The next morning, Nick was woken by the ringing telephone.
"Hello?" he asked, still half asleep.
"Hey, it's me," said Brian.
"Why are you calling me? It's early."
"Frack, it's after eleven. And I have really bad news."
"What?"
"Lance is dead."
Nick was so shocked he almost dropped the phone.
"What?" he asked.
"He's dead. It happened last night. And that's not the worst thing."
"What could be worse?"
"Someone killed him."
"How?"
"How they did it, I don't know. But the doctors are saying that it looks like something...ate his heart."
"Why are they saying that?"
"Whatever it was chewed a hole into his arm and crawled up and ate his heart."
Nick could feel his late night snack coming up his throat but he swallowed it back down.
"Brian, there's an X-Files like that."
"Nick, I'm being serious about this."
"So am I. On the show, beetles crawled up this guy's arm."
The two of them fell silent.
"Do you want me to call anyone else?"
"Um sure. Kev, Justin and Chris."
"Okay. When's the funeral?"
"In two days."
"Kay. Bye."
"Bye."
Nick hung up the phone, picked it back up and punched in Kevin's number.
Chapter 5
Table of Contents
Home
