Meanwhile, Howie, who had hid in Angel's bedroom, reached towards the phone to dial a number.
"Come on. Pick up man," he whispered.
"This better be good," a deep voice said, obviously mad at being woke up.
"Man, Kevin, I hate to wake you up, but you have to get down here. I'm on the eighth floor in room 113. A.J.'s down here and he's really drunk. He's trying to kill Nick and Angel."
"Howie? What are you talking about? Why?" Kevin asked.
"I can't explain right now. Just get down here! Eighth floor, room 113. The door's open, so just come down here and help me," Howie yelled, as screams intensified outside. "Now!"
~
As Nick's eyes rolled back into his head, Leslie felt a blood-chilling scream come out of her throat. Pushing past A.J., who was triumphantly standing over his opponent, she fell to her knees at Nick's side, tears rolling down her cheeks. His face was covered in blood, and a steady stream was coming out of his old cut as well as his bottom lip and a fresh cut across his right cheek. Blood gushed out of the back of his head where he�d been pushed up against the table. She wrapped her arms around him just in case A.J. tried to throw any last minute blows when he was defenseless. As she leaned over him, she felt his warm, light breath hit her cheek and she pulled his body closer to her.
Sickened by these signs of affection, A.J. grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulling her away from Nick's still body, pressing her against his chest in a chokehold.
"Please, do what you want to me, but don't hurt him anymore," she whispered.
"Oh, so you've decided to protect him now? He's already lying unconscious and soaked in his own blood because of you, and now you're trying to protect him? I'm sorry, but that's not how it works around here," he spoke into her ear, causing chills to go down her spine.
He pulled her around to face him, and for the first time, she saw the demonic look in his eyes and the blood smeared all over his face, some of it his own, but most of it Nick's.
"You will never hurt any of us again."
With that, he threw her across the room, before pouncing on her. He repeatedly hit her across the face with his right hand, much like he'd done to Nick. After a point, the pain of each hit lessened due to her already skin already throbbing with pain, and grew numb with each additional hit. She felt the skin around the left side of her face begin to swell up, as the throbbing of the blood in her temples increased with each heartbeat.
A.J., getting tired of the monotony of the situation, swung open the glass door of the balcony, and pulled her into the cool night air.
Kneeing her in the stomach, A.J. whispered, "I'll teach you to mess with my friends."
Leslie, trying to regain some oxygen in her body, didn't have time to try and protect herself before she saw A.J.'s left hand, clad in silver and gold, fly at the skin on the right side of her face. She felt the skin rip from her cheek and blood begin to pour down her face. Salty tears of pain and fear mixed with the blood as he pulled his fist away and she saw his left hand with his four rings covered in red.
*
Nick could hear Angel crying and the sound of flesh hitting flesh. He fought to open his eyes as excruciating pain filled his head.
�Oh god. Please help me. I have to save her�
Wrestling with consciousness, Nick slowly opened his eyes and tried to get them to focus on what he assumed to be Angel and A.J. He watched as he pulled her out onto the porch and kneed her in the stomach.
Nick tried to sit up, only having his eyesight start to go black again. Looking back to Angel, he cringed in shared pain as he watched him punch her across the face with his ring-clad fist, only to see the horrific sight of Angel's blood dripping from A.J.�s hand as he pulled away.
He screamed out for A.J. to stop, to take him instead, but nothing came out. Helpless, all he could do was watch as the love of his life was beaten by one of his best friends.
~
Between the sweat, blood, and tears, Leslie could barely see A.J. glance towards the balcony ledge and back towards her as an evil plan filled his head. She had always been afraid of heights, and she instantly knew that she was about to die from this lifelong fear.
A.J. pushed her up against the railing before grabbing her by her neck and picking her off of the ground. Holding her two feet in the air, he placed her on top of the railing and forced her to stare into his eyes.
"See you in hell bitch."
Slowly, as if to torture her, he began to push her back. He kept a grip on her neck as he stared at her with a menacing look.
"I'm sorry Brian. I tried�" she whispered into the light breeze.
A.J. stopped pushing her back, and said, "Don't you dare bring him into this."
Leslie used his preoccupation to make an attempt wrap her feet around the bars of the balcony railing, and for the first time, she caught a glimpse down the eight stories as her heart stopped.
Giving up hope, she watched as the next few seconds passed by in slow motion. She saw Nick still lying on the floor, pools of blood around him. She felt A.J.'s grip on her neck slowly lessen as she kept her gaze on Nick's still body.
"Have a nice fall."
*
A.J.'s menacing laughter could be heard as the hotel door slammed open. Kevin rushed into a disheveled room, only to see Nick lying in a pool of blood and A.J. halfway hanging over the balcony railing.
"What the fuck�" he whispered under his breath.
Walking further into the room, he saw long brown hair hanging from over the balcony.
"Alex�" Kevin said slowly, as he walked towards the opened glass door. "What are you doing?"
As he walked passed Nick, he looked down to see dried blood covering his face and a gash on his forehead. The little bit of skin on his face that Kevin could see was pure white. Fear overtook his body as he ran towards A.J. and slightly pulled him away from the balcony railing.
"What the hell are you doing?" he yelled.
That's when his eyes landed on the bloody figure on the railing that A.J. grasped in his hands. He jumped towards the girl, whom he assumed to be Angel, and replaced A.J.'s grip with his own. Pushing A.J. aside, he pulled a shaking and pale Angel back over the balcony, where she crumbled to the ground in tears of relief.
"Kevin, get out of my way. That bitch has to die," A.J. said in a quiet robotic-sounding voice.
"You're drunk Alex. You have no clue what you've done, do you?" Kevin asked, staring intently at the determined boy.
Pushing past him, A.J. grabbed a handful of Angel's brown hair and started to pull her to her feet. Kevin quickly intervened, pushing A.J. up against the wall. A.J. immediately started throwing punches, but Kevin, being twice his size and much stronger, easily averted his fists and then grabbed A.J.'s wrists with one hand.
Slapping him across the face, Kevin screamed, "Get a hold of yourself. Why are you doing this?"
Paying no attention to Kevin's words, A.J. broke free and punched him across the face.
Shocked as blood trickled from his nose, Kevin's anger bubbled throughout his body, and before he could think of what he was doing, he picked up A.J., throwing him up against the glass door. Upon hitting the door, glass shattered and flew across the room. A.J. fell to the floor inside after hitting his head against the wall on his way down. Kevin walked into the room, as his fit of anger left, only to find that A.J. had lost unconsciousness.
The hotel room was a disaster. Blood and glass covered the floor and the furniture was knocked over. There were dents in the walls where punches had missed their marks, and there were broken bits of a wooden table spread around Nick's still body.
Kevin turned around to see Angel cowering on the balcony. She was shaking and silent tears of fear were flowing down her bloodstained cheeks.
"Angel, please tell me what happened," Kevin gently said, crouching down next to her. He reached a hand towards her for comfort, but she flinched, indicating he needed to pull back.
"I promise I won't hurt you. I'm here to try and help," he whispered.
She slowly reached her hand out to him, which he grasped. Looking into his green eyes, she whispered, "He� he tried� tried to kill Nick� Oh my god, where's Nick? Please, we have to make sure Nick is okay." She started to panic as a torrent of tears poured down her face and she looked at him with pleading eyes, making his heart break. "Please find Nick."
Kevin stood up as he heard a door in the hotel room open. Turning towards the noise, he saw Howie timidly walk into the main room.
"Where the hell have you been??" Kevin yelled at him.
"I� well, I� I was in the other room," Howie said quietly.
"You were hiding while A.J. tried to kill Nick and Angel? Are you that much of a coward?" Kevin demanded.
"No, it's just I thought it would be better if one of us didn't get hurt, you know? Just in case anything really bad happened�" he trailed off.
"Really bad? What the hell do you consider really bad if not this? You expected me to handle this and hoped I'd get here in time, didn't you? You could have prevented this Howard. Did you know that when I got in here, A.J. was about to push Angel off the balcony?" Kevin paused for him to answer. "Well, did you?"
Howie looked taken aback. "What? No. No, not A.J. He wouldn't do that. I don't believe you Kevin. He's your brother."
"My brother? Damn it Howie. He fuckin' beat up Nick! Did you expect him to do that??"
Looking towards his fallen friend, he said, "Well, no�"
"See? A.J. is messed up. When I came in, Angel was hanging over the balcony with his hand wrapped around her throat."
Howie's face paled as he started to believe Kevin's words. "Oh, Angel. I'm� I'm so sorry."
Before Kevin could continue his lecture, he noticed Angel had stood up with the aid of the railing to keep her balance and was surveying the scene before her. As her eyes fell on Nick, a blood-curdling scream escaped her throat. She pushed past Kevin and ran over the shards of broken glass, not even flinching as they pierced the skin on the bottom of her feet. Falling to her knees at Nick's side, she pulled his body towards her and sobbed into his bloodstained t-shirt.
"No Nick, you can't leave me. I won't let you. Please don't leave me," she said against his chest.
Loosening her grasp, she began to shake him and slap him lightly across the face as tears of hopelessness ran down her face. She ran her fingers across his face, mixing his blood with her own. No sign of life showed on his face. His lips were a ghostly white, as was the rest of his face, which was a haunting contrast to newly his raven hair.
Angel looked up at Kevin and Howie pleadingly, causing them to forget about their previous argument.
"Please make him wake up."