“Silent night… holy night… all is calm, all is bright…” she whispered to her baby as she cradled her newborn daughter in her arms, tucked in a warm, pink fleece blanket. “Round yon virgin mother and child… holy infant so tender and mild…”

He watched her from the dark corner of the house, the flashing colored bulbs that were strung on the Christmas tree revealing his image and dark eyes. He continued to stare at his mom, who was rocking his new baby sister back and forth… back and forth… back and forth.

“Sleep in heavenly peace…” she continued to sing, taking a pause to see if her daughter had fallen asleep.

“Mom…” Billy said, coming out from the shadows of the dark corner. “Can you help me write my letter to Santa now?”

“Shh…” she signaled to her 5-year old son, glancing down at her new “pride and joy” again. “Sleep in heavenly peace…” she ended the song in a whisper, gently placing her in her crib and giving a tender kiss on her forehead.

Billy continued to glare at his mother who was showing his new baby sister all the attention. He broke out of his trance when he heard his father clumsily enter the room, a bottle wrapped in a brown bag in hand. He stumbled over to the end table that was near the Christmas tree and reached out to a plate of cookies that were placed there. Billy now stared at his father as he watched him pick up a cookie that he left strictly for Santa and ate it, taking another swig of his alcohol right after.

“You still haven’t told this fucking kid that Santa doesn’t exist?” he slurred out to his wife, who was still tending to her sleeping daughter, but she paid no attention to him.

He continued to stare at her and just released a chuckle, placing the bottle to his lips and taking another big gulp. He hissed as he felt the bitter alcohol slip down his throat, burning the whole way down. “Hey Billy!” he called out.

Billy looked over to his father who had now grabbed the glass of milk and had downed it all in one breath. He looked down at his son, not even bothering to wipe away the white mustache he had now, “The next time I find you wasting our food for some fat ass that doesn’t exist, I’ll kick your ass, you hear me?”

Billy didn’t reply, he just glowered at his drunken father. He simply smirked in return as he slammed the now empty glass down on the table. He grabbed the plate of cookies and began walking away, “Same goes for the milk.” he said just before he disappeared back into his room.

Billy’s eyes shifted over to his mother, who had been watching her drunk husband the whole time. As soon as he walked into their room, she followed, closing the door behind him. Everything was silent for a moment, Billy being able to hear the hush voices of his parents talking through the closed door, but all of a sudden their talking escalated into yelling, both of them fighting to get their point across.

“You’re nothing but a fucking drunk!” he heard his mother yell just as she ripped the door open and walked out. Right as she closed the door, they heard a loud bang and then glass shattering. She closed her eyes as tears forced it’s way out and slipped down her cheeks. She stayed like that for a moment until she finally decided to open her eyes and seen her little son through her blurred vision.

“C’mon sweetie…” she whispered with a smile, trying to blink back her tears. “Lets go work on that letter to Santa, okay?”

Billy remained silent and still, just staring at his mother. She sighed and made her way over to him, figuring that he heard everything that went on and was scared. “Hey.” she said as she knelt down in front of him, taking his hands into hers. “Daddy and I was just talking, okay? You know Daddy didn’t mean what he said, he’s just…” she fell silent, trying to find a way to explain to him that his father was drunk, “not feeling well right now, and he’s a bit agitated. Lets go into the kitchen and write that letter to Santa, we’ll also go get more cookies and milk for him, okay honey?”

Billy didn’t show no reaction, he just remained silent and continued to stare at her. Finally after what seemed like eternity, he slowly nodded his head. She smile and rose, “Okay, c’mon sweetie.” she said as she began walking into the kitchen. He trailed slowly behind, looking around the kitchen as if it was foreign to him.

“I’ll be right back, I’m gonna go get you a paper and pen.” his mother said as she walked off.

Billy continued scanning the kitchen, looking everything over. He journeyed over to the sink where he found the pack of Oreo cookies he opened to leave out for Santa. He grabbed a stool and had pushed over towards the sink. As he reached to grab the pack of cookies, something glimmering in the sink caught his eye. He looked down and found a large knife in the sink, waiting to be washed. Slowly he reached in and grabbed the dirty knife, watching as the suds of soap trickled down, revealing the shiny metal beneath.

He jumped off the stool and made his way back to the dining table with the pack of cookies just as his mother walked back into the kitchen, paper and pen in hand. She looked down at the pack of cookies her son had just placed on the table, “Oh, you grabbed more cookies for Santa?” she asked him with a smile as she placed the paper and pen down in front of him.

Billy kept his eyes on her, but then his eyes slowly glanced down at the paper and pen that was now in front of him. His mother’s brow knitted in confusion as she noticed this distant look in her son’s eyes. “Are you coming down with something sweetie?” she asked as she placed a hand upon his forehead, feeling no warmth. “You look a little sick.” she bent down a little to get eye leveled with him. “You know, my mom used to give me hot chocolate during this season whenever I was sick, it always made me feel better so that just might do the trick.” she said as she walked away from him, going over to the pantry to look for the box of hot chocolate.

Billy looked over towards where his mom walked off, noticing that she was now busy looking for hot chocolate in the cupboard. He jumped off his seat and slowly made his way over towards his mother, bringing the large knife from behind his back.

“Honey, do you want marsh-” she was cut off as she felt an excruciating pain explode in her back. She gasped , feeling whatever it was slide deeper into her back. She tried to speak, she tried to scream, but nothing came out, she could only whimper as she felt whatever it was that was in her back quickly leave her. She slowly turned around to find her 5-year-old son standing there, bloody knife in hand.

Tears immediately flooded her eyes, not because of the pain, but shocked to find out that her own son just stabbed her in the back and now she was slowly dying. “Ba… ba-by…” she stuttered out, trying to reach out to her son, but failing as her knees buckled beneath her, causing her to collapse to her knees. He vision began to blur, everything coming in and out as she continued to reach out to her son, who still stood before her with the large knife that was covered in blood, her blood. Finally she felt her senses fade away and had just allowed her body to crumble to the floor.

Billy stared down at his now dead mother, the red mark on her back growing larger as blood now seeped out the corner of her mouth. He dropped the bloody knife and just walked away as if nothing had happened. He walked out of the kitchen and stopped when he heard a howling laughter come from his parents room. He stood there for a moment, staring at the closed door, but then glanced at the Christmas tree that was wrapped in bright, flashing colored lights.

“I love this fucking show!” he exclaimed as he finished off the liquor in his bottle. He looked at his empty bottle, as if it would magically refill itself. “Baby!” he screamed. “Get me another bottle of Jacks please!” he fell silent, hoping she heard him. A minute passed and no one came into the room. “BABY!” he screamed again, “get me another fucking bottle of Jack Daniels.”

Everything remained silent. Just as he was about to get up he heard the door creak open slowly and then heard the door close. He smirked, “It’s about fucking time.” he said as he began mumbling under his breath. “Fucking good for nothing woman…”

Billy crept up behind his father, a string of Christmas lights in hand.

He started getting restless at the fact that his wife hadn’t handed his bottle of liquor yet. “Woman, what the fuck is taking so lo-” he strangled out, feeling something wrap tightly around his throat, constricting his airway.

Billy stood behind him, pulling the lights tighter around his neck, wrapping it around a few times. He watched from behind as his father continued to struggle against him, trying to rip the string of lights away from his neck, but it only resulted in him pulling it tighter. He grasped onto the lights tightly, feeling the bulbs shatter underneath his grasp, the shards of glass tearing into his flesh. Finally Billy released the hold of the lights, which caused his father to gasp and wheeze for air.

“What…” he coughed out, unwrapping the strand of lights from around his neck, “the fuck… are you doing?” he asked as he turned around.

As soon as he turned around, Billy thrusted the large knife into his stomach, the same large knife he used to kill his mother. His father gasped, feeling the sharp metal object break his skin and slide easily into his stomach. Before he could react, Billy quickly withdrew the knife and continued to stab him, dismissing the fact that his father’s blood was spraying out all over him now. He continued to stab his father until he finally fell to the ground, watching as a river of blood flowed out and pooled around him.

Breathing heavily, Billy stared down at his dead father. He tossed the knife down at his corpse and slowly made his way out of the room. He closed the door and just stood there for a while, taking in the bitter aroma of blood that now stained the air. He heard a whimper come from the living room, and his eyes automatically shot over to his little sister’s crib. Slowly he made his way over to her, finding her to be wide awake now. She looked up at her older brother, who had dark, menacing eyes and was covered in a dark, crimson liquid that glistened in the night; she started to cry.

“Shh…” Billy signaled for her to be quiet, placing his bloody finger to her lips. “everything is gonna be okay now.” he whispered. His baby sister continued to wail, and he tried to think of something that would make her be quiet. “Silent night…” he began to sing. “holy night… all is calm, all is bright… round yon virgin mother and child… holy infant so tender and mild… sleep in heavenly peace…” he paused when he noticed that she had fallen silent and was slowly drifting back to sleep.

He walked over towards their fireplace and had jumped on the couch to grab a candle that was arranged on the mantelpiece. He took the candle and made his way over to their Christmas tree, where he the flaming wax stick into the tree, causing it to catch ablaze. He stood there for a moment, watching as the flames engulfed the decorated tree, the ornaments and lights shattering under the immense heat. He turned and looked back at his sister’s crib, sauntering over towards her once again. He looked down and seen that she was still sleeping, a bloody fingerprint still upon her lips.

“Sleep in heavenly peace…” he whispered as he leaned down to place one last kiss upon his sister’s forehead.

He looked back at the tree, which was nothing more but a large flame. The curtains and everything else around the tree soon caught fire and was steadily spreading. Billy took one last look at his sleeping sister before he walked out of the house, leaving everything behind to be consumed by the raging fire he started.

December 12, 2002

“AJ… are you awake?”

AJ cracked one eye open to find Nick standing before him through his shades. He took a deep breath in and sighed heavily, “What do you think Nick? If me sitting here with my eyes closed doesn’t mean I’m sleeping, then I don’t know what the hell does.”

“Well, how was I suppose to know you were sleeping? It’s not like I can see your closed eyes through those damn sunglasses, which I’m wondering why you’re wearing it anyway when there’s no sun?”

AJ turned his head slightly to look out their frosted bus window to find what Nick said was true, the sun had setted long ago, leaving them to drive in the darkness, the street lights being their only light source. “These lights are too bright.” he finally said as he tried to fall back to sleep.

Nick looked up at the lights that illuminated the bus. “Are you a bat or something?”

“Nick was there a reason why you woke me up or are you just trying to test my patience?” AJ asked him in a monotone voice, keeping his eyes closed the whole time.

“I wanted to know if you seen my Madden game by any chance.”

AJ lolled his head down to peer over his glasses at Nick, “You woke me up to ask me if I seen a damn football game?”

“Well, yeah… both Brian and I are bored and we wanted to play Madden but I can’t find it.”

AJ sighed heavily again, “Why don’t you two do something else… like bug Kevin or Howie or something.”

“Kevin’s on the phone and Howie’s playing with his hair. Look Jay, it was a simple yes or no question, and the faster you can give me an answer the faster you can go back to sleep.”

“Okay then, no.” AJ simply replied. “Now can I go back to sleep?”

Nick continued to stare at the older man before him, irritated with the way he was acting. “You know AJ, you can be a real ass sometimes.” he said before he walked towards the back of the bus where Brian was.

AJ opened his eyes to watch Nick walk away. He’s been short tempered with everyone lately, and he didn’t know why. His mind began to wander back to how he used to treat the fellas when he was high on drugs and drunk on alcohol. He’d always try to drag them down with him, and if they refused to do down he’d always push them away, act out on them so they would hate him, because in his mind at that time no one loved him, not even himself, he wanted everyone to hate him so it would give him an excuse to take a shot or take a hit. He wasn’t suppose to be that way anymore, he found the love of his fan, friends and family.

Sighing heavily, he pushed himself up from the couch and made his way towards the back of the bus where Nick and Brian were. “Hey Nick,” he started, taking off his sunglasses as he addressed him. “I’m sorry for how I acted, I guess I’m just…” he fell silent, trying to think of an excuse, but that was just it, there was no excuse, “there’s no excuse for me being an ass all the time, and I’m sorry.”

Nick just stared at him, shocked at the fact that he had approached him to apologize. AJ has a hard time admitting he’s at fault whenever he is, and having him apologize took him by surprise. Nick gave a small smile, “Don’t even worry about it man, I shouldn’t have called you an ass in the first place.”

AJ returned the smile, “No dude, you’re right… I can be a real ass, and I shouldn‘t be that way.” he extended his hand out to him, “We cool?”

Nick accepted his outstretched hand and shook, “Of course Jay.”

AJ curved his lips up in a grin, “Okay cool.” he turned and started to walk back to the front of the bus but stopped, “By the way, your game is in the console already.”

Nick gave him a confused look at first but turned to his game system and had opened it, finding what AJ said to be true. He looked back up at AJ who was simply smiling at him, “I was playing it last night.” he said before he continued walking to the front of the bus.

Nick looked down at the system again and just laughed, “Of all places to look, why the hell didn’t we look here?”

Brian chuckled as well, watching AJ walk back to where he came from. “What was that all about?”

“What was what all about?”

“With AJ.”

Nick glanced back at AJ, who was now wide awake and talking to Kevin. “I had asked him where my game was and he was just being a complete asshole.”

“You apologize for calling him an ass only to call him an asshole this time?” Brian laughed.

Nick playfully pushed Brian, “Shutup man, I was explaining to you what happened since you asked.”

“But AJ… admitting he’s wrong and apologizing for it… that’s a first.”

“No,” Nick shook his head, looking over at AJ as he spoke to Brian, “He’s trying… we’re just not seeing it. We’re not even giving him credit for doing just that when he deserves it… right?”

Brian smiled warmly at his best friend and nodded, “Yeah, he is.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Did D. get out of the bathroom yet?” AJ asked Kevin.

Kevin looked over to the closed door and chuckled, “I’m afraid not.”

AJ got up from where he was sitting and made his way over to the bathroom. “Howie.” he called out as he began knocking on the door.

“Yes?” Howie replied.

“Are you building a club house in there or something?”

“If you really want to know, I’m straightening my hair… why do you ask?”

“Because you’ve been in there for a good hour or so and there’s other people on this bus that need to use the bathroom ya know.”

“I’m almost done.”

“That’s what you said 20 minutes ago!” Nick shouted from the back.

AJ sighed and placed his head on the closed door. “Howie c’mon man…”

“What do you gotta do?”

“What else do people do in the bathroom? I gotta drain the main vein man!”

“Give me five more minutes.”

“Howie, I ain’t got no five minutes.” AJ replied through clenched teeth as he bounced up and down, willing for the pressure in his bladder to go away. “Please, can I use it real quick, I promise I’ll be fast so you can go back to playing with your hair and manicuring your nails.”

After a moment of silence the door finally swung open, revealing an unimpressed Howie. “Smartass” he muttered as he walked out of the bathroom.

“Thank you sweetheart.” AJ cracked in a feminine tone as he quickly made his way into the bathroom Howie once occupied to relieve himself.

Howie rolled his eyes as he made his way over to Kevin, who was situating himself down where AJ once was. “How much longer?”

Kevin glanced out the frosty window. “I don’t know,” he replied with a shrug, “maybe a few more miles give or take.”

Howie nodded and sat down across from him, gazing out the frosty window as well. “It’s gonna start snowing soon.”

“I know,” Kevin shivered. “even with these damn heaters on I’m still freezing my ass off.”

“Hopefully we’ll reach the hotel before it starts to snow.”

“Yeah…” Kevin muttered, looking back out the window again. “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…” he began singing, causing them both to chuckle.

All of a sudden the bus took a sharp turn, throwing them all off guard. Kevin lurched forward into their small dining table, while Howie was tossed to the ground. They both held on tightly to whatever they could as the bus now began to swerve. After what seemed like forever, the bus finally came to a screeching stop. Everything remained silent, the only thing audible was their heavy breathing.

“What happened?” Howie asked Kevin with wide eyes as he picked himself up from the ground.

Kevin slowly released the tight grip he had on the table, “I don’t know.” he panted out. “Is everyone alright?”

Both Brian and Nick walked up from the back of the bus, both looking confused and scared. “Yeah, what in the hell happened?”

Kevin shrugged, “I don’t know…” he looked around, finally realizing that it was only the four of them there, AJ was still in the bathroom. “AJ… are you alright?”

“Fucking shit.” they heard from behind a closed door. They all looked over towards the bathroom where they seen the door fly open, revealing AJ who was zipping up his pants. “Why does this happen when I go to use the bathroom, why?” AJ asked in an exasperated tone, talking to himself.

“Um… Jay, are you okay?” Nick slowly asked.

“Just peachy Nick.” AJ replied, looking his pants over to see if he peed on himself when the bus swerved. “Of course flying forward and slamming my head into the wall was really fun, ya’ll should try it one day.”

“Your forehead is bleeding.” Nick simply said, pointing to AJ’s head.

AJ rose his hand to his forehead and felt his fingertips come in contact with a cool, thick liquid. He brought his hand down and seen blood for the first time. “Shit.” he muttered out, walking back into the bathroom, only to pop back out. “The bus isn’t moving, right?”

They all shook their heads no, remaining silent, sort of still in shock. Kevin finally snapped out of his daze and turned around to make his way over to where the driver was. He found their driver digging around near his seat, looking for something. “What the hell happened Paul?”

“There was something out in the road.” he answered, not even turning to look back at Kevin. “I’m sorry guys, if I didn’t swerve we would’ve hit it straight on.”

Brian walked up behind his cousin, watching Paul dig around, still looking for something. He walked down to steps of the bus and had glanced out the opened door, “Something or someone?” he asked no one in particular as he looked back at Kevin and Paul, noticing that Paul had found what he was looking for, a flashlight.

Kevin gave his cousin a puzzled look, “What do you mean something or someone?”

“I think we almost hit a kid.”

“Get back on the bus.” Paul told Brian as he slowly made his way out of the door, flashlight in hand. He looked out into the desolate open road and found a kid standing there under a street light.

“Kid!” Paul called out, “You alright?”

There was no reply. Paul stepped out of the bus and slowly made his way over to the kid, who he remained under the street light. “Hey kid.” he called out again. “Are you hurt or something?”

He slowly turned to address the man that was calling out to him. He remained silent, but this time he just stared at Paul. He held his hands out, inspecting his body, then finally shook his head to let him know that he was okay.

“What were you doing out in the middle of the road?” Paul asked as he now came face to face with him, realizing that he wasn’t a kid, but perhaps an adolescent.

He looked around for a moment, as if pondering the question, then finally shrugged his shoulders.

Paul eyed him up and down, he seemed harmless. “Do you not talk or something?”

Slowly he nodded his head, never breaking the stare he had on Paul. Paul began to feel a little uneasy with the way the boy was just staring at him. “Why don’t you wait right here while I go grab a phone to call for help okay?”

Paul turned around and started to make his way back to the bus, where he found Brian, Howie and Kevin peering out by the door while Nick was looking out the window.

“One of ya’ll call for help.”

Brian was the first to pull out his phone to dial 911. He gave a puzzled expression when he found it to have no dialing tone. “That’s weird… no dialing tone.” he informed them.

Howie pulled out his cell phone as well and gave it a try, coming up with the same result. “Same here.”

“Well, try to call management or something.” Paul suggested.

Howie shook his head as he placed his cell phone back into his pocket, “There’s no reception out here… wherever the hell we are.”

Kevin’s brows knitted in confusion, “How can there be no reception, aren’t we in an area with coverage?”

They all looked over at Paul, who in turn tried to avoid all their stares. “Johnny informed me there was a snow storm that was raging in the original path we were suppose to take. They made it through but advised me to take an alternate route.”

“And you weren’t going to tell us this?” Kevin asked in a loud voice, clearly displaying his anger.

“Look, it was either that or we risked driving through that snow storm. Johnny them are lucky they even made it through.”

“So how far are we from the city?”

Paul remained silent, knowing that the answer to his question would only anger him more, “We’ve still got a way to go.”

“Shit.” Kevin muttered in an exasperated tone. “So what do you suggest we do then?”

“I say we take the kid with us.”

“Are you crazy?” Nick voiced for the first time. “You want a complete stranger to come on our bus to ride all the way to the next city to get help?”

“Look,” Paul said as he grabbed a folded map near his seat, unfolding it and setting it out before them. “We’re here.” Paul explained as he pointed to the map. “There should be a small town not far from here, maybe a few miles more up give or take. We’ll just give the kid a ride to the town and we’ll let the cops handle it from there.”

“But you’re still missing the point of letting a stranger onto our bus.” Nick replied.

Kevin sighed heavily, “Nick, it’s either we take the kid with us or leave him out here in the cold. That snow storm will be making it’s way towards us soon and I honestly don’t want to leave him out here. But if we don’t hurry up and do something we’ll all be caught in this storm.”

Nick looked back out the window at the boy who still stood under the street light. He felt uneasy about letting a stranger ride on their bus into a town nearby, but Kevin was right, they couldn’t leave the kid out here in the cold.

Paul hopped off the bus and made his way back over to the boy, “Hey… um, if you wanna, we’ll give you a ride to the nearest town to get help. It’s not far from here so we’ll be more than happy to help you by any means.”

He stared at Paul, then glanced over to the side to see guys peering out the door at him. He looked back at Paul and nodded. Paul mustered up a genuine smile and started walking back towards the bus, the boy trailing not far behind.

Paul walked onto the bus, turning around to make sure the kid was behind him. Brian, Howie, Kevin and Nick had walked back into the big area of the bus, giving the kid room to walk through.

“How old is this kid?” Nick whispered to Brian, which he got a shrug as his reply.

The boy just stared at all of them as he got onto the bus. He quietly situated himself in front of their little dining table, now finding interest in fidgeting with his hands.

Kevin walked over to Paul and had pulled him more towards the front of the bus, away from everyone else. “Does he not talk?” he asked in a whisper.

Paul shrugged, “Asked him that and he just nodded, didn’t say one word to me the whole time. But I need ya’ll to get out as much information as you can from him so we can give it to the police once we get there.”

Kevin glanced back over at the kid and just nodded.

“Hey Paul!” AJ called out, walking out of the bathroom, holding a paper towel over his forehead. “Where in the hell is the first aid ki-” he stopped his sentence when he saw the kid for the first time, sitting at their dining table.

All eyes fell on him, even the boy’s. “What’s going on?” AJ asked softly to no one in particular.

Nick decided to take it upon himself to explain everything. He rose from where he was sitting and pulled AJ towards the back of the bus, away from them and told him everything that happened. Meanwhile, Kevin sat across from the young boy, giving him a warm smile.

“Hey.” he started off, receiving no reaction from him. “I’m Kevin.” He waited for the boy to say anything, but everything remained silent. “Do you have a name?”

The boy looked up and stared into Kevin’s deep green eyes. He turned to the window and had blown on it, creating a misty frost. He slowly rose his finger and began writing on the window.

Kevin strained to read what the boy wrote, but finally saw the name. “So, your name is Billy?”

Billy turned to Kevin and slowly nodded. Kevin tried to read his eyes, but there was nothing there to read. There was nothing in his eyes, everything was blank and… lost. “How old are you Billy?”

Without lifting head to address the question, he rose his hand and held up the number one first, then three.

“13?” Kevin asked again, to make sure he understood him, to which Billy nodded to confirm the question. There was just something about this kid that made Kevin feel a little uneasy, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. When he looked deep into the boy's eyes, he simply looked lost and confused.

“Are we good to go?” Paul hollered from the front, starting the bus when he heard no reply. Their bodies were rocked back and forth as the bus made it’s way back onto the road, and now they were making their way to the small town that was only a few miles away.

“AJ… are you awake?”

AJ cracked his eyes open, looking around to find Nick standing before him through his shades. “Déjà vu…” he thought to himself, thinking that them swerving off the road to avoid hitting some kid was nothing but a dream.

“I am now.” AJ finally replied, raising up a little to discover that the bus had stopped. “Why’d we stop? Are we here already?”

Nick’s eyes widened a little, “Shit, Kevin’s gonna kill me.” he muttered to himself.

AJ tore of his glasses and stared at Nick in puzzlement. “What do you mean Kevin’s gonna kill you? For what?”

“I wasn’t suppose to let you go to sleep for this long, I was suppose to wake you every so often because you aren’t suppose to let someone with a head injury go to sleep, they could slip into a coma, or become brain dead, or…”

“Whoa Nick, slow down!” AJ interjected. “Why weren’t you suppose to let me go to sleep?”

Nick took a moment to calm down before he finally asked in a small voice, “You don’t remember anything?”

“Look Nick,” he said as he went to massage his forehead in hopes to ward away the headache he woke up with, “I don’t know…” he stopped in the middle of his sentence when he felt a lump on his forehead, accompanied by what he assumed was dry blood. He groaned when it all came back to him, “My god, I thought this was all a dream…”

Now it was Nick’s turn to look confused. “What?”

“Is that kid still here?”

Nick turned back to see Billy following Brian, Kevin and Howie off the bus. “Yeah, but not for long.”

AJ sighed heavily as his head lolled back into his seat, “How I wish this was all just a dream, and we were really at the hotel wrapped up in warm blankets.” he shivered as he finished his sentence, for once feeling how cold it was all of a sudden.

AJ rose from his seat and followed Nick out of the bus, immediately wrapping his arms around himself when he was greeted by the bitter cold air. “Did we decide to take this kid to the North Pole or something? Jesus, this temp has got to be below zero or something.”

Nick shivered as they began to walk over towards where everyone else was, “There’s a snowstorm coming.”

“A snowstorm?” AJ repeated. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” As he looked around he noticed that the town was indeed really small, almost desolate. There were hardly any people walking the streets and everything was eerily quiet. Not only were the houses small, but so were the establishments. “What kind of town is this?”

Nick shrugged, “Hell if I know. Paul just said that it was a small town that was along the way that we could take the kid to. Looked almost nonexistent on the map.”

“Nonexistent?” AJ repeated once again. “Okay, what makes them think that there’s a damn police station in an almost nonexistent town?”

“There should be a police station in every town.”

“Nick, take a look around. There’s hardly anybody here to commit a crime.”

“Now you’re just over exaggerating.”

“I’m serious Nick! These people are so… monotone it’s not even funny. I could probably walk up to somebody, push them to the ground, and no one would even care to notice.”

“I would love to see you test that theory.”

“Whatever dude.”

AJ and Nick finally caught up to the rest of the group, who was busy looking around for the police station. “There’s gotta be a police station…” Kevin voiced out.

AJ took it upon himself to do something none of them thought to do, ask around. “Excuse me ma’am.” AJ called out to an elderly woman who was walking pass. “Would you be able to direct me to the police station?”

“I’m sorry sweetheart, the police station isn’t for miles from here.”

AJ‘s brow crinkled in confusion, “There’s no type of law enforcement in this town?”

“Law enforcement? Heavens no, this town is so small that we all know each other, we’re practically family here. There’s no need for law enforcement for no crime is ever committed.”

AJ continued to stare at the older lady, not expecting his suspicions to be proven correct. “Thank you ma’am.” he said softly as he walked away from her and back to his group. “There isn’t a police station here.”

They all looked over at AJ, “How do you know?” Brian asked.

“I just asked a lady and she said that the police station is miles from here.”

Howie shook his head, none of this was making sense. “How could there not be a police station in this town?”

“She said this place is really close knit, everyone knows each other so there’s never a crime committed.” he looked over at Nick. “Still think I’m over exaggerating?”

Nick rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”

“Well then, what are we gonna do?” Brian asked no one on particular.

No one answered though. Nick sighed heavily, “Well, while you guys think of something, I’m gonna go to McDonalds and get myself a cup of coffee instead of standing out here, freezing my ass off.”

They all watched Nick walk away to the small McDonalds that was only a few feet away from them. AJ shook his head, “You mean to tell me that this town has a McDonalds but no police station? Someone tell me there’s something wrong with this picture.”

“You think there’s something wrong with a town because they have a McDonalds instead of a police station?” Howie asked as he came up from behind AJ, all of them following Nick into McDonalds. “I never thought I’d hear that come out of your mouth.”

They all walked into the small establishment, dumbfounded at the fact that there was no customers there and only three people working the fast food joint.

“Hi, welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order?” the young male addressed Nick in an nonchalant voice.

“Yeah, can I get six coffees and…” he looked down at Billy, “You want anything?”

Billy looked up at Nick and over to the large menu that was above. He pointed to the meal he wanted. “And a… cheeseburger happy meal please.”

As Nick stayed back to pay for what he ordered, the rest of them quickly made their way over to a table and had situated themselves.

“Do any of our phones work yet?” Kevin broke the silence.

They all dug into their pockets and took out their cell phones, finding that it was still the same. “No…” they all muttered.

Brian looked back at Nick, who was grabbing what they ordered and putting it on a tray. “Don’t they have phones here?”

No one said anything in reply. Kevin simply rose from where he sat and walked over to the counter where Nick still was. “Excuse me, do you guys have a phone we could borrow?”

“A phone?” the guy asked, confused at the fact that this stranger was asking to borrow a phone. “What for?”

Kevin sighed heavily, not saying anything in reply because his anger was getting the best of him. Instead, he grated out “Never mind.” and had helped Nick to carry over their order to the table they all sat at.

“What happened?” Brian asked in a small voice, noticing the anger that radiated off his cousin.

“I’m assuming these people don’t have phones either because that guy just gave me this duh look and asked me what I needed it for. I didn’t even bother to explain to him the reason.”

Nick shook his head as he began passing out a cup of coffee to each of them, handing the happy meal over to Billy. “Man, feels like we’ve entered the Twilight Zone or something.”

“Well, what do we do then?” Brian questioned.

“How many times are we gonna ask that question?” AJ groaned. He looked up to find all eyes on him. “I’m sorry,” he said softly with a sigh, “this headache won’t go away and this cold ain’t helping either.”

Howie took the lid off of his coffee and began to blow the steam away from his hot brew. He stopped when he noticed his breath came out in a frosty mist. “Whatever we decide to do, we better get moving before that snowstorm hits.”

“Why don’t we just stay here for the night and wait the storm out?” Paul suggested.

Nick quickly shook his head, “If that’s the case then lets just leave now because I really don’t want to stay the night in this town, no freaking way dude.”

“Well, what about the kid?” Brian asked softly.

All eyes fell on Billy, who was mindlessly eating his happy meal. Kevin sighed heavily as he began to massage his temples, “We’re gonna have to take him with us, there’s nothing more we can do until we reach the city.”

They all agreed and got up from where they sat, taking their coffee with them. As they walked out of McDonalds, they all began to shiver when they met with the blistering cold that was now blowing around them. They all quickly made their way back to the bus, rushing to get inside and warm themselves up.

Brian walked up behind Billy and placed a reassuring hand upon his shoulder, “Looks like you’ll be stuck with us till the next city kid.” he said with a warm smile.

Billy looked up at Brian and didn’t say anything. He watched as the five guys’ walked further into the bus, none of them noticing the malicious grin Billy now had on his face.