“Hey, where’s Nick?” AJ questioned when he turned around.
“I think he’s having trouble, we need to go back and help him,” Lizz directed.
Without hesitating, they turned and followed their steps back.
“What’s wrong Lizz?”
“I don’t know for sure but he mentioned that he was thinking he was going to have a seizure, he said he could feel it start to come on.”
Howie stepped up his pace and was running ahead of the rest of them. Lizz’s heart sank when they turned the corner and discovered that Nick wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“He was right here when I left him, look, see there’s the blood right there,” she pointed down to the ground with reddish tinge.
“I see blood and I also see about five different sets of footprints, but only four going back, meaning that he didn’t leave alone,” Kevin observed.
“Dear lord,” Brian whispered.
After a few minutes had passed from drinking the medicine, I was beginning to realize that I was in a world of trouble. My thoughts were clouded and I could no longer distinguish between good and bad. It had totally effected my judgement. I just laid back and listened to the lies that were being fed to me and I didn’t argue with them - I couldn’t argue with them - it all seemed right to me.
“Nick, you know that girl that was with you?” Lelani questioned as she paced the hut.
“Yep,” I replied. I noticed that my voice sounded thick, like my tongue weighed four pounds.
“She wants you dead. She told me this,” Lelani lied. Before I could comment on her thoughts, she continued. “And the rest of the men, they also wanted you dead. They want you to suffer for your actions. They told me they never liked you, in fact they hate you. You realize Nick, that we are your only friends. They are the enemy! You must protect yourself!”
I slowly nodded in agreement. I was open to anything Lelani suggested to me. If she had given me a plate of worms and told me that these were good for me to eat, I would eat them without question. It was as if I had no control over anything anymore. I knew what she was telling me was wrong, but it was like I couldn’t fight it. I had to agree with her.
Lelani smiled at me. “Good boy Nick, I knew you’d see it our way.”
Her face suddenly grew serious. She said something to one of the men in the hut in the native tongue and he quickly turned and left. While he was gone, Lelani offered another drink to me. I accepted it this time, without question. It was sweet tasting. I drank the entire contents of the mug and threw it down onto the floor when I was finished.
I reached out and gently grabbed Lelani’s arm, taking her by surprise. She turned towards me, her eyes shifting as she was obviously trying to figure out what my intentions were. Without hesitating, I pulled her close to me and captured her mouth in a kiss. My conscience was replused by what I was doing. This was so very wrong. I had no control over what I was doing, my mind was screaming to stop but my hands seem to disregard me.
“Oh Nick, now, you will just have to wait until you fight your war and protect us from the enemy,” Lelani stated as she pushed herself away from me. “After you win, I will give myself to you freely, but you must wait until then. A true warrior does not mate before a battle.”
I grabbed Lelani again and I forced myself onto her. Her cries were muffled when I kissed her. Before I could go any further, some of the natives that were assigned to protect rushed into the hut and pulled me away from their princess.
“It’s okay, he is just ready for battle now. Give him his weapons and send him to the edge of the village,” she commanded as she tried to regain her composure. “I will be waiting for you when you return Nick. Remember....they are evil and must be stopped.”
“Okay this path is longer than I rememer,” AJ grumbled.
“Well, I can see that we’re getting closer, look can’t you see the light from the firepit?” Howie pointed out.
Lizz stepped up the pace, anxious to find Nick and put this nightmare far from her memory. She could see how it was taking it’s toll on each of them including herself. Kevin looked like he was going to collapse if he had the opportunity to, Brian looked still worn from the after effects from the posion and AJ had been guarding his arm in the same position for days, complaining that it would have to be broken again when they reached civilization because it was going to be healing wrong. Only Howie had escaped the natives wrath up to this point.
“Hey, look AJ we’ve finally reached the village, I guess now we look for---”
The sudden noise ripping through the vegetation in the dense forest caught everyone by surprise. Howie’s words were quickly silenced and then a sickening thud followed by his gasping escaped into the air.
“OH MY GOD!” AJ yelled as he raced to Howie’s side, the shaft of what appeared to be a thick arrow from a crossbow driven into his chest, straight into his heart. “HOWIE?!” AJ yelled as he grabbed his friend and cradled his shoulders gently onto his lap. AJ’s cries weren’t answered, he was met only with Howie’s eyes staring vacantly into nowhere.
“WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU YOU COWARDS?” AJ demanded as he looked around him.
Suddenly, the sickening sound of the vegetation began again. This time the target was AJ, hitting him squarely in the back. He slumped forward off to the side of his fallen friend.
This was all surreal to me, I knew this was wrong but I couldn’t stop it from happening. It was as if I had something that I had to do and I couldn’t rest until the mission was carried out. I stepped out from my cover onto the path where the rest of them stood.
“NICK! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Kevin demanded.
I didn’t say a word to any of them. I gripped the weapon in my hand and I was prepared to use it to stop the evil. I know they saw the threatening look I cast towards the remaining three because they all stopped in their steps.
I placed another arrow into the set and took steady aim at Kevin. As I aimed for his heart, I squeezed my eyes shut tight and swallowed. I could hear Lizz and Brian’s screams but I didn’t seem to care anymore. It was like I had no more feelings left inside of me.
“NICK NO! WHAT IS HAPPENING? PLEASE GOD, NO!”
I opened my eyes to see Brian standing in front of Lizz. He had a mixed look on his face. One of bewilderment and sadness. “You have to take me but spare her life Nick, please don’t do this.”
I don’t know why, but I started crying. I was feeling the effects of the drink Lelani gave me and it’s effects were starting to grow dull. I still had the pressing urge to finish my mission. I still felt that Brian and Lizz were the sources of evil and had to be stopped at any and all costs.
Taking a straight aim at Brian I swallowed hard, pushing back all the memories of him and of Lizz. I wrapped my index finger around the trigger and just before I squeezed, I whispered two final words to my brother.
“I’m sorry.”
The arrow sailed true to it’s target. Brian was hit and the arrow went through him and into her. He had made an attempt to push her away from him, but the arrow was faster than he anticipated and they were both hit. The look in his eyes before he finally let death wash over him was agonizing. I dropped to my knees when the reality of the carnage sunk in.
I killed my friends.
There was only one way out of this now. The potion had lost it’s hold on me and now I realized what I had done. I had taken lives. I had killed my friends. With the last arrow I had. I placed it in it’s holder. I propped the crossbow against my legs as I laid down, aiming the arrow towards my chest. I squeezed my eyes shut as I pulled the trigger with my foot, trying three or maybe four times to hit the trigger.
Suddenly, I was rewarded with a searing pain for my efforts, the wind being knocked out of my lungs.
“Nick....stay with us hun.”
I quickly opened my eyes upon hearing the female voice. I was coughing and she was rubbing my back and trying to strap an oxygen mask on my face.
“Wha.. wha?” I sputtered as I looked wildly at my surroundings.
“Nicky, calm down, slow your breathing down dude,” Howie soothed.
Howie? Is this what dying is like? Howie’s dead. I don’t understand this.
“How long has he been like this?”
“I dunno for sure, I went to the cafeteria for a bite to eat and when I came back he was freaking out in bed,” Howie replied to the woman.
“Nick, you have to calm down, you’ll rip your sutures out in your chest,” the woman stated with urgency.
“What the hell is happening?” AJ rasped as he entered the room, arms full of magazines and a couple of bottles of coke.
Now I was beginning to realize something was different. AJ’s arm was broken....wait, AJ’s supposed to be dead too.
“I’m going to have to get a sedative, he’s not calming down,” the woman sighed as she turned and rushed out of the room.
“Nicky calm your ass down or they’ll lock you up,” AJ said as he placed his face inches from mine.
“Wha... where am I?”
“In the hospital, remember? You were shot in the chest?” Howie and AJ said simutaneously.
They seemed to know it wasn’t registering when my face became a twist of bewilderment.
“We got Marcus, he’s dead? Anything yet here? You almost died on us, come on you didn’t get amnesia too, what are you trying to pull on us?” AJ snapped.
I laid my head deeper into the pillow. I looked around the room. There were flowers in every available space and balloons dancing in the draftiness of the room.
“God, I... I do remember. Oh god I had the worst dream of my life,” I said as I closed my eyes.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Howie offered.
I shook my head. “I only want to see Brian and Lizz. I will be okay when I see them.”
“Man, something’s got you really shook. What happened in the dream?” AJ asked.
“Everyone died,” I replied, afraid to go any further into details.
My heart literally skipped a beat when Kevin, Brian and Lizz stood in my doorway, lost in their own private conversation about the ‘did you see that cute little girl on the elevator’ conversation.
Igorning the pain in my chest, I sat up in bed, pulled the oxygen mask off and outstretched my arms.
“Group hug guys,” was all I could say.
Everything was okay now. It’s all good.
