The Call
song by: The Backstreet Boys
fictionalized by: K. Huntsman
released 20th February 2001


	The blond woman ran across the apartment to pick up the ringing 
phone.
	"Hello?"
	"Hi, it's me, what's up, baby?  I'm sorry, listen, I'm gonna be 
late tonight so don't stay up and wait for me, okay?"
	"Where are you?"
	"Say that again?"
	"Hello?"
	"Listen, you're really dropping out.  I think my battery must be 
low.  Listen, if you can hear me, we're going to a place nearby, okay?  
Gotta go."
	Alex flipped his powerless cel closed and moved through the room of 
writhing, dancing people.  This party had certainly turned out to be worth 
his while.  He pushed his way through the dancers, seeking--
	--and there she was, moving through the crowd ahead of him, the 
woman with the most beautiful spill of brown hair he'd ever seen.
	He moved after her, caught up with her; she turned; her face was 
beautiful, pale, with dark-painted lips and deep, kohl-rimmed, soulless 
eyes.

	"Hi.  I gotta little place nearby--wanna go?"

	The moment her lips left off caressing those words into his ear, 
Alex offered the woman a small, appreciative smile, and nodded.

	Her name was Desdemona, and they sat in the back of a cab, 
overlapping personal space with soft touches of lips and hands that 
promised more as the vehicle sped into the darkness.
	A sudden deceleration and stop didn't matter to Alex until she flew 
from his arms, a dark-clad bird bolting into the night, black PVC coat 
flaring behind her like wings.
	The driver was gone, he dimly realized as he bolted out of his own 
side of the empty car.  The long tunnel was silent except for the humming 
of idle cars.  Cars without drivers, Alex realized as he passed one 
abandoned vehicle after another.
	"Hello?" he called.  "Hello?!"
	A flapping of fabric caught his attention.  He ran to the railing 
on the right side of the tunnel and looked over.  There she was, running.
	He didn't hesitate in jumping after her.

	What the hell had AJ gotten them into, Brian wondered as he landed 
with a shock.  He saw the woman, Desdemona, running, black trench flaring 
behind her, and gave chase.
	AJ's worries quickly became his own.  Cars sat silent on the 
street; meals were half-finished on restaurant table.  Where had everyone 
vanished to?  And how?
	Turning around, perplexed, Brian stopped and blinked in disbelief.  
One of the promos for Black and Blue, a banner hung across a building... 
his face and AJ's were scratched out.
	As he tried to figure *that* out, something hit his arm hard enough 
to knock him down.  Wincing, he clutched his injured shoulder--a 
bone-bruise, to be sure--and looked around for the source.
	A small ball rolled on the pavement near him.  He picked it up; it 
was rubber, not intended to kill, but certainly to hurt....
	Another blasted the pavement by his ear and Brian scrambled to his 
feet, running while the pellets volleyed the ground around him.  Shelter, 
he needed shelter....
	An Asian market presented itself and he ran inside, breathing 
hard.  And it too was deserted; empty carts glided across the aisles as 
though the people pushing them had vanished only the instant he ran inside.
	Looking around, he tensed as suddenly the lights ran out, then ran, 
seeing the flutter of that black coat.  Desdemona!  Somehow she was behind 
this.
	Nick! he thought as he flung himself through the double doors at 
the back of the store.  Nick was taller, had longer legs, ran faster....

	Nick pulled up short as he burst through the doors.  There was a 
car in front of him.  He didn't recognize the model--something black, from 
the 40s, with the *coolest* death's head hood ornament--but it seemed to go 
with the keys and alarm in his pocket.  Which was definitely not period, 
but definitely smart.  He made a note to ask which of them had bought a car 
this cool and not told him about it.
	In the meantime, though... this was getting too weird for him.  He 
knew where AJ and Brian were, which left Howie and Kevin.  And Kev had been 
planning on going out tonight, so....
	With grim determination, Nick drove though the empty streets to 
their hotel.  The lobby, too, was empty, as were the halls he passed 
through.  He knew he was freaked, and couldn't stifle down the beginnings 
of panic when he passed an open door and there was no one in the room and 
only static on the television.
	What if, he suddenly thought, Howie wasn't there?  If he and Kev 
had vanished like everyone else in the city?
	The thought was enough to send him running down the hall and 
pounding on the door.
	Howie opened the suite's door.  Nick stumbled in.
	"There's no one there!" he tried to explain to Howie, pointing back 
at the deserted hallway.
	The older singer made him calm down, splash some water on his face, 
before they went out looking for Kevin.
	"Come on," Howie said, shrugging his jacket on, "let's go."
	As they went out the door, there were people in the world again.  A 
pretty maid smiled at them from behind her cart; the opened door showed a 
girl reading on her bed.  It didn't make sense, but there were people in 
the elevator too.  As they reached the ground floor, Nick wondered if maybe 
what he had seen before wasn't a delusion, if maybe he and Frick and Bone 
hadn't been seeing things... but it had been so real.

	Howie thanked the concierge and turned away with his cup of latte.  
He saw a familiar lanky form just as the blond one went out the front 
doors.  Odd--he thought Nick had gone out earlier, but maybe he'd been 
wrong.

	Nick let Howie drive; it was apparently his car--and believe it, 
Nick intended to be laying into him later for not letting him know about 
it--through the city to where Kevin was probably in an post-business 
meeting dinner.  Nick'd tried calling him, but the eldest's cel seemed as 
dead as AJ's, and as much help.
	Fiddling with the passenger-side mirror, Nick twisted it so he 
could see Howie.
	Only it was Desdemona reflected.
	His head whipped around as Nick came to a sudden realization.  The 
woman opened the car door and rolled from the vehicle as Nick's eyes 
followed her.  She sat up, unharmed, and almost casually tore her face--
Howie's face--off.
	Nick scrambled over to the driver's side of the car and frantically 
jammed on the brakes, trying to spin the car into a one-eighty or 
something.  But the speed kept increasing and the car did not respond.  
Somehow she was still controlling it.  Panicked, Nick threw his arms up 
over his face as the wall approached and called out <Kev!>

	Kevin sat up with a shock as the car slammed to a sideways stop 
just before hitting the wall.  He didn't know how Nick had pulled off the 
stunt, but he was grateful.  But Nick was hiding somewhere inside, 
terrified.  Brian and an unnerved AJ were trying to comfort him.
	Where was Howie, Kevin wondered as he exited the car.
	His eyes widened as he saw the numerous smaller posters for Black 
and Blue.  They lined the wall the car had stopped before--and all of their 
faces were scratched out now.
	He turned, hearing running footsteps.
	Wherever Howie was, Kevin thought as he gave chase, he was 
obviously in with them on this... condemnation.  Of whatever it was.
	Desdemona ran into a building, going up echoing stairs.
	Kevin followed.
	What was this, he tried to figure out.
	Whatever it was, it was AJ's fault.
	But then, they were all pieces of one another, so it was his fault 
as well, and his cuz's, and D's, and little Nicky's.
	They were all of them at fault.
	He caught up with her on the top floor.
	Not even looking at him, she ran down a hall and out the window and 
crashed through a window in the opposite building.
	It was too late to give up pursuit now.  She had all the answers.
	Kevin closed his eyes and prayed for strength.
	Then he began to run.
	Feet against the floor, a spring-jump out the window, prayer and 
wings and he landed among the shattered glass on the floor of that other 
building, that other room.  Somehow, miraculously, he didn't cut himself 
all up.
	His thanks to God died away as he stood and stared at the room he 
found himself in.

	CHEAT
	LIAR
	SCUM BAG

	The painful words went on and on, red of blood and white of pain, 
covering all four walls and the ceiling.
	Hiding denial, Kevin ran out the only door.
	And down to the street.
	And the street was empty, but she was there.
	Angela.  Beautiful, beautiful Angela with her red shirt and 
implacable knowledge in her eyes.
	And behind her was everyone.
	They'd all seen.
	They'd all seen what he and Howie and Nick and Brian and AJ had 
done.
	All of them.
	They'd cheated on Angela.
	And everyone knew.