I stared at Vinnie, unable to move. It felt as if every muscle in my body was frozen. He was standing in the doorway, grinning like it was his birthday. Nick was in front of him, on his knees, gun to his head. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. So I stood there, like a deer in front of headlights, my eyes locked onto Nick’s.

“We don’t have all daa-ayyy, Lizz.” Terri sung out, a sick smile twisting her face.

I broke my gaze from Nick, trying to figure out what was going on. What had happened? Where was Brian? Almost as if reading my mind, Brady stepped forward, rubbing his hands together. I squinted, my mind not comprehending why there was red stuff on his hands. Surely it wasn’t blood.

“Lizz?” Nick’s voice shook me out of my stupor.

I wanted to go to him. Everything was in slow motion and I could tell something was going to happen. Something bad and there was nothing I could do to stop it. But my feet were still rooted to the floor. Almost like someone had glued them down.

Agnes stepped around the other side of Vinnie, gun in her hand. She pointed it at Nick. Yet, I still stood there, unable to move. I couldn’t stop this, there wasn’t a damn thing I could do. But if anything, if all of this was for nothing else, I had to tell Nick how I felt about him. I had to tell Nick that I loved him. At least he would know. I had to tell him before it was too late.

Agnes cocked the trigger. I opened my mouth. The words were on my lips and my heart was breaking. But before I could utter a single sound, the fatal shot rang out.

“AJ, we’ve got to move quick, before they find us!” Kevin whispered, a tone of urgency in his voice.

All AJ could do was give a slight nod, not knowing if Kevin was looking at him or not. He felt his hand slip around his arm, and then Kevin’s arm grabbing his waist to steady him as he guided him to a sturdier standing position.

Rushing AJ as fast as he dared, Kevin tried door after door only to discover that it was locked. As he was just about to give up and resign them both to certain doom, the last door he tried miraculously opened.

“This looks like an old office space, we’ll be safe in here for the time being,” Kevin stated as he looked around the dimly lighted room.

AJ’s only response was several dry coughs followed by a soft, quiet moan.

“Are you okay?”

AJ sighed quietly. “Yeah, ready to party.”

As he leaned against the wall, Kevin looked around the room, surveying the situation he and AJ were in. He narrowed his eyes as he looked across the room. “Hey, I see some doors over there,” he announced as he straightened himself up. “Stay right here, I’m gonna go see where they lead to.”

“Yeah, like I have a choice,” AJ sputtered.

AJ discovered that since his eyesight was gone, his hearing seemed to have become more sharper and he trained his concentration on listening to Kevin’s hard, even footsteps across the wooden floor. Kevin grunted as he pulled on a door. AJ could tell that he moved further away as he tried another door.

“Hey this one looks like it might lead us out of this building, it’s got stairs,” Kevin stated excitedly. “I’ll go and check it before I lead you down here. God, there’s dust and cobwebs everywhere!”

AJ shook his head hearing Kevin’s disgust about the dirty stairwell. He was such a neatnik, always cleaning up after the rest of the guys when they were on tour. “I’m sure it won’t kill you, just watch out for rats.”

“Ha, ha, very funny AJ,” Kevin mocked. “Hey, I see a passage over there----”

A floorboard groaned followed by the sound of wood breaking and Kevin crying out.

Then silence.

Using the wall as a leverage to get his bearings, AJ slowly felt his way along the wall, getting back up again to a standing position. “Kevin? Are you okay? Kev? Shit.”

“Where are they!” Agnes squawked at Vinnie when he appeared in the room, alone.

“I couldn’t find their asses, they’re probably long gone by now,” Vinnie panted, winded from running up and down the hall in search of Kevin and AJ.

“Dammit Vincent, I left you in charge of something so simple and you messed that up too! This is no good, I can’t tolerate this!” Agnes bellowed as she paced the trash strewn wooden floor.

“Hey don’t be yelling at me about this! You told me to keep Littrell with that girl----”

“YOU PUT THEM TOGETHER?!”

“YOU TOLD ME TO YOU OLD BITCH!”

“Good god, gimme the gun, I’ll have to take care of things by my...where’s Brady at?” Agnes sneered as she grabbed the gun from Vincent’s hand.

“Use your freakin two way, dumb bitch,” Vinnie cackeled as he slumped onto the overstuffed, dusty brown couch in the corner.

Agnes glared as she picked up her radio off the table next to the couch. “Brady?”

Silence was soon replaced with static and then Brady’s voice.

“Yes ma’am?”

A broad smile played upon Agnes lips. “See that boy knows how to respect me.” Vinnie flipped the old woman off when she turned her back. Terri unsuccessfully chocked back a giggle. Agnes whirled around to see what Terri was snickering about but her attention was suddenly drawn back to Brady on the two-way.

“Ma’am? You needed me?”

“Yes Brady, I do,” Agnes replied sweetly. “I want you to go and get either the boy or that girl from out of that room and bring one of them to me, they can’t be kept together, they’ll try to escape.”

“Which one do you want?”

Agnes waived her hand in the air as she replied, “It doesn’t matter, which ever one y’all feel you can handle.”

“Be down in a few minutes ma’am,” Brady answered.

“See, that’s all it took, some real man to handle the situation correctly,” Agnes stated as she placed the two-way back onto the table.

“What you gonna do, Momma?”

“Not sure yet, it will depend on who he brings to me,” Agnes smiled.