Chapter Nine
At 2:30 Zak and I met Nick, Aaron, Billy, and Jay in the lobby of the hotel, so we could decide what we wanted to do for lunch. "So," Aaron asked, once we were all together. "what do we want to do?" "My only request," Nick replied. "is that we do not do I-Hop again!" "Or Olive Garden." Zak interjected. I nodded in agreement with Zak, and Billy and Jay nodded in agreement with Nick. "So where do we want to go that not I-Hop or Olive Garden?" Aaron asked again. We all shrugged and then started laughing. "Well that's awesome." Jay threw out between laughs. "Yeah." Billy replied. "We're all hungry, but none of us know where we want to eat." Zak pulled his phone out of his pocket and said, "Hold on." He got into Google and started searching for restaurants in Wilder. After about two minutes he said, "What about Famous Dave's? Anyone up for barbeque?" "That sounds awesome!" Aaron said, his face lighting up with child-like enthusiasm. Nick and Zak both started laughing, and I soon joined in. "The people have spoken!" Jay said, leading the way out to the parking lot. "You mean Aaron has spoken!" I grinned at Aaron, and he laughed and pulled me in for a bear hug. When he released me, I hugged him back and continued, "And Aaron has good taste!" Aaron bowed, making the rest of us laugh even more. "Thank you." he said. "Thank you very much." Once we had gotten in the van (Zak, Nick, and Aaron sat up front, and I sat in the back with Billy and Jay), Billy said, "Aaron usually does have good taste when it comes to food." "Well of course he does." Zak said as he maneuvered his way out of the parking lot. "He eats like a pig." Aaron didn't even try to defend himself as the rest of us continued laughing. He just shrugged and said, "There's absolutely nothing wrong with that." "No there's not, Aaron." I replied, gently patting him on the shoulder. "All guys eat like pigs. It's okay." Five pairs of eyes glared at me as I smirked slightly in amusement and settled back in my seat. "Being a bit sexist back there, aren't we darling?" Zak said, looking at me in the rearview mirror. I chuckled softly. "Perhaps, but you can't deny that I'm right." "Of course we can. You're wrong. Not all guys eat like pigs. Just most of them." Zak's last comment set off another round of laughter. Once the laughter had died down again, Billy and Jay looked at Zak with raised eyebrows. Billy asked, "'Darling'?" Zak hesitated for about two seconds, but then he firmly nodded. "So you two are making it official then?" Nick asked as he and Aaron looked back and forth between Zak and I. I leaned forward and gently wrapped my arms around Zak's neck. Zak gently kissed my arm before turning his attention back to the road. "Yes we're making it official." I said softly, smiling. "We're dating." Zak finished. Billy and Jay both gasped, but Nick and Aaron just nodded, trying to hide their smiles. "You're…" Billy started. "…dating!?" Jay finished. Zak and I both nodded. "Yes, we are." "Well that's…" Billy began. "…unexpected…" Jay finished. Aaron and Nick turned and looked at them. "What do you mean 'unexpected'?" Nick asked. "Did you two not see them digging on each other's at Bobby's yesterday?" Aaron asked, trying hard not to start laughing. Billy and Jay both nodded. "Yeah, we did," Billy replied. "but we didn't think anything like this would come out of it." "Is that your way of saying you don't approve?" I asked quietly, turning to look at Billy, biting my bottom lip. Billy shrugged. "It doesn't really matter whether I approve or not." he replied quietly. "It's your decision, not mine." I looked at Zak in the rearview mirror, and he looked back at me. "You don't approve?" Zak asked. Billy and Jay looked at each other, as though they were deciding how to answer the question. Jay just shrugged, but Billy shifted uncomfortably in his seat. No one said anything for about a minute. Finally Zak said, "Well that answers that question." Billy sighed. "Look, my only concern is that you two met yesterday. And I don't think two people can get to know each other well enough in twenty-four hours to determine whether or not they would make a good couple." "So you don't believe in love at first sight?" I looked at Billy, and he looked back at me. Billy slowly shook his head. "No, I don't. I stopped believing in love at first sight a long time ago." Nobody said a word. The atmosphere inside the van was starting to get very tense. Thankfully, at that moment Zak pulled into the parking lot of Famous Dave's. "Thank God for barbeque!" Aaron said, breaking up the tension in the van. We were all laughing as we climbed out of the car, and not another word was said about Zak and I dating as we walked into the restaurant (even though we were holding hands). We got a table together near the back of the almost-deserted restaurant. We ordered our drinks and then got the huge dinner platter to share (it's everything that Famous Dave's has served on a huge trash can lid). As we sat there, the talk eventually turned to the lockdown that night. "So," Aaron asked, looking at me with a grin. "you regretting coming yet?" I shook my head. "Hell no! No matter what happens tonight, there's nowhere on Earth I'd rather be…" I blushed slightly as I said that, but Zak, Nick, and Aaron all high-fived me. Jay and Billy just grinned at me. "We're not actually going to be doing the lockdown, so we'll be safe!" Jay said. "Yeah." Billy chimed in. "We'll just be there to keep an eye on you guys and save your asses when you get into trouble." "What kind of trouble?" I asked. "When the Demons start attacking Zak because he's pissed them off too many times." Nick answered, taking a drink of his coke. I nodded, grinning slightly. "That's what I thought." Zak shook his head, but I gently squeezed his hand and grinned at him so he'd know I was mostly teasing him. He smiled back at me, and then leaned over and kissed me on the top of my head. When we pulled away from me, he looked around the table at all of us and said, "Alright crew, we need to decide what the game plan is for tonight." He looked at Billy and Jay before continuing. "The two of you are going to be running Nerve Center from the van out in the parking lot." Billy and Jay both nodded, and then Zak turned his attention to himself, Nick, Aaron, and I. "The rest of us are going to face the Demons. There's three on-site locations we're going to tackle. The slaughterhouse, Carl's old apartment, and the club itself. I want to put at least one X-Camera in each location, so Billy and Jay can monitor the whole place." He looked at Billy and Jay to make sure it was okay with them, and they both nodded. Zak continued, "And from there, at some point during the night, we're going to have so split up…" Nick and Aaron both opened their mouths to protest, but Zak cut them off. "I know you guys don't want to do it, but what choice do we have? We need to collect evidence, and each of us being on our own is the best way to do that." Nick and Aaron exchanged glances, and I felt a wave of real fear – the first that I had felt in the last twenty-nine hours – wash over me. I couldn't bear the thought of the three of them being by themselves in that Hell. Especially after everything that had happened to them there… I wasn't even worried about what was going to happen to me. My main concern was for the guys – especially Zak. I didn't want anything bad to happen to them. "What about Andrea?" Nick asked. I looked first at him, and then at Zak. Zak gently took my hand and said, "She'll be with one of us at all times. I'm not going to make her be alone in that Hell!" Zak put his arm around me and held me close, and I smiled up at him. Nick and Aaron both gave us a thumbs up. "That's good." Nick said. "And now the question is," Aaron threw out. "where are we each going to be, and are we going to be split up the entire night?" "I think it would be a really bad idea for us to be split up the entire night." Zak replied. "Also, it would make me extremely nervous. Bad shit general tends to happen to us when we're split up at Mackey's. Like really bad shit." Nick, Aaron, Billy, Jay, and I all nodded in agreement, and Zak continued. "So I was thinking that we split up at around one, and then maybe one to three we stay split up – unless something happens of course." A collective shudder went around the table at those words, but then Zak went on. "And from eight to one we investigate together." "And what are we going to do from three to six?" Aaron asked. Zak shrugged. "Regroup, I guess. Take care of ourselves if something happens, which it probably will. And then continue with the investigation until Bobby and Carl come to let us out." Nick, Aaron, and I all nodded. "So who would be where?" I asked, looking at Zak, who shrugged again. "I'm not sure. I think we should wait and figure that out when we get there and see how restless – or not – the Demons are." I nodded. We were all silent for about a minute, and then Aaron asked, "Besides Zak, is anyone else nervous about tonight?" Nick, Billy, Jay, and I all nodded. "Hell yeah dude!" Nick said. "The stuff at Mackey's is… insane. Yeah, I'm nervous. If the Demons really do remember us, then we're in trouble. They'll remember how much we've taunted them, and they'll remember that we brought Bishop Long onto 'their' territory and blessed the place. I have a really bad feeling that tonight's going to be some sort of showdown or power struggle…" "Between us and them?" I asked quietly. Nick nodded, "Yeah." "That's what I'm worried about." Zak said quietly. "I don't think I'm afraid, but I do think we should all be on our guards tonight. God only knows what's going to happen once we get going with the investigation…" "All Hell's probably going to break lose…" I said quietly. "Literally…" We all shivered at that. "Are you nervous about tonight?" Zak asked quietly, turning his head and looking at my face. I slowly nodded. "Yes, I'm nervous." I responded quietly. "However, I'm not so nervous for myself as I am for the three of you." I looked at Zak, then Nick, and then Aaron before turning my attention back to Zak. "But I'm especially worried about you." "Why especially me?" he asked quietly, raising his eyebrows slightly. I gave him a look over the top of my glasses. "Are you serious?" I asked. "Mr. I-provoke-the-demons-until-they-physically-attack-me?" Zak inclined his head, trying not to start laughing as Nick, Aaron, Billy, and Jay all started cracking up. "Point taken." Zak replied softly. "Exactly." I said. "I think we'll be fine, though. We're more prepared now than we were the other times. We know what we're up against, and we've dealt with Demons before. We're going to be just fine. We usually are." I opened my mouth to protest, but I didn't get the chance. I was going to point out how many times any of them had been possessed or attacked – how many times they hadn't been fine – but our food came at that moment. So I didn't say a word. But in the back of my head there was a little voice saying, "None of you will be fine by dawn tomorrow."