I flopped down on my bed and proceeded to flip the channels. The noise in the hallway died down, much to my relief. Even though nothing came out of that stupid letter board, I was still a little uneasy. I hated that wacked out family for making me so paranoid and untrusting. I've always been the type to look for the best in people no matter what. I still do that, but it's not the same. There are now a small handful of people that I would just as soon kill them as look at them. A chill came over my body when I realized that I actually had killed one of them.

I committed murder. That haunted me day and night. Never a dream went by without that gruesome death scene playing over in my head. As much as that tore me up inside, if it came down to it again and a gun was being held at Nick, I would kill again.

" AHHHHHH, SON OF A BITCH!!!"

I jumped at the horrific sound of Nick's screams. I raced to the door, my heart pounding. "Nick! NICK!" I called frantically, throwing the door open. Nick stood outside the shower, hastily wrapping a towel around his waist, dripping wet and visibly shaken.

"What? What happened?!" I cried, grabbing his arm.

He didn't say a word, but pulled the shower curtain back, barely holding the edge of it with two fingers.

"Oh my god! I croaked, backing away." The floor of the shower was crawling with black spiders. "Those-those" I stuttered.

"Were in that bottle of bath soap. God, Lizz, I shoulda listened to you and gotten rid of it. I opened the bottle and went to dump it in my hand and they just poured out." He shuddered and I wrapped my arms around him. Despite the grim circumstances I couldn't help but notice that he was only wearing a towel. Then the spiders flashed across my mind and I pulled away.

"Can we get outta here?" I nodded to the shower.

"Gladly." He agreed. Out in the room, he started rummaging through his backpack for some clothes.

"Nick, do we need to wash them down the drain? I don t want them coming in here." I grimaced at the thought of spiders crawling on me in my sleep.

"We'll get detail to do it. As soon as I get dressed." He gave me a pointed look.

"Oh!" I turned around, my face heating up. But how ludicrous was that? With what just happened, how could I be thinking things like that? Easy, I was scared and was trying to avoid thinking about it. "Are you sure it was a 14 year-old girl?" I asked, hugging my knees to my chest.

"Come to think of it, no. A camera went off right before I was handed the package. I couldn't see jack shit. The whole time...okay...I was out there, cameras were going off so I never saw anyone." He interrupted himself, giving me the okay to turn back around.

"There's no way this is a coincidence too. Nick, you know that." I said, my eyes trailing back towards the bathroom. I did not want to see any spiders come crawling out from under that door.

Nick came over and sat down by me. "Agnes may have escaped, but she wouldn't have tracked us down by herself and done all this on her own. If this is her, and we don't know that, she still can't get close to us. The letter board was dropped off and that," he nodded towards the bathroom, "could have been given to someone else to give to me. There is no way she can get close enough to us to hurt us. We'll just have to be extra careful with gifts and stuff." He reassured me.

I nodded, feeling a little better. "Should we tell the others?"

"I don't think so, it would just freak them out. Especially Brian. That board really shook him up and I don't want to add to it. I just want him to keep focusing on getting better." Nick said emphatically.

"Yeah, you're right. About cleaning that up though..." I grimaced.

Nick shook his head. "Detail."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I hate the idea of showering in there again. I mean, spiders don't really freak me out, but that is a little much for me."

"Well, I could go in there with ya to protect ya." Nick grinned playfully.

I blushed. "Aren't we the funny one!" I smacked him on the arm for good measure, hoping he missed my grin. Shame on me for such thoughts! Then I remembered what he had said earlier. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

I turned around, surprised to see him on the phone already, probably calling detail. I guess he didn't hear what I had asked. Ah well, later.

"Nick, I m booooorredd." I sing-songed as I paced the floor.

"Lizz! Don't even go there, look what happened last time you got bored!" Nick exclaimed, setting his Sports Illustrated down. "Besides, how can you be bored? We've been running our asses around all damn day. Sit down, you're wearing me out!" He flashed me an exasperated smile.

Today was another one of those early days. I woke up to Nick shaking me, telling me to get up or I would have to leave the hotel room looking like I did. That was enough for me. There were way too many people out there to see me in my boxers and tee shirt, not to mention totally disheveled hair. It was a long day and it wasn t even close to being over. The guys made another TV appearance (no bad gifts this time, thank God), a photo op, and a couple of those mini interviews that I know Nick hates. Now we were back in the hotel until it was time to go to the venue. I smiled to myself just thinking about it. Nick assured me that I would get tired of seeing the show over and over, but I knew I wouldn't. I loved watching them perform and that was something I would never get tired of. "Okay, I'm hungry then." I stopped and flopped down on Nick's bed.

"We're gonna eat at the venue. We re leaving at 6:00. Can you wait that long?" He put the magazine down again.

"Ni-iick! That s almost an hour away from now!" I pouted, batting my eyelashes. Okay, normally I hated them because they were always hitting the back of my sunglasses, but sometimes they came in handy.

He laughed. "Order room service then, piggy."

"Hey! Just for that, I m not sharing." I paused. "Okay, I ve stayed in a ton of hotels, but I have never ordered room service. Do I, uh."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Allow me. Grilled cheese okay?"

"Perfect. Not too heavy, but it will hold me over till the banquet." I grinned, watching him dial room service. "Thank you, maybe I'll share."

"You better." He grumbled, hidden back behind the magazine. I could tell he was smiling though.

I wandered aimlessly around the room, waiting impatiently for my food. The window shades were pulled, but I snuck a careful peek around the curtain. The sky was not only dark, but lightning flashed off the distance. I smiled inwardly. Storms were my all time favorite kind of weather and I had to push back the urge to go chase it. Old habits die hard My stomach growled, and I looked quickly at Nick to see if he had heard. Thankfully, he was too engrossed in the magazine to notice. A quick knock at the door got my attention and I hurried to the door. I had my hand on the handle, ready to whip it open when I thought of something. "Uh, Nick, we tip right?"

He snickered. "Yes, Lizz, always. Money is on top of the TV."

"Right." I nodded, grabbing some bills. But when I opened the door, no one was there. In fact, the hallway was totally empty.

"You forgot your tip, dumbass." I muttered, kneeling down to pick up the tray that was on the doorstep. Somehow I thought the service would be a little better at a hotel like this. Oh well, I had my food, thats all I cared about. Even though I was just bringing it back into the room, I couldn't help myself as I lifted the lid on the plate. "AHHHH!' I screamed, jumping back, only to lose my balance and landing on my butt. The lid clattered to the floor and I looked frantically up and down the hall. "NICK!!

"Lizz?! What is it??!" Nick rushed up behind me. I felt him kneel down and take my shoulders. I lifted a shaky hand to the tray in front of me. Instead of my grilled cheese sandwich, two bloody rats laid on top of the bread. A note, written in what looked like blood, wrote, YOU WILL DIE LIKE THE RATS YOU ARE!

"What the fuck?!" Nick hollered. "WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BASTARDS?!

Several doors flew open.

"Nick? Lizz?" Brian rushed out of his room. When his eyes fell on the rats, he paled.

"What the hell kinda prank is that?!" AJ demanded, glaring at us.

"It wasn't a prank AJ!" I cried. "We ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and when I opened the door, no one was here and this was on the floor."

"Lizz, are you sure you didn t see anyone?" Kevin asked, his face a mixture of anger and more anger.

I shook my head. The hall was totally empty.

"This shit is not going to keep happening!" Kevin seethed.

"God, that's so gross." I stared at the rats. "I can't believe they would even want to touch those." I was starting to breathe a little more normal now. The fact that Nick stayed next to me, reassured me. "It's okay though, right? I mean, she was here, but we're all okay. She can't do anything to us now and now detail is gonna be all over the place so we'll be safe right?" I asked, trying to convince myself.

"No one is getting close to us." Nick said in a low voice.

I sighed. We were all sort of hovering in front of Nick and I's door. I wasn't sure why, but I guess maybe we felt safer all together. At least I felt that way. " Well, I know this is going to sound gross after our little rat meal, but I m still hungry." I offered a tentative smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"Please tell me you are joking, Lizz." Brian groaned.

"Hey, you are talking to the girl with the iron stomach." I joked.

"Good you are a perfect match for dumbass, then." AJ quipped.

"Hey." Nick protested. "You sure you don't want the sandwich, Lizzard?"

"Yeah, a rat sandwich doesn't quite do it for me." I laughed. Even though I was still mildly shaken, I wasn't going to let it get to me. I was perfectly safe here with the guys. No one was going to even get near us, not now. This was just another sick joke to scare us.

"How about rat soup?" Offered Howie, a smiling forming.

"Howie!" Brian exclaimed, disgusted.

"Rat pot-pie?" Nick added, laughing at the green tint that was forming on Brian.

"Guys, come on, that's sick." He complained.

"Well, I've had rat pie." Kevin informed us, his face deadpan. We all stared at him in shock. "Yeah, it was about 4 years ago, somewhere over in Europe. It wasn't that bad."

"Kevin, you're kidding. Right?" Brian stared up at his older cousin, a look of pure horror twisting his features.

"Yes, I'm kidding. Now enough of the rat-talk. We need to deal with this mess". Kevin shook his head at our gullibleness. I cracked up, just picturing it. Nick was laughing too and despite the circumstances, I felt a lot calmer. Agnes could scare us all she wanted, but she wasn't going to get close enough to us to hurt us.

Suddenly, without warning, we were plunged into darkness. Being in the middle of the hallway, where there weren't any windows, it was pitch black.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed, alarmed.

"Shit." Nick said softly.

"Okay this isn t cool." AJ groused.

"It's probably just the storm. The lights will come back on in a second here." Kevin reassured us.

I shuddered in the darkness. I didn't like this at all. I felt a hand graze across my cheek and I jumped. "Nick! Don t do that!" I yelped.

"What?"

"You- you touched my cheek." I stammered, suddenly feeling sick.

"I didn't" He trailed off as the lights came back on. It was just the six of us, but now other doors were opening all down the hallway. "Oh god" He stared in horror at me.

"What?" I whispered. They were all starting at me, totally horrified. My cheek felt sticky. "What is it?" I cried, starting to tremble.

"Lizz." Nick started. His eyes scared me. He looked angry and scared at the same time. He started to move towards me, slowly as if afraid I was going to flip out.Slowly, I reached my hand up to my cheek. It was met with a cold, sticky substance and my stomach twisted. My heart started racing and I felt the panic rise. My eyes flickered around the hallway before settling on the hand that I had held out in front of my eyes. It was covered in blood.