Terri’s mother and the fat man had disappeared for a few moments. Nick’s face turned a few shades paler than white when Marcus had pulled the chair away from Brian. I gasped as well when I saw the blood. There was too much of it.
Kyung started to go over to Brian. “We need to find out where he is bleeding from.” Nick glared at her and marched over to her, standing over her menacingly.
“I don’t give a flying shit what you have to say. This is your fault and you had better stay far far away from him.” He said icily. Terri stood behind him, grinning smugly. Marcus used that moment to find out where his parents had gone to see what they should do about Brian. Temporarily forgotten, I made my way over to Brian. I was half dragging myself, but it didn’t matter. I had to get to him.
Weakly standing on my feet, I gently shook Brian. “Bri! You gotta wake up. Please don’t give up on me. We are in a shitload of a mess here.” I whispered urgently. I was going to get discovered any minute.
Brian looked at me, his eyes pleading. “It hurts...” Was all he said.
I nodded, squeezing his hand. “Can you tell me where?”
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I looked up to see Nick glaring at me, his eyes full of hate. “Don’t you dare go anywhere near him!” He raged, stomping over to me. He roughly shoved me away and I let out a yelp as I slammed into the seats across from where the aisle used to me.
“Nick?!” Brian stared at Nick in shock, not believing what he just saw. Terri immediately caught on and hurried over.
“Brian, you’re delirious, sweetie. Don’t talk.” The last sentence was more of a menacing command then a concerned suggestion. She didn’t have to worry because he was already slipping back out of consciousness. Kyung didn’t get a chance to say a word, as Marcus appeared by her side instantly.
“You are just looking for your deathwish aren’t you!” Nick exclaimed as he stood over me. I no longer had the strength to as so much as move from my crumpled position on the ground. I lifted my head. I was losing control of everything and I didn’t want to live anymore. I had to try again though. I believed in Nick. He had to come through. He always had before. It was something that I depended on.
“Nick, fight this. I know this isn’t you.” I whispered. This was getting harder and my hope slipped a little further.
“You don’t know me.” He stated flatly.
“If you are so sure that this is right, then why are you so confused? Why is your stomach so tensed up that it hurts?” I shot back.
His eyes narrowed. “How the hell do you know that?!”
Oh god, I couldn’t do this. “Because Nick, I feel it. Don’t you remember? The hospital? The panic attacks? It never went away! Remember you afflict me?! I feel almost everything Nick!” My voice cracked. You afflict me was the joke that we always had about the whole unexplainable phenomenon. No one could explain it, but ever since that first panic attack, this had become a part of our lives.
Nick shook his head. “You’re lying. Stop lying!” Her words unnerved him. How could she know what he was feeling?
I shook my head. “You know it’s the truth.” I whispered. My strength was slipping away.
“You’re crazy.” He hissed.
“Like a shithouse coon.” My voice broke. Another inside joke. I don’t even remember where this one came from. I had told him one day about something that I had done and he said something about how I was crazy as a shithouse coon. He always called me that now.
He blinked twice and my heart flip-flopped. A small flicker of hope filled my heart, but was immediately put out when he shook his head and his eyes grew hard. “No. More. Lies.” His hand raised up in the air to strike me and every glimmer of hope and fight that was in me was now shattered. As was my heart.
I slapped her across the cheek with the back of my hand and I instantly
regretted it, it didn’t seem right. The look on her face pretty much said it
all to me. It wasn’t a look of hatred or anger, it was more of total shock.
Something about this whole deal wasn’t right and I couldn’t put my finger on
it. How did she know how I was feeling. I didn’t know her, but she seemed to
be able to describe every detail of what I was feeling at that exact moment.
And her stories about stuff she said we did together, she thought that up
too awful fast in my opinion.
Brian’s moans directed my thoughts away from the girl. His pants were
soaked with blood and his skin was almost a grayish color. I remember the
one girl had a medical authority type attitude about her.
“Hey, you! Go check Brian and see where he’s bleeding from,” I growled at
her and reached out and braced myself to keep from falling when a wave of
dizziness swept over me. She jumped up rather fast and rushed over to my
friend.
Kyung wasted no time in trying to assess and evaluate Brian’s situation. His
color wasn’t looking very good and he was soaked in sweat and was definately
running a fever. She gingerly lifted the edge of his shirt and immediately
gasped. This was definately not a good situation he was in.
“What?” I asked her when I heard her take a breath in.
“I need something to use as a pressure bandage, he’s loosing too much blood,”
Kyung replied as she looked around the plane.
“What’s wrong? Where’s he bleeding from?” I asked, afraid to look.
She lifted Brian’s shirt and exposed a gaping hole.
I suddenly felt sick to my stomach and my legs could no longer support me.
Everything went black as I dropped to the floor.
I opened my eyes and was greeted by Terri’s smiling face.
“There you are hon, you gave me a little scare,” she smirked.
“Wha...what happened?”
“Evidently you couldn’t stand seeing Brian’s injury, you fainted.”
It was slowly coming back. I still felt sick to my stomach and had this
pounding headache.
“Well, while you were sleeping it off, Marcus and Dale made a portable
stretcher thingy for Brian and we are just about ready to go. Instead of
leaving Kyung and Lizz here for dead, we just decided we could use Kyung’s
nursing skills to help Brian so he won’t die and both of them could pull the
stretcher for us.
“That sounds like a good idea,” I replied. I couldn’t decide why, but this
whole thing seemed weird. This Terri hanging on me and all those others
were being cheerful. Terri kept reminding me that this was Lizz and her
friend Kyung that were the masterminds of kidnapping us but I was finding it
harder and harder to believe.
Terri led me to Brian, they already had him placed in the makeshift
stretcher and had him covered in thick blankets. He was unconscious and still
looked pretty gray but now besides his labored breathing, he was starting to
cough every so often. Kyung mumbled something about pneumonia setting in.
“Go ahread and get yourself situated, bitch” Terri ordered Lizz. “I need you
to drag this stretcher.”
Terri handed me a heavy wool blanket. As I wrapped it around my body, I
noticed that everyone had a blanket except for Kyung and Lizz.
“What about those guys?” I asked.
“There wasn’t enough to go around, they don’t need one,” Terri snapped back.
I knew she was lying when I saw a cabinet on my way out stocked with
blankets. “But there’s some more here,” I pointed out.
I looked out to where Kyung and Lizz were standing. The snow was up to
their hips. I grabbed two blankets and headed out the door, sinking into the
snow.
“Here, use these,” I said as I tossed the blankets to the girls.
“Hey, I told you Nick to leave them alone, they don’t need blankets,” Terri
sharply reprimanded.
“But they aren’t any good to us dead though, let’s use what we can of them
and worry about them later,” I argued.
Something just didn’t seem right with this whole situation but I couldn’t
figure out why. I did notice that Terri seemed to be a little obsessed over
the dead guy laying partially covered in snow.
Kyung gratefully wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, but immediately sighed with frustration when Lizz didn’t move. She started to wrap the blanket around her, but Lizz stepped away.
“Lizz! You need to keep this around you!” Kyung exclaimed.
Lizz shook her head. “You take it. I don’t care.”
Kyung was shocked at the tone in Lizz’s voice. It was flat and hollow. Her back was turned and her shoulders hunched forward. Kyung knew she was in a considerable amount of pain, but that wasn’t even half of what she was going through emotionally. “Lizzie, you can’t give up on this!” Kyung pleaded, putting a hand on Lizz’s shoulder.
Lizz whirled around. “Why?! Why shouldn’t I? You give me one reason why I should keep fighting this! I’m going to die anyway! My lung has a gaping hole in it and my heart is fucking broken. I can’t do it anymore! Everyone tells me how strong I am! Bullshit! If I were strong I could do this!” Lizz stopped and shut her eyes. “But I can’t.” She finished with a whisper, a single tear slipping out.
Kyung ached inside. Lizz always pushed people away when she was hurting. She would never admit to needing anyone because she felt she had to be strong. She didn’t ever want anyone else to feel any pain because of her. She always knew how afraid Lizz was of letting people in. Letting them get close to her heart. She had lost so many people that now she did everything in her power to keep it from happening again. Even if that meant pushing them away. If you push someone away, they can’t leave you first. Kyung saw the despondent look in her eyes. Her spirit had been totally crushed and all the fight was taken from her. She saw Nick backhand Lizz and the look of hurt in Lizz’s eyes. It had left a mark on her face, but a much deeper one on her soul.
“Okay!! Let’s go. Time’s a wasting. There isn’t much sunlight left.” Terri’s mom ordered.
Marcus was talking to Nick and the fat man was making sure that they had everything they needed. Kyung watched with interest as Terri knelt before a figure in the snow. She surmised that it was her boyfriend, Kurt. Terri was bitterly crying and kept throwing poisonous looks towards Lizz. After a few moments Nick noticed and started walking over towards Terri.
“Who is that?” He glanced at the body.
“It’s uh...he was a friend of Marcus’. He didn’t survive the crash.” Terri lied.
Nick nodded uncertainly. “I’m sorry.” The more he thought about his, the more things didn’t add up. These two girls certainly didn’t act like kidnappers. The Korean one seemed to care too much about Brian’s welfare. Why was she so worried about him if she was just after his money or whatever? And the look on her face when Nick had started to go after her. She didn’t even try to resist him. She only stood there, silently. And then there was this other girl, Lizz. She looked like the wrath and not just physically. Yeah, she had a black eye, a nasty gash above that same eyebrow, a bandage around her arm and was covered in blood. The bandage caught his attention. It looked like it had been there for at least a little while. Why would a kidnapper need a bandage? But then Terri had a bruised nose. Maybe they had fought. But above all this, Lizz’s behavior was just not right. Terri was so cocky and bitter towards Lizz. Why not the other way around? Wouldn’t the kidnapper be the cocky one? Lizz just looked wounded. And vulnerable. He had to turn away from her eyes. He felt like he had looked into them before and that unnerved him.
Terri got up from her spot next to Kurt and walked over to Lizz. She could feel Nick glancing at them. She turned and smiled sweetly. He frowned back and then swayed a little.
“Nick?!” Terri called anxiously. She didn’t need him passing out again. That risked the plan. She whirled back around to Lizz and now Kyung, who had appeared protectively by Lizz’s side. “What the fuck is wrong with him?” She hissed.
“He needs his meds Terri.” Lizz said quietly.
Terri rolled her eyes. “You still willing to give yours up so he can get his?” She mocked in a teasing tone. She fully expected Lizz to tell her to forget it.
“Yes.”
Kyung widened her eyes and cursed herself for not being with it while everything was happening before. Nick started to walk over to the three girls. Marcus stopped talking to Dale and his mother. He nudged them both and all three watched.
“What’s going on?” He looked at each of them in turn. Kyung stared at him sadly. Terri smirked at him. Lizz turned away.
Terri pulled a bottle out of her pocket. “You need these.” She said to him. “Come on.” She pulled him away from Lizz and Kyung before one of them could say anything. Kyung looked over at Lizz, hoping for a reaction, but Lizz wouldn’t look at her.
They had been walking for a little over an hour. It seemed like a lot more, but that was probably because it was getting colder. Lizz hadn’t said two words the entire time. Her coughs seemed to mix in with Brian’s. Every so often they stopped so Kyung could check on Brian’s injury. Nick didn’t know this, but Terri and her family were trying to keep Nick and Brian as far apart. They didn’t want Brian to say something to ruin it. Kyung was level-headed enough to keep her mouth shut. And Lizz wasn’t any worry anymore either. Terri was pleased that things were going perfectly. Nick didn’t remember a thing and Lizz was suffering unimaginably.
Marcus was busy rambling to Nick about nothing as Kyung and Lizz checked on Brian yet again. He couldn’t help but notice how careful Kyung was to make it as painless as possible for Brian. And even though Brian wasn’t fully with it, he was still in visible pain. Nick watched in surprise as Lizz knelt in front of him and encouraged him with soothing words. She held his hand when it hurt the most and brushed his hair off his face. Nick thought it was an awful tender gesture for someone as evil and cold-hearted as Terri said she was. For some reason Terri seemed to get mad when he tried to go near Brian. He reasoned that she just didn’t want him to be upset by his best friend’s condition. Still...
Terri came over and pulled Marcus away, giving Nick a perfect opportunity to try to get some answers. He pushed through the snow over to his “kidnappers.” Brian had slipped back into unconsciousness. Kyung eyes widened in surprise as Nick approached, but Lizz wouldn’t even look up at him.
“How is he?” Nick asked, afraid to know.
“I’m afraid he is getting pneumonia. He’s lost a lot of blood too. I’ve been able to make it stop, but he needs to get to a hospital.” Kyung said softly.
Nick nodded, swallowing back the lump in his throat. “And you guys?”
“We’ll make it. You worry about yourself, Nick.” Kyung stared at him.
Nick paused, debating whether to ask this next question. It had been bugging him. “Why did Terri have my pills? What was up with that?” He figured that his “girlfriend” wouldn’t have them if she had been kidnapped. Wouldn’t one of these two had them? Maybe Terri had forced them to surrender the pills...But why wait so long to bring it up if he obviously needed them?
Kyung hesitated. Nick picked up on that right away. “Also, why am I on seizure medication?” He pressed.
Again there was no answer. He looked at Lizz. “Answer me!” He barked, immediately regretting how harsh his voice came out. She actually shrunk away from him. His heart sank when it dawned on him that she was afraid of him. That made him even more upset. Why the hell should he care what she thought or felt?
Terri’s voice rang out, breaking the confrontation. “Nicky-poo! I have an idea on how you can get even with her for what she did to Brian.” She ran up to him and threw her arms around him, smiling with sick pleasure.
I returned her smile. She was obviously excited about revenge on our
kidnappers and I could see that Brian was in so much distress, I was willing
to do anything to fix all of this. An eye for an eye.....
“Okay, tell me about your little plan, I’m game,” I replied.
“Well Lizz is really sick besides that cough and stuff from the crash,” Terri
started.
Something was clicking when Terri started talking. This definately did not
seem right to me.
“Go on,” I encouraged.
“She had lousy lungs and kidneys and had to have them replaced. She is
supposed to take these so that her body don’t reject them,” Terri said as
she pulled some tiny prescription bottles out of her coat pocket.
I narrowed my eyes at the bottles and then looked over in the direction of
Lizz and then at Kyung and then back at Terri.
This was starting to get a little crazy. Now Terri knew specific details about
our kidnappers? This is all too weird. “How the hell do you know that kind of
info and how come you have her medications?”
Terri’s eyes shifted back and forth as she tried to quickly think of an
answer to dig herself out of the hole she was digging herself into.
“We overheard those two talking and I stole them off her after the plane
crashed,” Terri smiled as she lied, obviously impressed with her quick
thinking skills.
I was still having trouble with this whole scenario. “So, um what was your
plan to get even with Lizz?”
She was about to answer me when suddenly Lizz cried out in pain. My first
reaction was to go to her and help her, but Terri held me back. I pulled my
arm away from her grasp and knelt down beside Lizz. She was rocking back
and forth and shaking her head no.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“Nick just leave her alone, she’s done plenty to us, I think it’s good to see
her hurting for a change. She didn’t seem to care too much when she had you
whipped with a leather strap,” Terri screamed.
I turned around and stared, not saying a word, just stared at Terri. She was
so cold and heartless sounding and I couldn’t believe that anyone would whip
someone with a strap. Sure, my back was sore, but that was from the crash.
I looked at Kyung as she was checking Lizz over. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She needs her meds, her body could be starting to reject the organs,”
Kyung replied with tear filled eyes.
“Terri give me the bottles,” I calmly asked.
The look in her eyes nearly knocked me off my feet. She was obviously
pissed. They were hard and cold looking.
“Dammit, she needs her pills! You can’t keep them from her, that would be
murder!” I was desperate. I jumped to my feet and rushed as best as I could
through the deep snow towards her.
Terri pulled the pills out of her pocket and a sick smile played across her
lips.
“NO!” I shouted, afraid that she was going to do what I was thinking.
I was inches away from Terri when she threw all of the bottles far away.
They were airborne and almost looked like they were sailing in slow motion.
“There,” Terri sneered. “Now no one gets their medications.”
“How could you do that!?” I yelled.
Terri laughed. “Like this,” she replied as she imitated the act of throwing
the bottles out into the snowbanks.
I started feeling funny and sank back into the snow. “But she needs those
Terri, what are you doing?”
“She threw them all out, Nick!”
Kyung knew she was going to be punished for calling out, but she didn’t care
anymore, she couldn’t stand to see this unfold in front of her and just stand
there doing nothing.
I turned and looked at Kyung, her face mirrored an image of pure defiance.
“She threw out yours, Lizz’s and Brian’s,” Kyung stated as she stood her
ground.
“Brian’s? Terri, why?”
“Why the hell not,” Terri laughed as she shrugged her shoulders.
“What will happen Kyung,” I asked quickly, as if my knowing would stop
anything bad from happening to my friend.
“Well, Brian’s helps to keep fluid from building up around his heart and Lizz’s
stops her body from rejecting the transplanted organs. And Nick, yours is to
keep you from having seizures,” Kyung recounted quietly.
That was all I could take hearing. I lunged at Terri like a wounded animal. I
heard Marcus yell and then everything went dark.
