Once they reached Kevin's car in the parking lot, Howie stopped in his tracks. "Can we talk? Before we Leave" Brian, who already had one hand latched to the handle, looked around the area with a slight frown on his face.
"Right now?"
"Here?" Kevin added. Howie nodded. "I need to say something and I don't want Nick to hear it, at least for now."
That seemed to catch Brian's interest and he moved to lean back against the car, his arms folded across his chest. “What about?”
Howie had his hands hidden deep in the pockets of his jacket. Suddenly, telling them out loud what he was thinking about, felt like a stupid idea. “Well, was I the only one who thought the meeting we just had was weird?”
Kevin opened the door to the driver’s side and sat on the seat, back hunched forward with his hands rested on his knees. He was looking up at him, squinting his eyes from the sun. “In what sense?”
“JIVE never says yes to anything we have to say on the first try. Never. And correct me if I’m wrong, but they said okay to practically everything we said in there. Don’t you find that a little bit suspicious?”
“Maybe they realised they’ve been pushing us too far. Nick almost died, they almost lost one of the biggest investments and now that Nick’s okay, they just wanna have our best interest at heart.” Brian said.
“They were smiling the whole time Brian. Have you ever seen them smile at us unless it was to sign a deal or when our album sales shot through the roof?”
“You don’t think that you’re reading too much into this, do you?” Kevin spoke out.
Howie sighed. He bit his lip, knowing what he was going to say next might irk Brian the most, but he had to say it out loud before he went crazy. “AJ called-”
“Everything okay?” Brian interjected. Howie nodded. “Yeah.”
“Thank God.” Brian smiled.
“Guys, I’m sorry, but I see nothing normal with Nick suddenly walking around like nothing was ever wrong with him before.”
“Howie!” Brian groaned. “Can we please just be thankful that he’s still with us? You prefer seeing him in his bed, dying? Will that look normal then? God! Why can’t we just accept this little miracle and move on? This is normal! Us still together is normal! Not Nick dying!”
“Brian calm down.” Kevin said, raising his voice a little. “Howie’s just saying what’s on his mind.”
“You want to talk about normal Brian? How about half of his liver is gone huh? Like totally collapsed? Did you see the X-rays? We saw the damage and we’re not doctors but we know something like that can’t just turn out fine the next day!”
“Did AJ tell you what the doctor thinks?” Kevin asked, cutting in before Brian managed to say anything.
Howie shook his head. “See, that’s the weird thing. What kind of a doctor would just go ‘oh well, you’re all good now, you can go home’ and not get the slightest bit interested on how something like this could happen? A normal doctor would create a huge scene from this. They would want to keep Nick for days and have him thoroughly monitored. No such thing is happening guys. I’m worried.”
Brian pushed himself off the car and looked at Howie straight in the eyes. “We’ve been to the land of the in-between D, remember Vinhorian Alni?” he paused, smiling a little before letting out a soft snort. “are we supposed to be shock by this?”
“It’s not just about Nick guys. What happened in there? Why are we getting all we want all of the sudden? Two weeks ago, they were practically pushing us to have a single out in three months and today, we asked for two months off and they said yes? No conditions? Nothing?”
Brian was getting annoyed, Howie could sense his frustration if he was at the other side of the building. “They’re glad Nick’s alive D. They wouldn’t want to take that chance again and push us too far. Now why can’t you do that!”
“Open your freaking eyes Brian! We told them Nick was walking around on his own. He was gonna drive himself to the hospital on his own, in his own car. For the love of God, he was driving AJ! It means, Nicky’s fine. And when Nicky’s fine, it means we’re good to go. And that means, work! work! work! JIVE wouldn’t see any need for rest, at least not one that’s gonna last 2 months long, it’s wasting time and lots of money! That’s what Jive is supposed to think! Not this! Ever! That’s not Jive at all!”
Brian looked shocked. Howie went quiet. He never meant to yell out loud the way he did. If they could only understand why he wasn’t as optimistic, he wouldn’t have to shout. And why had Kevin suddenly decided to shut his mouth?
“You know what, I’ve had enough of this! I’m glad we talked about this right here, Nick’s gonna be so disappointed in you if he heard this.” Brian opened the passenger’s door and climbed in, slamming the door behind him.
Kevin sighed. “I understand where you’re at with this D. Can we just go home and talk this over again later?”
Howie just nodded. What Brian said had hurt him. He had their best interests at heart, especially Nick, he never meant to hurt the young man’s feelings if he heard what he had to say.
“Get in, lets just get out of this place,” Kevin said, motioning him to the seat next to his. Howie thought it would be best if he sat up front and let Brian cool down some. “and Brian didn’t mean what he said earlier on, right cous?”
Howie walked around the car to the other side, smirking secretly at Kevin’s authoritative nature towards his married cousin who happened to be a father. Brian said nothing, choosing to look out the window with his arms crossed against his chest, like a kid sulking.
Kevin stepped on the gas, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the empty road. He sighed, sensing the tension still strong and lingering in the car. The silence was deafening, there was nothing to seek comfort from in there. As he passed by the first of many road signs up ahead, he couldn’t help feeling like deja vu; except in this case, Nick and AJ were missing in action.
-
AJ had been leaning against the wall from the entrance of the kitchen for quite awhile now. He took a gulp of his can of diet Coke, wondering when Nick would shake himself off from his thoughts and start concentrating on the game he was playing on the Xbox in the living room. Some action figure was having the time of his life kicking his ass and Nick was oblivious of it. That never happens to Nick Carter.
He had not spoken to Nick ever since they stepped into the house. Nick had made it pretty clear that he was mad for not believing that he saw something out on the road earlier. He had even locked himself up in his room, leaving AJ stranded in the living room, unsure of what to do. His mind was still troubled by the conversation he had with Howie earlier. Why did Howie sound so rushed?
Deciding that he needed to do something productive to fill his time, he had hid himself in the kitchen, trying to cook something that would hopefully end up edible. Living with Sarah had taught him a lot of new things, like cooking. Nothing fancy, he couldn’t master that yet, but small things like scones and spaghetti. He could do that.
AJ ended up making mini pizzas out of the burger buns he found there. He wondered if Nick actually had the patience to cook his own burgers. Or if he had secretly mastered cooking. An image of Nick with a tall chef’s hat brought a smile to his face.
Now that Nick had came out from hiding and was staring into space in the living room, he was figuring out a way to approach the man and see if he could convince him to take his dinner.
Dinner.
He stole another glance at the alarm clock sitting at a corner of the kitchen cabinet, wondering if Nick actually slept in the kitchen. It was almost 7:30 and the guys had yet to return. Were they too busy to even answer his calls? Didn’t he specifically asked Howie to get their asses back ASAP?
The ‘ting’ sound that came from the oven indicated that the last batch of mini pizzas were ready. He had made 3 trays, hoping it’d be enough for all five of them. He went back to the kitchen and took the tray out, letting it cool on the dining table. He took the first tray, a can of diet coke and Evian for Nick and left for the living room.
Nick was still staring at the screen when he got there.
“You wanna eat this? Looks like your brain needs some filling up.” Nick blinked before realising he was losing to a freaking computer. He frowned, paused the game and dropped the console callously on the carpeted floor. He looked up at the tray and raised an eyebrow.
“You made those?”
“No, they just popped out of nowhere.” He placed the tray and the drinks on the table and sat next to Nick.
“Is it safe?”
AJ ignored him and took one. The smell of melted cheese mixed with sliced sausage, green pepper and mushroom made his stomach growl. “Sarah taught me.”
“Good enough for me.” Nick said as he reached out for one. He took a bite and groaned in delight. “Man, I miss this.”
“Pizza?”
“I couldn’t eat them before, you know, too oily and stuff.”
“Oh.” AJ nodded. He had been trying to keep that out of his thoughts ever since. It would only remind him of the weird old man who had dropped him the black book. It felt right yet AJ never felt at home. He wondered if it made any sense at all.
"How these ingredients came into the possession of your fridge is still beyond me, but I'm glad they were there."
"I gotta eat healthy, remember?"
"Oh." There goes the uncomfortable silence again.
“Did you call the guys?”
“Yeah.”
“Are they planning on coming back sometime this week?”
AJ shrugged. “They didn’t answer any of my calls. I got Howie on our way back but he was rushing...I don’t know man...”
Nick sighed. He turned his head slightly to the left, where he could see the window from there. “It’s getting dark, it’s not safe.”
AJ wanted to ask what he meant by that but he said nothing. Somehow, he feared hearing what Nick might say.
“Yeah well, probably Jive’s holding them back, as always. Maybe we should get our asses down there, they might be outnumbered.”
Nick shook his head, the fear in his blue eyes managed to send waves of fear in him. Why doesn't he feel safe anymore?
“Something’s out there,” Nick said, staring him deep into his eyes. “and they’re not very nice.” -
So this was how it felt like, Brian thought as the car rammed into the one in front of them. It didn’t stop there though, because the car at the back, the one that had rammed into them and made the entire chain reaction happen, kept crushing them from behind. He felt himself being pushed forward, the rear of Kevin’s car now nothing more than broken glass and bent steel.
The next thing that registered to his mind was the fact that he was now stretched out on the back seat, blood was trailing down his cheeks and along his right arm and he didn’t even know where it came from. There wasn’t any pain, just confusion. He fought to keep his eyes open, watching helplessly from where he was, Howie’s head now resting on the dashboard with broken glasses in his hair and on his clothes. There was a thin line of blood seeping out from his slightly parted lips but he was already unconscious. He couldn’t see Kevin nor hear any movement from him and as much as he wanted to stay awake, he finally gave in to the darkness.
-
“There’s nothing Nick.” AJ said, smirking a little at Nick’s ridiculous thoughts. He took another bite of the mini pizza before stealing a quick glance at the clock on the wall. What kind of a meeting takes that long? And shouldn’t they be there if it was that important?
“I see them AJ, you got to believe me!”
“Nick, if it’s about whatever the hell you saw on the road that almost got us killed, then I don’t care okay? We’re fine, I’m not holding it against ya.”
“It’s NOT fine! I shouldn’t be walking around Bone, I shouldn’t be this well, you know that.”
“Can’t we just stick to the miracle story?” AJ asked, already losing his appetite. “It’s simpler that way.”
“AJ, my liver is perfectly fine, no damage at all and my doctor acted like that’s a normal thing and let me go. You don’t find that strange at all?”
AJ sighed. “Okay fine, so where are you going with this?”
Nick bit his lips. He seemed to be wrecking his brain to come up with something and then finally got up from his seat and reached out for the cordless phone lying on the sofa adjacent to them. He passed it to AJ. “Here, call your mom.”
AJ couldn’t even find the words this time, he looked at Nick as if the man had grown a second head. “Just call okay?”
“This is crazy.” He muttered before dialing the familiar number and waited for the ringing tone. It rang. And rang. And rang. “I guess she’s not home.”
Nick nodded. “Call my mom.”
“You do it.” AJ said, passing the phone over to Nick.
“No, I need you to do that for me.”
“I’m not gonna sit here and listen to one of her lectures. She’s your mom, you handle it.”
“She’s not gonna lecture you.” Nick said.
“Wanna bet?”
“Ten bucks.” Nick offered.
“Cheap.” AJ didn’t wait for Nick’s rebuttal, already punching in the numbers to Jane’s cell phone. How in the world had he remembered her number was beyond him. Did he even know her number in the first place? It rang. And rang. And rang.
“I think she’s busy lecturing Aaron.” AJ said. Nick rolled his eyes. “Call Kevin.”
AJ didn’t even bother to say anything this time, just dialed the number and again, received nothing but the ringing tone. “He’s in the meeting Nick, he would probably have it shut off even.”
“Okay fine. Order some pizza.”
“These are just fine.” AJ said, pointing at the mini pizzas he made. “I’m hurt you don’t like them.”
“Just call AJ.”
“Let me guess, no answer?”
“Call please.”
It rang. And rang. And rang. Finally giving up, he cut off the line and dropped the phone by his side. “Fine, you win. I take it you have a theory of some sort for all these.”
Nick bit his lip, frowning a little before finally speaking up. “Maybe something happened after we slept last night.”
It took AJ awhile to register what Nick said before he laughed out loud. “Nick, we’re not in a freaking twilight zone.” -
“Nononononononononono...” Brian groaned as the realisation hit him. There he was, fully conscious at the back of the car, which didn’t look broken or bent. And then there was the case of him not bleeding to death. And the fact that Kevin and Howie were already out of the car, standing side by side, looking out to the stretch of road in front of them.
“We can’t be in a freaking twilight zone!” He grumbled as he came out of the car and joined them. “I’m supposed to be bleeding to death in that car, I’m happy to be unconscious!”
Howie chuckled. “Feels like deja vu doesn’t it?” “Minus Nick and AJ.” Kevin said.
“That’s it, the next time we have an argument, we’re not gonna drive ourselves back home together.” Brian grumbled.
“At least have some comfort in knowing that while we’re here, we can’t die.” Howie offered.
“I have to admit, I’m kind of hoping we will see Vin.” Kevin added.
“And you thought things were going on strange back there.” Brian said, looking at Howie.
Howie looked hopeful. “Maybe Vin could help us out on that.”
Brian rolled his eyes. “As much as I’m pleased at the possibility of seeing Vin again, I’m not ready to take another weird trip.”
“Come on Brian, chill. If we’re really where we think we are, then there’s really nothing we can do about it.” Kevin said.
“So what now?” Brian asked.
“Wait. For the truck.” Howie said. “Just like the other time.”
“Guys?”
Brian felt a sudden urge to smile despite all of the weird things that were going on with them. He knew that voice. Missed it even.
“Vinhorian Alni!”
It was Vin in the flesh alright, but the smile on Brian’s face was gone. He knew that look his friend was wearing. He didn’t like it at all.
“We have to go now, take my hand.”
Once they reached Kevin’s car in the parking lot, Howie stopped in his tracks. “Can we talk? Before we leave?” Brian, who already had one hand latched to the handle, looked around the area with a slight frown on his face.
“Right now?”
“Here?” Kevin added. Howie nodded. “I need to say something and I don’t want Nick to hear it, at least for now.”
That seemed to catch Brian’s interest and he moved to lean back against the car, his arms folded across his chest. “What about?”
Howie had his hands hidden deep in the pockets of his jacket. Suddenly, telling them out loud what he was thinking about, felt like a stupid idea. “Well, was I the only one who thought the meeting we just had was weird?”
Kevin opened the door to the driver’s side and sat on the seat, back hunched forward with his hands rested on his knees. He was looking up at him, squinting his eyes from the sun. “In what sense?”
“JIVE never says yes to anything we have to say on the first try. Never. And correct me if I’m wrong, but they said okay to practically everything we said in there. Don’t you find that a little bit suspicious?”
“Maybe they realised they’ve been pushing us too far. Nick almost died, they almost lost one of the biggest investments and now that Nick’s okay, they just wanna have our best interest at heart.” Brian said.
“They were smiling the whole time Brian. Have you ever seen them smile at us unless it was to sign a deal or when our album sales shot through the roof?”
“You don’t think that you’re reading too much into this, do you?” Kevin spoke out.
Howie sighed. He bit his lip, knowing what he was going to say next might irk Brian the most, but he had to say it out loud before he went crazy. “AJ called-”
“Everything okay?” Brian interjected. Howie nodded. “Yeah.”
“Thank God.” Brian smiled.
“Guys, I’m sorry, but I see nothing normal with Nick suddenly walking around like nothing was ever wrong with him before.”
“Howie!” Brian groaned. “Can we please just be thankful that he’s still with us? You prefer seeing him in his bed, dying? Will that look normal then? God! Why can’t we just accept this little miracle and move on? This is normal! Us still together is normal! Not Nick dying!”
“Brian calm down.” Kevin said, raising his voice a little. “Howie’s just saying what’s on his mind.” “You want to talk about normal Brian? How about half of his liver is gone huh? Like totally collapsed? Did you see the X-rays? We saw the damage and we’re not doctors but we know something like that can’t just turn out fine the next day!”
“Did AJ tell you what the doctor thinks?” Kevin asked, cutting in before Brian managed to say anything.
Howie shook his head. “See, that’s the weird thing. What kind of a doctor would just go ‘oh well, you’re all good now, you can go home’ and not get the slightest bit interested on how something like this could happen? A normal doctor would create a huge scene from this. They would want to keep Nick for days and have him thoroughly monitored. No such thing is happening guys. I’m worried.”
Brian pushed himself off the car and looked at Howie straight in the eyes. “We’ve been to the land of the in-between D, remember Vinhorian Alni?” he paused, smiling a little before letting out a soft snort. “are we supposed to be shock by this?”
“It’s not just about Nick guys. What happened in there? Why are we getting all we want all of the sudden? Two weeks ago, they were practically pushing us to have a single out in three months and today, we asked for two months off and they said yes? No conditions? Nothing?”
Brian was getting annoyed, Howie could sense his frustration if he was at the other side of the building. “They’re glad Nick’s alive D. They wouldn’t want to take that chance again and push us too far. Now why can’t you do that!”
“Open your freaking eyes Brian! We told them Nick was walking around on his own. He was gonna drive himself to the hospital on his own, in his own car. For the love of God, he was driving AJ! It means, Nicky’s fine. And when Nicky’s fine, it means we’re good to go. And that means, work! work! work! JIVE wouldn’t see any need for rest, at least not one that’s gonna last 2 months long, it’s wasting time and lots of money! That’s what Jive is supposed to think! Not this! Ever! That’s not Jive at all!”
Brian looked shocked. Howie went quiet. He never meant to yell out loud the way he did. If they could only understand why he wasn’t as optimistic, he wouldn’t have to shout. And why had Kevin suddenly decided to shut his mouth?
“You know what, I’ve had enough of this! I’m glad we talked about this right here, Nick’s gonna be so disappointed in you if he heard this.” Brian opened the passenger’s door and climbed in, slamming the door behind him.
Kevin sighed. “I understand where you’re at with this D. Can we just go home and talk this over again later?”
Howie just nodded. What Brian said had hurt him. He had their best interests at heart, especially Nick, he never meant to hurt the young man’s feelings if he heard what he had to say.
“Get in, lets just get out of this place,” Kevin said, motioning him to the seat next to his. Howie thought it would be best if he sat up front and let Brian cool down some. “and Brian didn’t mean what he said earlier on, right cous?”
Howie walked around the car to the other side, smirking secretly at Kevin’s authoritative nature towards his married cousin who happened to be a father. Brian said nothing, choosing to look out the window with his arms crossed against his chest, like a kid sulking.
Kevin stepped on the gas, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the empty road. He sighed, sensing the tension still strong and lingering in the car. The silence was deafening, there was nothing to seek comfort from in there. As he passed by the first of many road signs up ahead, he couldn’t help feeling like deja vu; except in this case, Nick and AJ were missing in action.
-
AJ had been leaning against the wall from the entrance of the kitchen for quite awhile now. He took a gulp of his can of diet Coke, wondering when Nick would shake himself off from his thoughts and start concentrating on the game he was playing on the Xbox in the living room. Some action figure was having the time of his life kicking his ass and Nick was oblivious of it. That never happens to Nick Carter.
He had not spoken to Nick ever since they stepped into the house. Nick had made it pretty clear that he was mad for not believing that he saw something out on the road earlier. He had even locked himself up in his room, leaving AJ stranded in the living room, unsure of what to do. His mind was still troubled by the conversation he had with Howie earlier. Why did Howie sound so rushed?
Deciding that he needed to do something productive to fill his time, he had hid himself in the kitchen, trying to cook something that would hopefully end up edible. Living with Sarah had taught him a lot of new things, like cooking. Nothing fancy, he couldn’t master that yet, but small things like scones and spaghetti. He could do that.
AJ ended up making mini pizzas out of the burger buns he found there. He wondered if Nick actually had the patience to cook his own burgers. Or if he had secretly mastered cooking. An image of Nick with a tall chef’s hat brought a smile to his face.
Now that Nick had came out from hiding and was staring into space in the living room, he was figuring out a way to approach the man and see if he could convince him to take his dinner.
Dinner.
He stole another glance at the alarm clock sitting at a corner of the kitchen cabinet, wondering if Nick actually slept in the kitchen. It was almost 7:30 and the guys had yet to return. Were they too busy to even answer his calls? Didn’t he specifically asked Howie to get their asses back ASAP?
The ‘ting’ sound that came from the oven indicated that the last batch of mini pizzas were ready. He had made 3 trays, hoping it’d be enough for all five of them. He went back to the kitchen and took the tray out, letting it cool on the dining table. He took the first tray, a can of diet coke and Evian for Nick and left for the living room.
Nick was still staring at the screen when he got there.
“You wanna eat this? Looks like your brain needs some filling up.” Nick blinked before realising he was losing to a freaking computer. He frowned, paused the game and dropped the console callously on the carpeted floor. He looked up at the tray and raised an eyebrow.
“You made those?”
“No, they just popped out of nowhere.” He placed the tray and the drinks on the table and sat next to Nick.
“Is it safe?”
AJ ignored him and took one. The smell of melted cheese mixed with sliced sausage, green pepper and mushroom made his stomach growl. “Sarah taught me.” “Good enough for me.” Nick said as he reached out for one. He took a bite and groaned in delight. “Man, I miss this.”
“Pizza?”
“I couldn’t eat them before, you know, too oily and stuff.”
“Oh.” AJ nodded. He had been trying to keep that out of his thoughts ever since. It would only remind him of the weird old man who had dropped him the black book. It felt right yet AJ never felt at home. He wondered if it made any sense at all.
"How these ingredients came into the possession of your fridge is still beyond me, but I'm glad they were there."
"I gotta eat healthy, remember?"
"Oh." There goes the uncomfortable silence again.
“Did you call the guys?”
“Yeah.”
“Are they planning on coming back sometime this week?”
AJ shrugged. “They didn’t answer any of my calls. I got Howie on our way back but he was rushing...I don’t know man...”
Nick sighed. He turned his head slightly to the left, where he could see the window from there. “It’s getting dark, it’s not safe.”
AJ wanted to ask what he meant by that but he said nothing. Somehow, he feared hearing what Nick might say.
“Yeah well, probably Jive’s holding them back, as always. Maybe we should get our asses down there, they might be outnumbered.”
Nick shook his head, the fear in his blue eyes managed to send waves of fear in him. Why doesn't he feel safe anymore?
“Something’s out there,” Nick said, staring him deep into his eyes. “and they’re not very nice.”
-
So this was how it felt like, Brian thought as the car rammed into the one in front of them. It didn’t stop there though, because the car at the back, the one that had rammed into them and made the entire chain reaction happen, kept crushing them from behind. He felt himself being pushed forward, the rear of Kevin’s car now nothing more than broken glass and bent steel.
The next thing that registered to his mind was the fact that he was now stretched out on the back seat, blood was trailing down his cheeks and along his right arm and he didn’t even know where it came from. There wasn’t any pain, just confusion. He fought to keep his eyes open, watching helplessly from where he was, Howie’s head now resting on the dashboard with broken glasses in his hair and on his clothes. There was a thin line of blood seeping out from his slightly parted lips but he was already unconscious. He couldn’t see Kevin nor hear any movement from him and as much as he wanted to stay awake, he finally gave in to the darkness.
-
“There’s nothing Nick.” AJ said, smirking a little at Nick’s ridiculous thoughts. He took another bite of the mini pizza before stealing a quick glance at the clock on the wall. What kind of a meeting takes that long? And shouldn’t they be there if it was that important?
“I see them AJ, you got to believe me!”
“Nick, if it’s about whatever the hell you saw on the road that almost got us killed, then I don’t care okay? We’re fine, I’m not holding it against ya.”
“It’s NOT fine! I shouldn’t be walking around Bone, I shouldn’t be this well, you know that.”
“Can’t we just stick to the miracle story?” AJ asked, already losing his appetite. “It’s simpler that way.”
“AJ, my liver is perfectly fine, no damage at all and my doctor acted like that’s a normal thing and let me go. You don’t find that strange at all?”
AJ sighed. “Okay fine, so where are you going with this?”
Nick bit his lips. He seemed to be wrecking his brain to come up with something and then finally got up from his seat and reached out for the cordless phone lying on the sofa adjacent to them. He passed it to AJ. “Here, call your mom.”
AJ couldn’t even find the words this time, he looked at Nick as if the man had grown a second head. “Just call okay?”
“This is crazy.” He muttered before dialing the familiar number and waited for the ringing tone. It rang. And rang. And rang. “I guess she’s not home.”
Nick nodded. “Call my mom.”
“You do it.” AJ said, passing the phone over to Nick.
“No, I need you to do that for me.”
“I’m not gonna sit here and listen to one of her lectures. She’s your mom, you handle it.”
“She’s not gonna lecture you.” Nick said.
“Wanna bet?”
“Ten bucks.” Nick offered.
“Cheap.” AJ didn’t wait for Nick’s rebuttal, already punching in the numbers to Jane’s cell phone. How in the world had he remembered her number was beyond him. Did he even know her number in the first place? It rang. And rang. And rang.
“I think she’s busy lecturing Aaron.” AJ said. Nick rolled his eyes. “Call Kevin.”
AJ didn’t even bother to say anything this time, just dialed the number and again, received nothing but the ringing tone. “He’s in the meeting Nick, he would probably have it shut off even.”
“Okay fine. Order some pizza.”
“These are just fine.” AJ said, pointing at the mini pizzas he made. “I’m hurt you don’t like them.”
“Just call AJ.”
“Let me guess, no answer?”
“Call please.”
It rang. And rang. And rang. Finally giving up, he cut off the line and dropped the phone by his side. “Fine, you win. I take it you have a theory of some sort for all these.”
Nick bit his lip, frowning a little before finally speaking up. “Maybe something happened after we slept last night.”
It took AJ awhile to register what Nick said before he laughed out loud. “Nick, we’re not in a freaking twilight zone.”
-
“Nononononononononono...” Brian groaned as the realisation hit him. There he was, fully conscious at the back of the car, which didn’t look broken or bent. And then there was the case of him not bleeding to death. And the fact that Kevin and Howie were already out of the car, standing side by side, looking out to the stretch of road in front of them.
“We can’t be in a freaking twilight zone!” He grumbled as he came out of the car and joined them. “I’m supposed to be bleeding to death in that car, I’m happy to be unconscious!”
Howie chuckled. “Feels like deja vu doesn’t it?”
“Minus Nick and AJ.” Kevin said.
“That’s it, the next time we have an argument, we’re not gonna drive ourselves back home together.” Brian grumbled.
“At least have some comfort in knowing that while we’re here, we can’t die.” Howie offered.
“I have to admit, I’m kind of hoping we will see Vin.” Kevin added.
“And you thought things were going on strange back there.” Brian said, looking at Howie.
Howie looked hopeful. “Maybe Vin could help us out on that.”
Brian rolled his eyes. “As much as I’m pleased at the possibility of seeing Vin again, I’m not ready to take another weird trip.”
“Come on Brian, chill. If we’re really where we think we are, then there’s really nothing we can do about it.” Kevin said.
“So what now?” Brian asked.
“Wait. For the truck.” Howie said. “Just like the other time.”
“Guys?”
Brian felt a sudden urge to smile despite all of the weird things that were going on with them. He knew that voice. Missed it even.
“Vinhorian Alni!”
It was Vin in the flesh alright, but the smile on Brian’s face was gone. He knew that look his friend was wearing. He didn’t like it at all.
“We have to go now, take my hand.”