[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Phantom @NetPhantom (54 min)
@skulleeroz, @brian_littrell, @kevinrichardson, @nickcarter and @howied together again! Let’s play another game, shall we?

“It’s time to up the price.” Angelo rubbed absently at his chest as he watched the video feed. The little southern one had been stronger and faster than he had anticipated. At some point during their struggle, the little prick had kneed him in the chest. “Is the next poll ready to launch?”

Carl nodded. “It’s ready.” He paused. “Don’t you think that it’s too early to raise the price? We’ve only just gotten all five of them together.”

Angelo snorted. “Yeah, and taking them all down took us longer than we had anticipated. We’re already twenty-four hours behind schedule. The first payment is due in a few days and we’ve only brought in a little over a thousand dollars. You do the math.”

It wasn’t hard to do the math. Carl knew that they were behind. He knew that they needed to generate four thousand more dollars before Friday. He also knew that they couldn’t get too greedy too soon. They had to able to stretch this out; to generate enough money to make all three payments. This is why he had agreed to the plan in the first place. The ‘games’ would provide a continuous source of income that would be nearly impossible to trace. If they had just asked for a ransom, a lump sum payment, they would have opened themselves up to being caught almost immediately.

“Should we make it a dollar? Carl’s hands hesitated over the keyboard.

He didn’t want to drive the current voters away, and they still needed to attract new voters if their plan was going to work. Carl knew that they were free and clear in terms of remaining anonymous. He was good at what he did; he had double checked to make sure that all of the required safeguards were in place. It would take at least a week for even the most talented hackers at the NYPD to be able to pinpoint their location, and Carl was planning on being long gone before that happened.

“A dollar is good for now.” Angelo agreed. “If we double our voters with this poll then we’ll hit the target, and we can increase by another dollar per vote during the next round. The media is going crazy already, so I don’t think we’re going to have a shortage of people who are going to be willing to weigh in on this.”

“Okay.” Carl quickly inputted the higher amount and pressed the ‘enter’ key. He watched as the poll sprung to life. “We’re up and running.”

“Look at those losers.” Angelo gestured towards the monitor. They all look so dejected, so terrified ... it’s perfect!”

Carl followed his older brother’s gaze, but he stayed silent. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t shake the nagging feeling of remorse. He had felt okay when it had only been Howie. He had started to feel a bit guilty when they had added Nick and Kevin to the mix, but he had started to feel downright terrible after they had locked up AJ and Brian. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken all five of them.

“Look at that!” Angelo’s laugh cut into Carl’s thoughts. “We’ve already got over two hundred votes and the poll hasn’t even been live for three minutes yet!” He clapped his younger brother roughly on the shoulder and leaned over to access the two way microphone. “I guess it’s time to let the boys know about their resurging popularity.”

“Hello boys! It certainly is nice to see the five of you together again!”

“See! That’s what we’re talking about ...” Howie cut himself off mid sentence as the mechanical voice reappeared. He had actually been starting to worry about the silence. AJ and Brian had been brought in almost an hour ago, and this was the first time that the voice had acknowledged them since their arrival.

“Fuck you!” AJ spat. He sat down roughly on one of the cots and stared directly into the camera. “You guys are nothing but fucking cowards!”

“Tisk, tisk, Alex, watch your language!” The voice scolded playfully. “This is being broadcasted live. We wouldn’t want anyone to be offended by your use of profanity.”

“Fuuuuuckkkkk youuuuuuu!” AJ taunted. He turned around so that his back was facing the camera and stuck out both of his middle fingers; his wrists straining against the handcuffs as he tried to raise his fingers upwards. “You’re a piece of shit.”

“There’s no need to be rude.” The voice shot back. “Especially, when we’re being nice and letting you out of those pesky handcuffs.”

“I don’t ...” AJ stopped talking as a single key shot underneath the door.

“That one’s for AJ.” The voice paused as another key slid into the room. “And that one’s for Brian.”

“What about Kevin?” Howie challenged. “Why isn’t there a key for him?”

Nick reached down and picked up the key that was meant for Brian’s handcuffs as he listed to the exchange between Howie and the creepy voice. He motioned for Brian to turn around and quickly inserted the key into the lock. The cuffs popped off easily, and Brian immediately began to flex his wrists. His skin was raw from where the metal had been cutting into his flesh and Nick had to turn away as a slow trickle of blood began to make its way down Brian’s arm. He hated the sight of blood unless it was fake and part of a horror film.

The voice’s distorted laugh filled the room. “Because he lost the game! Don’t you remember, Howie?”

“Right.” Howie resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he picked up the remaining key from the floor and hastily removed the handcuffs from around AJ’s wrists. “How could I forget?”

“I sense some sarcasm from you, Howie.” The voice chided. “That’s not very nice.”

“Neither is locking us up in a room and asking people to decide about the best way to torture us!” Kevin shot back. The pain in his wrists was starting to make him testy. “But ya’ll don’t seem to care about that.”

The voice laughed again. “Speaking of torture, the next poll is up and running. You can take a look at the iPad if you’re interested to see how it’s playing out, or you can wait to be surprised. Either way, we’ll be checking in with you again once the time runs out and we have our next winner. Just remember to watch your language; the people at home can hear you.”

“Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” This time, AJ was able to jam his middle finger into the air properly as he aimed the gesture directly at the camera. “You can go to hell! Do you hear me? Go to hell!”

“AJ!” Kevin leaned his head back against the cinderblock wall and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to look at the others with their arms dangling by their sides. His shoulders were starting to hurt from being pulled backwards, and his patience was definitely wearing thing. “That’s really not helping.”

Howie watched Kevin out of the corner of his eye as he picked up the iPad. He knew that the older man was trying his best to keep his emotions in check; to pretend like he wasn’t scared or in pain. Howie also knew that Kevin was fighting a losing battle. Kevin was on the verge of breaking down, and Howie definitely didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his eldest friend’s emotional explosion when he finally erupted.

“They gave us an iPad?” Brian stated the obvious as he looked at the device in Howie’s hands. “Seriously?”

Howie shrugged. “It only displays the information that they want us to see. We can’t navigate off of the one stupid website. It’s useless, really.”

“The website showing the video feed?” AJ moved so that he could peer over Howie’s shoulder. “Brian and I saw you guys sitting around in here while we were at the police station ...”

“That’s the one.” Howie swiped the tablet into the ‘on’ position and pointed at the screen. He opened his mouth to make some sarcastic comment about how good they all looked on camera, but he quickly changed his mind when he saw the current poll. “Shit.”

“Who wants a drink?” Brian read the words upside down as he stared down at the tablet. Before, he had been itching to get a better look at the website, but now all he wanted to do was look away. The bar graph underneath the question changed each time he glanced at it. “What the ...”

“I’m winning.” AJ’s voice was void of all emotion. “Isn’t that nice?”

“There’s still close to a whole day of voting time left.” Nick struggled to be positive as he, too, dropped his eyes to the ever-changing results. “I’m in second place by like two hundred votes. I could still win. We just need some more fans to ...”

“It’s not only the fans who are voting.” Brian cut Nick off. “Our fans wouldn’t vote for AJ to take a drink. They – they know better.”

“This has gone beyond the fandom.” Howie agreed. His fingers were shaking as he struggled to hold the tablet steady. “Five thousand people have already voted. I’m sure our fans are out there somewhere, but I think that most of these voters are sick; they want to see us get hurt.”

Nick continued to stare at the screen. He didn’t want to believe Howie’s words, but he knew that they were true. AJ’s bar was creeping higher and higher with every passing second. Brian was right; the fans wouldn’t vote for AJ to ruin his sobriety. Nick could barely swallow around the lump in his throat. If the first ‘game’ was already turning into a potentially life-altering situation, what were the rest of the ‘games’ going to be like?