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** KEVIN **

“You need to turn right at the traffic light.” Nick consulted the map for what was probably the tenth time in the past thirty seconds. His face was scrunched up unflatteringly in concentration as he squinted to decipher the print out.

“Which traffic light?” I pulled my eyes away from the historic, brown bricked buildings that lined both sides of the road and looked at Nick in annoyance. I could practically see the steam shooting out of his ears as his brain struggled to cope with the task of reading the map.

Nick lowered the paper to his lap and returned my look of irritation. “THE traffic light.” He flapped his hands wildly in front of his face as if the erratic movements would help to support his point. “There’s only ONE.”

My displeasure intensified. “There’s no need to be snarky.”

“I’m not being fucking snarky!” Nick snapped. “You’ve been questioning me the whole time that we’ve been driving.”

My look of annoyance quickly changed to one of confusion. “We’ve hardly said anything to each other the whole way here.”

“I know!” Nick’s hands were flailing about once again. “But every time that we HAVE said something it has been you expressing your doubt at my ability to read a fucking map.”

“We got off at the wrong exit.” I pointed out. “Twice.”

“That’s because you made me nervous.” Nick grumbled. “And the printing is too small. I can’t read this thing properly.” He waved the paper in my face. “See! Look how small it is!”

“Get that out of my face!” I brushed the paper aside and followed Nick’s directions, turning right at the traffic light. “Now, where am I going?”

Nick pulled the paper back towards his face, squinting and huffing in contempt. “Turn right onto Farm Lane and then left onto Orson Road. The address is 84 Orson Road.”

“Alright.” I sat back in the seat and attempted to stretch out my left leg, which had developed a serious cramp upwards of twenty minutes ago.

“This is my fault, Kev.” Nick’s tone changed without warning. He was staring straight ahead, his eyes unblinking.

I resisted the urge to reach out and smack his stupid blonde head. The kid always thought that everything was his fault. “How is any of this your fault?”

“I didn’t say anything about Dan.” Nick rolled his eyes at me as if the answer was obvious.

“So?” I gritted my teeth to keep myself from lashing out. “This has nothing to do with your stupid copy-cat fan. The fact that you didn’t say anything about Dan actually turned out to be a good thing.”

Nick stared back at me in shock. “You’ve lost it.”

“Think about it, Nick!” I commanded. “Use whatever the hell is floating around in your head and really think about it! If you had acknowledged that you had a creepy, copy-cat stalker the media would have somehow gotten wind of the story. If the situation had been made public than whoever killed Dan probably would have been more careful; they would have checked to make sure that it really was you before they pulled the trigger. In this case, the killer just assumed that it was you. If you had told us about Dan there’s a good chance that you would be dead right now.”

“Oh.” Nick actually appeared to be thinking. “I didn’t think about it like that.”

“Of course you didn’t.” I grumbled. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself, Nick. You can’t keep thinking that you’re the root cause of everything bad that happens to us.”

Nick’s lower lip quivered ever so slightly. “I’m almost always the problem though.”

“You’re not!” I banged my hands on the steering wheel and swung the car roughly to the right onto Farm Lane. “We’ve all done our fair share when it comes to causing each other grief.”

Nick was gripping the paper tightly in his hands. His eyes were once again fixated on the passing scenery. “What are we gonna do, Kev? What if the police can’t find whoever sent that email? What if our new best friends, Tony and Joey, can’t protect us?”

I slowed for a stop sign and squinted to read the next set of street signs, signalling to turn left when I saw that we had reached Orson Road. “We have each other.” I tried my best to sound reassuring. “That’s all we need.”

“This isn’t a business deal.” Nick shook his head. “This isn’t something that we can sit around and argue about until we all eventually agree to disagree. We’re in real trouble.”

“I know that.” It was taking all of my willpower just to keep my voice steady. Nick could be so frustrating sometimes. Didn’t he see that I was just as worried as he was? Didn’t he see that he was actually making things worse by pointing out the severity of the situation?

“That’s it.” Nick gestured towards a sprawling, all-brick bungalow on the right hand side of the street. “Our new home.”

I ignored the mockery in Nick’s announcement and turned the car into the driveway. The house was older; probably built in the sixties, but it appeared to have been nicely maintained. The front lawn was expansive, and well-established trees lined both sides of the long driveway. A double car garage jutted out from the left side of the house and I instinctively looked up; a garage door opener was clipped to the sun visor. I pushed the button and the large, wooden door began to lift upwards, the gears squeaking and grinding in protest. I waited until I was sure that I had enough clearance before guiding the car into the garage, making sure to leave enough space for AJ to be able to park beside me.

“Home sweet home.” I mimicked Nick’s sarcasm as I shut off the engine and pushed the button to close the garage. The whole structure appeared to shake as the gears once again rumbled to life and the massive door reconnected with the cement floor.

“The door needs to be oiled.” Nick stated the obvious as the two of us climbed out of the car and retrieved our bags from the trunk.

“Ya think?” I teased, slamming the trunk and leading the way to the door that I assumed opened into the house. “Perhaps that’s a task that you can tackle at some point during our stay.”

“Maybe I will.” Nick shot back. He stepped up behind me and motioned for me to open the door. “Let’s see what else is wrong with this place.”

I rolled my eyes, being careful not to let Nick see me do it, and pushed open the door. I was immediately greeted with a pleasant smell; Pinesol with a hint of Febreeze. The door had opened onto a large landing. The steps leading down to the basement were on the left and the staircase leading up to the main level was directly in front. Choosing to ignore the rather creepy looking basement, I quickly climbed the short set of stairs to the main level. A large kitchen and family room combination stretched out to my left; seemingly taking up the entire back of the house.

“Shit.” Nick whistled. “It definitely didn’t look this big from outside.” He abandoned his suitcase to the right of the stairs and pushed passed me into the family room. “Check out the TV!”

I followed Nick into the room and nodded my approval. The television did look pretty nice. “What is that? A 72’’?”

“Looks like it.” Nick confirmed. He was already rooting around in the TV stand, opening the cabinet doors at breathtaking speed. “There’s an Xbox One!”

“Wonderful.” I acknowledged; silently hoping that there was a second television hidden somewhere else in the house. The idea of watching Brian and Nick spend hours playing video games was less than appealing.

Leaving Nick to continue with his exploration of the family room, I meandered into the kitchen. It appeared to be well outfitted; an assortment of small appliances lined the counter and a quick peak in some of the cupboards revealed an ample supply of dishes and cooking utensils. A sliding glass door led to a large backyard with a deck and a barbeque.

“What’s all this?”

I turned to see Nick reaching for several sheets of paper that were sitting on the kitchen table. I hadn’t even noticed them.

“House rules?” Nick scrunched up his face in distaste. “Great.” He allowed the papers to flutter back onto the table and sighed. “Do you think the others will be here soon?”

“I assume so.” I shrugged and reached for the plain, white envelope that Nick had left untouched on the table. I balked visibly as I looked inside. “Holy shit!”

“What?” Nick raised his eyebrows at my reaction. “What is it? More rules?”

I shook my head and held out the envelope for Nick to see. “Money; probably close to three grand in tens and twenties.”

“So?” Nick appeared to have lost interest. “Have you forgotten how much money we have? Since when do you consider a few thousand dollars to be a big deal?”

“It’s not.” I frowned. “I just didn’t expect to find thousands of dollars in cash sitting on the table, that’s all.”

“I suppose it IS a bit strange.” Nick wandered over to the fridge and pulled it open. “There’s no food!”

I stared over Nick’s shoulder into the expansive whiteness of the empty fridge. “No there isn’t.”

Nick let the fridge door fall shut and turned to face me; panic stricken. “Why would they send us to a place with no food?”

I rolled my eyes, this time, making sure that Nick saw me do it. “We can go and buy food.”

“Are we allowed to leave?” Nick threw himself down into one of the kitchen chairs in an overly dramatic fashion and pulled the typed-written sheets towards him. “Maybe we should read the rules.”

“The others are here.” I sat down at the table across from Nick as the opening of the garage door sent a series of vibrations through the house. “Let’s wait for them.”

“Mmmhmm.” Nick mumbled incoherently; his eyes already scanning the first sheet of paper.

I resisted the urge to snatch the papers away from him as I heard the other guys push their way into the house. The garage door was sliding back into position, the walls shaking in response.

“Honey, I’m home!” AJ’s voice rang out; high-pitched and sickeningly sweet. “What’s for dinner?”

“Nothing!” Nick yelled back. “The fridge is empty! We’re all going to starve to death!”

“What are you talking about?” AJ stomped up the stairs in mock annoyance and dropped his suitcase next to mine and Nick’s. Howie and Brian were right behind him. “You know that I expect a hot meal on the table when I get home from a long, hard day at work!”

“Just sit down.” I motioned towards the empty spots at the table and sighed. I didn’t know which was worse; Nick’s drama or AJ’s attempt at humour. “They’ve left us some instructions.”

“Rules.” Nick corrected as the other guys took a seat at table. “They’ve left us rules.”

“Fine.,” I narrowed my eyes at Nick and snatched the papers out of his hands. “They’ve left us some rules.”

“Rules, instructions, whatever.” Howie waved his hand in the air dismissively. “Just hurry up and read them.”

I flicked the papers and cleared my throat. “Rule Number One: No outside communication. This includes phone calls, emails, and all forms of social media.”

“We know that one already.” Nick interjected. “Next!”

I gritted my teeth before I continued. “Rule Number Two: Do not leave the property without informing Joey and/or Tony. They are both staying in the house across the street, and they will be providing you with twenty-four hour surveillance. Their contact information is listed on the attached sheet. You may only call them from the landline.”

“So we have babysitters now?” Nick continued to grumble. “Perfect.”

“Rule Number Three: Do not leave the house alone, but do not leave the house all together either. Groups of two are best.” I hurried to move on to the next point; not wanting to hear any more of Nick’s running commentary. “Rule Number Four: Do not use your debit cards or credit cards. An envelope of cash has been provided for your use and the funds will be replenished as necessary.” I raised the envelope full of money and waved it around in reference as I continued. “Rule Number Five: No unauthorized visitors/overnight guests.”

AJ snorted so hard that he almost choked. “Who the hell do they think we’re going to invite to come over?”

“Maybe they’re worried that we’re going to pick up some ladies in town.” Howie wiggled his eyebrows in amusement.

“Nobody is picking anyone up!” I got up from the table and stuck the list of rules to the fridge for good measure. “In fact, nobody is leaving this house unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“I was joking, Kev.” Howie laughed softly as I returned to my seat. “I highly doubt that any of us are in the market for a random hook-up.”

“Speaking of the market ...” Nick dropped his hands to his stomach and looked around. “I’m starving!”

“Of course you are.” I muttered as I looked around the table. “Two of us are going to have to go to the grocery store.”

“I’ll go” Howie, Brian, AJ and Nick all announced. Their voices drifted over each other in such a way that I wasn’t even sure who had spoken first.

“We can’t all go.” I waved my hand at the fridge to reference the rules that I had just finished reading. “Only two of us are supposed to leave at a time.”

“I usually do most of the cooking so I should be the one to go.” Howie pointed out.

“That’s not true! I almost always cook breakfast.” Brian argued.

“I need to eat something before I wither away and die!” Nick moaned. “I need to go because there’s no possible way that I can wait for someone else to come home with food.”

“I need to make sure that we get some good quality snacks.” AJ piped in.

I slowly lowered my head to the table in frustration, my forehead connecting softly with the coolness of the wood. How was it possible that the five of us were always incapable of making even the simplest of decisions?

“Kevin?” Nick’s voice was whiney; needy. “How are we going to decide?”

I counted to ten before pulling my forehead away from the table. All eyes were on me as I struggled to think of something to say. I debated announcing that I would be the one to go by myself, but I had a feeling that such a comment wouldn’t go over very well.

“We could play rock, paper, scissors.” Brian suggested.

“No.” I shot down Brian’s suggestion as I pushed myself back from the table and pulled open what I hoped was the silverware drawer. I could distinctly remember seeing a box of matches when I had first inspected the kitchen. “This will be faster.” I announced as I returned to the table.

“If it works for Seth and Jay than I guess it will work for us.” Howie smirked.

I laughed softly at Howie’s ‘This Is the End’ reference as I quickly lit and extinguished two of the matches. I placed them face down in my hand, curling my palm around the burned ends, and added three more matches. “Whoever draws a burned match gets to go shopping.” I held my hand out to Howie. “You pick first, D.”

Howie looked thoughtfully at the matches before reaching out and selecting one from the middle of the group. He cursed under his breath and dropped the match to the table when he saw the red end. “Figures.”

“You’re next, cuz.” I held out the remaining matches to Brian and watched as he wiggled his fingers overtop of the small wooden sticks.

Brian’s face lit up as he pulled out one of the burned matches. “That’s right boys! I’m going shopping!”

“Let’s go, AJ.” I turned my hand in AJ’s direction and waited while he debated over the three remaining matches.

“Fuck!” AJ cursed loudly and whipped his red tipped match onto the table. “This fucking sucks!”

I closed my eyes briefly before spinning my hand towards Nick. When I reopened my eyes, Nick was grinning back at me, his fingers poised to make his selection.

“Go ahead.” I mumbled.

I was literally holding my breath as he made his choice. The same thought playing over and over in my mind: ‘please don’t let it be Brian and Nick, please don’t let it be Brian and Nick’.

“Yes!” Nick whooped his excitement, slamming his burned match down on the table in victory. “Take that mother fuckers!”

I let out a groan of frustration and disbelief, not unlike the ones emitted by AJ and Howie. “We’re making you guys a list.” I announced. Once again, I pushed myself away from the table, returning a few seconds later with a pad of paper and a pen. I made sure to give Brian and Nick a warning stare as I settled back into my seat. “You can only buy what’s on the list.”