he let out a cry as the glass shattered upon impact. Laura gasped and raced over to him. The troopers were already surrounded him. A few more were trying to get the crowd to back up.

“Let me through! Let me through! I’m a nurse!” Laura cried, shoving past the people that stood in her way.

Nick was hunched over on the ground, covered with blood. She knelt down by him.

"Let me see, hun." Laura tried to get a look at where he was bleeding from. He was covered in tiny glass shards.

He shrank away from her touch, yelling out.

"I'm a nurse! I'm not going to hurt you. Let me see where you are hurt." She said softly, yet urgently.

He finally looked up at her. He was going to say something, but one of the officers cut him off.

"He did this to himself. The prison infirmiry will check him over." He said gruffly.

"Absolutely not! You don't have any idea how injured he is. He needs to stay here at least until we can make sure that he didn't do some serious damage." Laura argued.

"Forget it lady. He has already proven that he is a threat." The same officer snapped at her.

"What are the charges against him?" Laura demanded. "That's none of your..."

A short, fat officer cut off the first one. "He attacked two women. One of which is in critical condition and the other is a parapalegic now."

Nick's head shot up. He beat up two women? What the hell?! There has to be some mistake! He thought to himself.

Laura immediately noticed the look on Nick's face. It was of total confusion. He had no idea what they were talking about and he looked horrified that they would insinuate that he would do such a thing. That made her even more determined to help him.

"Whatever the case, he needs to be checked out first." She insisted.

"No can do." The troopers scooped him up and dragged him through the crowd of people toward the van that had pulled up alongside the curb. Camera flashes were going a mile a minute and Laura could see the tears of humiliation streaming down Nick's face. She stood there helplessly as the van pulled away. Almost immediately people started to ask her questions and she ignored them all as she ran back inside the hospital. There were a ton of security around now. Some were cleaning up the glass, but most were trying to control the crowd.

Laura couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened as she headed for the ICU floor. She just couldn't believe that Nick Carter would beat two women as seriously as they say he did. When she reached the ICU's front desk she asked to see Lizz's nurse. To her mild relief it was Sheila. Sheila had worked on Laura's floor before moving to ICU so they knew each other well.

"How are you doing Laura?" Sheila looked very tired and weary.

"Been better. How's your patient? Brian Littrell is my patient and he has been asking about her." Laura replied.

"Not so hot. I don't even know what to make of it. Her kidney's are on the brink of failure and she was beaten pretty bad. She's got punctured lungs, broken bones, the whole nine yards. I'm more worried about her mental state though. She woke up awhile ago calling for Nick. She said that something was wrong and then started having a panic attack. She had to be sedated. Then when she woke up, she was having another one and she kept repeating 'hurts' and 'he...he' over and over. She hyperventilated and had to be sedated again. Her lungs are already weak and this is making things a lot worse for her. She won't even talk to anyone. Whatever happened when they were kidnapped, she seems like she keeps reliving it. Or she is convinced that something is wrong with Nick Carter." Sheila explained.

Laura's eyes widened. "Do you know that he has been arrested for assault on the daughter of the kidnapper and also Lizz? A bunch of troopers were trying to escort him out and he tried to make a run for it. He ended up jumping through a plate glass window. I tried to insist that he be taken care of before he left, but they wouldn't hear of it. There wasn't anything I could do."

"What?! You have got to be kidding me! Is he okay? He wouldn't attack a woman though! Besides, remember what happened last spring? He and Lizz stayed really close friends after that!" Sheila exclaimed.

"Maybe that is why she keeps freaking out. You said she won't talk to anyone right? Still...I can't believe that either." Laura frowned. "Brian keeps asking about them. Shit! How the hell do I tell him that his best friend is in jail and his other friend is..."

"Getting worse? I don't know. How bad is Brian? I don't know who else that could reach her at this point." Sheila interjected.

Laura shook her head. "He's not in that good of condition himself. He's spiking a temp and he's really weak from the surgery."

"And what about Nick? Are the parents still being instructed to stay away? Where are the other band guys? Can they help?" Sheila asked.

"I don't know..." Laura rubbed her eyes.

"So, basically we're in trouble here..." Sheila sighed. "They are the only ones that know what is going on with each other and none of them can even help each other."

By the time Laura returned to Brian’s room, pulmonary services were already there giving him a breathing treatment. She thumbed through his chart and read the report that indicated that the pneumonia had settled into both lungs. His condition further complicated the pneumonia since Brian was unable to move around as of yet. Brian’s eyes met hers and she knew exactly what her patient wanted. “Just wait and relax and do the treatment, we’ll talk after that, okay?” Laura laid his chart on the counter, her back to him. She was wondering how she’d be able to explain what was going on with Nick. This was going to be difficult no matter what she told him. She felt her body tense as she heard the final hiss of the medication going through the mask. “You sound much better, I’ll be back in two hours to give you another one,” the respiratory tech stated to Brian as he placed his stethoscope around his neck. “Thanks,” Brian replied, weakly. Brian waited for the tech to leave the room. “How’s Nick?” Brian blurted. “Shhhh,” Laura said as she placed her stethoscope on his chest, preparing to chart his progress. Brian waited anxiously for her to finish, he dutifully took deep breaths and let them out for her, coughing each time. After Laura finished writing in his chart, she walked over to his bed and sat down beside him. “Okay, I’m not sure how to begin this, but I guess it’s just better to say it instead of beating around the bush,” Laura said. “Initially, Nick was in this room with you, do you remember that?” Brian shook his head no, afraid of where this was leading to. “Well, once Nick didn’t need ICU services anymore, you know, sort of like graduated from intensified medical care, they moved him to a private room towards the end of the hall on this floor,” she paused, making sure the information was registering. “Okay, do you remember anything about possible charges being brought against Nick?” Again, Brian shook his head no. “Well, they placed him under house arrest, which was another reason why they moved him from this room to a new one.” “Why?” Laura shook her head. “I’m not totally sure, they were saying that he had beaten to women, one of them was Lizz and another woman was named Terri, who is permanently paralyzed because of the assault.” “I don’t understand,” Brian stated slowly, struggling to breathe. “Nick didn’t.” “I’m sure Nick’s lawyer is looking this over, try not to worry about his,” Laura said as she patted Brian’s arm. “Can I see him?” Brian asked. “Sorry, he was just discharged a little bit ago,” Laura apologized. “Why didn’t he stop here?” Brian asked, softly. “He, um, couldn’t, they have him in custody, remember?” Before Brian could respond, AJ walked into the room. “Hey Bri! Wow, you should see the lobby! Man, there’s broken glass and blood all over the place! They said some dude from jail tried to escape.!” AJ stated as he dragged a chair from the corner of the room over to Brian’s bed. “Nick,” Brian said quietly, looking at his nurse. Laura nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry, I tried to help, but they wouldn’t let me.” “Holy shit, that was Nick that went through that window?” AJ asked. “He’s okay though, right?” “From what I could see, he had a lot of cuts and scrapes, but they really wouldn’t let me go near him,” Laura replied. “How’s Lizz?” Brian asked. “Ironically, I ran into her nurse right after seeing the commotion in the lobby. She said that Lizz was holding her own, but was having setbacks of a possible kidney rejection and the panic attacks she’s been experiencing. I found out from her that when Nick has one, or when something happens to him, she feels it too.” “Yeah, we know all about that,” AJ replied. “It’s kind of been a long standing thing between Nick and Lizz.”

Blind Rage - Chapter 17

~*~*~*~ Blind Rage - Chapter 17

~*~*~*~ Kyung shivered as she listened to Dale and Marcus bickering in the front seat of the suburban. She was cold, tired and stressed out. Not a good combination for her. She ran a short fuse when she was stressed out and she was desperately fighting the urge to lash out at her kidnappers.

“Ya know, old man, you’re towing a thin line here. I’ve just about had it with you, I’m sick of you, sick of mom and especially Terri. To hell with all of this! I’m stopping at the next town and dropping your ass off. I don’t need your sorry ass dragging me down.”

“Think again boy!” Dale yelled as he jerked the steering wheel sharply towards the right.

Kyung barely had enough time to brace herself for the certain impact that was coming. There was yelling, swearing, tires screeching, the sound of steel crunching and then it was silent.

Dazed, Kyung found herself on the roof interior of the flipped over vehicle. As the smoke and dust started to settle, she quickly took inventory of her arms and legs, checking to see if everything was still in place and functioned. Moving her right arm caused a great deal of pain and Kyung decided that since it looked definitely deformed, she must have broken it.

Getting her bearings, Kyung looked around towards the front of the overturned vehicle. Dale was laying half in and half out of the passenger side window, the fixed look in his eyes told Kyung that he didn’t survive the crash.

Hearing moaning, Kyung looked for Marcus. She couldn’t see him from the inside of the car. She crawled towards the back and after kicking out the shards of glass from the broken rear window, she gingerly eased her body through.

She found Marcus laying on the ground, his body pinned underneath the suburban, only his upper torso exposed. There were short puffs of steam that escaped from his mouth, so Kyung knew that he was still alive and breathing.

Marcus turned his head from side to side, moaning loudly. His eyes finally fluttered open and then focused on Kyung.

“Bitch, get me out of here,” Marcus demanded.

~*~*~*~*~

Why is it that during the day there is nothing good on TV? I don't watch soap operas and I liked talk shows even less. They were all the same. Either the woman’s husband was cheating on her with her sister and then it ends up being a double cross because he was cheating on her with that sister’s husband or something gross like that. There was a knock on the door and I welcomed the distraction.

“Come in!” I called out.

“I bet you thought you were rid of us didn’t ya?”

My blood ran cold as I looked towards the door. Dale was standing in the doorway and he had Nick in front of him, his arms pinned.

“No!” I gasped.

“Or how about your best friend here?” Suddenly Marcus appeared, carrying Kyung’s limp body in his arms.

“Kyung?” I whimpered.

“She isn’t dead, but she’s gonna be!” Marcus barked.

“Where’s Brian?” My eyes darted back and forth between them.

Marcus laughed. “We already took care of him.”

“No.” I whispered.

“See, we’re giving you a choice.” Dale began, releasing Nick’s arms. Surprisingly, he didn’t try to escape or anything. But then I saw why. Dale was holding a gun. At the end of the gun was a silencer.

“You get to choose which one we kill next.” Marcus continued, grinning sadistically.

“No! No! I can’t...You can’t make me...” I cried.

“Fine! Then they both die. Say goodbye Lizz!” Dale yelled.

“NOOOOOO!!!!” I screamed as the muted sound of a shot rang out. It as immediately followed by another and I started to struggle in my bed. Dale grabbed me by the arms and I knew I was next. I thrashed in attempt to tear free of his grasp, ignoring the pain I was causing myself.

“Lizz! Lizz, calm down!” Sheila tried to hold Lizz down. She was thrashing all around and was going to bust her stitches if she kept it up.

“LET ME GO!” I hollered frantically.

“Lizz you need to stop thrashing! It’s Sheila! Lizz!!” Sheila persisted.

Finally I opened my eyes and sure enough, Sheila was standing over me. Dale and Marcus weren’t anywhere to be seen. I sagged against the pillows behind me and let out a choked sob. “They...they were here...he shot...he killed them...my fault...all my fault!” I gasped between my sobs. The pain from moving around so much was starting to catch up with me.

“Shhhhh. There’s no one here okay? You’re fine now. I’m going to give you some Demerol for the pain, alright? I want you to concentrate on taking slow deep breaths. Can you do that for me?” Sheila soothed.

“Where are they? Where are my friends?” I choked out.

“Sweetie, you need to worry about yourself right now.” Sheila started as she pushed the pain medication through my IV.

“No! Don’t you understand? All of this is my fault. I need to know what’s happened to them! Is Kyung in the hospital too? And where’s Brian? They didn’t give him his meds and he got hurt in the plane crash. And what happened to Nick? Something’s wrong! I know it is. I can feel it.” My voice got more and more frantic.

“Shhhh. You need to try to stay calm sweetie.” Sheila rested her hand on my forehead. “You are really warm.”

I started to feel sleepy from the Demerol, but I didn’t want to sleep anymore. I wanted answers. I didn’t care how much pain I was in. I needed to know where my friends were. Sheila stuck that temperature thing in my ear and waited for the beep. I tried my hardest to fight the drowsiness, but it didn’t matter. The drug was winning and I barely heard her tell me I had a temperature before I fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~

“So you’re saying that Nick was taken to jail?” AJ demanded.

Laura sighed. “Yes. I tried to convince the state troopers that he needed to stay longer, but they wouldn’t listen.”

“He went through a window?” Brian whispered, still shocked at what he was hearing.

Laura immediately noticed the look on his face. “I don’t think he was seriously injured though. Just some cuts and scrapes from the glass.” She added quickly to allay his fears.

“Does he even know why he was taken to jail? He had amnesia.” Brian could feel tears stinging the back of his eyes.

Laura looked away from him. “I don’t think he did.”

“He’s gotta be totally freaked out.” AJ muttered darkly. “I wish I was in here when they tried to take him away.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you really would have helped matters.” Brian raised an eyebrow at AJ, knowing how he was around authoritative figures.

“I could’ve done something.” He insisted.

“What about Kyung? Is she okay?” Brian asked suddenly

. Laura flinched. She didn’t want to have to be the bearer of bad news once again. It occurred to her that he might have assumed that Kyung had been with Lizz this entire time. He didn’t know that she was still being held by the kidnappers.

~*~*~*~*~

“Excuse me?!” Kyung narrowed her eyes at Marcus.

“I said, get me out of here, bitch“ He repeated, putting emphasis on the last word.

“I don’t think you are in any position to be talking to me like that.” Kyung glared at him.

“I don’t care what position I’m in. Get your ass over here and get me out of this. What do you think you are gonna do, wander off and get help all on your own? We’re out in the middle of fuckin nowhere. You’ll die.” Marcus sneered.

“Oh is that right? Looks to me that I will have a better chance at surviving than you will, pinned under that suburban.” She retorted.

“If you don’t get me out of here...” He threatened.

“You’ll what? Shout more insults at me?” Kyung laughed bitterly. “My friends are probably dead because of you! Our plane fucking crashed and instead of giving up your vendetta against us, you continued on. You sick shit, I should leave you here to die. You deserve it!”

Marcus looked shocked at the amount of hatred that resonated from this girl’s voice. She wouldn’t really leave him here to die would she?

“You didn’t give a shit about Lizz when she was freezing to death in the snow. You didn’t care when Terri almost beat her to death. You only pretended to care about Brian being pinned against that seat, only to carry on that stupid charade. You freaked out when you shot Nick only because you didn’t want to go to jail. But then you proved that you didn’t give a shit when you had a chance to escape and you left him there to bleed to death. MY FRIENDS ARE PROBABLY DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!!!” She screamed as she turned on her heel and started walking away.

A sense of panic started to creep over Marcus. “Kyung. Don’t leave me here. Don’t let me die.” His voice cracked.

Kyung halted midstep. As much as she wanted to leave him there, she couldn’t. She wasn’t like them. She couldn’t kill. She sighed loudly and turned back around.

~*~*~*~ After I was processed into the system, they led me to a small room telling me that I had a visitor. I was guided towards a plastic chair across from my attorney, Spencer Marshall and sat down.

“Take the cuffs off him!” Spencer growled. The guard sighed and quickly snapped the hand cuffs from my wrists.

“Now leave the room,” Spencer ordered.

“Hey, I got explicit instructions to stay with this inmate during the interview,” the guard replied.

“I don’t give a shit about your instructions, I’m taking full responsibility for my client, now get the hell out of here,” Spencer demanded.

We waited until the guard had left the small room and then Spencer leaned forward, evidently looking over the cuts and scrapes on my face.

“That doctor did a piss poor job stitching your forehead up,” he remarked as he brushed the hair away. “That’s definitely gonna leave a nasty scar.”

I didn’t answer him, I didn’t care at this point about scars or anything else. Here I was stuck in a jail and I had no idea why or what I did.

After he pulled out a yellow legal pad and uncapped a pen, the attorney sighed and started asking me questions.

“Nick, do you have any idea of why you were sent here?”

I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head no.

“Do you remember being kidnapped?”

I tried to think but nothing came to me. My memory was still pretty fuzzy.

“You know who you are though, right?”

I laughed at the stupidity of his question. “Yeah, I know who I am.”

He didn’t seem to believe me, he stared at me over the top of his glasses that had slid down his nose.

“Nick..... Nick Carter, okay?”

“At least you have that figured out. I don’t understand why you can’t remember specific events over the past few months. For right now, I need to stall for time so we can gather a good defense for you. I’m going to request psychiatric evaluation to declare you insane and unable to stand trial. Don’t worry, it’s only to show that you’re mentally unable to defend yourself, not to have you committed.”

~*~*~*~*~ AJ, Kevin and Howie took a seat in the crowded courtroom, waiting for Nick to appear.

“I still am having a hard time believing they can pull this shit on Nick,” AJ whispered harshly to Kevin and Howie.

“I know, AJ, I know,” Kevin replied.

“I mean the guy has fricken amnesia for crying out loud. How the hell is he supposed to defend himself?”

A restless AJ kept shifting his weight in his chair and drumming his fingers on the armrests. “What the hell is taking them so long?”

Howie nudged AJ and pointed towards the doors that were opening. “Here he comes now.”

The threesome focused their attention to the opening doors. Nick slipped through, escorted by two uniformed county deputies. His hands were handcuffed together in front of himself. His face was scraped and red looking. The fat lip with the cut across the corner of his mouth didn’t help matters much with him looking like a trouble maker.

AJ wanted to get Nick’s attention, but he was walking with his head bowed, not making any eye contact with anyone or anything in that courtroom.

“All rise for the honorable Justine Briggs,” the bailiff called out.

~*~*~*~*~

“I don’t know what the hell you expect me to do. Especially with a broken arm.” Kyung huffed as she stared at Marcus.

“I can feel my legs. They’re just trapped.” He replied.

“Too bad they aren’t broken.” Kyung muttered.

Marcus started to respond, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to run the risk that she would leave him.

Kyung leaned down and tried to lift the part of the suburban that was covering his legs. Of course with only one arm, she couldn’t budge it.

“What if you put that bar under here and then put your weight on it and maybe I can slide out.” Marcus gestured to a piece of the suburban that was broken off. It was as long as the bumper and had a similar shape. Kyung wondered what part of the car it came from. She could shove one end under the car and put something there to see-saw it. Then she could put all her weight on the other end and see if it was enough for him to get himself out.

After many failed efforts and frustrated words, Kyung finally managed to use that method to budge the suburban. It just barely slid a little, but it was enough. Marcus slid out and shakily stood up. Amazingly he didn’t have any broken bones. Only some scrapes and bruises.

“Nice job bitch, now lets go before we get caught.” Marcus smirked at her as he grabbed her good arm.

Kyung balked. “What the hell are you doing?! I just saved your life you asshole!” She yelled as she tried to twist out of his grasp.

“Yeah and thanks, but that doens’t change anything. So shut up before I get mad.” Marcus shrugged.

Kyung boiled with rage. “Fuck you!” She twisted around and kicked him, as hard as she could, between the legs. Marcus let out a high-pitched scream and dropped to the ground, curling into a ball and moaning. Kyung took that oppurtunity to escape. She started running as fast as she could. To her dismay, his angry voice begane to follow.

“YOU BITCH! YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!” He screamed as he ran to catch up with her.

The lack of food, sleep, and level of emotional stress was taking its toll on Kyung. He was gaining on her and she couldn’t do anything about it.

~*~*~*~*~

Agnes walked brusquely towards Lizz’s room. She had been advised to stay away from her, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to make sure that she was suffering as much as her Terri. Agnes smiled at the thought of Nick in jail. He was going to get it in there alright! She wanted to pay a visit to Brian as well, but security around him was too tight. She had to settle on Lizz.

I was just starting to wake back up when I heard a knock at my door. Before I could answer, the door opened. Terri’s mother walked in and smiled at me. I felt my heart move to my throat.

“What are you doing here?!” I whispered. I didn’t want her to see that I was afraid.

“Oh I just wanted to see how you were.” She smiled sweetly at me.

“Bitch, liar.” I glared at her.

Her demeanor changed. Her eyes narrowed and her lips curled into a viscious smile. “Oh but I did. I just wanted to see if you were suffering as much as you should. I’ve heard you are having a rough time of it. Poor baby.” She sneered. “It could be worse. You could be missing still. Or you could be in jail.”

Oh god, what did she mean? What was she talking about?! I started to shake.

Her grin turned even more sinister. “Oh! You mean you didn’t know?!”

~*~*~*~*~

“What’s wrong? Is she...is she?” Brian didn’t want to finish the thought.

“No! Well, I don’t know.” Laura said finally. “The kidnappers still have her.”

Brian felt sick. “No.” He whispered.

“We haven’t heard much.” Laura said, somewhat apologetically.

“And Lizz...” Brian trailed off. “Who’s with her?”

Laura shook her head.

“Oh god. I have to see if she is okay.” Brian shifted his eyes back and forth between AJ and his nurse.

“No way. Not yet anyway. Not until you are in better condition.” Laura stated firmly.

“AJ will you go check on her?” Brian asked anxiously.

AJ nodded. “Just stay calm okay?”

“Nick, god, what do you think is happening with him?” Brian felt even more sick at the idea of his best friend sitting in jail for something he didn’t do.

AJ froze when he heard Brian remark about Nick’s predicament. He didn’t have the heart to tell him what had happen earlier in the afternoon in court.

“I’ll be back in a minute after I check on Lizz for ya,” AJ managed to call out as he left the room.

As he walked down the hall, AJ’s mind filled with the scenes of the court hearing earlier in the day. Nick never made eye contact with them, he just stood in front of the judge, his head hanging down. They had chains wrapped around his waist, connected to his wrists and they made a noise that AJ decided he would never forget for the rest of his life. He shuddered when the memory of the noise crept into his mind.

”Your honor, I wish to declare my client emotionally incapable of defending himself. He was insane at the time the alleged events took place.”

”Nickolas Carter is remanded to Fulton State Emotional Rehabilitation Institution for observation and testing and if need be, treatment. Court is postponed for a period of no less than thirty days and will reconvene at that time on 20 June, 2001.”

AJ squeezed his eyes shut as the door to the elevator closed. The last image he had was of Nick being led away to some state nuthouse and there wasn’t a damn thing any of them could do to prevent it. How could he tell that to Brian? That would kill him.

“Yes, your little perfect friend, or should I say your six foot tall friend has been arrested. I can’t believe you don’t know about that, it’s been on the news,” Agnes taunted as she turned on Lizz’s television set. “Oh, and don’t worry, he did put up a fight as they were taking him away from the hospital. You see though, Nick isn’t very bright, he jumped through a plate glass window on his way out instead of taking the door.”

Lizz narrowed her eyes at Agnes. “What are you talking about?”

“You again? What are you doing in her room?” AJ’s voice boomed from the doorway.

“She’s the one AJ, she did this to us!” Lizz cried out.

Agnes tried to laugh Lizz off. “Oh, the stuff they put these people on, makes their minds a bit crazy,” she made a circle with her finger next to her temple.

“AJ! Her name is Agnes and she kidnapped us! Her and her daughter and the rest of her freaked out family!”

AJ hadn’t moved from when he entered the room, his mouth hanging open. Anges laughed.

“See Lizz, see how farfetched your story is? I mean, who would think a fragile old woman like me would kidnap young and vibrant people like yourself? Even this boy has difficulty comprehending your story.”

Almost as if on que, CNN showed a video of Nick, in bright yellow prison garb, running in the hospital lobby and then jumping through a window. Lizz gasped when she watched it.

“I think you need to come with me and talk to the police,” AJ finally spoke.

“You seem to be forgetting our deal here,” Agnes whispered harshly to him.

“Huh?”

“No one, no family or friends are supposed to be here at the hospital! You broke that and so now watch Brian or Lizz get their just rewards,” Agnes spat.

“Lady, you just admitted you are one of the kidnappers!” AJ glared.

“Tsk... tsk.... tsk,” Agnes reprimanded. “Now, be a good little Backstreet Boy and mind your own business or Brian could end up with a big ole injection of air in his IV line, that could foul things up really bad. You know that would travel to his heart and kill him in seconds.”

With that being stated, Agnes stormed past AJ, leaving him standing in the doorway, stunned.

Blind Rage - Chapter 18

~*~*~*~*~ I stared out the window at the huge brown brick building. FULTON STATE INSTITUTION was printed on a sign in the front. This was all a really bad dream and I couldn’t wake up from it. I stared at the man as he unhooked me from the heavy bolt on the floor in front of my seat.

“Okay, come along with me,” he said, glancing up as he handed a folder to me.

I glanced down at the big tan folder. It had my name and ID number written across it. It looked odd, Carter, Nickolas Gene, 360825246.

They led me to a windowless room, two chairs and a table was situated in it. The humming of the florescent lights made it sound like one of those interrogation rooms you see on police movies and stuff. As I sat down in a chair, a young woman with striking blue eyes and long dark hair entered the room. She was dressed in tan khakis and a dark blue shirt with the word Fulton embroidered on the left side of the shirt in white lettering. An identification tag had her picture on it and the name Mandy.

“Please, you can take those stupid handcuffs and chains off of him, I’m sure he will behave,” Mandy said as she sat down in front of me.

She slid the folder away from me and opened it up, taking the papers out and placing them in front of her.

“Hi Nick, my name is Mandy, I’m one of the counselors here at Fulton,” she smiled.

I had a big lump in my throat and I knew if I opened my mouth to speak I would either start crying or nothing would come out. I kept quiet.

“Okay, looks like you’ve been recovering nicely from the accident you had in that plane crash, that’s good. You have no other medical history besides that, right?” Mandy spoke aloud to me as she read through the chart. “Oh, wait, you’re on meds for seizures? Okay, we’ll make sure you get those like you should,” she looked up and smiled.

There was something about her that made me feel at ease. For the first time in weeks, I found myself smiling. It wasn’t much but it was more than I had been doing.

“Okay, looks like these people can come and see you, that’s good, we encourage family and friends,” Mandy remarked as she continued to look through the papers.

“He’s not to have any contact,” the man that brought me here remarked.

Mandy shot her head up and gave the man a not-so-pleasant stare. “Why are you still here? He’s my patient and he’s in my care, go, your job is done now.”

I smiled again, I liked Mandy’s style...... a lot.

~*~*~*~*~

I barely noticed Agnes march past AJ. My whole focus was the television. They showed Nick running through the plate glass again and I flinched.

“That’s what I felt.” I said softly.

“What?”

I turned my eyes to AJ. He still looked stunned by Agnes’ confession. His gaze flickered from me to the television.

“A thousand needles stabbing my body all at once. It scared the hell outta me. Until now, I didn’t know what happened. It was him jumping through the window though.” I murmured. Her last words sunk in. “Where’s Brian? Oh god, AJ, you can’t let her hurt him.”

“I’m not letting her near him. Lizz who was that woman? She was involved in the kidnapping?” AJ pressed.

I nodded. “That was Terri’s mother. Remember, Terri is the one who sent the Enquirer pictures of Nick and I in here. She, her mom, dad, brother and boyfriend kidnapped us. They...they...” I stopped, my voice choking up. I shut my eyes, but that made it worse. Images of that basement, the cages, Kyung’s trance, Marcus carrying an unconscious Brian after he collapsed in the heat, Nick having a seizure, them whipping him when I tried to escape. Then the plane crash and when I first realized Nick had amnesia. How my heart sank when he thought I was the kidnapper. How he blamed me. And he was right. It was my fault. And now all this...I didn’t even realize I was crying until AJ put a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey, shhhhh, don’t cry. It’s going to be okay.” He soothed.

“What happened AJ? Why is Nick in jail? Where’s Kyung? Where’s Brian?” I whispered.

He looked pained. I know he was afraid of my reaction and hell, I was afraid of what I was going to hear. I rested my hand on his arm. “Please, AJ, I need to know.”

~*~*~*~*~

There was a knock at the door and both Nick and Mandy looked to see who it was. One of the employees opened the door partway.

“Carter, you have a visitor.”

Mandy looked at Nick and he shrugged. “Well I am going to go make a few phone calls and I will be back alright?”

Nick nodded, wondering who his visitor was when he wasn’t supposed to have contact with anyone.

His question was answered when a scruffy man walked in and sat down. He didn’t speak, but waited for the orderly and Mandy to leave. The door was shut behind them and it was only Nick and the scruffy guy in the small room. He was wearing dirty jeans and a blue shirt that indicated that he worked at a car repair shop. There was dirt and grease underneath his fingernails. Nick stared at him, trying to figure out who he was. The man didn’t make him feel very comfortable. The stranger seemed to take notice of that and was amused by it.

“Trying to figure out who I am?” The man smirked. “Trying to trying to work through all those holes in your head to place me? Well, don’t worry, you won’t. You have never seen me and you are going to forget my face as soon as I leave here. I am only delivering a message for my sister. I guess it sucks to be sitting in this nuthouse and being on trial when you have no idea what you did.”

Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What the hell was going on?! He wanted to jump up and shout at this person to leave, but he felt frozen to the chair. The man continued.

“You’re on trial for the assault of two women, huh? You don’t believe you did this right?” When Nick didn’t respond, the man barked, “I asked you a question!”

Nick’s eyes widened and he shook his head slowly.

“Well I don’t give a shit about this Lizz person, but you messed up my niece. Don’t think you are getting away with it.” The man snapped.

Nick’s mind reeled. His memory was trying to come back and he vaguely remembered the scene that had transpired in the snow before they were rescued. He remembered Terri dragging Lizz over in front of him and yelling like a crazed lunatic at the top of her lungs.

“ Here's your truth, Carter. Seven months ago you tried to kill yourself. Lizz here tried to stop you by saying she was going to drink some medicine that would kill her. Well she was too late. She didn't quite do the job because you still took the pills. You both ended up in the hospital. You both almost died. My niece would have made a shitload of money off of both of you selling information to the National Enquirer, but you and your stupid friends had to ruin that!"

"Then I was told she started beating the crap outta that Lizz girl."

Nick’s jaw dropped. He didn’t assault Lizz! It was Terri. He didn’t really remember Lizz, but he knew he wouldn’t attack her.

The man narrowed his eyes. “I just have a little advice for you, Carter. It would be in your friends’ better interest to not fight these charges. See, my sis is pretty upset about her daughter and you still need to pay. Both Brian and Lizz are in the hospital and from what I have heard, they are having a pretty rough time. Brian has pneumonia and as you know, he was shot. Not to mention the complications of missing whatever the hell meds he takes. And Lizz hasn’t been able to even get off the morphine yet. You should see her. Ha! Oh, I heard her body might be rejecting her kidneys now too. The best part is that has to be sedated every time she wakes up. I guess she is having a hard time dealing with this.”

“How the hell do you know all that?!” Nick demanded hoarsely. He hadn’t expected to hear any of this.

“Don’t ask questions Carter. Just know that if you are declared innocent, then you will make things a lot more complicated for your friends. Weigh your options carefully boy. And if I hear that you have told anyone of this conversation, either Lizz or Brian won’t be leaving the hospital.” The man smiled sadistically at Nick and let himself out.

Nick’s heart was pounding and the tiny room seemed to get smaller. He knew that Mandy would be back so he tried to get a handle on his emotions, but he couldn’t get past that man’s words. He felt like he was about to unravel.

~*~*~*~*~ “Marcus, why don’t you just give it up and turn yourself in?” Kyung sighed wearily. She was carefully holding her broken arm. Any sort of movement gave her chills, not to mention intense pain. Plus her face still stung from Marcus’ slaps when he finally caught her after she had kicked him. He was absolutely livid and he had let her have it good.

“Shut up.” He said sourly.

“Seriously, do you have any idea where we are going?” Kyung pressed. They had been walking for the past half hour into the middle of nowhere. It was very woodsy and Kyung was afraid they were lost.

“Shut up.” Marcus repeated.

“What happens when it gets dark and we are out here in BFE?! You don’t know where we are do you?!” Kyung continued stubbornly. God she was turning into Lizz.

“Shut up.”

“You ever think about expanding your vocabulary?” Kyung glared at the back of his head as she tried to keep up.

“Alright. Shut the fuck up.”

Kyung shook her head as they continued deeper into the forest. She knew it was pointless to try to escape, as she had gotten caught twice already. She was no match for Marcus and she knew it. She didn’t want to, but she let her mind drift towards her friends. Her eyes filled with tears and she wondered if they were alive and if they were would she would ever see them again?

~*~*~*~ I sat at the table, stunned. My best friend’s life was at stake and I was the only one that could save him. I didn’t hear Mandy when she came back into the room.

“Nick, I have your locker assignment and your room. There are a couple of things I need you to do first before I show you to your room,” Mandy stated as she sat back down at the table.

I must have been staring off into space because suddenly, her face was directly in front of mine.

“Nick? Are you with me?”

I straightened myself up in the seat. ’I gotta stay focused, Brian needs me to be focused.’ I kept coaching myself. “Oh, sorry what did you say again?”

“Okay, this is just a quick assessment to check your cognitive level,” Mandy said as she looked down at the chart. Okay, I need you to give me your full name.”

“Nickolas Gene Carter.”