Deck the Halls with lots of muffins… falalalala
“Where the hell is Kevin?” I asked, frustrated with this entire situation.
“Maybe he’s in the bathroom.” AJ said as he walked over towards the restrooms and went inside.
“He might have freaked out when he didn’t see us.” Howie glanced around the room, placing his hand above his eyes to get a better view. I don’t really know why people do that. I mean, does it help?
“Not in the bathroom.” We looked over at AJ as he ran back towards us.
“If he didn’t see us, it’s possible he headed back upstairs to see if we were there.” Brian added.
“I think he would have checked outside before he ventured back upstairs. Besides, I’m pretty sure no one would have let him just go back to the room.” Howie said, completing his latest scan of the lobby. “I think I’ll go ask the front desk if anyone has seen him.”
As he walked away I turned to Brian and AJ, “I’m having a bad feeling.”
“Don’t say that, Nick. I know we’ve been through hell but let’s not go there yet. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. He’ll pop up any second.”
As much as I wanted to share in Brian’s optimistic outlook, my mind wouldn’t allow me to. It wasn’t like Kevin to just go wander off without saying anything to anybody. Something happened to him.
“Maybe we should try to get upstairs.” We both looked over at AJ, kind of surprised by what he said.
“There’s really only one way to know if he was able to get up there and that’s if we try it as well.” He shrugged when he said it. I have to admit, it was a good idea.
“I agree, let’s try it guys!” I started walking towards the staircase and was stopped by hotel personal immediately.
“I’m sorry sir, but we aren’t allowing anyone up to their rooms just yet. We’re just waiting for the all clear. It shouldn’t be too much longer. Sorry for the inconvenience. Would you like a complimentary muffin?” She held out a tray of muffins to me.
“No thanks.” I gave her a half smile and turned to Brian, “Well so much for that idea. If Kevin went upstairs, he snuck up there.”
Howie walked over to us and shook his head, “They said they don’t remember him or anyone matching his description but it’s been really busy so they might not have noticed him.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I say we sneak upstairs. Maybe two of us go and two of us create some kind of distraction.”
“What kind of distraction AJ? It’s not like we’re the most inconspicuous people on the planet.”
“I don’t know D. Brian can create some kind of diversion. He’s good at that.”
“Not as good as Nick is.”
“No way, I want to be the one to go up there.”
Howie gave me a Kevin look, “Nicky, I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Maybe AJ and I or Brian and I could…”
“Absolutely not! This is MY fault. I’m not just going to sit here and wait around.”
“It could be dangerous, I mean what if…” Brian didn’t want to finish his thought and honestly, none of us wanted him to either.
“Then it would be too dangerous for all of us. Who’s to say you guys can handle the situation better than I could?”
They looked at each other knowing that even if they fought with me forever, I would still manage to get my way on this one, so dejectedly Howie nodded, “Okay, but I’m going with you then.”
AJ seemed almost disappointed. I guess he liked his last adventurous outing with me. Brian smiled, “You sure you don’t want me to go instead?”
Howie shook his head, “I think it should be me. You are better at creating mayhem then I am.”
“I can’t really argue with that.”
We talked it over for a few more minutes, hoping in that time that Kevin would just resurface. When there was still no sign of him anywhere, we placed our hands on top of each other and gave a grunt. The same kind of thing we did before going out on stage. Hey, if it worked for that maybe it would work for this.
“Be careful!” Brian said while pointing a finger at the two of us.
“You know, we can use this against Kevin for a long time.” AJ said as if he thought Kevin just decided to walk upstairs and go back to bed or something.
“I hope you’re right about that.” I wasn’t about to argue with him. I kind of wished that was exactly what happened. If anything else besides that happened, I’m not sure I could handle it.
Howie and I made our way close to the stairwell again but not close enough to draw attention to ourselves like I had the last time. The muffin lady was standing off to the side and gave me a quick glance before turning back towards the front of the building. She was the only one watching this exit. There were muffin people strategically placed by all the stairways. I wonder if this was their emergency back up plan. Let’s keep everyone away from upstairs by feeding them. We’ll call it the muffin distraction technique.
“Deck the halls with boughs of Holly…” I turned to the sound of Brian’s voice echoing through the lobby as he stood on top of a chair. “Falalalala lala la la.”
I glanced at Howie and he smiled at me.
“Tis’ the season to be jolly…”
This time AJ joined in perfect harmony, “Falalalala lala la la.”
They both sang together, “Don, we now are gay apparel…come on everyone sing along. Let’s make the best of this crappy situation!”
Everyone in the whole lobby sang, “Falala falala la la la.”
I looked over at the muffin lady as she joined in, “Troll the ancient yule tide carol…”
Howie and I made a brisk run for the stairs as the final falalalas were sung.
“I knew that would work.” Howie said as we quickly climbed the stairs, clearing the second floor to the sound of applause from below.
“Lou would be pissed if he knew we were performing for no money.” I said, already out of breath and only on the third floor. We had to go all the way to the top. I need to start working out a little bit more.
We stopped briefly when we hit the 9th floor. Even Howie was out of breath. “Do you think people got the all clear yet?” He asked as I finally caught up to him.
“I think we’d hear more activity if they did.”
He nodded and then glanced up at the stairs, “I am really not enjoying this.”
“Me either.”
“Let’s keep going.” He started to run up the stairs and after taking a few deep breaths, I followed.
We finally reached the top floor very soon after that. My legs felt rubbery, I’m not sure how people like firemen or police men did this all the time. Thoughts went to my father, racing up stairs with a gun in his hand. I just couldn’t picture him being able to do this without dropping dead of a heart attack. How in the world could he have been in the CIA?
“Nicky stay behind me, okay?”
“Okay.”
He nodded and then opened the door that led to our hallway. It was so quiet that it was almost creepy. The red lights on the alarms were still flashing but the sound had stopped which added an almost strobe like effect to place.
“Have you ever shot a gun, Howie?” I whispered as we slowly approached the suite.
He turned and looked at me as if I was an idiot. “Do I look like someone who has ever shot a gun?”
“What if they have guns?”
“Nicky, let’s not even worry about that. For all we know, Kevin just decided to come back up here and go to bed or something.” Wow, I wish I lived on the same planet as AJ and Howie did.
“You don’t actually believe that, do you?”
He stopped again and looked at me, “I don’t know what to believe.”
“So then you have to be thinking what I’m thinking too, right?”
He opened his mouth to answer but stopped when he turned towards the unmistakable sound of a door opening. We really had nowhere to go besides back to the stairwell so we turned to run as fast as we could before being seen by whoever was coming out of Max’s room. It was too late though, they saw us “Stop!” We heard just as we slammed through the door and ran down the steps as fast as we could. It definitely wasn’t Kevin’s voice. In fact, what made me pick up my pace was the Russian lilt in his tone.
Howie opened the door to the floor just below ours and we bolted down the hallway and into the small room where the ice maker and soda machines were. We gave each other a panicked look when we heard the exit door open. “What do we do now?” I whispered to him as he glanced around the room for any place to escape. “Can you fit between the wall and the machine?” He asked me.
I quickly tried to fit but I didn’t have enough room. “No, but you probably can.” I said to him.
“Are you sure they came onto this floor?” The Russian man asked someone as they started to make their way down the hallway and towards us.
“They had to have. They couldn’t have made it down that fast.”
Howie was able to crawl into the small space between the soda machine and the wall and now just watched me in horror as I tried to find a quick place to hide. I really need to go on a diet. I heard them coming and was trying my best not to panic. “Nicky, you need to hide now!”
“Do we even know who they were?” Came another voice, this one not with an accent.
“It doesn’t matter. They ran. It had to be one of them.” The Russian answered. They actually passed by the room we were in as they were talking, giving me a small reprieve.
“Was it the kid?”
“I couldn’t tell.”
Even though he was smart enough not to say anything with the bad guys so close, I felt Howie’s gaze on me once he realized I was the kid they were talking about. I turned around and saw a huge garbage can sitting in the corner of the room. Without even thinking about what was in there, I ran over and squeezed myself into it. Luckily it wasn’t that full and I was able to crouch down inside just as I heard them walking back towards us.
Please don’t come in here….please don’t come in here….please don’t come in here….
“If it was the kid, then he knows we broke in.”
“Yes, but If it was Andrew, then we know he’s here!” The Russian said and I felt my skin crawl when he called me by my real name.
“That’s true. Wow, Misha will be pleased, won’t he?”
“Not sure after the mishap, but I’m sure that’ll help a little. Speaking of which, we better get back because Anya said they are letting people back upstairs now. We need to be long gone…”
“Don’t even bother finishing, let’s roll. We have what we came for.” And with that being said, they both started back towards the stairwell just as I heard a ding coming from the elevator followed by the sounds of plenty of voices.
Howie came out from his hiding space as I climbed out of the garbage can. “Did you catch all of that?” He asked me as two teenagers walked into the room and looked at us suspiciously.
“What?” I asked all defensively, ignoring the fact that I probably smelled and looked like garbage.
Howie pulled me by my shirt out of the room, “Did those names mean anything to you?”
I tried to recall an Anya or Misha but nothing clicked. “No.”
“They didn’t mention Kevin. That’s a good sign.”
“Yeah but they did say they got what they came for. What if that was one of us?” I didn’t mean to be a Debbie Downer but it did make sense.
He gave me a small sigh and then pat my back, “Let’s get upstairs. I’m sure the guys are there by now and are wondering where we are.”
“You don’t think they’re still there, do you?” I asked as we opened the door to our floor and stepped out into the hallway just as Brian and AJ came out of the elevator.
“Well?” They asked.
“We didn’t have a chance to go in there.” I answered.
“Before we even got to our room, someone came out of Max’s and we had to run for it.” Howie finished.
“Really?” I can’t believe how surprised AJ sounded. Didn’t he remember someone trying to break in only hours before this?
Brian had a sick look on his face though. It’s like he knew, it finally sunk in that I was right about all of this. “Kevin…” He said as he picked up his pace and ran towards our room.
I didn’t want to go in there. Thoughts of finding Kevin dead occurred to me briefly. “They were in Max’s room, not ours.” I said under my breath as we walked towards our room and opened the door.
The room looked fine until the light was turned on. You could tell that someone had definitely gone through it. The tree was tilted against the wall and several of the ornaments lay broken on the floor.
The presents that were neatly stacked by the tree when we left, were now all scattered everywhere.
“Kevin!” Brian yelled as he and AJ searched the rooms. I couldn’t allow myself to go looking for him, just in case.
I glanced over at the couch, “The briefcase is gone.” I said as AJ passed me and looked over at the balcony door.
“The picture of me and my family is gone too.” I sat down, feeling so completely helpless I wanted to just crawl into a ball and die.
“He’s not here. Where is Kevin?” Brian asked panicked.
“They had to have taken him, that’s the only logical explanation.” I answered, knowing my best friend would hate me forever for this. I would hate me forever for this as well.
“We need to contact Max. Do you have his number, Nicky?” Howie sounded calm as a cucumber, immediately taking over the role of responsible one left vacant by Kevin.
“Nicky?” He asked again with more urgency in his voice and I placed my hands in my pockets searching for the number.
“Wait, it’s in my other pair of jeans.” I got up and ran into the room Kevin and I shared. I ran to the bed and put on the light. Finding my jeans on the floor, I scooped them up and frantically searched the pockets. “Come on…” I was frustrated when I didn’t find anything inside. “Don’t tell me I lost the number!”
I ran to the dresser where another pair of my pants was rolled up in a ball to the side on the floor. “Maybe I was wearing these.” I felt in my pockets and was relieved to feel a piece of paper. “Yes!” I felt triumphant as if I finally did something right, but that feeling went away very quickly when I noticed something over by Kevin’s bed.
“Nicky, the number…we need it now.” Howie said as he walked into the room but when he saw me looking in the direction of Kevin’s bed, his eyes went there as well. “Is that blood?” He asked nervously walking towards the small puddle at the edge of the bed.
“I think so.” I whispered, now aware of all the small specks of blood surrounding the bed. They looked like a little polka dotted map, leading to the closet where more blood was gathered on the floor.
“D…” I didn’t know what to say. Time felt like it was standing still as the two of us just stood there staring at the closet, not wanting to find out what or who was inside.
