I suddenly took a deep breath. I felt confused and I wanted to cough. I opened my eyes, as if I was waking up from a dreamless sleep, but with this urge to cough that I didn' give in to, I rather felt like coming up from under water. I finally opened my eyes to find myself standing in a room. In a room I didn't know at all, may I add. A slightly scared feeling was added to my confusion.
There was a huge window to my right side, leading out to a balcony or so. The room was held in dark blue, with wooden furniture. There were modern art pictures at the walls - at least I thought it was modern art -, a desk with a telephone and TV on it behind me and two armchairs. It definitely looked like a hotel room.
I jumped and panicked as something or rather someone moved under the blankets on the bed in front of me. I didn't know who it was, not even if male or female, because this someone was totally hidden under the covers.
What am I doing here? And how the heck did I get here anyway?
I looked down at myself, realizing that I still wore the same clothes as last night: a light blue spaghetti strap top that contrasted with my silk-like, wavy black hair, my black pants and high heeled boots. Last night... The memories rushed back to me. I had tried to kill myself last night. No, I hadn't just tried, had I? Did someone find me, before it had been too late? But why? Who? This couldn't be, I would be in a hospital, not here.
"What the hell?!" I whispered in shock and scared.
I jumped another time, landing in one of the armchairs, as an alarm clock went off. The - hopefully - human being in the bed began to move, until an arm shot out under the covers, sending the alarm clock to the floor. It went silent again, as I started to tremble inside.
But then I put my hand over my mouth, as I stared unbelievingly at the arm. Those tattoos... They were awfully familiar. But this couldn't be!
"AAH! OH MY GOD!" I screamed, putting my hands over my eyes, as AJ McLean jumped out of bed - totally in the nude. I glanced at him through my fingers, noticing that he obviously didn't give a damn about my presence.
"How can you?" I exclaimed outraged, taking my hands back down again. "Don't you have any sense of shame?!" He didn't react at all. He got some clothes from out of his bag and disappeared into the bathroom.
When he had shut the door behind him, I breathed out deeply. "Whoa", I said to myself and suddenly started to snicker. He was quite a nice sight!
"Oh my goodness, Carrie - what in the world are you thinking?" I asked myself. "You should get outta here - fast!" I stood up, rushing to the door, but stopped in front of it and started to pace the room. Where should I go to? I didn't even know if I was still in New York, or how I had got to this room. AJ - "Oh Lord, AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys" it suddenly sunk into my head - was probably the only one that could answer at least some of my questions. I decided to keep calm and sat back down on the armchair.
AJ returned from the bathroom soon. He was in clothes now, his hair still wet from the shower he had just taken. He looked incredibly good, I thought and gulped hard. But still he didn't even look at me once. He started to put on socks and shoes and I decided it was about time to take things into my own hands:
"Excuse me - do you care to tell me if..." I stopped confused. "AJ? You ARE AJ, right?! Could you...talk to me? At least look at me?" I got no reaction from him. This was more than frustrating. "HEY!" I yelled, but he just stood up and left his room.
"Ok", I thought, "I guess I'll just have to- AAAAH!" I screamed once again, as if by some magical force I was pulled up quickly and dragged out of the room. I looked at my feet, realizing that I was kinda floating an inch above the floor. As I looked up again, I threw my arms up in front of my face and prepared myself for pain: because I was about to hit the wall! But by a miracle I felt no pain, I hit nothing. Instead when I opened my eyes again I saw that I was in the hall of the hotel now, AJ walking a few feet in front of me.
I wanted to cry right then. I tried to clear my mixed up thoughts, but it hardly worked. The only thing I understood deep down was that I had succeeded - I was dead. But I didn't understand a single of the other things that were happening. Obviously I was still in "my old world", but then again I wasn't. AJ, it seemed, didn't know I was there.
Speaking of which: he had taken a turn around the corner and suddenly I stopped "floating". Cautiously I peeked around the corner as well, not seeing AJ in the hall way anymore. But right there was an opened door and I could hear voices from inside. I could hear laughter. Laughter that I recognized as Brian Littrell's, another Backstreet Boy. "There's a nest somewhere, huh?!" I sracastically joked. Good thing I still had my black humor, it seemed like I would need it. Damn, any other time I would've been happy about meeting these guys, but all this here was way too weird and frightening.
I listened to the conversation coming from the room for a while. It seemed that besides AJ and Brian, Kevin Richardson was there also. Kevin - also known as yet another Backstreet Boy. There were five guys in the band. The other two, who didn't seem to be there right now, were Nick Carter, Brian's best friend, and Howie Dorough.
"Alright. What do I do?" I wondered. Should I just walk in there? And then what? What if they could see me? What if they couldn't?
I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I walked the few steps to the door and, with a last deep breath, popped my head inside. The guys sat around a table, having breakfast. They didn't look up at me and showed no sign at all that would tell me they had noticed me there. But therefore two other pair of eyes were staring up at me!
One girl sat Indian style in a corner of the room. She was dressed in black leather pants and boots and a short tight black top revealing her belly. Her blonde hair was braided only on top of her head, the rest of it fell straight to her shoulders. She had dark make-up on and looked like a typical biker girl - and she was very beautiful, with a soft side to her that showed through her surprised, but suspicious expression right now. I thought she was probably around 22-25 years old, but I couldn't be sure.
The other girl was leaning against a wall and had been laughing about Brian's comment about AJ being up so early, when she stopped and stared wide-eyed at me, her mouth hanging slightly open. She was dressed in a short blue dress with matching high-heels on. Her brunette hair was pulled up in a French twist on her head and light blue eye shadow emphasized her also crystal blue eyes. She was probably around my age, I guessed, and she was damn pretty.
I felt kinda nauseous, as I asked: "Can...can you guys see me?"
The brunette girl turned around to the blonde one, laughing again: "Cool! Number five has finally arrived - it was about time!" She turned to me again with a bright smile, while the other girl muttered:
"Damn, I thought we'd get another guy..."
The brunette walked over to me and pulled me into the room: "Hey welcome - you're AJ's angel, right?! Hi, I'm Catherine, the others just call me Cat, and over there is Renae!" She pointed to the blonde girl.
Renae unenthusiastically waved, before returning her attention to the conversation of the three present Backstreet Boys, it seemed.
I threw my hands up and stepped back again: "Wait, wait, wait! What are you talking about? What is this here and why are you the only ones who can see me? What HAPPENED to me?"
"You died", Renae commented dryly, letting her finger wander from the right side of her throat to the other.
Catherine shot her a look, then took my hands in hers: "I'm sorry that I sound a little excited, I know your confused and everything. I'll try to explain to you what happened and why you are here. Sit down!"
Cat began talking to me about things that I couldn't believe, things that were too hard to accept. At one point I stopped listening to her. I could still hear her talking, but the words just didn't make sense. I was startled, when suddenly four other people entered the room.
I recognized two of them immediately: it were the "missing" Backstreet Boys Howie and Nick. They greeted their fellow band members and joined them at breakfast, but my attention was drawn to the red-headed boy and the brunette girl, or rather woman, following them. The two were looking at each other and talking, that's why they didn't see me at once.
"Geez, I wish we could switch places for only a week", the girl/woman said. "You hardly have anything to do 'cause Nick is sleeping all day long! That's not fair. I already had to save Howie from running into a car today!" She sighed.
The red-head answered: "Oh come on - Nick is so clumsy that it makes up for all the time he's sleeping. And don't forget that I have to deal with the most hysterical teenyboppers out of all of us, so...believe me, I have enough to do!"
It was only then that they turned their heads to the others in the room and both went silent upon seeing me there. The brunette then smiled, saying: "Hello, I'm Deandra. You can call me Dee!"
"Isn't it funny that Howie's angel has the same nickname as himself?!" Cat snickered.
"Isn't it funny that Brian's angel is a big nutcase, just like him?!" Dee shot back good-naturedly.
The red-headed boy stepped forward and also smiled at me: "I'm Connor! Hi... I'm Nick's guard."
"He doesn't like to be called angel", Cat laughed. "GUYS!" By then I was so out of it I just wanted to pass out right then and there. I just couldn't handle anymore.
Dee knelt down, so she could look into my eyes: "You're probably pretty confused right now, but...how much of what has happened and still is happening to you have you understood?"
"That I'm dead!" I dryly replied. I turned to Cat and added with a small smile: "Sorry, but I just couldn't follow you earlier!"
"That's ok", Cat smiled warmly, "it's probably the easiest if you learn by doing. We all have. You'll soon know what you have to do, or what you can and cannot do."
"Welcome in the...well...family!" Connor grinned and I smiled my first genuine smile, since a long time ago. A life-time ago.
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