CHAPTER FOUR

“What?!” Brian gasped.

“I want to be you,” Brendan said. “And very, very soon, I will be you.”

“You’ll never pull it off,” Brian said, his voice low with anger.

”Oh yes, I will,” Brendan insisted, laughing. “Face it, bro – we look exactly alike.”

“So? Looks aren’t everything. I’m a singer, remember? What are you gonna do about that?” Brian asked, raising an eyebrow.

Brendan snickered. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ve memorized all the words to your songs. It was a pain in the ass and in the ears, but I have them all down pat. I’ll be able to lip sync just fine.”

“We don’t lip sync,” Brian spat, glaring darkly at his twin.

“Oh really? I thought all boybands did. But that’s okay, I can sing if I need to,” Brendan replied.

“Oh yeah?” Brian challenged.

“Of course. You know, you’re a lot dumber than I expected you to be. I guess I got the brains of the family. We’re twins, remember – we both inherited Mommy’s singing talent. See?” Brian watched in shock as Brendan began to sing the first part of “I Want It That Way”. Brian’s heart sank – Brendan’s voice sounded exactly like his.

Brendan stopped singing and laughed at the expression on Brian’s face. “Big shocker, huh? Guess you never expected to hear me singing one of your gay little bubblegum pop songs. It’s not much fun, I’ll tell ya. But in order to be you, I have to suffer through it.”

Brian shook his head, forcing back tears. Brendan seemed to have this all figured out.

“And not only do I look and sound just like you, I can act just like you too. I’ve been watching you all the time over the last few years. I know your personality well. I know your likes and your dislikes. You love basketball. In fact, you’re a pretty good basketball player. Guess what? So am I.” He grinned and went on, “You’re also a real holy guy. Well, I’m not, but I can act like one. You’ve even got that tattoo on your shoulder, the one of the cross. Well guess what…” Brendan trailed off, took off his trench coat, and rolled up his sleeve. There, on his left shoulder, was a tattoo identical to Brian’s.

“No,” Brian murmured, shaking his head in disbelief. This guy had everything!

Brendan glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Oh, look at the time,” he said. “It’s almost six. I need to be getting back to the airport so Leighanne can pick me up. From what she’s heard, your… I mean, my flight was delayed two hours.” He glanced at Brian, studying him. “You know, I think we need to switch clothes. I doubt Leigh will expect me to show up looking like this.” He looked down at his dark clothing.

“No,” Brian declared.

Brendan laughed. “Actually, the answer is yes, my friend. I’m going to untie you for a few minutes here, and you strip. Then you can put on my clothes, okay?”

Brian started to protest, but Brendan pulled his gun out of his coat. When Brian closed his mouth, a smile of satisfaction came over Brendan’s face. “You gonna cooperate now?” he asked.

Brian nodded silently, holding still while Brendan untied him from the bed. He stripped down to his boxers and handed Brendan his clothes. Brendan stripped out of his clothes as well and gave them to Brian to put on.

A few minutes later, they had swapped clothes, and as far as Brendan was concerned, they had swapped identities as well.

Brendan quickly tied Brian back to the bed, slapped a piece of duct tape tightly over his mouth, and stepped back, smiling sickly at his prisoner. “Well, I better run. See you later, Brendan.” He chuckled wickedly, grabbed Brian’s backpack, and left the room, leaving Brian tied down, helpless, and alone.


***

“Brian!”

Brendan looked up to see a pretty blonde woman running towards him, a big smile on her face. He grinned. It was Leighanne, his new wife. Time for his acting job to begin.

“Leigh!” he cried with fake enthusiasm, running towards her. “Oh, baby, I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too!” Leighanne cried, throwing her arms around him. “How was the flight?”

“It was fine. I’m so glad to be home though. I’m tired, from the flying and the tour and all.” He faked a yawn to prove his point. “Let’s go get my luggage and then head home.”

“That sounds good, baby,” Leighanne replied, taking his hand. Together, they walked through the airport towards the baggage claim.

Brendan smiled to himself. Leighanne didn’t suspect a thing. This was going to be too easy.


***

“So, you ready to go to bed, babe?” Brendan asked Leighanne that night, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Sure,” Leighanne replied, a grin spreading slowly across her sleep. Brendan led her upstairs to their bedroom.

“I got you a present,” he said, taking the gift-wrapped box he had put in Brian’s backpack out and handing it to Leighanne.

“Oh, Brian, you’re so good to me,” she said, smiling sweetly at him. She carefully pulled off the gold wrapping paper and took the lid off of the flat, red box. She pulled back the tissue paper inside, and her mouth dropped open.

Slowly, she pulled out the garment inside the box and held it up to get a good look at it. It was a tiny, red, lacy piece of lingerie that certainly didn’t leave much to the imagination.

Brendan looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to suggest she put it on and get in bed with him, but she did not. Instead, she continued to stare at it, obviously shocked.

“Uh… thanks… dear,” she finally said.

“You don’t like it?” Brendan asked, astonished. He would expect the wardrobe of an attractive woman like Leighanne to be full of things like this.

“No, it’s not that. I just can’t believe you would buy something like this for me,” she said, looking at him with surprise.

Brendan grinned. “I guess I’m just exploring my wild side,” he said seductively. “So how about you try it on for me?”

“Well… okay,” she agreed, still looking a little shocked. “Wait out here. I’ll surprise you.” She gave him a seductive wink and disappeared into the bathroom.

Brendan sighed heavily and sank down onto the bed. He had almost blown it. He knew that if he had a wife as hot as Leighanne, he would buy her sexy lingerie all the time. But his twin obviously did not. And he had to pull off acting just like Brian. It was going to be harder than he thought.

But when Leighanne emerged from the bathroom, Brendan immediately felt better.

“You like?” she asked, posing for him, a mischievous expression on her face.

“I love it,” Brendan said gleefully. “So… uh, you wanna try it out?”

“Of course,” she replied, climbing on to the bed. “You know, babe, I think I like this ‘wild side’ of you.”

Brendan grinned devilishly and turned out the lights in the bedroom, leaving only a couple candles burning to provide a dim, romantic atmosphere. He leaned over Leighanne on the bed, giving her a passionate kiss. “So do I.”

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CHAPTER FIVE

Brian’s head turned sharply towards the door, as he heard the knob turn.

“Good morning, brother!” Brendan greeted, smiling evilly at the pitiful figure tied down to the bed and ripping the tape off of his mouth with a sharp yank, causing Brian to wince. “And how are we doing on this glorious day?”

Brian swallowed back a retort and said nothing.

“Did you have a good night last night?” Brendan went on. “I sure did. Your wife is great in bed, you know.”

The blood drained from Brian’s face. “What did you say?”

“I said that Leighanne is great in bed. If she was my wife, I’d f*ck her all the time,” Brendan smirked. “Oh wait, she is my wife.”

“You son of a bitch!” Brian spat.

Brendan laughed. “Do you realize you just referred to your own mother as a bitch? What about all that ‘Perfect Fan’ crap?”

Angry tears rose in Brian’s eyes.

“Oh, that’s right, go ahead and sob, you little pussy,” Brendan said, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

“You’re gonna cry even more when you see this.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and reached into his backpack.

Brian watched as he pulled out a Kodak envelope, the kind your pictures come in when they get developed.

Brendan smiled evilly. “I knew you might not believe me about fucking your little wifey, so I decided to document it last night with pictures. See?”

Brian gasped as Brendan held a picture up to his face. It was of Leighanne, dressed in a skimpy, nearly see-through piece of lingerie, sprawled out on the bed, a seductive smile on her face.

“Oh, you think that’s bad?” Brendan asked, smiling at Brian’s horrified expression. “There’s more.” He held up another picture, of he and Leighanne lying under the sheets, their arms around each other. They were obviously naked.

Tears streamed down Brian’s cheeks. “How could you?” he asked softly.

“Oh, it was a piece of cake,” Brendan gloated. “She totally bought it. She has no idea who I really am.”

More tears fell from Brian’s eyes, running down the length of his face. He couldn’t believe his Leighanne couldn’t tell the difference between her own husband and this evil look-alike. He would expect anyone who didn’t know him that well to fall for it, but how could Leighanne?

“Fuck you,” Brian said hoarsely.

“No thanks. I think I will go fuck Leigh again though. See ya later!” Brendan replaced the piece of duct tape over Brian’s mouth, grabbed up his backpack, and walked out of the room, leaving Brian all alone once again.


***

Later that evening, the phone rang at Brian’s house. Leighanne answered. “Brian, it’s for you, honey!” she called after a moment.

“Got it!” Brendan called back, picking up the phone in another room. “Hello?”

“Hey, Frick, it’s me,” came a young man’s voice.

“Hey,” Brendan replied, hurriedly trying to figure out who it was. Who was the one that always called Brian “Frick”? Nick, of course. Nick, otherwise known as “Frack”.

“That you, Frack?” he asked, for confirmation.

“Course it’s me,” Nick said. “How’s it going, dude?”

“Pretty good,” Brendan said. “How ‘bout you?”

“Fine,” Nick replied. “So whatcha been up to?”

“Nothin’ much, just chillin’ out. It’s good to be back home,” Brendan said, smiling at what a good acting job he was doing.

“Yeah, I know, bro,” Nick agreed. He started rambling on about God-knows-what, and Brendan listened boredly, putting in a “yeah” or “uh-huh” every now and then so Nick would think he actually cared.

“Well, I better let you go now,” Nick said finally, and Brendan practically sighed with relief.

“Yeah, okay, dude. See ya later,” Brendan replied.

“Okay. Bye, Bri,” Nick said, hanging up. Brendan hung up as well, rolling his eyes. He could tell that socializing with the other Backstreet Boys was going to get real old, real soon.

But, just like in their stupid song, there were prices to fame, and for Brendan, that was one of them. He would just have to learn to deal with it.


***

I’m going to die, Brian realized, as he lay in the darkness, his stomach growling with hunger, his throat burning with thirst. He’s just going to leave me here to rot and then get rid of my body, and no one will ever know. He’ll spend the rest of his life pretending to be me.

The thought of that, of Brendan making love to his wife, touring with his best friends, and just living as him for who knew how much longer, was horrible. And the worst part was that Brian had no idea what to do about it, how to stop it. That left him feeling helpless and utterly depressed.

Brian wasn’t tired, but sleeping was really the only thing he could do, so he closed his eyes, and eventually, sleep found him.

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CHAPTER SIX

“Morning, sunshine,” Brendan cooed evilly, sneering down at his sleeping twin brother. Brian’s eyes quickly opened at the sound of Brendan’s taunting voice.

“Want some breakfast?” Brendan asked, holding up a greasy McDonald’s bag.

Brian’s mouth watered, and his eyes narrowed darkly at his twin. Brendan was teasing him, showing him something like that, letting him smell the hot food.

Brendan harshly ripped the duct tape off of Brian’s mouth once again. Then he set down the McDonald’s bag on the night table and pulled something out. An egg McMuffin.

He’s going to eat that right in front of me, isn’t he? Brian thought miserably. But Brendan didn’t. Instead, he unwrapped the McMuffin and held it up to Brian’s mouth.

“Take a bite,” he ordered.

Brian opened his mouth, then shut it again quickly. What if Brendan had tampered with it somehow? What if it was poisoned?

“Come on, you gonna eat it or not?” Brendan asked impatiently.

Brian’s stomach overpowered his common sense, and he bit into the McMuffin. It tasted heavenly to him, and he savored the small bite, chewing and swallowing it slowly. Feeling more confident that nothing was wrong with it (for it tasted fine), he took another, larger bite, and then another, until it was all gone.

Brian’s stomach felt much better than before, but he was still hungry. And thirsty too.

“Here,” Brendan said, thrusting a small cup towards him. He put the straw up to Brian’s mouth, and Brian took an eager sip. It was orange juice. A little warm, but still delicious. Brian drank it gratefully.

When he was done, Brendan pulled the cup away and set it on the night stand.

“Why the food all of a sudden?” Brian couldn’t help but ask.

“I couldn’t let you starve to death, now could I?” Brendan asked, rolling his eyes.

Why not? Brian wondered, but didn’t ask.

“Not yet anyway,” his evil twin added, snickering wickedly.

Brian didn’t respond. Instead, he tried in vain to hold back the feelings of despair he felt creeping up on him once again.


***

As the days passed, Brendan began to realize that his plan of keeping Brian tied up in the room wasn’t going to work. He couldn’t leave him there forever. He needed to move him somewhere else, somewhere where he would still be confined, but not tied down and unable to move. Eventually, of course, he planned on killing his twin, but not for awhile. He wanted to torture him some more first.

Brendan thought and thought, trying to think of a suitable place for Brian to be transferred. And then he got an idea.


***

“Guess what, bro? It’s moving day!” Brendan announced one morning, when he sauntered into Brian’s room with his breakfast.

“Moving day?” Brian asked curiously, as soon as Brendan had ripped the tape off of his mouth.

“That’s right,” Brendan confirmed. “You’re going to stay with a buddy of mine. He doesn’t live too far away either so I’ll be able to come visit you. You’ll have a great time.”

Brian sighed, knowing he wouldn’t. But at this point, anything seemed better than the hell-hole he was trapped in now.

It had been about a week since his capture. It was hard to keep track of the days, but Brian figured it had to have been about seven. Seven days spent tied to a bed, unable to move, unable to speak, except for when his mouth wasn’t taped, and with a limited amount of food. Brendan usually stopped by once a day, in mid-morning, to bring him some food, and that was all he got for the rest of the day. And sometimes, he brought more than just food. He brought pictures, more pictures of he and Leighanne making out or worse, just to make Brian even more upset than he already was.

“Now, listen up,” Brendan ordered, snapping his fingers in Brian’s face to get his attention. “I’m going to untie you from the bed, and you’re going to cooperate and come with me. I’ve got my gun with me, so don’t even attempt to try anything.” To prove his point, he pulled his gun out of his jacket and showed it to Brian.

Brian gulped and nodded obediently.

“Good,” Brendan said, an evil grin spreading across his face. “Now, let’s get going.”

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