CHAPTER 2 KILLER
By Christine Criss



Disclaimer: I don't own KISS or Doc McGhee…they own themselves. I 
wish I owned Gene but that's beside the point. I do own Vicki Lyall 
tho. She is my character. I own her.

** ** ** **

"So let me get this straight. A brick crashed through your window, 
you bolted out of bed, heard yelling and cheering, ran to the window, 
saw a bunch of kids getting into a car and drive off?" Doc asked for 
about the tenth time, once again counting off the facts on his 
fingers.

"For the millionth time, YES!" Gene muttered exasperated. He glanced 
at the clock which read 4 AM. Doc had rushed to Paul's room as soon 
as Paul had called. And for as long as he had been there, he'd been 
grilling Gene and Paul for information and details.

"Listen Doc, Gene's exhausted, I'm exhausted. Can we please wrap this 
up?" Paul pleaded rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Doc shook his head. "It just doesn't make sense."

"Sure it does!" Paul snapped, " A bunch of random teenage hooligans 
with nothing better to do bricked a hotel…I'm sure it happens all the 
time."

Doc stood up. "Fine. Lets get some sleep. The bus leaves tomorrow at 
twelve. We have a four hour drive and I'll talk to you guys more 
then." He stood up.

Paul looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry. I'm just really tired. I 
didn't mean to snap at you." He apologized sheepishly.

"Its ok Paul. I understand." Doc replied walking to the door. "Good 
night Gene, Good night Paul." And with that he left.

Paul sat down on the bed with a yawn and glanced at Gene. "The couch 
is yours man." He said, tossing Gene a pillow and blanket.

Gene caught them and settled himself onto the couch. "Thanks Paul. I 
appreciate it."

Paul shut the light off and laid down on his bed. "Your welcome Gene. 
Now shut the fuck up and go to sleep."

** ** ** **

The bus ride, as promised had been four hours long. Four hours of 
hell for both Paul and Gene. Doc had sat there and interrogated them 
for more details. As hard as it was they stuck to the original story 
they had told Doc. Both of them felt bad for lying to him but at this 
point they had no other choice. The sound check hadn't been much 
better. Yet the show had been absolutely great.

Gene pulled his wet hair back into a ponytail and grabbed his stuff. 
He walked from the showers to the lounge area where he saw that Paul 
and Ace were already there. Paul was sitting down drinking a soda and 
chatting with one of the security guards. Ace was at the table with 
his laptop, munching on a bag of Doritos and typing furiously every 
few seconds.

Gene sat down next to Paul and pulled his planner out of his 
briefcase. He jotted down a few notes on that night's show and made a 
couple on how to improve.

Doc walked into the room and glanced around.

"Peter is the only one still in the dressing room right?" He asked 
everyone.

Paul nodded. "Him and Doreen." 

Ace looked up from what he was doing. He realized it seemed pretty 
tense. He watched Doc pace back and forth.

"Doc, stop pacing and have a seat. Wanna see the cartoon I made on my 
computer." Ace told him.

Doc looked at Ace, grateful for something to do. He walked over and 
sat down next to Ace. "Show me what you made." Doc said with a smile. 

Gene looked over at Paul and motioned him over. Paul leaned close so 
he could hear what Gene was saying.

"Do you think that Doc really bought-----"

His statement was cut off by a loud explosion. The entire building 
shook and glass and concrete rained down onto them. Security sprang 
into action, tackling Gene, Ace, Paul and Doc to the ground and 
shielding them. 

Thick black smoke billowed from the hallway. Fire alarms blared. The 
lights cut off and sprinkler systems activated. Everyone lay stunned.

"BOMB!" Someone screamed.

Gene pushed the security guard off of him and scrambled to his feet. 
He looked around but couldn't see much due to all the smoke and dust 
in the air and the noise was deafening.

"Paul? Ace?" Gene yelled.

Paul stood shakily, wiping at the dust all over him. "Here!" he 
answered as he made his way over to where Gene was standing. Ace 
joined them a few seconds later.

"Where's Peter?" Ace asked, leaning close so they could hear him. 
Before any of the others could answer, they heard one of the security 
personnel yelling for everyone's attention.

"The bomb's location has been confirmed. It was in or near the 
dressing room. Everyone stay calm. We will escort you outside!" 

Paul felt his heart almost stop as the words sunk in. "Shit! Pete! 
Doreen!" He gasped loudly, taking off running down the hallway before 
security could stop him.

Gene and Ace stood there for a moment and then realized that Peter 
and Doreen were in the dressing room.

"PAUL! WAIT UP!" Gene went running after Paul, Ace following behind. 
They ran down the hallway, through the thick, black smoke, coughing 
and gasping for air. Finally they got to the wreckage that was once 
the dressing room. Nothing seemed to be intact and fire raged 
everywhere.

Paul was already there searching blindly through the wreckage.

Gene heard choking and coughing and saw Doreen huddled in a corner, 
miraculously still alive. Gene hurried over and picked the woman up.

"Where's Peter?" he asked her loudly, wincing as all the smoke and 
dust seared his throat.

Doreen broke into a fit of coughs and motioned wildly towards the 
door of the shower room. Gene gave her a strange look and then 
realized what she was trying to say.

"PAUL!" Gene yelled out over the blaring noise of the fire alarms. 
Paul turned and squinted at Gene.

"SHOWERS! PETER!" 

Paul's face showed confusion and then he turned and ran over to the 
door of the showers, which was blocked with various wreckage. Paul 
tore through it trying to get enough of it away to open the door. Ace 
saw what Paul was doing and ran over to help.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING GENE? GET DOREEN OUTTA HERE!" Ace called 
to Gene, who hesitated for a moment. Gene was about to argue that he 
wanted to help but one look at the choking woman he was cradling made 
him hurry his way out into the hallway and towards the exit.

Ace and Paul got the doorway cleared and kicked the door in.

The shower room like the rest of the building was filled with smoke. 
It took a moment for them to spot Peter, who was lying unconscious on 
the floor.

`Make him be alive still…oh god.' Paul thought as he picked Peter up 
over his shoulder and started out the door. He motioned for Ace to 
follow and ran down the hallway.

Ace was a couple steps behind Paul when something caught his eye. He 
paused and struggled to free it before it was engulfed by the flames.

Paul was by the doorway when a group of firemen rushed past.

"OUTSIDE NOW!" They yelled.

Paul ran out of the exit into the cool, fresh night air. The back 
parking lot was filled with fire and emergency vehicles. Paramedics 
swarmed all over the place treating people for smoke inhalation. From 
first glance Paul didn't see any burned people or body bags. `Always 
a good sign.' He couldn't help but think.

Paul carried Peter over to the nearest paramedic, who motioned for a 
stretcher. Peter was placed on the stretcher and the paramedics 
started work on him right away.

"Is he…alive?" Paul asked fearfully as the paramedic placed an oxygen 
mask over Peter's nose and mouth.

"He'll be fine. He passed out from the smoke."

Paul was about to ask another question when he saw Ace stumble out of 
the building clutching something under his shirt.

"I got it Paulie…" Ace gasped out leaning heavily against Paul. "I 
saved it!" he said and collapsed against Paul. Paul gave Ace over to 
the paramedic as well and soon he too was on a stretcher with an 
oxygen mask.

`Got what?' Paul wondered walking over to where Ace was. He reached 
under Ace's shirt and pulled out the Superman curtain, only slightly 
discolored from the smoke.

Paul burst out laughing, "You crazy idiot Ace! You did it!"

He felt someone tackle him from behind and screamed as he barely 
caught his balance.

"Paul! You made it!" Gene exclaimed. "For a minute there I didn't 
think you were going to…the whole place went up in flames."

"Gene! You asshole. You almost gave me a heart attack." Paul hugged 
Gene tightly.

"We all made it. Me, you, Ace, Pete, Doreen, Doc, everybody. Nobody 
died." Gene laughed happily.

Paul nodded blinking back tears of relief. They both sat down on the 
ground laughing and cracking bad jokes as adrenaline let down began 
to take its course. Eventually the Paramedics escorted them to an 
ambulance.

* * * *

Two hours later Gene, Paul, Ace, and Peter were in a hospital room, 
sitting on their respective beds and listening to Doc and the 
Security Chief brief them. Ace and Peter had regained consciousness 
and were fine.

"It appears that somehow someone slipped a bomb past security. It was 
planted in the broom closet next to the dressing room. No one has any 
clue who did, how they did it or why they did it. We're all very 
thankful nobody died. Unfortunately there WAS a press leak. The news 
is now reporting that a bomb went off after a KISS concert and almost 
killed the members of KISS." The security chief informed them.

"Oh jesus. Now our families are going to panic." Paul groaned 
covering his face with a pillow.

"Who let it leak?" Gene questioned, anger blazing in his eyes.

The security chief shrugged. "Don't know. But we'll find him or her. 
It's airing now on the news as we speak. You guys will probably be 
getting calls soon."

Right on cue, Gene's cell phone rang causing everyone to jump.

Gene picked up the phone and hesitantly answered. "Hello?"

"Chaim! Your ok! Your alive!" the female voice on the other end 
sounded extremely relieved.

Gene smiled, "Yeah mom. I'm fine. The press over reacted. We're all 
just fine."

Gene heard his mother start to cry in relief. "Where are you?" the 
tear choked voice asked.

"The hospital. We're going back to the hotel in a little while. They 
just wanted to be sure we're all ok." Gene explained quickly, trying 
to calm her down.

"Who would do such a terrible thing?"

"I don't know mom. I really don't know."

** ** ** ** 

Doc sat, waiting for the guys to finish up their telephone 
conversations. Over the past 30 minutes, cell phones had been ringing 
off the hook and Gene, Paul, Peter and Ace talked to their respective 
parents, girlfriends, children and other family members.

Finally after a few more minutes the men were sitting there silent, 
cell phones beside them.

Doc cleared his throat. "Now guys. I think you know a little more 
than you letting on. I want to know what REALLY happened tonight." He 
said rising to his feet and looking at each one of them meaningfully.

"What the hell are you talking about? We're a s clueless as you are!" 
Peter exclaimed crankily. He was tired and just wanted to get some 
sleep. Not listen to a lecture right now.

Gene looked at the ground guiltily. Ace caught it and looked at Gene. 

"You ok man?"

"No…" Gene sighed. "I have a confession to make."

Peter looked at Gene wide-eyed. He opened his mouth to say something 
but closed it at Paul's glare.

"Peter…" Paul warned. He gave Gene an encouraging smile and nodded 
for him to continue.

Gene took a deep breath and saw everyone staring at him expectantly. 

"For the past few weeks I've been getting notes from some psycho. A 
chick who calls herself `Sweet Pain.' They've gotten threatening 
lately. I have no idea how she gets the letters into my room…its as 
if she's always one step ahead of me. Its disturbing to say the 
least. She wrote that if I told someone she'd kill us. Last night she 
threw a brick through my window with a note. I panicked." Gene paused 
to catch his breath, for once in his life not enjoying all the 
attention being focused on him.

"So I went to Paul. I told him the whole story. And now she does 
this…" Gene looked away from the shocked faces, too ashamed to look 
at any of them.

Doc stopped pacing and stood in one spot, rubbing his 
forehead. "Instead of coming to me about this, you kept it a secret 
and almost got everyone killed?" Doc asked angrily.

"What the fuck Gene??!" Peter yelled actually jumping to his feet.

Gene was still looking away. "I didn't know this was going to 
happen!" he said in defense.

Paul stood up from the hospital bed. "STOP!"

Everyone turned and looked at Paul.

"Can we stop with the fucking inquisition already? Gene fucked up. I 
fucked up too. Make him feel worse than he already does, would you? 
Why don't we all act like adults and figure out what happens next for 
once and stop pointing fingers." Paul lectured, glaring at Doc and 
Peter in particular.

Doc looked down at his feet in embarrassment. "I'm sorry Gene. Paul's 
right. So what now?" he stated slowly.

"You know" Ace started, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Any of 
us might have done the same thing if it happened to us. I don't see 
the point at getting pissed at Gene…" Ace pointed out, matter-of-
factly.

Gene looked over at Ace, surprised and Ace smiled at him.

"Maybe your not as out there as you make us think you are." Gene said 
with a half hearted smile.

Ace cackled. "Sure I am curly! Just felt the need to break the 
tension in the room." Ace grinned. "Cause Peter's so pissed off…don't 
want him to have an aneurysm and stuff." 

Peter scowled at Ace. "I'M not gonna have a frickin' aneurysm. I'm 
sorry Gene. Friends?" He asked sincerely looking over at Gene.

Gene nodded. "Do it again and I'll kill ya." He said jokingly.

Peter laughed and most of the tension in the room disappeared.

The hospital room door opened and an attractive nurse walked into the 
room.

"They're free to go. Doctor's orders." She told Doc, handing him a 
stack of paperwork.

Gene gave her the once over. "Hey babe. Why don't you come over here 
and see if I'm fully cured. I want a second opinion." He leered.

She winked at him and walked out the door.

"He's back!" Ace sing-songed.

"That WAS the first normal `Gene' comment I've heard in a while." 
Paul agreed with a laugh.

"Yeah, yeah. Your just jealous cause she winked at ME." Gene shot 
back.

"Alright enough boys. Lets get ready to head back to the hotel. We'll 
talk more about what we're going to do in the morning. When you are 
all rested up. If you get ANYTHING from your stalker, Gene, let me 
know right away." Doc said gathering his stuff.

Gene nodded. "So…straight back to the hotel?" Gene asked hesitantly.

"Yes Gene. And since we're under tight security don't you dare think 
about sneaking out and wandering the halls. That goes for the rest of 
you. No one goes into your rooms except you. So all you'll be doing 
is sleeping tonight." Doc informed them as they got all of their 
stuff ready.

"No girls?" Peter asked.

"No girls." Doc answered firmly.

Both Gene and Paul groaned.