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Nick lay in the hospital bed staring at the ceiling, a blank look on his face. The nurse moved around the bed checking his chart as she stole glances at him. He knew who she was, and why she was here. She was here to keep an eye on him.

She made a few notations on his chart and then gave him a smile. He watched with fascination as her blue eyes flashed flames of red and orange. It was reminding him. Reminding him


It was dark. So very dark. And he was alone. He screamed and whirled around. One moment he'd been struggling to breathe and then he'd suddenly found himself here. Was he dead? He could feel his heart pounding though so he couldn't be. "Kevin!" he cried out. "Brian?" he tried when he still go no answer. He began to run, hoping to find an end to the darkness, but there seemingly was none. His heart felt like it was going to explode at any moment. "Please! Someone"

"Your eyes." He said to the nurse, "They remind me of a place I visited once."

"Really?" She said coyly, picking up a small cup from the tray. She plucked two pills from the cup, one pink and one green and held them out to him. "What place is it that my eyes remind you of?" Taking the pills from her hand, Nick watched her eyes flash flames again. He then pushed both pills into his mouth and swallowed.

"They remind me of hell."

***

When Nick woke up he knew he was not alone. He felt the pull, and for the first time in his life he didn't fear it. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed he got to his feet.

"Can you do what needs to be done Nick?"

"Yes, I can do what needs to be done."

"Yes you can Nick. Yes you can. Who will you kill first Nick? What method will you use? What will you feel when you have to kill those who have protected you for so long?"

"Shut up, just shut up for a second and let me think. They'll be here soon and I need to think." Nick paced the hospital room pulling his hands through his short spiky blonde hair. The guys were coming, just like he knew they would. Getting them to the hospital had been so simple. It made him laugh to think that after all these years they would still come following after him like he was an infant.

"What are you going to do Nick?" The voice filled his head, clouding his brain with evil thoughts.

"Why do I have to tell you?" Nick replied as he leaned against the door to his room, a slight smirk on his face. "What if I want to keep it all a secret?"

"You have no secrets from us Nick..you never have." Nick smiled again his own blue eyes flashing flames. It was true. He had never had any secrets from "them". And tonight when "they" had found him drunk and alone on the street they had made sure that he knew that.

That there were no secrets.

***

"So who is going to go in and see him first?" Howie stopped, turning to face the others as the elevator stopped on the third floor with a loud ding.

"What the hell difference does it matter who goes in first?" A.J. leaned against the back wall of the elevator his hands shoved deep in his pockets a look of annoyance on his face.

"It matters to me." Howie reached a hand out and pushed the door close button just as the doors slid open.

"What are you doing you idiot?" A.J. moved forward, reaching for Howie's hand as Howie shoved him back with his free hand.

"I want to know who is going to go in his room first."

"Why Howie. Why does it matter?" Kevin stood in the far corner of the elevator arms crossed against his chest trying to understand.

"Because.because I don't want it to be me." All eyes were on him. A.J. looked disgusted. Brian looked confused and Kevin just looked tired.

"Look you guys. Today I went in Nick's room to see if he had a CD he borrowed from me and I saw something on his laptop."

"You were going through his personal stuff on his computer?" Brian looked over to Kevin and then back to Howie. "Why would you do that?" All four men ignored the buzzing of the elevator as the doors struggled to open.

"I didn't do it on purpose. And I really didn't think anything of it until you told me he was hurt. I just thought it was Nick and his weird imagination." Howie swallowed hard and continued. "He was writing a bunch of crazy gibberish. Stuff about some unseen force that had been after him for years. About how alone he was vulnerable, but together the five of us could keep this force at bay. He wrote about his fear of the underworld despite the pull he had to be there. And then the writing just stopped" Howie's voice trailed off and an eerie silence followed as the elevator lurched and buzzed again.

"Look, let me the hell off of this thing." A.J. smacked Howie's hand away and punched the door open button over and over until the doors came apart. Stepping off he moved quickly shouting over his shoulder, never breaking his stride, "I'm going to go and see him first. And the rest of you can kiss my ass."

***

Nick lay in the hospital bed, his eyes shifting around the shadows in the room. He had turned the lights off for good measure, because what was going to happen next would be so much sweeter in partial darkness and shadows.

So A.J. was going to come in first. Funny but he had thought it would be Kevin since Kevin had always enjoyed being the boss. That was okay though, it would be fun to take care of them out of order.

***

A.J. opened the door slowly peeking his head around, squinting into the darkness of the room. Walking the rest of the way inside he let the door shut softly behind him, allowing his eyes to adjust to the lack of light before he continued on.

"Nick?" He whispered as his eyes stopping on what appeared to be a motionless figure in the bed. "Nicky, it's A.J." Bumping into the rails of the bed A.J. felt his heart began to thump wildly in his chest. The moonlight that pushed through the partially open shade caught the silver pull chain on the light above the hospital bed. Giving it a tug A.J. waited while the light pulsated a few times before giving off a soft faint glow. Looking down A.J.'s eyes went wide.

Nick was pale and covered in deep scratches that ran two to three inches long down each cheek and horizontally across his forehead. His left eye was purple and swollen and his bottom lip was sliced and caked with dried blood. A.J. clearly remembered Kevin saying that Nick had been hit with a beer bottle. Well, unless he had been attacked by a man wielding four hundred beer bottles there was no way these kind of injuries were caused by a blow to the back of the head? Reaching forward with a trembling hand A.J. picked up one corner of the hospital blanket that was pulled up to Nick's shoulders.

Slowly he peeled it back.

"Oh my God." He whispered. Bruises and scrapes ran the length of each one of Nick's arms, weaving in and out of his tattoos in intricate patterns. Dark bruises ran in dots around his wrists, like someone had taken hold of him hard. But upon closer inspection they didn't appear to be caused by a human hand, and if they were whoever did it must have had seven freaky fingers. Backing up A.J. wanted out of there and he wanted out of there now, but something stopped him.

Turning there was nothing there. He moved to the right a little and started to walk forward but was stopped again. Suddenly he felt a pulsating throb running through his body. It started at his heels, working its' way up his calves, thighs, racing quickly up his back as it merged into his spine finally bursting up into the base of his skull making him feel as if he might explode.

***

The guys walked slowly down the corridors of the hospital none of them speaking to one another. Suddenly the overhead lights flickered off then on and then off again leaving them in complete darkness.

All three men stopped.

"What happened?" Brian reached out his hand grabbing onto Kevin's arm.

"Must be some sort of power failure." Kevin answered calmly. "I'm sure the backup generator will kick on in a second. Don't worry." They all waited but the lights didn't come back on.

"Where are all the nurses and hospital staff?" When they had stepped off the elevator the third floor had been pretty deserted. Come to think of it they had not seen any nurses or patients. No one. Which hadn't struck Howie as too strange until right now.

"Hello?" Kevin called out his voice echoing in the darkness. "Hey is anybody here?"

Nothing.

And then they heard screaming, like a wild animal being tortured. And the sound of someone begging for his life.

"Oh my God it's A.J." Kevin said, running blindly in the direction of A.J.'s voice.