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** BRIAN **

“Poor Howie.” Sarah sighed as she pushed Nick towards the three of us. “It’s such a shame. That bullet was meant for Kevin.”

I swallowed the bile that was rising in my throat and kept my eyes locked on the far wall just above Nick’s right shoulder. I couldn’t bear to look at Howie lying on the ground with his blood drying on the cement. It was my fault that he was on the ground in the first place. I had done what I had always sworn that I would never do; I had chosen one person’s life over another. I had saved Kevin and killed Howie all with one stupid choice, and I would never be able to forgive myself.

“Please let us go.” Nick was begging now. “Howie needs help. He’s going to die.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, Nick?” Sarah gave one Nick one final shove and he stumbled into position a few feet in front of us. “I’m not finished yet.”

“We’ll stay if you let Howie go.” Kevin spoke slowly and evenly, his voice eerily calm. “We’ll do whatever you want if you take Howie to a safe place.”

The cable ties were tight and I could feel the sweat gathering around my wrists, aggravating the already raw skin. I could hear AJ breathing heavily to my right. I knew that he was probably less than impressed with Kevin’s suggestion, but I prayed to God that he was smart enough to keep his opinion to himself. Personally, I was fine with Kevin’s idea; anything to help ease my guilty conscience.

“Is that so?” Sarah peered into Kevin’s determined face and smirked. “I suppose that I don’t really have any use for him anymore …”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kevin nod vigorously in agreement. “So you’ll let him go?”

Sarah paused as if she were considering the suggestion before twisting her face into an angry sneer. “Of course I’m not going to let him go! Can’t you see that Howie lying on the floor is doing Nick in? That’s the whole point of this, remember?”

I couldn’t help it. I pulled my eyes away from the wall and looked directly at Kevin. He looked as though he had been punched in the stomach. It was obvious that he had been under the impression that he had been getting through to Sarah; that his reasoning was having the desired effect. My heart ached for my cousin as I watched the dejected look overtake his face. I couldn’t remember a time when I had seen him look so defeated.

“Speaking of pain …” Sarah trailed off as she left Nick’s side and took a few steps towards the three of us. “…who am I going to hurt next?”

Vinny quickly assumed Sarah’s former position next to Nick. He grabbed on to his already bound wrists and jabbed the barrel of his gun into his back. I saw Nick flinch as Sarah stepped dangerously close to Kevin and peered into his face. She appeared to consider her options carefully as she moved on and did the same thing to AJ.

I sucked in my breath as she stepped in front of me. The whole situation was bizarre; I was terrified, but my mind was telling me that there was no reason for my fear. Our captor was a woman; a slender, petite, nice smelling woman. Physically, I could have dominated her. Mentally, she had me beat. Sarah was clearly unstable and, after witnessing the fact that she would have mercilessly shot Kevin at point blank range, I didn’t want to take any more chances.

“Frick and Frack.” Sarah smiled. She closed the gap between us so that her chest was now brushing against mine. “I always thought that was so sweet.”

The smell of her perfume was making me nauseous. If I lived through this ordeal, I knew that I would never be able to stomach the scent of Vera Wang’s Princess ever again. Above Sarah’s shoulder, I could see Nick visibly starting to panic. He knew what was about to happen, just as well as I did.

“Move them.”

As soon as Sarah issued the command, Joey and Tony swooped down on AJ and Kevin. With my hands locked behind my back, I was helpless as the two Italian monsters dragged them off towards the side of the room. I remained equally helpless as Sarah brought one hand up and began to lightly trail her fingers down my chest. I thought about twisting to avoid her touch. I thought about kicking her with all my might. I thought about head-butting her directly in the face. But every time that a thought crossed my mind, I replaced it with an image of Howie bleeding out on the ground just a few feet from where I was standing. I had tried to resist one too many times already. I wasn’t about to be responsible for getting anyone else shot.

“I’m going to shoot you right here.” Sarah whispered in my ear as she pressed her fingers into the skin just below my heart. “I’m going to aim right for your scar.”

“Please!” Nick sobbed. “Just let us go!”

“What’s the matter, Nick?” Sarah turned from me and dropped her face into a pout. “Are you worried that you’re going to lose your best friend?”

“If you hurt Brian, I will literally strangle you until you can no longer feel feelings!” AJ’s voice was so loud that I jumped. “I will fucking kill you, you sick, nasty bitch!”

AJ was fighting against Joey’s grip harder than I had ever seen him struggle. He was twisting his upper body while simultaneously flailing his legs in all directions. To his credit, Joey was weathering the storm with what appeared to be expert practice. He didn’t even react as AJ’s foot connected sharply with his shin.

Sarah rolled her eyes in impatience. “Tony, help Joey handle our little superhero.”

Without hesitation, Tony responded by pistol whipping AJ across the side of the head. The force of the blow, the sound of which ricocheted through the room, was more than enough to knock him out. AJ slumped in Joey’s arms and, almost immediately, Joey let his body fall to the floor. No matter how much it pained me to watch, I couldn’t pull my eyes away as AJ’s lifeless form landed on the ground with a sickening thud; his already swelling head hitting the floor with a life-ending crack.

“AJ!” I was screaming before my brain had even registered the fact that my mouth was open. I sounded as wounded as I felt as I allowed myself to collapse into a fit of sobs. The sound of his head hitting the floor was replaying over and over again in my mind. AJ's body was contorted on the ground in a shockingly still pile of arms and legs. There was no movement whatsoever.

“Look what you did!” Nick was hysterical; the tears were streaming down his face faster and harder than I had ever seen anyone cry. “Just shoot me! Just fucking shoot me so that I don’t have to watch this anymore!”

“AJ!” I was still screaming his name in the hopes that he would wake up if I yelled loud enough. “AJ, wake up! Wake up!”

I began to lower myself to the ground, afraid that my legs wouldn’t be able to support my weight for much longer; first Howie and now AJ. I couldn’t handle much more. All I wanted to do was crawl over to AJ’s body and shake him until he woke up, but I knew that Sarah would never let that happen. I was starting to think like Nick. Maybe it would be better if Sarah were to just shoot me. I wouldn’t be able to feel the pain if I was dead.

“What are we doing now?” Joey had come up behind me and was yanking me painfully back up into a standing position. “Are we shooting this idiot or what?”

“Go ahead.” My voice was hoarse from crying. “Do whatever you want. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Brian!” Nick’s voice was rising even higher in hysteria. “Of course it matters! You can’t give up. You’re the one who told me that we can’t give up!”

“They’re gone, Nick.” I sought out his gaze and held tight.

Through the tears, the dirt, and the blood, I could see the flicker of realization overtake his face. Nick knew just as well as I did that we were fighting a losing battle. No matter what I did, the outcome was inevitably going to be the same. I was going to end up dead on the floor just like Howie and AJ. Sarah’s ultimate goal was to take all of us away from Nick; to leave him sad and alone just like he had unknowingly left her since that day so many years ago when we had performed on TRL.

“I can’t – I can’t make it without you!” Nick’s face crumpled even more. “After all that we’ve been through, I can’t have it end like this. I can’t lose all of you at once. I won’t be able to cope!”

“You will.” I tried my best to sound reassuring, to keep the tremor out of my voice .The tears were still sliding down my face, but they were silent now. I had to regain my composure. Howie had gone down as a victim, AJ had gone down as a fighter, and I would go down as a passive participant.

“Don’t…” Nick hiccupped as Vinny readjusted his grip and yanked him upwards so that his back was perfectly straight. “Brian, please …”

“Nick …” I stopped.

Joey had now backed me up against the wall, and he was slowly inching away from me with his gun trained on my chest. Sarah was busy taking up her position in front of me, a look of pure satisfaction on her face.

“Nick …” I started again as Sarah clicked her gun into position. I wanted, more than anything, to tell him that everything was right between us again, that our friendship was truly restored, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Besides, I was pretty sure that he knew it anyway. “… don’t forget about Baylee.”

Sarah’s gun discharged and, at the last possible moment, I made the decision to move. I dove to the right with all of the adrenaline that I could muster. Amidst a series of banging and crashing, I could hear Nick and Kevin yelling a string of obscenities. A searing pain sliced through my left arm as I hit the ground hard on my right side and skidded across the floor towards AJ’s lifeless body and Kevin’s scuffed up shoes. There was so much yelling, so many voices, and so many bullets flying around that I couldn’t even begin to figure out where it was all coming from.

There was blood on the ground next to me and I knew that it was mine, but I was in so much pain from the fall that I had no idea where on my body it was coming from. Panicked and confused, I did the only thing that I could think to do; I remained face down on the floor, closed my eyes, and tried as hard as I could not to move as the chaos raged above me.