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.
