Nick hastened his steps as he walked out to the parking lot. He had felt it- another presence or rather, more than one presence. He didn't know what to make of the feeling, but he knew enough to sense that something was terribly wrong. Someone or some group was following him. He could feel it. And he saw them through little sideways glances that he had sneaked at them while he was at the mall.

They scared him. Not that they looked more menacing than the average person. On the contrary, they looked like him- blond hair, blue eyes, tall and well-tanned. What scared him was the fact that he could not read their thoughts, as if they could consciously shield them from him.

He had never felt so powerless before. Or maybe he was just paranoid. Nick ran through the days events through his mind. When he drove to the mall that afternoon, he looked behind him and a blond guy was in a red ferrari tail-gating him. And while he was shopping for ties for the Boys, he bumped into another guy, just as blond and just as tall as he was. And later on, while he was having a little late afternoon snack, another blond, tall stranger accidentally spilled Coke on his shirt. And even more creepy was when he walked out to the parking lot and nearly got run down by yet another blond, blue-eyed guy not much older than him.

That was four undeniably creepy encounters. All four men were different, yet looked rather similar. And in all four cases, he could not read their thoughts. Nick grasped his steering wheel harder and headed towards the only place he could seek comfort- Brian's house. He knew Kevin was there as well. He needed them right now. The blood that was coursing through his veins were ice cold.

Brian barely opened the door when Nick bursted into the scene, his face pale.

"What's going on, Frack? You scared me to death, barging in on me like that. Geez, did you want to give me a heart attack?" Brian cried out in exasperation.

"Sorry Brian," Nick grinned sheepishly. "It's just that, someone's . . . I think someone's following me." Nick said as he looked out the window for the red ferrari. He could have sworn he saw the same four guys following him all the way to Brian's place.

"Oh, so some erotomaniac is gonna kidnap you, huh?" Brian's lips pursed into a smile. "You got some ego. Ya know Nick, not all people are crazy."

Even though Nick couldn't see anybody outside Brian's house, his heart rate was still running wild. "I'm serious, Rok. Someone's out there." Nick's voice quavered.

Brian looked at him, concerned. "Nick, you look really pale. Maybe that's what's going on. Did you have anything to eat? Are you sick? Did you catch the flu from someone? Your face his wet. Here," Brian said as he got a paper towel and tried to dry the sweat off of Nick's face.

Nick looked at him with compassion. "Naw, I'm okay. I guess I've just been a little paranoid lately. I'll get over it." Nick managed a weak smile. "I am hungry, though. You've got anything?"

Brian smiled. "Sure, Fracky! Kev's making some good ole mashed potatoes in there. I say we help him."

Nick smiled weakly again as he followed Brian into the kitchen.

"He knows we're following him," Brent commented as the four blond men sat in a circle near a secluded park.

"Just like you to state the obvious!" Clay remarked at the blondest and seemingly most simplistic of the four brothers who were crowded around a little camp fire they set in the park behind Nick's huge mansion. All four brothers were intense, but each had their own ideas about how to best approach their problem.

But it was Brent who was the compassionate one, who paid more attention to Nick's thoughts, who voiced Nick's concern to the others. Brent was slightly exasperated by Clay's remark. He was only trying to help Nick out. Was Nick not their brother? Why did Clay and the others treat him like a doll? Brent thought, frustrated.

Andrew, the second oldest, was the one with the logic. He, unlike the rest, was the decision maker, the one whose mind was constantly working to resolve the problem. "Hey, let's keep this civil guys." Andrew didn't want to have a problem on his hands, not when they haven't completed what they set out to do.

"So how do you want to approach this?" Dredge, the youngest of the four asked, moving the conversation along. Of the four, he was the one with the clever ideas. But they also know him as the one with the most mischief and the least regard for others. Brent was almost afraid, had Nick not been their brother, that Dredge would hurt Nick in the whole process.

"What is he so afraid of, I wonder," Clay asked wondrously. "I mean, we don't look that scary, do we?"

"No, really. What's there to be afraid of when four strange guys who look like they could be the spitting image of you accidentally bump into you all day long. Geez, that's nothing alarming," Brent responded sarcastically.

"Hey, hey, hey," Andrew broke in. "Let's stop this. Come on, we need a plan."

"I say we just kidnap him, tie him in a bag and bring him home. I mean, that would be the most efficient approach. I'm sure he wouldn't mind once he finds out that we're siblings." Dredge offered.

"You gotta be careful though. When we bring him back to the Queen, he has to at least be strong enough to fend for himself. We still don't know why she wants him back in our world. All we know is that he was lost 13 years ago and placed on Earth. Even our own parents never told us what had happened," Andrew reasoned.

"Yeah," Dredge agreed. "He doesn't look like the evil type. I mean, look at him. He's so young and innocent."

"He's young, but he's not innocent, Dredge," Andrew warned. "Something had to have happened 13 years ago. Nothing comes without consequences. I think that there's more to him than meets the eye. If he hadn't done something 13 years ago, why would he be banished?"

"How do you know he was banished?" Clay chided. "As far as we're concerned, the Queen wants him to be brought back in silence."

"You know, at this time, I wish our parents are still alive. Then we would know the whole story and wouldn't spend half the time second-guessing the whole issue," Brent said with exasperation.

"But they're dead so we have to deal with it. Somehow, Nick was probably related to their deaths. He disappeared soon after they died. How do we explain that?" Andrew reasoned.

All four guys stare at each other, not knowing how the conversation steered away so quickly from their main goal. Finally, Brent spoke, breaking the silence. "I sometimes question the Queen's motives. She had sent us to Earth to search for our little brother, yet she refused to provide us with a legitimate reason in doing so."

"So? Maybe she wants to reunite our family," Clay countered.

"Yeah, but he's not really family if we haven't lived together under one roof these past few years, right? I mean, I hardly know him. And I doubt that I will be as close to him as his Backstreet buddies are to him," Dredge said without compassion. "He may look like one of us, but he's not."

"Come on, Dredge," Brent said with a little frustration. "If we find out that he's not really like us, then we'll just not take him into our family circle. I mean, there are tons of ways to deal with that issue. Of course, he'll never be as close to us as we are close to each other. But we don't have to alienate him. Just be nice and treat him like you would treat a friend."

"So," Andrew pulled the conversation back to their main goal. "What are we going to do?"

Dredge smiled wickedly. "We can make it a little exciting for our little Backstreet brother. I mean, play with his mind a little, or rather, play with his Backstreet buddies' minds as well."

"What do you mean?" Brent's eyes lit up in fear. "I mean, what the hell are you thinking?"

Dredge's smile became wider. "Well, he needs a reason for him to disappear all of a sudden. We can create a reason. I mean, we can't just take him away from his so-called Backstreet buddies like that. They'll have the police searching for him. And we don't want to wreak havoc on Earth now, do we?"

Clay's eyes lit up as well, but in delight. "Are you saying we should try to separate him from his Backstreet buddies?"

"That's a good idea, guys," Andrew nodded in agreement. "That way, there would be no other place for him to go except with us back home. We don't have to drug him or anything. We can take him back willingly to our world. If there's nothing else for him to live for on Earth, then we will easily bring him back to our world."

"And," Dredge continued the line of reasoning, "he would have to cling to us. Without us, he would be nothing. It wouldn't be hard to keep the apple near the tree after that. In fact, he would probably be clinging to us like a leech. We won't even be able to peel him off!" Dredge laughed in delight.

Brent perhaps, was the only one who found the plan flawed. "But you do that and he would be devastated. Would you like to depend on complete strangers for love or compassion? I mean come on guys. He needs love. Can't you read his mind? He's afraid of losing his Backstreet friends. If you guys do this, I'm afraid that you're gonna kill whatever's left inside him." Brent frowned upon their idea.

"Naw," Clay looked at Brent. He was the oldest, but he definitely was not as mature as his age suggested. "Look, we're his siblings. How can his Backstreet friends be more caring than us. I mean, we can provide him a lot more than Backstreet can do for him. Chill it, Brent."

Brent sighed. Things were not looking good. This was the dumbest thing he ever thought his brothers would do. The image of Nick warily looking out of Brian's house was forming in Brent's mind. Brent could see the fear and caution in Nick's eyes. 'My little brother,' Brent thought, disturbed. 'What are we going to do with you?' Nick was scared, and rightfully so. They gave him every reason to be. Brent only hoped that whatever they did would not sever Nick from the rest of Earth permanently. Because if Nick could not turn back to his Backstreet friends, Brent doubted that Nick would be able to survive their world.

Perhaps only he could foresee Nick's future. There was no way that Nick could handle Andrew, Clay and Dredge. And Brent knew that the other three would use Nick's helplessness to take advantage of him. Brent desperately wished that they knew what was going on. The Queen may look calm and nice, but he was beginning to doubt her motives. He was starting to be afraid for their youngest Earthling brother. He had to find out about the past. He had to know, for his family's sake, for Nick's sake. What was all the fuss with bringing Nick back to their world about?

Why after 13 years did the Queen want Nick back? And why did the Queen want to keep this a secret from the King? Was Nick that significant? And also, what will happen to Nick and his Backstreet friends? Brent was almost afraid to find out. It will be ugly, both on Earth and on Infierno, their homeland.

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