“Did you really think you’d get away from me?” Becca sneered, leaning over towards Ang’s face. She had Ang tied to a chair in the kitchen. Ang had been quick getting out of that bedroom, but Becca had been quicker. She had caught up to Ang at the bottom of the stairs and dragged her into the kitchen, basically throwing her into a chair. She tore the cell phone out of her hand and threw it across the room, hearing it smash in pieces as it hit the floor. “What are you gonna do now, Ang?”
Ang whimpered in response. “You’re fucking crazy, Becca.” Where the hell was Brian?
Becca’s face turned an uncharacteristic shade of red and for just a second, Ang thought she had pushed her too far. But then there was a sound coming from the front. The sound of a car coming in the driveway. Becca quickly ran to the window in the living room and looked outside, recognizing AJ’s Mercedes in the driveway. “Shit,” she hissed, walking back into the kitchen. “Looks like we have company.” She bent down behind Ang and quickly untied her hands. “Get up,” she ordered. Ang stood up and Becca stepped behind her, the knife poking into Ang’s back. “Answer the door and get him to go away, Ang. If you try anything funny, you’re done.” She pushed Ang forward a little. “Let’s go.”
Ang heard the knock on the door and sucked in her breath, hoping whoever it was would realize that she was in trouble. She reached the door, Becca following close behind with the tip of the sharp knife still lightly grazing her back. Becca stood just out of sight, while Ang opened the door, sighing almost in relief when she saw that it was AJ. “Hey AJ.”
AJ looked at her curiously. Everything seemed to be okay over here. Just dark because the power was out. “What’s up, Ang? Can I come in?”
Ang paused, wanting somehow to try and signal to him that she wasn’t alone. And that she was in trouble. “Um…actually…I don’t think that’s a good idea. Brian’s going to be back soon and we really just wanted to be alone.”
“Uh…okay…” AJ replied, backing away from the door. She seemed fine. He shrugged and turned around back towards his car. “Tell Brian I stopped by.”
“I will.” Ang’s voice cracked. Nothing worked. AJ was her only hope and she couldn’t communicate the fact that she was in trouble. Desparate trouble.
“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Becca chided. She was nervous that AJ was going to ruin her entire plan. As much as she would have liked to include AJ in on all of this, AJ was too smart for her. She knew AJ was almost as responsible for all of this as Ang was but she was just going to have to settle for AJ living with the fact that he helped to cause this. “Let’s go.” She roughly dragged Ang back to the kitchen and back to the chair. “Brian should be back soon, shouldn’t he? I don’t want to still be here when he walks through that door.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Did you have a good time tonight?” Howie asked, following Christine into his living room.
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m really happy for them.”
Howie curled up on the couch and pulled Christine down next to them. “Maybe we could have that some day.”
Christine looked at him and smiled, taking her index finger and tracing the outline of his jaw. “I thought we already had that.”
“Well we did,” Howie stuttered. “We do…but I meant, maybe we’ll have that ‘just engaged’ joy again. Hopefully at least.”
“I hope so too,” she replied, quietly, leaning in to kiss him. “I love you, Howie. I’ve always loved you. And one day, I hope we can spend the rest of our lives together.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Hello?” Katelin mumbled into the phone. What the hell time was it?
“Hey…” she heard the quiet reply.
She sighed into the phone. “What do you want, Nick? I’ve said all I have to say.”
“Well I haven’t, Kate,” he pleaded. “Please. Just let me explain to you. Let me explain what’s been going through my head the last six months.”
She could hear the despair in his voice and her heart broke. But she couldn’t keep doing this with him. This running around in circles. She had to get over him. Had to get over everything. And the only way to do this was to shut him out of her life. As much as she could with Aidan in the picture. “I can’t do this anymore, Nick. I really just think it would be best if we didn’t see each other anymore.”
“What?” he asked, feeling as if someone had just sucker-punched him. “You can’t be serious, Kate.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately to keep the threatening tears at bay. “I am serious. Honestly, I just can’t see you anymore. So, just go back to Lanie. Get a new girlfriend or whatever. I don’t care anymore. I’m done.”
“What about Aidan?” Nick questioned, his heart shattering into a billion little pieces. “You can’t just pretend like he doesn’t exist because of me, Kate.”
“I’m not going to,” She replied. “But for right now, I think all communication is going to have to be through Adrienne. I honestly don’t want anything to do with you.” She waited for him to respond. To yell, scream, or whatever. But there was nothing. Nothing but the click of the phone as Nick hung up on her.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Howie? It’s Eric. I need your help.”
“Sure,” Howie replied into the telephone. “What’s up?”
“It’s Jay,” Eric replied. “I think he’s in real trouble. So’s Ang.”
“What’s going on, Eric?” Howie asked, worry beginning to creep into his head.
Eric quickly gave Howie the abridged version of the story followed by directions on what Howie needed to do. “Jesus Eric,” Howie breathed when Eric was done. “I can’t believe I had no idea about all of this. Where the hell is Brian, anyway?”
“We can’t get in touch with him,” Eric replied. “His cell is dead and Kevin’s phone lines are down. Hopefully, Brian’s on his way back to his house.”
“I’m on my way, Eric,” Howie replied, grabbing his keys. “I’ll meet you there.” He hung up his cordless phone and tossed it on the counter.
“Where are you going?” Christine asked, seeing Howie grabbing his jacket.
“AJ and Ang are in trouble,” Howie told her. “I need to get over there.”
“Well then I’m going with you.” Christine grabbed her coat and put her foot down when Howie tried to stop her. “No way, Howie. These are my friends too. If they’re in trouble then I want to help.”
Howie sighed, not having the time to argue with her. “Fine. I’ll fill you in on the way.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Becca please!” Ang cried, another pain-searing cut into her right arm. “Just stop! I’ll do anything!”
“Anything?!” Becca exclaimed, her eyes almost maniacal. “What the hell can you do, Ang? Can you bring my brother back from the dead? Huh? Can you? Because anything short of that just isn’t going to be enough.”
Ang wished that it would all just be over. That Becca would do and whatever she came to do and put Ang out of her misery. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for Becca to end it when a crash came through the glass door in the kitchen. Ang’s eyes flew open as Becca spun around in surprise to see AJ barging through the door that a huge rock had just come crashing through. “Oh thank God,” Ang breathed.
But then, she watched in horror as Becca lunged towards AJ. There was a struggle and Ang could do nothing to help AJ because she was still tied to the chair. She could barely see anything. The only light in the room being the candle that was lit on the kitchen counter. She tried desperately to get her hands undone but it was to no avail. All of the sudden, there was a scream in the air and then…nothing.