Chapter 15
Brian lie flat on his back thinking about sleep but
not actually doing it. Every time he
tried to he remembered where he was... and the nagging fact that he had to pee,
but was afraid to do it in that bathroom... He shuddered thinking about it. He knew he would have to take care of his
business sooner or later, though. He
wondered if it was morning, or if it had ever been night. In their dungeon there were no windows and
no clocks. Brian groaned and shifted on the clammy blanket he was lying
on. He listened to Nick’s loud
breathing next to him. He nudged him
gently. If he couldn’t sleep, then why
should Nick? He felt Nick rolling over
and also rolled over to face him, “I can’t sleep.”
Nick looked grouchy in the dim light that the Boys had
decided to keep on at all times.
Without the light the basement would be pitch black, and they were
afraid of what they might accidentally step on or touch on a journey back to
the light switch to turn the light back on. Beautiful dark blue bags ringed his
eyes, Brian snickered thinking he looked like a raccoon. “So?”
“I’m bored...”
Nick stared at Brian incredulously, “Brian, I was
actually sleeping. I was having the best dream...”
“What about?”
“I was getting a penicillin shot, and surrounded by Benadryl,
and all that wonderful histamine blocker stuff that tastes like tar that I took
for granted,” Nick was moaning, “To breathe out of both nostrils, is that too
much to ask?”
Brian snickered, as Nick sneezed, “What I wouldn’t do
for some Dimetapp...”
“Poor Frack... Hey, you hungry?” Brian sat up, and
gave Nick a hand up.
Nick sniffled, then shrugged, “Why not, sure I’ll
eat. Lets see our choices again, shall
we?”
Brian and Nick stepped over the others and walked
towards the pantry cabinets. “Cheerios,
Cheerios, Cheerios, peanut butter... How about Cheerios, Brian?”
“Cheerios it is,” Brian said taking the box from Nick
and heading towards the stairs. They
sat together on the bottom stairs eating out of the cereal box, “This sucks.”
“Yeah, you would think they would at least have Count Chocula,” Nick muttered, “Hell even
Fruit loops, I’d eat those.”
“Yeah, and milk!” Brian said, “I hate dry cereal.”
“Mmmnn.. Milk.
Hey, these have no taste!” Nick lifted the box to read the label.
“Nick, good buddy, when’s the last time you were able
to taste something?”
Nick looked blank, “Geez, that was back when I still
had a sense of smell... I can’t even remember back that far!” Nick snorted,
“Guess I can’t complain then.” He popped another cheerio into his mouth.
“Dumb ass.”
“That’s my word,” Nick pouted.
“Well I stole it,” Brian informed him, he sighed, “I
think we have a show tonight...”
“Yeah, then afterwards we were supposed to play the
Dreamcast...” Nick looked wistful, “If only they had a Nintendo.. Some kind of
game system down here, I’d be fine.”
“Nick, there’s not even a TV, what would we hook the
Nintendo to?”
“I don’t know!
They should have thought of that!
Give us a Nintendo and no TV, how stupid!” Nick popped another ‘o.’
“Yeah they wouldn’t be winning any Nobel peace prizes
I can assure you of that,” Brian said snatching the box from Nick and grabbing
a handful of Cheerios.
“What are you guys doing?” a sleep rumpled AJ came to
stand in front of them on the staircase.
“We were...” Nick began, but caught Brian’s slightly
sinister look, and let his sentence trail off.
“We’re having a contest,” Brian said simply. He grabbed another handful of Cheerios.
“A contest? Doing what?” AJ scratched his head. His common sense told him that Frick and
Frack were up to no good, but his curiosity got the better of him.
Brian looked to be concentrating on something else,
then he looked back to AJ, “We’ve been throwing Cheerios at Howie to see how
many we could get in his mouth.” Brian
hinted towards Howie’s snoring profile.
“I sunk three already,” Nick said with a giggle, “He
just chewed them up and kept snoring.
Poor Brian here, hasn’t sunk any.
He claims that he will beat me though..”
Brian frowned, “It’s harder than it looks.”
“It is not!” Nick said, “You just suck. I bet AJ could make it.”
“He could not.”
“Could so.”
“Could not!”
“Hey!” AJ jumped in the middle of their squabble,
“Stop it, you’ll wake someone up... Give me some of those. I’ll show you who can’t make a basket.”
Brian loaded AJ with ammo, and suppressed a grin.
Nick was biting his lip on a laugh.
AJ glanced back at Nick and Brian one more time
before he made his shot. Something in
his mind said WARNING, WARNING, DANGER, DANGER. AJ’s hand didn’t receive the signals however it let the cheerio
fly. It struck Howie clear in the
nose. Howie snorted and woke
instantly. He sat up and watched as the
cheerio fell into his lap. He looked around in a rage and spotted AJ. AJ looked to his support system to find that
the weasels had slipped away and were now huddling by the bathroom door
pointing and miming AJ throwing the cheerio and laughing quietly to
themselves. I’ll kill them.... AJ
thought as a very angry Howie advanced on him, “AJ.... why did you throw this
at my head?”
“Because... because... Ah man, Brian and Nick made
me,” AJ pointed to Nick and Brian, who were casually leafing through the pantry
at that time looking like they had done no evil.
Howie’s eyes narrowed and he charged at AJ. AJ for once did listen to his common sense
that time, he ducked and ran. Howie put
up a good chase. They ended up running
over Kevin. Kevin awoke with a yelp of
pain. He watched wide eyed as AJ and
Howie ran around like maniacs. Nick and
Brian were laughing their fool heads off and hi-fiving each other. The scene
was pure madness, and got madder as the door on the top of the stairs flew
open. Howie had finally caught and
tackled AJ. Nick and Brian were rolling
on the carpet, and Kevin was yelling for them all to stop, when three ninjas
began to troop down the stairs. The
Boys froze in their tracks.
“Well, well, it looks like we are letting you guys
get a little too comfortable down here,” the first ninja said petting his gun.
The Boys were silent.
“We’ve called your parents,” the second ninja said,
it was a female.
“They aren’t cooperating. They say they don’t have
the money and they want a few extra days to retrieve the cash...” the third
ninja said, “That’s a few days extra you get to spend with us...”
Nick groaned loudly, and a gun was pointed in his
face. His eyes flew open wide and he
sat back looking dazed.
“If those extra days run out and we haven’t received
any money...” the first ninja began again, “well lets just say, you won’t be
very happy campers. You see, we didn’t plan to keep you for very long.”
“What’s wrong with Blondie here,” the third ninja
demanded removing his gun from Nick’s face and moving towards him. Nick’s breathing was making a whistling
sound, and he had leaned his head into his lap.
Kevin quickly jumped to Nick’s defense, “He’s... he’s
got real bad allergies. He’s been
taking a lot of medication... He hasn’t had any medication for a while... he
uses a rescue inhaler sometimes! You
have to let him go...”
“Ah-ah... Where did this come from? Let him go? Do I
look rich yet to you?” the first ninja laughed.
“He’s sick, and you can’t...”
“We can’t?” the first ninja was using a mocking tone,
he laughed again and the third ninja joined him. Only the female ninja didn’t join in on the laugh, “We can do
whatever we please. I mean, who is
holding the guns here? We just thought
we’d inform you on your living situation for the next few days. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay here,
as much as I can see you already are now.”
The ninjas trooped up the stairs one after the other closing and locking
the door behind them.
“Jack asses,” Howie hissed, “Enjoy our stay my
foot...You ok Nick?”
Nick raised his head and gave them the “ok” gesture
with his fingers. He put his head between his knees. “Do we need to run the steam again?”
“NO!” Both Nick and AJ yelled.
“There is no way in hell I’m going back in that
bathroom,” AJ was grumbling,” and I gotta pee like hell.”
Brian, Howie, Kevin and Nick all nodded their heads
in agreement with AJ.
“What a fine bunch we are...”AJ laughed, “Hey lets
see if we can find some jars or something to use.”
“Yeah,” Kevin stayed with Nick, while Howie, Brian,
and AJ went through the cabinets looking for jars.