Chapter 17
“Oh God! Oh God!!!” AJ came bolting from the bathroom
screaming slamming the door behind him.
His pants were draped around his ankles and his hands were shaking. Toilet paper peeked from his underwear.
Brian snickered, as Kevin and Howie looked up at AJ
in surprise, “What is it Aje?” Kevin
sounded worried, and Howie’s eyes looked like they were about to bug out of his
head. If AJ hadn’t looked so damn
ridiculous, Brian may have been worried too... but man!
“Snake! Snake! There’s a snake in the bathroom! It’s
in the toilet!” AJ was pulling up his pants, “Damn it, I knew I should have
used a cup! I am never going in there again!”
Kevin was staring at AJ in disbelief, “A snake, AJ?”
“Yeah, a snake!” AJ shouted back zipping his pants.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just something that resembled
a snake AJ?” Howie asked raising an eyebrow.
“No, that is a snake in there... It hissed!!” AJ
said, then he shuddered, “and I felt its tongue on my butt...”
Tears fell from Brian’s eyes, where was Nick? He needed to be hearing this. Brian looked over to the side of the
basement where the Boys had formed their pallets. Nick was curled on his side.
Kevin was biting his lips on a laugh, “Ok, AJ, I’m
gonna go look.” As he stood his giggles
could be heard. AJ glared at the three
of them, “From this point forward the only person I will speak to in this room
is Nick.”
“AJ, he would be rolling too,” Brian said.
AJ groaned, and slumped down beside Brian on the
couch, but then he perked up, as they all did at Kevin’s screams. Kevin rushed out of the bathroom and slammed
the door, “There’s a snake in there!”
“Duh!” AJ yelled.
“Oh man!” Howie slapped the table, “These guys want 6
million dollars. They could have at
least given us better containment accommodations than this. I mean give us a
decent bathroom...”
“Milk,” Brian added.
“Milk....” Howie froze as he realized what Brian had
added, and rolled his eyes, “Cleanliness.”
“Cable.”
“Would you guys stop it!” Howie said, but couldn’t
help but smile himself. He looked down at his hands then at his friends, “You
guys are too much sometimes.”
Brian and AJ grinned, “We try.”
“Is Howie smiling?” came Nick’s groggy voice from
across the room.
“Yeah, now go back to sleep!” AJ snapped, he laughed
as Nick gave him the finger.
“You feel a little better Nicky?” Kevin was crossing
the room to Nick. Nick was rubbing his
eyes and yawning.
“Kevy- Kev, I won’t feel better ‘til I get some
drugs!” Nick groaned stretching. “Now what’s this I hear about a snake?”
“Drop the subject ok,” AJ muttered grouchily, “Where
are we gonna take a dump at now? Cause I sure as hell ain’t going back in
there!”
“I’ve missed something,” Nick groaned scratching his
head. His eyes widened in surprise,
“What the... Damn!” He flung something
across the room. The others stared at him curiously and he smiled beautifully,
“Spider.”
Brian laughed, “Punk.”
“So what about the snake?!” Nick pressed standing up
and making his way over to the couch.
“It’s in the bathroom,” Howie said.
“Yeah, it licked AJ’s butt,” Brian snickered, Nick
joined him.
“Well AJ, looks like you won’t be talking to Nick
either,” Howie shrugged lightly.
“That is seriously disgusting,” Nick said resting his
head in his hands, “What kind of snake?”
“A mocassin,” Kevin said flatly, he was stuffing
paper under the door in an attempt to keep whatever was in there, in there.
Nick snickered again and sighed, “So I guess we’ll have to use the empty cereal
box bags, huh?”
“Ew!” Brian yelled.
There was a brief silence that was broken by Nick’s
sudden sneezing fit.
“Bless you,” Brian said with a laugh after his 20th
sneeze. Nick snorted and moaned, “God,
I don’t feel so good.”
Howie rubbed his back, “It’ll be ok Nick. Just hang
in there.”
“For how long?” Nick whined rubbing his temples, “I
wanna die. I want to just go upstairs and tell them to shoot me already!”
“Nick stop it! It’s not funny,” Kevin scolded him.
“It wasn’t meant to be funny... I mean it!” Nick said
grouchily. His voice was muffled by his hands that his face was still in. His shoulders shook as he coughed and
groaned, “I wanna go home.”
“I second that one kid,” AJ said gently patting
Nick’s shoulder. He was going to add
something else when they heard the footsteps toward the door. All five heads looked up to see the door
opening slowly. Three armed ninjas
slipped in. They slowly made their way down the staircase. “You’ll be happy to
know that a negotiation has been made, and your parents are getting the money together. If all goes well it should only be
a matter of days.”
“Hallelujah,” Nick muttered. A gun turned toward him, “You know what
Blondie? I don’t like your smart mouth.
And do you know what I do with things I don’t like?”
Nick raised his head to reveal dull blue eyes, “I
believe it’s called Anger Management 101.” Brian clamped his hand over Nick’s
mouth to prevent him from saying anymore.
The trigger happy ninja’s fingers tightened around
the gun, “No Kenyon... we get more money for Carter.”
“I won’t kill him, I’ll just teach him a lesson,” the
ninja called Kenyon hissed.
Brian tightened his hold on Nick and willed him to
stay silent. Nick seemed pretty passive at this point in time. Brian felt Nick’s head drooping on his
shoulder.
“No Kenyon,” the female spoke up, “Leave him alone.
Is he ok?” she addressed the question to the Boys, nodding to Nick.
It was time to speak up, “No he’s not. He has to get
out of here,” Brian said running a hand through Nick’s hair.
“Ariella!” the other ninja guy hissed, “No
involvement!”
“No involvement, if one of these guys are hurt or
sick, then the fingers will be pointed at us!” Ariella fumed.
“So... According to these guys Carter’s been having
these problems before, they can’t hold us accountable...”
“He can’t breathe sometimes,” Kevin butted in, “He
has an inhaler, if he...”
“Shut up!” Kenyon barked.
“Ignore them Ariella, we’ll have our money and them
back to their superficial lives before the week is up. Nothing will happen
until then!” the other ninja said flatly.
“But...” she was silenced by a glare. Her head dropped to her chest and she
nodded. Slowly Ariella, Kenyon, and the
unknown ninja were trudging back up the stairs, Ariella peeking back ever so
often. The door closed and locked.
“That was odd,” AJ commented, “One of the ninjas
actually seemed human.”
Howie nodded in agreement, “I hope there’s more of
them like her. Then we may actually have some hope.”
“Screw hope, how about cable?”
“Nick?”
“Yeah?”
“Go back to sleep.”