Leading guy: Howie

Genre: Humor and maybe a hint of suspense.

Storyline: Place Howie inside a psychiatric institution, trying to find his way out. He never succeeds though. He is there by himself, and there can't be any dialogue whatsoever. He might run in to other patients or staff, but we never hear them speak. The reader has to be 'inside' Howie's head, and all we can read are his thoughts or hear him mumbling to himself. He can either have gone a bit crazy or not, but whatever you decide, give us a good reason as to why he's there. Catch is, he is NOT there to visit any of the other boys.
Just to humor me, devote one paragraph entirely to him thinking about carrots.

Restrictions: Cannot be a dream again, or an alternate universe. The guys are the guys etc etc.

Word count: minimum is 1600 words.

If you decide to write this story, have fun and good luck!

I have to say she is evil!!! A howie story? God Howie doesn't even usually make it into my normal fanfics!

I knew somehow that he had to be behind this, that somewhere he was cackling to himself that his evil plan had worked. He had more then likely been concocting this for years, ways to get rid of Howie. There was probably a word document on his laptop with that as the heading that was why he was always to secretive about what he was doing, always closing the lid whenever I walked past, I should have seen this coming. Should have known that he was evil from the start.

Well actually I did, I always knew from the time that he was thirteen that he was watching me, he was like the evil kid Damien from the omen, his eyes always fixed on me. I had spoken to Kevin about it, hell even A.J but they said it was just Nick, that he was messing with me and over time I began to accept that, managed to keep my cool through the annoying pranks, even learned to love the kid. Hell this past promotional trip I wasn’t even fazed when the put us both together, maybe that was all part of his master plan as well.

I had no idea how long I had been here, it felt like days but I hadn’t had a meal yet so it couldn’t be that long could it? I mean they still feed people in mental institutions don’t they? There not just left to waste away, to go hungry? Shit maybe they do, maybe that how they get rid of us. US? US? Okay now I am referring to myself as a mental patient, as some crazed lunatic when I’m probably the most sane backstreet boy of the lot. Hell I didn’t even realise places like this still existed. I had to get out of here.

I started banging on the door again and the one good thing about being in a padded cell was that my hands didn’t hurt half as bad from all the pounding so I could do it for longer. When, after at least twenty minutes, nobody came I gave up trying the handle of the door just because it was there so I was extremely surprised and annoyed when I found that the door had been unlocked the whole time. I cautiously and slowly stuck my head through the doorway, looking to the right first and then to the left, the long corridor was deserted and I new that if I didn’t move now I never would so slowly I stepped out of the room. I half expected a huge siren to blare and an automated voice to declare, “SECURITY BREECH IN SECTOR 4!” and for people to come running full pelt at me but the corridor was as silent and empty as ever and I quickly decided to head left, don’t ask me why.

I picked up the pace the further away from my cell that I got but when I reached the door I hesitated, it was solid, no window or peep hole, who knew what was behind it? Hell for all I knew it could be where all the staff members were, ready to march me pack to my padded confinement, or worse it could be some crazy psycotic killer ready to snap my neck. I had to make a decision and quickly, it was either risk being killed or taken back to my cell or going back their voluntarily and wasting away here, death would be better then having to stay here for one more moment. I quickly shut my eyes and felt blindly for the handle pushing it open quickly my mouth falling open in shock and surprise at what I saw.

Bunnies?

Bunnies? In a mental institution?

This was getting beyond unreal. I walked into the room after making sure to quietly shut the door behind me. There were loads of them, had to be at least one hundred, maybe they had just been left to bread? Maybe they were human eating bunnies?! Maybe that’s how they get rid of us. Damnit stop grouping yourself with the insane Howard! I slowly stood within the middle of the room and turned slowly making sure to take everything in.

That was when I spotted it. The door with the amazing green neon sign above saying EXIT. There that was my ticket out.

I ran towards the door but soon realised that this was not going to be as easy as my escape from the padded cell, the door was locked and when I looked to my left I understood the reason for all the bunnies. “The key to the exit is hidden within a carrot.”

So they were regular carrot eating bunnies.

SHIT! I started quickly picking up all the carrots that I could, stuffing some in my pockets, some down my shirt but there was now way I was going to be able to hold all of them before the rabbits ate any. I had to start munching my way through some, so as I carried on collecting I started eating, and FYI I HATE CARROTS!!

When after twenty minutes I was still unsuccessful, my mouth also sore from all the chewing, I was starting to loose hope again. Maybe I was never going to get out of here, maybe this was going to be it. So I decided enough was enough and sat down with my back against the wall to have a pity party for one. That’s when I noticed the shimmering coming from across the room. I squinting slightly to try and get a better look and couldn’t believe my luck, it was the fucking key!!!!!

I jumped to my feet quickly, and raced across the room, doing a little happy dance when I plucked the amazing inanimate object from the floor. I closed my eyes as I fit it into the lock, and held my breathe when I turned it, hearing the clunk of the lock as it was released. I took another deep breathe before I tried the handle, doing another happy dance when it opened easily.

I peered into the next room, knowing that the further I got the more likely I was to run into someone so I was pleasantly surprised when again it was a long corridor, a long empty corridor! I took off down it as quietly as I could but kept up a fast pace, not wanting to stay in this horrid place any longer then I had too. That’s why it was so distressing when I realsed where I was.

I spotted the open door to one of the rooms and obviously curiosity got the better of me, so I peered inside and wanted to scream, I was back to where I started, right at the very beginning because that empty room well it had been mine. How did I know? Didn’t all padded cells look the same? Well yes they did but I had somehow managed to wriggle my way out of my straight jacket earlier and there it was, lying limply on the floor, exactly where I had left it. I had bacially run a massive cirlce. I leant againt the wall in exhaustion and tried to figure out my next plan. There had to be some way out, after all I had been bought in hadn’t I? One of these doors had to lead to the outside world question was which one was it? The more I opened or attempt to open the more I exposed myself, the more likely it was too be caught.

I had to try though because I was not going down without a fight.

So I made my way across the small hall and tried the first door that I came to, but as anticipated it was locked so I tried the key I remembered to bring with me and amazingly it worked, may this was the skeleton key for the whole place. I was sorely disappointed when I realised it was just another cell though, no door leading to freedom.

As I backed out I hit something and inwardly cringed as I felt a pair of strong arms encircle me. I tried to call out, to make any sort of noise but nothing escaped my mouth and that’s when I felt the scar running down my throat. I was quickly thrown back into a cell but I wasn’t the only one in there. I looked around and that’s when the horrible feeling began to sink in. I knew without a doubt that my vocal chords had been stolen, that I would never speak or sing again. I had heard of this ledged before, once you became world wide famous and sold over a certain amount of records you were silenced, why should you have all the success and others not. How I wished I had believed it because I wouldn’t have gone back after our hiatus if it had been true. Now it was all too late!

In the room with me were the rest of the guys, NSYNC, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Robbie Williams, The Spice Girls, Celine Dion, Mariah, Whitney, MJ, their deaths and lack of careers all a cover up I realised, just like ours would be!