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Both Howie and Kevin busted through the two doors, rushing in and running up to the receptionist’s desk. “Can you tell us which room Alexander James McLean is in?”

The elderly receptionist looked up, “I’m sorry sir, would you please calm down and tell me the name again slowly.”

“Alexander James McLean.” Howie repeated slowly. “He was brought in here and there was another man with him, could you please tell me which room he’s in.”

The woman nodded and began to type on her computer. “Yes, he’s in room A101, what your gonna do is take this right and go right down the corridor, it’s the second room on the right side.”

They both thanked her before they left down the corridor to AJ’s room. Once they got there, they opened the door and seen both Dr. McNorton and Brian standing there near AJ’s bed, talking.

“What happened?” Kevin asked all out of breath.

“It seems as if Alex overworked his brain.” Dr. McNorton replied. “Remember when I told you guys not to force everything onto him at once, for it’ll work up his brain and it might lead to either painful or lethal consequences? Well, he just fell unconscious. When he awakes, he might not remember what happened or how it happened, so not to worry. He’ll be fine, I just want to keep him in at least until tonight to reevaluate his brain activity.”

Dr. McNorton turned to walk out of the room, leaving the three of them standing there in the room, staring down at AJ’s unconscious form.

“What happened?” Howie questioned softly.

Brian fell in a trance, staring at AJ’s body. “I don’t know.” he shrugged. “One minute, we were talking, then before I knew it, he just dropped out of his seat. He was staring at something and said “oh my god”… I had asked him what the problem was, but he didn’t answer me. He just continued to stare at god knows what, and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell out of his seat.”

“Something or someone?” Kevin asked.

Brian tore his look away from AJ and had looked over at Kevin. “Something, someone… I don’t really know. He was looking towards the food line.”

“You don’t think he was looking at someone in line or something?”

“I don’t know!” Brian snapped. He didn’t mean to sound so rude and harsh, but he was just as freaked out as they were, and having them ask him loads of questions he couldn’t answer wasn’t helping the matter. “Look, I’m sorry I yelled, but I just don’t know Kevin… if I knew he was staring at someone, I would’ve told you. He could’ve been staring at someone, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you if he was and who it was. I didn’t see what he saw, I wasn’t looking at what he was staring at, all I was worried about at that moment was him and his odd behavior. Does that answer all your questions?”

Kevin nodded and remained silent, not wanting to pressure his cousin further. Howie looked down at his watch, “C’mon you guys, we should be getting back to the hotel, we have another conference with Johnny.”

Brian turned towards Howie. “We have another what?”

Kevin sighed, “Johnny called another meeting, I don’t know what about, so don’t ask.”

“But… what about AJ? We can’t just leave him here without anyone.”

“Marcus drove Howie and I here… he’ll stay and we’ll drive the car back to the hotel.”

Brian turned to look at AJ once more, staring at him for a while. He nodded and followed Howie and Kevin out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“I don’t know about this Kevin… I mean, Johnny will really have my ass if he knew I let you guys take the car and drive back to the hotel by yourselves.”

“Then we’ll just say we snuck past you and took the car to get back to the hotel. He wouldn’t care anyway if we tell him that we did it so we could come back to attend his meeting.”

Marcus sighed and looked away, “Why can’t I just call Earl or something? I’ll tell him to come down here and pick you guys up.”

“What’s the use in doing that if the hotel is only a couple blocks down? Look dude, we’ll be fine, we’ll call you as soon as we get back to the hotel, I promise.”

Marcus rolled his eyes and remained silent. “And what car do you expect me to be driving?”

Kevin chuckled, “What car would you need to be driving if your job is to stay here overnight and watch AJ? We’ll be back tomorrow morning to get you guys once they discharge him.”

Marcus continued to stare at Kevin, thinking it over. With a sigh, he fished into his pockets and pulled out the keys to the SUV. “Here… and don’t worry about Johnny, I’ll take care of him. You guys are gonna go straight to the hotel, nowhere else! No detours, no shortcuts, nothing! Take the normal route to get back to the hotel, and I want you to call as soon as you get to the hotel, you got me?”

Kevin grabbed the keys and smiled. “Not to worry Marc… thanks a bunch!”

He turned and began to walk out of the hospital, Brian and Howie following suit. They entered the lower parking lot and had scanned the place, seeing that there were several large, black SUV’s parked in the place.

“Great.” Brian muttered. “did he forget to mention that we had to play hide-and-seek with the damn car?”

Kevin rolled his eyes and had rose the car remote, pushing the alarm button. The alarm to their SUV began to go off, and they found it to be in the far right corner of the parking lot. “What a place to park!”

Kevin unlocked the doors and they all got in, Brian sitting in the backseat, Kevin taking the driver’s seat and Howie sitting shotgun. He started the car and had pulled out of the stall, driving out of the parking lot of the hospital.

“Brian, what were you and AJ talking about before he fell unconscious?” Howie asked.

Brian was staring out the window, watching every tree they passed. “What’s with the 21 questions?”

Howie sighed, “I’m not asking you 21 questions, I simply asked you one question, hoping for you to give me a simple answer.”

Brian licked his lips, not meaning to be so cocky towards them. “We were talking about Nick… he was asking me if Nick was really going to leave the group before he had that little… episode.”

“And you say he was staring off to the food line?”

Brian growled under his breath. “Geez Howie, what in the hell is with all your questions? I already told you he was staring at something before he fell unconscious.”

Howie shook his head. “Correction Brian… he was staring at someone, not something.”

“And what makes you think that?”

“Think about it… Dr. McNorton said he was overworking his brain in trying to remember something. He had to be staring at someone and he tried to force his brain to remember something.”

“For all we know Howie, he could’ve been staring at the food and it brought back some sort of memory.”

“Some sort of memory of food that would frighten him?” Howie asked. Brian fell silent. “Just think about it Brian, he was staring at someone who might’ve struck his memory, and if he was staring at someone who struck his memory and made him frighten, who do you think he might’ve been staring at?”

“Our killer.” Kevin replied.

Howie nodded. “This is what I think happened. He looked off to the side and seen, him. Now remember, Dr. McNorton said almost anything can bring his memory back, whether it’d be people, an object, word, music, whatever! Lets just say that when AJ saw this man, he forced his brain to think of where he might’ve seen him before, and it brought back the memory of the accident. Put two and two together, you get a frightened AJ who overworked his brain in trying to remember something, anything about this man.”

Kevin looked over at Howie, “But… how can it be that he would remember anything of the accident? He was trapped in the bathroom when the accident occurred, how could he have possibly seen what this man looked like if he was trapped in the bathroom unconscious?”

“Then there’s gotta be something he’s not telling us…”

Before anyone could say anything, something slammed into their car from behind, causing them all to jerk forward. “What the fuck?” Kevin exclaimed as he looked into the rearview mirror and seen a black, tinted navigator behind them, preparing to ram into their car again.

“Speed it up!” Brian yelled, looking back just in time to catch the navigator running into the back of their car once more.

Kevin pushed his foot down on the gas pedal, causing their speed to increase to 60. The car behind them then swerved to the side, driving up to the driver’s side of the car and matching their speed. Kevin looked to the side and squinted his eyes, trying desperately to see through the window at who the driver was, but the windows of the car was all tinted. “This cannot be happening again!”

“Hit the breaks!” Howie suggested.

Kevin nodded and was about to slam on the breaks, but before he could do that, the navigator swerved to the side and had rammed into the side of their car, causing them to drift off road and tumble into a small ditch.