Chapter 13

The screaming of the crowd intensified as the Backstreet Band started playing the first notes of the opening song. After a few seconds, the 5 young men of the group made their way onto the stage much to the delight of their faithful fans. As the concert wore on, Brian noticed that it felt like his heart was skipping a few beats every few seconds. Brian quickly pushed that observation out of his head as his solo in “As Long as You Love Me” came up. Brian sang the solo putting all of his heart and soul into it. As the song came to an end, Brian felt a wave of nausea again make its course through his body. “Oh please, not here, not now, in front of all these people. I have to finish the show.” Brian begged silently. Brian looked out into the crowd with a dazed expression on his face as the lights around him began to get blurry. He felt his body start to sway, but he was determined to stay on his feet. The determination he had earlier of staying on his feet quickly deteriorated as a pain more intense than any other pain he had felt before, roared through his body. As the pain made its course through his body, he heard the sound of his heart beating in his ears, this time he was almost certain it was skipping a few beats.

When Brian tried to catch his breath, another wave of pain shot through his body bringing him to his knees. As he made his way towards the stage floor, gasps and screams of horror came from the crowd.

The boys looked around and discovered the problem as soon as they seen and heard Brian hit the floor with a loud THUMP.

“BRIAN, OH MY GOD ARE YOU OK?” screamed Kevin as he frantically made his way over to his cousin.

Brian was now laying on the floor grasping his chest in pain while gasping for the precious oxygen his body felt deprived of as the tears from the pain that kept pulsating through his body streamed down his pale face. As if to escape the pain, Brian’s body started frantically thrashing around.

“Oh my god, please be ok, Brian, please be ok” Kevin kept chanting as he heard Nick scream “Call 911! Please help him! Call 911!” in a terrified voice.

Brian suddenly stopped thrashing around and looked at his cousin with fear in his eyes. Kevin did the only thing he thought he could do to comfort his younger cousin and that was grasp his hand. Brian felt Kevin grasp his hand and made a weak attempt to squeeze his cousin’s hand as if to tell him he was ok. As Brian did this, the sound of his heartbeat was quickly diminishing. As his heart slowed to a stop, Brian’s blue eyes rolled back into his head and his chest stopped rising. The last thing he heard as he welcomed the darkness that consumed him was the heart wrenching sobs and screams coming from his cousin who still had a tight grip on his hand.

Chapter 14