Larger Than Life (Backstreet's Back sequel)

Chapter 14

"Uh... hey guys," Howie said cautiously.

"Where the hell have you been?" Nick asked bluntly. He gave Howie the evil eye, then turned back to the mirror he was holding, and continued to study his reflection.

Howie blinked, Nick wasn't usually so rude, nor had such an extreme case of narcism, "Um..." Howie wasn't so sure about what to say exactly. He didn't have a script and didn't know how the scene was supposed to go.

"You let Chiros get you too?" Brian moved closer to Howie with a dead serious look on his face, "I would have thought you would run away Howie."

Howie took a step back with his mouth scraping the carpet. Chiros? They had asked about... Could it be? Could Chiros have cheated and taken everyone, and they had lost? Howie patted his costume. He, like the others, was dressed to perform "Larger Than Life."

"What's going on?" Howie wondered out loud.

"We lost Howie," Kevin said simply, "We belong to Chiros now, he's our master."

"But... but... The game," Howie was stuttering.

"What game Howie?" AJ growled at him, "You idiots were too stupid to realize that there was never any game! I knew it all along."

"One minute til' show time!" a gruff voice called.

"No more time for talk," Brian said, "we have to be on stage. And no more time for primping 'Shaving Fun Ken!'" Brian seized Nick's arm making him drop the mirror he was holding. Nick cursed loudly and shoved Brian into the wooden table, "If I'm 'Shaving Fun Ken', then you're 'Do Me' Barbie!"

"Knock it off!" Kevin roared. Howie reared back. Clearly the situation had made everyone unusually hostile, "Everybody get ready to go on stage, and nobody better screw up! Howie, just because you're late doesn't mean you don't have to do anything! Come on!"

Howie stood in a daze as he watched his fellow Backstreet Boys getting their surfboards strapped to their feet. "Well come on Howie, we do have a show to put on!"

Howie blinked, should he go? The familiarity was somewhat comforting to him. Getting prepared to go on stage was normal, fighting demons wasn't. Howie joined the others.

He heard a loud blare of music before he felt himself being jolted from the ground. Everything around him was pitch black. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear the distant roaring of an adolescent audience. Suddenly there was light before his eyes, red light. Howie gasped as he dangled above a pit of flames. He saw his fellow Backstreet Boys being lowered inside. He could hear their screams of pain and torment, "Come on Howie! Everybody's waiting!"

Howie felt himself being lowered slowly into the heat. He quickly began to whip his head around to find a way out of this situation. It was impossible, Howie couldn't fly, and that was the only way he was going to get out of this mess! He saw the metal ledge that held the wires that were suspending him from above. Think, Howie, think. Howie began to free his feet from their restraints on the surfboard. He sweated and watched anxiously as he inched closer and closer to touching the tongues of the flames. His feet finally came undone. He grabbed tightly onto the cords that were holding him in the air, the board tumbled into the fire. Howie gulped as the flames consumed what could have been him, and still might be if he didn't move quickly. He began to swing furiously, back and forth making a pendulum with his body. Higher, higher, he urged as he swung making himself dizzy. He saw the swirling faces of the audience that screamed and cheered like this was the best show they had ever seen. Like they had not just scene the Backstreet Boys engulfed by flames. Or maybe, they were N'Sync fans... Howie thought this with amusement as he finally swung high enough to reach out and touch the cool metal of the ledge. It was strange for the metal to be cool when it was so hot below, but that wasn't Howie's main concern at the moment. He'd think about physics later.