23
“You’re the guy that started this whole thing aren’t you?” AJ said his face quickly flushing with anger. He stood up and walked over to the man who did nothing to try to defend himself.
“I didn’t start this your friend Howie did and don’t raise your voice. Trust me you don’t want anybody to hear this conversation”
“Trust you? How the hell do you expect me to trust you?”
Now the man stood up. He was huge; AJ took a step back afraid of what the man might do to him. Seeing that; Nick smiled, “I’m not gonna hurt you”
“Oh my mistake….you only drug people!”
“I said keep it down” Nick said eyeing the room nervously once again.
AJ took a deep breath and decided to sit down on the floor so this way the bed would hide him from view.
“Okay fine” AJ said bringing his voice down to a whisper, “But now you have to tell me what the hell is going on”
“I only know what they tell me and they didn’t tell me a whole lot”
“Well why don’t you start out by telling us who we is” AJ said sarcastically trying his best to control his temper.
Nick once again looked around the room nervously and then licked his lips, just like the real Nick. “His name is Bolten”
“Bolten? Where have I heard that name before?” AJ kept saying the name over and over again trying to figure it out. He had heard that name recently as recently as…Then it hit him like a charge of electricity, “That was the guy who Howie talked to at the Inquisitor”
Nick sat back and took in a deep breath, like a man that started something he didn’t intend to finish, “Yeah that’s the one”
“You work for the Inquisitor?”
“No…I work for Bolten…he hires people privately who need to make a few extra bucks”
“Doing what?” Again Nick looked around the room nervously, a thin film of sweat forming on his brow.
“Posing as celebrities”
“What?”
“He hires people who look like celebrities to do compromising things and then he conveniently has a photographer there to snap a picture”
“I’m still not following”
“Half of the people that appear on those magazines aren’t the actual celebrities you have to know that right?”
“I guess”
“Well it’s people like me, who happen to look like a few people that get the call to make themselves available to pose”
“I don’t get what that has to do with anything that is happening” AJ was becoming frustrated now; he wanted an explanation of what was going on.
“Look kid…I got the call to pose as one of you guys”
“You mean Nick?” The man nodded.
“I was supposed to be seen hanging around the Lion’s Den”
“So? Big deal”
“It is a big deal”
“Why?”
“Because that’s not all that was supposed to happen” Suddenly some noise outside of his room had him stop cold, he put his finger on his mouth and motioned for AJ not to say a word. Then he ducked down almost lying under the bed so as not to be detected. Once the outside noise became more distant he continued, “They’re looking for me”
“Who is? And what else was supposed to happen?” AJ felt like he had a million questions for this man who was trying to reveal so much to him.
“They wanted something to be dramatic enough to make all the headlines, they wanted a murder” AJ’s blood ran cold when he heard the word murder.
“They wanted you to kill somebody?” Nick shook his head.
“I don’t under…”
“I said I wouldn’t do it, so they decided maybe my career should come to an end”
“So did they fire you?” The man who looked identical to Nick Carter laughed, “No…it’s not that easy, if you knew as much as I knew…”
“What do you know? I mean why not just go to the police? They could put this Bolten guy behind bars”
“Bolten is only the end of the totem pole. He answers to somebody else who answers to somebody else. There is a long long chain my friend and believe me there are a few links in the police offices around the country.
“So who is Bolten’s boss?”
“I have no idea; all I answer to is him”
“I don’t understand where we come into all of this. So, you look like Nick, so you were going to pose as him by some strip club…big deal”
“It is a big deal. They had big plans for you guys and Howie messed them up” He took another long breath, “He was never supposed to see me in that office, he was never supposed to realize it was me in that picture”
“The one that appeared with you on the ledge?” Nick nodded. “I wasn’t supposed to be there and the guy was never supposed to take that picture. It was all a mistake, it cost him his life I’m sure”
“What? This is sounding ridiculous now” AJ stood up refusing to listen to anymore of this man’s nonsense.
As AJ was leaving he was brought back by this, “But then they decided why hire doubles this time? Let’s make this one for real just to see if we can” He stopped in his tracks and turned to face Nick who was still sitting on the floor with his legs crossed pretzel style.
“What do you mean?”
“They are experimenting with you guys; let’s see how far we can go without anyone realizing it’s all staged”
“Go on…” AJ said once again sitting down this time slowly as he perked his ears up to really listen. A sense of dread filling him.
“Don’t you see? They aren’t going to be happy until they get what they want”
“And what is that?”
“In Bolten’s case…a great story”
“And what story is that exactly?” Nick took another deep breath.
“He won’t be happy…they won’t be happy until one of you is dead”
They both just stood and stared at each other for a few moments as AJ let those words sink in. This couldn’t be happening could it? Suddenly three men appeared in the doorway. Nick took a few steps back ready to try to fight them off.
“There you are Mr. Brown, we were wondering where you went to, it’s time for your treatment”
Nick pushed one of the men back, “What treatment?”
“You know your treatment…your ECT”
“I don’t take any treatments” HE pushed the second guy away who this time grabbed onto his arm backing him up against the wall. AJ wasn’t sure what he should do, so he just stood there watching like it was a scene in a movie.
“Your electric shock treatment, Mr. Brown don’t make this harder then it has to be”
“I don’t take those treatments; get the hell off of me!” He said then turned to AJ, “See what I mean?”
“Mr. Brown do we have to get a straight jacket?”
“Get off of me!!” The three men had Nick in a hold which he couldn’t get himself out of as a fourth came along to place him in a straight jacket.
“You need to get out of this place AJ! They will do this to you too” He screamed while wrestling with the workers.
“You need to get out and warn him before they kill him!” He screamed as he was being led out of the room. AJ ran out after him, “Who? Kill who?” It was too late as Nick was dragged out of view while lots of the patients, half of them to drugged to care about what was going on just stood and stared.
AJ jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, “Oh easy Alex…I just wanted to say don’t listen to Mr. Brown, he is a bit delusional”
“He seemed totally sane”
“Not everything is as it seems Alex” The woman, the same one who had held their earlier group meeting said, “Besides you should get yourself ready for a visit. You are getting some guests”
When the nurse walked away AJ leaned against the wall to try to catch his breath, he felt winded from all of the information he had just received. And now he felt a huge fear building up inside him, fear that one of his friend’s lives was in danger and there was nothing he could do about it, and an intense fear of who would be visiting him.
Brian was walking a little faster than usual, anxious to see his friend. He felt bad for AJ, he really did and he wasn’t entirely sure if he should tell him everything that was going on. “Should we tell him about Kevin?” He asked, stopping his gait and looking back at the lawyer who had accompanied him to the visit.
“I think we need to start off by asking him if he has come in contact with Kevin”
“Yeah I know, but then do we tell him about Jessica and the explosion?”
“I don’t know, let’s see how he’s holding up first I guess” Grimes said picking up his speed to keep up with Brian.
“Are you sure you don’t have any idea where your cousin is Brian?”
“I told you, I have no idea”
“Okay, I’ll stop asking then, hopefully AJ has talked to him”
“Hopefully” Brian echoed knowing it was probably a long shot, knowing there was something terribly wrong concerning his cousin.
“Oh my GOD” Suddenly he stopped at the sound of a teenager, he was used to hearing oh my God which had to mean one thing, he was recognized. He turned towards the voice and sure enough there was a girl of about 17, possibly Nick’s age maybe a little younger, standing there wearing a pair of jeans, and a Backstreet Boys tee- shirt.
“You’re Brian” She said positively giddy and jumping up and down. Brian was in no mood to deal with this and if he wasn’t… Grimes really wasn’t. The lawyer had a look of complete disgust planted on his face. The girl didn’t seem to care though.
“Oh my God, I love you guys so much! Can I get your autograph?”
Brian nodded as the girl fiddled through her backpack in search of something to write on; happy when she took out a piece of ripped notebook paper and a highlighter.
“Brian we don’t have time for this” Grimes growled looking around in hopes that a crowd would not gather.
“It’ll just take a minute” He then focused his attention on the fan, “So what’s your name sweetheart?”
“Julie”
Brian took the time to write her name on the paper with to my biggest fan next to it, signing it and then handing back to her. She bounced up and down when she read it. “Thank you so much Brian…um…can I have a hug?”
“Sure darling” He said grabbing the girl in a hug.
“Thank you SO much you have no idea how great this day has been for me” He smiled at her.
“Brian we need to go!” Grimes said pointing to his watch.
“Okay…thanks Julie!” He really meant it too. The fans always had a way of making him feel better; temporarily letting him forget the hell that was going on around him.
He smiled at her one last time as he walked away closely following Grimes, “Relax man…wouldn’t it have made things worse if I ignored her?” Grimes turned to Brian without even looking away from the papers he was reading, “Brian at this point I don’t think anything could get worse”
“Great attitude” Brian said sarcastically as they made their way into the entrance of the hospital.
Once out of site Julie bent down and grabbed her cell phone.
“It’s done” She said before closing it and dumping the entire backpack in the garbage next to her including the autograph that Brian had given her.
