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Chapter Two

A brisk February wind blew as the Boys fled from their bus and in through the back doors of their hotel. It was a mere five degrees, a drastic dropping change from their last destination, and with the wind chill, the air felt like it was somewhere around negative ten. The five men ran up the back stairwell and to the eleventh floor where their rooms were, their bodies still freezing from the outdoors.

“Holy fucking shit,” A.J. cursed, his voice shivering as they ran, “I think I’m suffering from severe frostbite to the face.”


“No kidding,” Nick answered, “Welcome to Maine..home of the ice people. How do people live here in the winter? It’s like the fucking North Pole or something.” he heard chuckles coming from his friends at the comment as he closed his eyes for a second thinking of Florida, where it was probably in the seventies, sunny and clear. The image just made the coldness all the worse.

Once they’d reached their destination, their body guards strayed away and they were greeted by one of their managers in the middle of the hall. The five stopped, glad to get a chance to take a real breath. Howie wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his hands up and down the length of his arms in attempt to warm up. It wasn’t working. He could tell that the others were still freezing as well.

“Glad to see you made it okay,” the manager, Rick stated, “There’s a blizzard due in at any moment. They’re warning people to stay off of the roads.”

A.J. snorted. The first night in ages that they had off and they were going to be stranded at the hotel due to a snow storm. He looked around knowing by the looks on his friends faces that they were thinking the exact same thing. It was going to be a long, boring and very cold night.

“Anyways,” he stated, handing out the room keys, “Kevin, Brian and Nick, you’ll be in room one-thousand two hundred twenty two. A.J. and Howie, you’ll be in room one thousand two hundred twenty four.” he informed them even though the room numbers were on the credit-card sized keys, “Enjoy your night off and I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll be in room nine hundred and five if anybody needs anything.”

The Boys said waved as Rick started down the hall and to the elevator that was at the end. The five looked around the deserted halls wondering where everybody was. Normally there were a few fans who’d managed to find their way to the floor that they stayed on, waiting for a picture and autograph. This time, their was nobody, not even on the ground floor. They all found this strange, wondering if security had been tightened or if it was simply because of the time of afternoon it was or nobody knew where they were this time.

“Well,” Kevin stated, breaking the silence that had overcome the hall as a businessman passed by them, “What’s it going to be tonight?”

In response he got shrugs. Kevin stared at them waiting for a real response from any of them. He hated always being the one to make the final decision.

“I dunno,” Nick finally spoke, “Since we’re on lock down because of the big bad blizzard....ohhh...I’m so scared,” he rolled his eyes, getting laughs at his humor, “I say we call a cab, blow this place anyways and go to a club or something.”

“Can’t. Management will have our ass,” Brian spoke up, although he too wished that they could escape, “This hotel is pretty huge. Why don’t we explore it for a bit and see what we can find to entertain us right here.”

The replies he got were unenthusiastic “okay’s” and “why not’s”. Nick, for one, was pretty sure that all he’d find was the hotel bar. If not that, he’d retort to his room to play some video games. When all else failed, at least he’d always have that to fall back on.

“Sounds like a plan,” Kevin replied, “How bout we rest up for an hour or so then meet out here at, say,” he looked down at his watch, “Six...then take it from there.”

They all agreed and unlocked the doors to their rooms, going inside. Going over to his bed, Howie threw down his backpack with some overnight necessities in it, A.J. doing the same. He sighed, falling back on to the double bed, staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly he was very tired, his eyes growing heavy. The long bus ride had taken a lot out of him, as well as the others. It always did.

“You okay, D?” A.J. asked, plopping down on to his own bed.

Howie looked over, “Yeah. This just sucks.” he grinned and A.J. laughed, “I don’t get it. How can a State be so nice at one time of year and like this just months later?”

A.J. shrugged, “Shit if I know,” he replied looking out of the window. The snow had already started to fall, although it was nothing drastic yet, “Wouldn’t it be something if the blizzard caused the show to be cancelled tomorrow...and our meeting...and we were stuck here for a week?”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Howie laughed, “I’m ready to go to someplace warm.”

A.J. couldn’t agree more. Being snowed in to the hotel for a week would suck in a major way. As it was, one night of being under what was pretty much house arrest from Management, was too much to handle.

Howie looked out of the window and saw that the light snow had picked up significantly. He wondered how much of the white stuff could actually accumulate in a single night. He guessed that in the morning, he’d get his chance to see for himself. Until then, they’d all have to make the best of the rotten situation.



Kevin woke up with a start, his body jerking
suddenly. He sat up, rubbing his eyes to clear the blurriness as he soon recognized the sound that had awaken him from his slumber. He looked to his side. Nick and Brian were still asleep. Kevin rolled his eyes and looked at the clock. What he saw caused him to jump up to his feet. It was nearly six thirty...half hour past the time they were supposed to meet A.J. and Howie.

Cursing all the way to the door, Kevin opened it to find, at no big surprise, the duo standing before him. Smirks of amusement were written on their faces. A.J. was standing on his toes in attempt to look past Kevin. He snorted, the look on his face priceless as he crossed his arms over his muscled chest. Kevin knew that he was about to say something as A.J. examined him.

“Enjoy your nap?” was the first thing out of his mouth as a sudden, loud snore escaped from Nick. Kevin just shrugged as he ran a hand through his disheveled black hair. He gave a half smile not wanting to speak until he knew the grogginess would be out of his voice, “Well are you bout ready to go? Me and D are bored shit-less and ready to find something to do.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kevin chuckled, his voice husky, “I’ll go wake the other two knuckleheads up and we can head downstairs or where ever.”

Kevin headed back in to the room with A.J. and Howie on his heels. The door closed behind them as Kevin tried to wake up Nick and Kevin without success. He groaned inwardly. The two best friends were dead to the world when they slept.

“Have you looked outside lately?” Howie asked as Kevin tried once more to awaken the two. Kevin shook his head, “You should. Aje and I’ve got a bet going on whether or not our schedule will be cancelled or not due to the snow.”

Kevin rolled his eyes after shaking Nick’s body somewhat roughly and the kid still lay still. If it weren’t for his moving chest, Kevin would have taken him as dead. He walked over to the window and opened the curtains a crack to see what Howie was talking about. His eyes widened in surprise. From the looks of it, in the ninety minutes they’d been at the hotel, it seemed to have showed a good seven inches, and the stuff kept coming down fast and hard, in large white flakes.

“Damn good thing we got here when we did,” Kevin muttered as he closed the curtains and walked back to join the others, “Who knows where we would’ve had to stop at or been stranded at if we had been stuck in that mess.”

By then, Brian was slowly coming out of his sleep, his eyes fluttering slightly. He sat up and looked around confused.

“Did I fall asleep?” he asked when he saw the others standing before him, minus Nick. He didn’t remember any of them being there before.

“No, Rok,” A.J. retorted sarcastically, “We knocked you out so we could make up a plan to finish you off. Now close your eyes so we can carry it through.”

Brian rolled his eyes and stood up, “Cute,” he stated, “Real cute. So, are we going to go have some ‘fun’ or what?”

“Once we get Nick to wake up,” Howie replied.

“Ah,” was Brian’s reply.

They could all tell by the look in his eyes that he was trying to think up something cruel and unusual to get the blonde to awaken from his deep slumber. At that point, it was a given that more than likely, whatever the man thought up, it would be agreed with by the other three. Brian quietly crept over to Nick’s bed and picked up a pillow that was next to him. He brought it up over his head as the others were trying to stifle laughs. Brian brought the pillow down hard on to Nick’s head as he screamed as the top of his lungs, “NICK!!!.”

Nick’s body flew up in to a sitting position. His eyes were wide with surprise, his blonde hair a mess sticking up in every direction possible. He looked around and noticed his friends at all sides of him laughing. Nick scrunched his nose up and stuck his lip out in a pout.

“Was that really necessary?” he asked rubbing the sore spot on his head that was developing from where he’d been hit.

Ignoring his question, which he figured had been rhetorical, Kevin said, “We’re going to explore the place. You coming?”

Nick nodded as he got out of the bed. Not even bothering to fix his hair, he walked towards the door, the others shrugging and following him.

On the ride down the elevator, nobody said anything. Kevin wished that they could just leave the hotel and do their own thing for the millionth time. If they even tried though, he hated to think of what would happen. It was pathetic. Five grown men having to abide to rules thrown out by someone who was above them because of a little snow.

“So,” A.J. stated once they’d reached ground level, “What will it be?” he looked around at the first things in site, “A nighttime chat at the breakfast buffet tables or sipping coffee at Starbucks.”

Nick tried not to laugh as he got a few scowls from the others. The plan had been to make the best of the situation, which he obviously was not even trying to do.

“There’s always the indoor swimming pool,” Brian suggested “I’m sure it’s heated.”

Nobody responded to Brian’s suggestion. He assumed they didn’t like the idea. The five continued to walk finding a few shops and restaurants, but not much more.

“Bored, bored, bored,” Nick chanted, his voice monotone. They rounded another corner and his eyes lit up at what he saw, “ARCADE!” he shouted in glee as he started to run towards it as if in a hypnotic trance.

Kevin reached out and grabbed hold of Nick’s sweat shirt, pulling him back. Nick stumbled a little, almost losing his balance. When he was let go of, he had on the pout of a five year old who didn’t get his way.

“You can play your video games back up at the room.” Kevin told him

“Do you have any better suggestions?” Nick challenged as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The other four looked around to see what else was before them, all sick and tired of playing arcade games everywhere the went, almost.

“There’s a pool and dart hall down there and a small casino,” Howie stated, “Neither sound too bad to me right about now.”

“Pool sounds decent,” A.J. stated, making sure to get in his input, “What do you all think? It seems to be empty too, so we’ll have it all to ourselves.”

After some chatting amongst themselves, the five finally all agreed that it would be their best bet at finding a source of entertainment for the night. The idea of it being quiet and low key appealed to them all after the long day they’d had.

“Okay, so pool it will be,” Kevin said as if not completely sure that it was what he wanted, “Let’s go.”

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He looked down at the splintered end of his pool stick as his opponent took his turn, concentrating on knocking as many balls of his own as he could in to the holes. His opponent was good, which meant it would take awhile before he himself went.

Placing his finger on the point, he drew back realizing that it was sharp. He stuck his finger in his mouth for a moment to suck away the dot of blood that was surfacing. He smiled to himself in satisfaction. He’d have to remember to hide the damaged, worn stick well and use it when everybody else was sleeping later on that night. He knew that if hotel employment found it in the condition it was in, it would be thrown out for being a safety hazard to the hotel guests. He chuckled to himself, his head bowed to hide it. He found it ironic in so many ways. He wished that the darts from the dart board were sharp too. They would be perfect. It was somewhat of a magnetic board though, so they were completely out of the question.

Regular razors and knives were becoming boring already, after just a month and a half. Sure, he still intended on using them, for they produced the best cuts, however he needed something new to put the excitement back in to it. Something to put back the tingle of joy that vibrated down his spine whenever he thought about making a new cut and especially right before doing it. He wasn’t sure how much damage could be done with a pool stick, if anything at all, but he was determined to try it. If he didn’t that night, as soon as they left the hotel, his chances would be shot. It wasn’t as if he could take the pool stick with him.

His concentration was broken by his opponent calling over to him, telling him that it was now his turn. He nodded in acknowledgment that he’d heard him and took his turn, knocking the 6 ball in to the hole with ease. He went around the table to examine the position of all of the balls to see what would be his next best shot. It was only a matter of hours before he could sneak away and cut again. After all, there was nothing better to do that night. He might as well add a little more to his new hobby and scarred body art. The inside emotional pain kept becoming more and more intense. He needed some way to release it, and fast, through the wounds. He had every intention of doing just that.