RICK and ROY

Since Rick and Roy actually liked running, they thought it would be easy to keep up with J. Q. King. But they were getting shorter, and their legs were getting stubbier. Soon they were falling back to where Amanda was. It took a minute for Amanda to realize what was happening and explain it to them. They weren't happy about it.

"You mean I'm not going to be the same person anymore?" Roy exclaimed.

Amanda nodded. "That's right."

Roy turned to Rick. "Can you believe it?"

Rick shrugged. "I guess that's how it works. We get our memories back, and we're brand new people."

"Old, actually," Amanda pointed out. "You're turning back the way you were. You just don't remember it."

Their conversation trailed off as they noticed the people in front of them slowing down.

"What's going on?" Rick asked as he caught up to the front group, which had stopped running completely.

Madison turned to him, panting. "We're going to take a break."

"Wait!" Amanda said. "We can't stop now. We need to get to Stewart as soon as we can."

Madison shrugged. "That's what J. Q. King said. But I convinced him it wouldn't be any good if we showed up too exhausted to help."

"I'm good with that!" Roy said, dropping onto a rock. "My recently shortened legs can't take much more running."

Rick sat down as well, and soon every student had found a place to rest. J. Q. King sat ahead of everyone else, wringing his hands and looking off into the forest every few seconds.

"So, while we catch our breaths," Amanda said, breaking through the silence. "How about you tell us more about what happened to us, J. Q. King?"

J. Q. King turned his head when he heard his name. "What?"

"We want to know what happened," Rick said.

"In our past, with PITY," added Roy.

"Oh." J. Q. King ran his hand through his hair. "Well, you came to PITY because you were vital witnesses of a crime--Sornione's," he said. "He had planned it to be...."

"Unforgettable," Julia finished. Everyone else turned to look at her where she sat with her back against a tree.

"What did you say?" J. Q. King asked.

"He wanted it to be a crime that everyone would remember, but something he could get away with," Julia continued, as if she didn't hear him. "If it went as he planned it, he would."

"Julia," Amanda started. "How do you--?"

"Wait!" J. Q. King interrupted. "Listen."

"It involved us," Julia droned. Her eyes were blank. "He selected kids and kidnapped them. He didn't know any of them previously, except for two."

"Louis," J. Q. King whispered, "and Ellie."

"He blackmailed us, threatened us until we couldn't help but do what he said. He made us rob a bank and burn it to the ground."

Roy nudged Rick with his elbow.

"What?" Rick whispered.

"What is she doing?" Roy asked.

Rick shrugged.

"How does she know all this stuff?"

"How should I know?"

Roy backed down, muttering to himself, "Freaky."

"We escaped after that, or at least we thought we did. He must have meant to let us go. He knew that J. Q. King would give us refuge with PITY, so he sabotaged the procedure again, messing with our heads. I don't remember much after that, but we must have been able to leave before he did anything. He was probably planning to kill the Catalyst so we would never get our old lives and memories back. But he didn't get the chance."

Julia was silent for a moment before the students and J. Q. King realized that she was finished. She shook her head as if she were just waking up and looked around, confused, at the students who were staring at her.

"That was seriously freaky," Roy whispered to Rick.

"Definitely," he replied.

J. Q. King walked slowly over to Julia. He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, watching her carefully. "How did you know all that?" he asked in almost a whisper.

Julia glanced at him, then at the students. "Know what? Did...did I say that...out loud?"

Roy nodded. "Yeah, you did."

"How did you know?" J. Q. King repeated.

Julia shrugged. "I don't know. It...just came to me. But it feels like it belongs there...in my memories."

J. Q. King took her face in his hands, squinting as if straining to find something in her features. After a moment, his eyes lit up. "Ellie?" he said.

To everyone's surprise, she responded, "Yes?"

"Ellie," J. Q. King continued. "I think you're the Catalyst."

Rick and Roy glanced at each other. "You mean it's not Stewart?" Rick exclaimed.

J. Q. King's eyes grew huge. "You're right!" he said, stepping away from Julia. "Louis is not the Catalyst!" His wide eyes were fearful. "But he's still going to kill him."

Before the students knew what was happening, J. Q. King took off into the forest. Madison was the first to react, sprinting in the direction he had gone, with Nathan following closely behind.

"Should we follow him?" Roy asked.

Rick shrugged.

They didn't have much time to decide. One by one, the other students took off after J. Q. King.

"Wait for us!" Roy said. He and Rick ran, still stumbling over their newly shortened legs. Ahead of them, they could barely hear J. Q. King shouting, "We have to save him!"

Rick shook his head. "Here we go again."

SCARLET

"Scarlet!" her father called from the floor below. Scarlet pulled her gaze away from the window and went to the top of the stairs. "Yes?"

"How is our guest doing?" Sornione shouted.

Scarlet glanced at the window again, then peered down the stairs. "Dead," she lied. She walked down the stairs, hoping he would not want to see for himself.

"Ah," Sornione said, holding out his arms when she came into view. "What would I do without you?

Succeed, Scarlet thought. Her traitorous act had prevented that.

Sornione smiled at her. "J. Q. King will be coming any moment now. I am not sure what to do."

"What are some options?" Scarlet asked.

"Wait for him to come, tell him the news about his son, and then kill him. Or, since I'm impatient, I could find him myself, and then tell him the news and kill him."

Scarlet had an idea. She smiled as sweetly as she could. "We should do both. We don't know that J. Q. King is coming. We should go after him ourselves, just in case. But if we're gone and he comes here, we'll miss him. So I will go after him, and you will stay here. Whoever finds him first is the winner. It can be a little game."

Sornione's eyes lit up and he laughed, patting her on the shoulder. "A game! I like the sound of that. Perhaps you should go slowly--go easy on your old papà."

Scarlet nodded, still smiling. Or maybe I'll forfeit and get out of here for good.

"Go ahead then," Sornione said with a wave of his hand. "If you find J. Q. King, make sure to give him my regards." He shoved his hands into his pockets turned to keep his eyes on the hatch in the wall--the place where J. Q. King might appear.

Good luck without me, Scarlet thought, then slipped upstairs and out the door.

MADISON

"We're almost there!" J. Q. King shouted, running faster. "I can see it!"

Madison was running right behind him. The sun had set, but out of the darkness ahead of them grew a faint light, leading them to their destination. "We're almost there!" she yelled behind her, in case the other students hadn't heard J. Q. King.

As soon as they entered the clearing, J. Q. King ran to a boulder--the one that would open the trapdoor. "Wait!" Madison exclaimed. She grabbed his sleeve before he could do anything. "Stop and think for a second."

"I don't have time to think!" J. Q. King argued, trying to break free. "I have to save my son!"

"Strength in numbers!" Madison said. "Wait for the other student."

J. Q. King relented and paced around the boulder as the rest of the group arrived. Madison counted them as they came, then nodded. "Now you can go."

J. Q. King stepped firmly on the stone. It sank under his weight. A moment later, Madison heard a creaking and thumping noise. Then there was light filtering through a hole in the ground a few feet away.

"Everybody in," J. Q. King said.

"Be careful," Amanda added. "Sornione and Kathryn are probably waiting for us."

"I'm scared," Lara's said quietly.

Madison looked at the house and took a deep breath. "If anyone doesn't want to go in, that's fine. You don't have to. But I'm going."

She looked back at Lara. The girl was almost trembling, but her face was determined. "You're not going without me," Lara said. "I'm going too."

"And me," Roy said, followed by a nod from Rick.

"So am I," Julia said.

Amanda nodded. "Let's go get Stewart."

The rest of the students eventually joined in agreement. Madison tried to smile, mostly to encourage herself. "Then let's go."

J. Q. King had started shifting his weight from foot to foot impatiently as the students spoke. Once he saw that they had made up their minds, he jumped down the hole without another word. Madison sighed and followed.

The ride downward landed her in an awkward position, with her elbow poking into her side, but she got up quickly when she heard a voice. "And another one!" Sornione exclaimed, grinning at her.

Madison backed up next to J. Q. King, who was already standing and fixing his enemy with a furious glare. One by one, the other ten students fell through the entrance and scrambled to their feet to stand with them.

Sornione couldn't stop laughing. "Look at you!" he cried. "J. Q. King and his army of children! You think you've come to save Louis?"

"That's right," Madison retorted.

"We will save him," Amanda said.

"And we're going to take you down too!" James exclaimed.

Sornione roared with laughter. His eyes locked on J. Q. King. "Hah! You are idiots!" His face twisted into a sneer. "And J. Q. King, you are the king of idiots! You're too late!"

J. Q. King barely blinked. "Too late?" he repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Yes, too late!" Sornione cried. "You came to find your son, but Scarlet killed him long before you arrived!"

Madison's gut clenched. That couldn't be right. They couldn't have failed. He has to be lying, she thought.

J. Q. King's shoulders sagged. "I don't believe it," he said.

"Believe it!" Sornione shouted. "He's dead!"

J. Q. King shook his head. "No!" he yelled back, but his voice wavered.

No! Madison thought. They had come so far. It couldn't be for nothing.

"Yes!" Sornione almost shrieked. "Do you need to see proof? I have won!"

J. Q. King started to sink to the floor. "No!"

Sornione was turning red with laughter. "He's dead, he's dead!" he said, tormenting him. The students all jumped back as Sornione lunged forward to kick J. Q. King in the ribs. He grunted and fell to his side, not even trying to get up. Sornione kicked him again and again. "Louis is gone!" Kick. "Stewart is gone!" Kick. "The Catalyst is gone!" Kick. "Your son is gone!" Kick. "All of them in one person! It was so easy!"

"Stop it!" Amanda screamed. Madison turned to see her struggling to break free as Nathan and Heather held her back. Her eyes were red with angry tears. "Stop it! You monster!"

Sornione only laughed harder. "I could keep going," he said, "and I could stop. It doesn't matter. Either way, the truth stays the same."

"Let me go!" Amanda grunted. "We have to stop him!"

"Calm down, Amanda!" Heather cried. "Please!"

Madison stared at the twisted, laughing face of the man standing before her, and at J. Q. King, who lay curled up like a wounded animal on the ground, whispering his son's name over and over again.

They've both snapped, Madison thought. She looked back at the students behind her--Amanda trying to rush forward; Nathan and Heather holding her back; Rick, Roy, and Dwain doing the same for James, who was throwing every swear word he could think of at Sornione, daring him to fight him; Star and Lara huddling against the back wall, both crying and trying to make themselves look as small as possible; and Julia watching everything with a blank look as if her brain were broken.  And we'll all probably snap too.

JULIA

Julia had no idea want to do, standing frozen as she watched the horrific scene play out in front of her. Fear swept through her until everything--the other students, J. Q. King, Sornione, the room they were in--seemed unreal. Only one thought flashed through her head, over and over again. Stewart's gone. We've lost.

But it couldn't be the end. Julia shook herself. Think! There has to be something I can do, she thought. Just one small piece of resistance. Then maybe Sornione wouldn't completely win.

Then she remembered. He hadn't completely won. He thought he had gotten rid of the Catalyst, but he hadn't. She opened her mouth to speak, but she was afraid. What if Sornione did the same thing to her that he had to Stewart?

Julia glanced at the other students. They're terrified, too. She thought of Stewart. He wouldn't be afraid, would he?

She drew in a deep breath. "Sornione!"

The man stopped laughing. "Who said that?" he demanded.

"I did," Julia said, stepping forward.

Sornione's dark eyes latched onto her, widening with recognition. "You," he said, shaking his finger at her. "Ellie. The daughter of J. Q. King's pitiful friend."

Julia lifted her chin. "That's me."

Sornione's eyebrows furrowed. "How would you know?" he asked. "Who told you? Louis? J. Q. King?"

Julia shook her head. "Nobody needed to tell me. I remembered it."

Sornione took a step back. "What do you mean?"

"I remembered it, Sornione. I'm the Catalyst. You got the wrong person."

Sornione's took another few steps back.

"What are you doing?" Heather whispered.

Julia didn't pay attention. She kept her eyes on Sornione.

He scowled at her. "I didn't kill the Catalyst?"

Julia nodded.

"Liar!" Sornione jumped forward and grabbed her shirt collar. Her heart raced as she felt her feet leave the floor.

"Julia!" Nathan exclaimed, running toward them.

"Stay back!" Sornione shouted, turning in his direction. Nathan didn't stop, and Sornione swung his fist at his head. The boy reeled backward and fell to the floor.

"Don't hurt them!" Julia exclaimed. "I'm the one you want!"

"No," Sornione growled through his teeth. "You're a liar!"

"I'm not lying," Julia said. "Look. The students are still changing."

Sornione glared at the teens behind her. A few seconds later, another line of dirty blonde streaked through Rick's brown hair, and another large patch of freckles appeared on James's face.

"See," Julia said. "The Catalyst is still..."

"I know!" Sornione roared, a murderous glint in his eyes. He tightened his hold on her. "But you could still be lying. How can I know it's you, and not one of the others? I'll just have to get rid of you all!"

Before he could make another move, there was a loud crash, and the loud footsteps pounded through the ceiling above them. "Downstairs!" a man's voice shouted. Several armed police officers surged down the stairs. One of them spotted Sornione and shouted, "Freeze!"

Sornione shoved Julia to the ground. She shook off the dizziness that filled her head, scrambled to her feet, and ran back to the other students.

Sornione was forced to surrender, and he was handcuffed and taken up the stairs. A few police officers stayed behind to keep an eye on the students and J. Q. King, who was still on his knees, hiding his face in his hands.

"Is everyone all right?" a boy called from upstairs.

Julia looked up and couldn't help but smile.

It took another moment for J. Q. King to lift his head. His face lit up when he saw Stewart--or Louis--coming down the stairs.

J. Q. King pushed himself to his feet with renewed strength and ran to the stairs to meet the boy.

Stewart gave him a small smile. "Dad?" he said, a little hesitantly.

J. Q. King sobbed. Enveloping his son in a hug, he said, "I have waited so long to hear you say that again."