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Chapter 18
The ticking was louder, more pronounced. It echoed, it was close. Lights flashed like lightning and designs like wallpaper danced in the background.
Cameron sat straight up in the bed.
"Cameron? What is it?" Brian asked groggily as he sat up at a slower rate.
Cameron was already throwing the covers away and rushing to her bag. "I know what the ticking is." She threw on a shirt and pulled on a pair of underwear and a some flannel bottoms. "It's not Nick's life, it's a time bomb."
"What?" Brian was out and dressing quickly himself. "Where?"
"In his house. I don't know where, but it's there. We have to hurry." She ran into the bathroom, her hand going into the bloodied water and pulling the cork drain before grabbing the bullet and two pieces of clothing. She ran out, Brian already in the car, after tossing her bag into the car she ran to the office, tossing the clothes and the bullet into the trash on her way. "Hi, uh, I want to check out."
"Already? It's only 3 AM."
"I got a long drive." She said. She'd paid in advance so she just resigned the paper and handed over the key, running out the door before the older man could say bye.
She jumped into the car. "Floor it."
Nick
I thought I'd heard a noise, but it could have been his dogs and Bruno. They hadn't gotten along at all. Fortunately Bruno was a very patient an understanding old man or things could have gotten bad.
I looked at the clock. 4:50 AM. I couldn't sleep. I think I was actually worried about Cameron. There was no point in that though. She'd pull through and then be picking fights with Kevin again in no time.
I turned over and tried to sleep anyway.
Cameron
I was practically out of the car before we ever pulled into Nick drive way at 5:27. I ran inside, yelling for Brian to stay in the car. I ran up to the door, trying that knob, it was lock. Duh.
I started banging on windows as I ran around. I had to get Nick's attention. Who knew how long it would be before it went off, especially now that I had ticked him off and that I figured it out.
"Nick!"
I heard a bark.
"Bruno! Bruno, get Nick. Hurry boy." I ran to the back yard, a privacy fence. 'Thanks, Nick, make things more difficult'. I put each of my hands on the top and pushed my self up. I groaned when I felt a stitch pull and snap. "Brian's gonan kill me." I jumped all the way over and nearly landed on my butt. My bare feet stung up to my ankles from the impact. "I need a break from all this."
I ran to the back door, watching not to fall into the in ground pool that was dangerously close to the fence and the house.
I heard Bruno barking before I heard Nick yelling over him and his little yappy things. "Bruno, what's your problem man? I'm coming can't you see?"
"Nick!" I said as he opened the door.
"Cameron!" He looked at my arm. "What are you doing here? How'd you get in? " He leaned out and looked around. "You climbed the fence?"
"We don't have time. Yell at me about invasion of privacy later." I pushed him into the house. "At least your wearing boxers."
"Yeah you're lucky." He tried to joke, but I was still pushing him. "Where are we going?"
"You're leaving. I'm trying to save you're butt. Move it Carter!" I stopped pushing him as I opened the front door. "Get in the car and tell Brain to drive you to his house and to stay there. Make him stay." I turned to go back inside. "Oh and Nick."
"Yeah?" He asked. He watched as his four dogs took the chance to run outside. Bruno was out after them, hurding them to the car. Brian got out and grabbed them one by one.
"Give this to Brian." I grabbed his face and kissed him hard on the mouth. "Just in case. And make sure he stays!" I said with a fierce tone. I pushed Nick out and shut the door, turning to look around. How much time did I have?
Nick
"Go." I said when I got in and Brian did. "What's going on man?"
"There's a bomb in your house. Where am I going?"
"Your house." I scratched my chin. "I'm, uh, supposed to give you a kiss from Cameron, but telling you counts don't it?"
Brian chuckled through his tension. "She kissed you or told you to kiss me?"
"She kissed me to kiss you. I'm not kissing you man."
"Thank you, I appreciate it." He took a deep breath.
"She'll be OK, she survived a one-on-one with that guy, she can take a bomb."
"I know, but I'm still worried."
Cameron
OK, so it wasn't in the living room or the kitchen or the dining room. His house was too big! I ran upstairs, on a hunch it might be in his room.
There was a faint ticking sound. "Thank you!" I listened intently as she walked along the wall. I had closed my eyes, my ear against the wall, so that I could in hanse my sense of hearing. I bumped right into the bed, but the ticking was a lot louder. Pulling his bed out was hard and I felt another rip. "This bomb better kill me." I muttered, pain radiating throughout me. I listened against the wall again and the ticking was defiantly centered there.
I took a step back and kicked the wall. Then I cursed my self for thinking I was Wonder Woman. I looked around, limping on one foot like a retard and found a baseball bat. It was metal and autographed. 'Sorry Nick, but I think you'd rather have a house than a bat'. I stood at an angel and took a swing. The first couple did nothing because of my lack of strength in my arm. After a while I finally got a whole. Then I reached my hands in the hole and stared pulling plaster apart. Finally, I was looking at the time bomb. It was huge and all put in between two studs.
I had less than three minutes. I looked around. 'Come on Nick, you gotta have a Swiss army knife, every boy had one'. I spied a dinner knife on the stand by the TV. There was a fork and plate as well, but that didn't matter. Grabbing the knife I ran back to the bomb. Less than two minutes. Three cords. Blue, green and yellow.
"Cameron pick one already." I scolded myself. Not blue. Green? Yellow? No, it was green. No it wasn't. Blue! No. I closed my eyes, said my first silent prayer (first any kind of prayer) in my whole life and hoped for the best.
Brian
"I'm going to go back now." I said after Nick, his dogs and Bruno were safely confined in his house. Thankfully Lil' Tyke just thought of all the dogs as something else to sniff.
"Cameron said make sure you stay. She said that like three times, so stay." Nick said.
"I can't just sit around here."
"And what are you going to do there? You don't know anything about bombs."
"I know stuff."
"Like what?"
"Like...I don't know. Shut up Nick."
"Look, I know you want to help, but you'll get in her way. She works alone. I figured you of all people would know that."
"I know, but I don't like it."
"Get over it bud. Now where's your phone, I told Kevin when you got in I'd tell everyone."
Cameron
I had my eyes closed I realized. I opened them and looked around. The timer had stopped. I let out a holler of joy. I was still in one piece.
"Game's over." I closed my eyes, took a deep breath.
"Not quite, my dear, not quite."
Kevin
"So let me get this straight," I asked as I cradled the phone with my ear on my shoulder. "Cameron is human, but she has a green, eight-eyed alien who is her master."
"He doesn't have eight eyes." Nick said. "Or at least not that I know of."
"I'm just trying to get the general picture here."
"OK, keep going."
"So he wants you dead because you're Brian's best friend because?"
"I think it's because Brian was the first to com in contact with Cameron so it just came back to who was closest to Brian. I mean he killed Howie's girlfriend."
"Carrie's ex killed her."
"But he was being controlled by him."
"Does he have a name? I've never heard it used."
"Not that I know of."
"Where's Brian, ask him."
"You know I don't know where he is." I heard the sound of Nick getting up and moving around. "Shoot, he's making a break for it." Nick laughed dispute himself. "The little weasel. I gotta go."
"Call me back."
"OK, bye."
Cameron
"I did everything you said. I figured out who it was, how you were gonna kill him and I even played a little side game. It's over. Cut us loose."
"Why should I?"
"You made a contract with me."
"You said yourself my word was dirt."
"This is binding. It was a contract from your own planet."
He didn't speak. "Your grandmother-"
"My grandmother is not under your contract, you've tried to hold me to that. She's going to die soon, no matter if you kill her or if she dies on her own. I want her to die on her own, but she's not going to be a blackmail tool for you for much longer."
Brian
"How long does it take before a bomb can be stopped?" I asked. Already perturbed that I had been tackled to the ground by my best friend and then locked in the den with him.
"I don't know man, why don't you call up one of the James Bond's and as them." Nick said as he continued on the phone with my cousin.
I rolled my eyes and picked up the remote beside me. Turning on the news I'd hoped to discreet my self.
"This is a special report from Channel Nine News. Hi, I'm Nina Padia and I'm here to report the bombing of the famous Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boy's Orlando Florida home."
In the background I heard the sound of Nick dropping the phone to the floor and then the sound of him walking over to the TV set.
"There appeared to be no forced entry into the house and Nick Carter himself was not at home. The only victim was an unidentified woman."
"Nick, they said was." I said, my heart skipping.
"The woman, who paramedics say had a bullet wound, poorly sewn together and was infected, a cut on the arm and burns that were not of the bomb's origin. Now this woman has disappeared. She is decried as..."
"She's a live." I said rising to my feet.
"How many lives does she have? She's like a cat." Nick said.
"I don't know, but I'm running out." I turned to see Cameron, burns on her shoulders and patches of burns on her face and legs where the paramedics had shredded her clothes, just before she passed out on the floor.
Kevin
"The hunt of this unidentified woman still continues. Paramedics say that if she doesn't get medical help soon, she won't make it much longer." I turned off the television and turned the half circle to look at Cameron. She was covered only in a sheet so that we could take turns in putting cool rags over her burns. She'd probably kill us all when she got better, but we'll worry about that then.
"I've never seen anyone move like that." I turned back to the television to see a young yuppie type man (with his eyes glued on the camera man, his 15 minutes of fame) said with more emphasis than needed. "She seemed to fly out from the house. I mean it was the blast that pushed her, but it didn't look like that and when I got over to her, she was an awful bloody mess."
Looking back at Cameron I shook my head. She groaned. I quirked a smile, maybe in her own way she was telling me to shut up and mind my own business. Yeah right, but if she was awake she'd say that.
"Come on Cameron, you can do this. You're driving Brian out of his mind." I murmured.
I walked over to her and lifted the sheet off her right leg. Grabbing the bowl beside the bed I soaked the rag. I rested it gently on one of her more severe burn wounds.
"I'm a reasonable one, mostly, I think."
I looked up. "Who..." Standing straight up. "You did this to her."
"Of course, she's got a mouth on her, you're one to testify to that, I think."
"Not for your behalf. I should kill you myself." Anger bubbled. "Let Brian and he will."
The man chuckled softly. "Humans, she wonders why I'm entertained by you so much." He took a breath, as if he had laughed so hard. "At any rate, I feel she's been punished enough. About, oh, five more minutes and she'll be dead. I wonder if she has suffered enough."
"What? She's that bad?" I looked at Cameron.
"Oh yeah, she's very insubordinate."
"Those burns can't kill her." I said.
"But internal deterioration can. That bullet was poisoned." He grinned at his own handy work. "Those aren't bombing burns, they're her insides burning out."
I wanted to throw up.
He grinned. "You're not one for hiding your emotions are you?"
"No." I swallowed, trying to keep the bile I felt rising in my throat down. Her insides, burning outside. She must be in such torture.
"I think she's suffered enough." He looked over at her. "Good bye Cameron, it was amusing while it lasted. Maybe I'll get to play again with your offspring. " He disappeared.
I looked at Cameron, she didn't look any different. Then I couldn't look at her anymore. I rato the bathroom and threw up.
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