[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
** NICK **

The pain in my calf was excruciating. I pushed the pink and white blankets aside as fast as I could and grabbed blindly for my leg in the darkness. I flipped over on my side and tucked my left leg up to my chest, willing with all my might that the spasms would pass. Sucking in a long breath through my teeth, I massaged my fingers into the overly tightened muscles of my lower leg. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been forced to sleep all scrunched up in this stupid miniature bed.

“Fuck you, Kevin!” I cursed under my breath as the pain continued to shoot up my leg. As far as I was concerned, this was entirely his fault. If he hadn’t been such a colossal dick, the room assignments would have been divvied up properly; like according to height. In other words, as the tallest, I wouldn’t have been left to suffer in the pink room of torture. That honour would have gone to someone shorter, like Howie.

I tentatively stretched my leg out as the pain slowly began to subside. My bare foot hung off of the end of the bed as I moved, and I had to fight the urge to pull my leg back up onto the safety of the mattress. Regardless of my age, I didn’t think that I would ever be able to let go of the irrational fear that something was going to grab at my feet in the darkness if they weren’t fully on the bed and surrounded by blankets.

I was still in the process of trying not to think about the creepy, toe-pinching troll that was likely lurking under the bed when the noise happened. The crash was so loud that it caused me to draw both of my legs upwards at lightning speed. The movement was so rapid and so sudden that I almost kneed myself in the jaw. I remained in the fetal position until the noise happened again; someone was in the front portion of the house. My heart dropped into my stomach as I slowly uncurled my body and got to my feet. The noises were getting louder and more prolonged. It almost sounded as if people were fighting.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit!” I whispered to myself as I crept slowly towards the door.

I curled my fingers around the doorknob and pulled the door open as slowly and as quietly as possible. I peeked out into the hallway; my eyes darting quickly in both directions as the noises continued to emanate from the front of the house. The hallway was dark, but I could still determine that the door to Brian and AJ’s room was open. I pulled my own door the rest of the way open and held my breath as I stepped out into the hallway. The tiles were cool beneath my feet as I shuffled towards the scuffle that I now knew was inevitably taking place.

“Nick!”

I jumped back against the wall and clamped a hand down on my chest. My heartbeat was so pronounced and erratic that I was amazed that I couldn’t see the organ coming through my shirt. I whipped my head around so that I was facing in the opposite direction and let out my breath in a loud whoosh. Kevin and Howie were creeping down the hallway towards me, both of them making sure to stay close to the wall.

“Wait!” Kevin insisted. He stole a quick glance into AJ and Brian’s room as he passed by the open door; his face immediately clouding over in concern.

“I think somebody has Brian and AJ.” I hissed as soon as Kevin and Howie caught up to me.

Howie nodded in agreement. He looked positively terrified. “What are we going to do?”

“We don’t know how many attackers there are.” Kevin appeared to be in the middle of an intense internal struggle. “We don’t know if they have weapons.”

“Ahhh!” Brian’s cry rang out long and loud, followed by a heart-stopping crash.

I was moving before my brain could even begin to formulate what I was going to do. I launched myself around the corner just in time to see Brian topple backwards onto the floor and skid roughly along the tiles. At the same time, a large, unknown man drove himself into AJ’s chest. AJ’s back slammed into the ground and the man fell on top of him, fighting to keep him in place.

Without thinking, I rammed myself against the attacker; successfully catching him off guard. He grunted in pain as I drove my shoulder into his side and forced him away from AJ. The two of us landed on the floor and AJ scurried away from our scuffle, essentially crab walking along the tiles as he struggled to catch his breath.

The man was strong and I immediately regretted my decision to tackle him on my own as his fingers locked around my left wrist. It was too dark in the hallway to make out his face and his flailing limbs were little more than a blur as he continued to grunt and thrash beneath me. This was going to end badly.

“What the fuck?! Everyone, stop!”

The lights flipped on and I instinctively closed my eyes against the assaulting brightness. It was a knowingly poor decision as it easily allowed the larger man to gain the upper hand. He clamped his beefy fingers around my other wrist and pushed me backwards onto the ground with a cry of rage.

“Joey, stop! It’s them!”

I opened my eyes, squinting against the lights, and stared into the sweaty face of one of the men who had been hired to protect us. He was breathing heavily and blood was tricking down the side of his face from a small cut just above his left eyebrow.

“What’s going on?” Kevin demanded. “Why are the two of you in the house?”

“Never mind about why they’re in the house!” AJ roared. “Why the fuck did one of them tackle me?”

“Hurting.” I choked the word out as Joey was still forcing all of his weight against my chest. “Air … I need.”

“Shit.” Joey immediately let go of my wrists and pushed himself up into a standing position, leaving me gasping on my back on the floor. “Sorry, bro.”

“Jesus Christ, Joe, you’re bleeding!” Tony announced the obvious from his place next to the light switch. “What did you do?”

I manoeuvred myself into a sitting position and took my first look around since the lights had come on. AJ and Brian were still sitting on the floor. Brian looked dazed and AJ looked ready to murder someone. Kevin and Howie were standing near the entrance to the hallway that led to the bedrooms; both of them were sporting a nearly identical expression of confusion. Tony still had his hand on the light switch, and Joey was busy poking at his flesh wound.

“What did I do?” Joey repeated the question; his voice rising in defiance. “I was defending myself against these idiots!” He jerked his thumb in Brian’s direction. “This one tried to strangle me to death.”

“I thought that you were trying to kill AJ!” Brian defended himself. “You head-butted him to the ground!”

“That’s because I thought that he was an intruder.” Joey shook his head and continued to poke at his wound; his fingers were now coated with his own blood. “You guys are apparently a lot tougher than you look.”

I made no effort to hide my smirk as I got to my feet, holding my hand out to AJ in the process. He accepted my outstretched hand, wincing noticeably as I helped him to stand up. He rubbed at his lower back with his other hand and glared at Joey. “Thanks for nothing.”

“I think we need to go over what happened from the beginning.” Kevin narrowed his eyebrows at Tony. “Let’s hear it.”

Tony sighed and finally dropped his hand from the light switch. “I was keeping an eye on the place and I thought that I saw someone creeping around in the front yard. I woke Joey up and the two of us came over here to check things out. Joey entered through the front door, while I went around to the back to make sure that everything was okay back there. I had some trouble getting my key to work in the sliding door and by the time I got inside everyone was rolling around on the floor.”

“We thought that you were trying to break in.” Brian got gingerly to his feet and rubbed at the back of his neck. “AJ and I heard you in the backyard.”

“It would have been nice to know that you guys had keys.” AJ grumbled. He directed his attention towards Joey. “Why the fuck didn’t you turn on the lights or say something before you elbowed me in the stomach?”

“I didn’t realize that it was you guys until this dumbass crashed into me.” Joey looked angrily at me. “What were you thinking?”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t really thinking.”

AJ snorted and clapped me roughly on the back. “For once, your lack of thought actually worked in my favour.”

“Listen, we’re really sorry about all of this.” Tony apologized. “If it’s any consolation, I was apparently wrong about seeing an intruder. There’s no sign of foul play.”

“Great.” Joey was positively fuming now. He wiped his bloody hands on his jeans and glared at his partner. “I practically got the shit kicked out of me for nothing.”

“Practically?” AJ taunted. “Brian had you on the ground and he’s less than half your size.”

Joey rubbed absently at his neck. It was in the process of turning an ugly shade of red. He glanced almost warily at Brian. “I never would have pegged you for the strong one.”

Brian lowered his eyes to the floor. “Like I said, I thought that you were trying to kill him.”

“We’re gonna go.” Tony looked pointedly at Joey. “You guys try and go back to sleep.”

I rolled my eyes; not caring that Joey was looking directly at me as he followed Tony out the front door. There was absolutely no chance that I was going back to sleep.

“Who wants coffee?” Kevin ran a hand down his face and looked at the rest of us as soon as the front door closed. “Is anybody going to attempt to go back to bed?”

“Coffee sounds good.” AJ sighed; speaking for all of us as he trudged into the family room.

I looped my arm casually across Brian’s shoulders and shot him a wicked grin as the two of us trailed after AJ. “Did you really almost strangle him to death?”

The corners of Brian’s mouth twitched upwards. “Maybe.”

“I wish you could have seen your own face.” AJ directed his comment towards Brian as we joined him on the couch. “You almost looked like you were possessed. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen you look so determined.”

The smile that had been tugging at Brian’s mouth vanished. “I really thought that he was going to kill you, Aje. I didn’t even think about what I was doing.”

“Neither did Nick.” AJ’s expression had turned strangely serious. “While I appreciate you coming to my rescue, it really was a stupid thing to do. What if Joey had had a knife or something?”

I shrugged to explain myself for the second time. “That would have sucked ass.”