AMANDA

Amanda woke up the morning, bleary-eyed and dazed. The first thought that came to her mind was that it had all been some very strange dream, in which the owner of the mansion had summoned each student in the most mysterious manner, only to end up playing a complicated card game with them. However, when she sat up, Amanda found that she was in the private room the maid had led her to afterward, sitting on the couch with a blanket draped across her lap. It had all really happened.

This realization made Amanda even more confused. Why? she thought. Why was it so important to play a game with all of us? And why now, after avoiding us for days? There was no logical answer that she could grasp.

But she remembered what she had found in the drawer. She swallowed nervously. Of course she couldn't find the answer to her questions; there was more going on in Murray Mansion than she was being told.

Amanda flew to her feet quickly. She rose too fast, and had to sit back down in order to orient herself, but she was back up in an instant. "I have to tell someone," she whispered to herself. Maybe now that the meetings were over, she could finally find someone to confide in.

When she exited the small room, she ran into a maid standing outside the door. She nodded at Amanda and began to walk swiftly down the hallway. Amanda assumed that she was showing her the way downstairs and hurried after her.

Descending to the second floor, Amanda found things still surprisingly silent and empty. No other students seemed to have left the top floor, leaving Amanda to walk the echoing hallways alone once the maid went away. She wondered why no one else was there until she caught sight of a clock hanging on the wall. Five in the morning! she thought. I guess no sensible person would be awake at this time.

She had nothing to do. Breakfast and classes weren't for another few hours, and there was no one else awake to talk to. At that point, Amanda would have headed straight for the library, but the shock of her discovery still haunted her. She didn't want to return to that place.

After wandering aimlessly through the halls for a while, Amanda finally decided that all she wanted was a bit of fresh air. She found her way to the lobby—empty, of course—and out the main doors.

The air was crisp and cool, and the sky was a cloudy gray, since the bright summer sun hadn't risen yet. Amanda raised her eyes and smiled. Birds were singing their morning ballads in the still treetops of the forest. Around her the green fields stretched out, swaying gently in the light breeze. The lakes that dotted the landscape sat motionless and serene, reflecting nothing but the still, chalky sky.

Amanda began her walk down the path, setting each foot in front of the other slowly, while her eyes wandered and her mouth sat twisted in a whimsical smile.

She followed the path all the way to the edge of the woods. She could hear the avian songs more clearly and could see into the light-spotted foliage and undergrowth. She ventured off the path, which veered away from the forest, and sat on a speckled boulder at the foot of a young birch tree.

Amanda ran her hand over the rough, cool surface of the rock and kicked playfully at the layer of browning leaves at her feet. After sitting quietly for a moment, she looked around and sighed. "If only everything could be as simple as this," she said aloud. Her voice broke through the silence of the forest sharply. But not long after the words had been said, they faded among the trees.

Amanda leaned against the birch tree. "The forest is calm, everything is beautiful, and the mansion looks so peaceful. But what's inside?" She paused to let her question sink into her surroundings. A bird whistled, and another chirped three times. A squirrel clattered along a branch somewhere over her head. There was no answer—not from the forest, not even from her own mind. "If only everything were this simple," she repeated in a whisper.

A loud clamor came from the branches above her. A dozen birds cried and took to the air. Above all the tumult, there was a loud groaning.

The last thing that Amanda remembered was looking up. The noise turned into a ripping sound and then a sharp crack, and before she could move, a huge mass of leaves and wood tumbled out of the trees above and plummeted straight toward her.

She heard a thunk and a loud ringing in her ears and felt a splitting pain in the side of her head. Then the trees grew blurred and the birdsong quiet. Everything went black.

MADISON

The visit with J. Q. King had been just as terrifying as Madison had anticipated, but only until she had actually entered the office. Madison had built up enough nervous dread that what she was met with was disappointing.

The man had been pleasant and not sinister at all. He had just welcomed her in with a gracious smile, directed her to a chair, and then begun a card game with her.

That was when things had started to get strange.

"So, Miss Levine," he said casually while scanning the cards, contemplating his next move. "How have you been sleeping?"

"Excuse me?" Madison lowered her cards slightly.

J. Q. King put two cards down with a flourish. "Double nine. Are the beds comfortable?"

Madison didn't know what to say. "Yeah," she said. "I guess." She put down a ten and a jack.

J. Q. King continued to talk, his full focus still on the game. "Comfortable? Yes? Good." He drummed his fingers on the desk's surface. "How have your dreams been treating you?"

Madison nearly dropped her cards. Her eyes shot to the man, but he didn't return the gaze. "How did you...how do you know I'm having bad dreams?"

J. Q. King put down his next card. "Ace," he stated, ignoring her question. "My turn again, you draw. One of the maids told me."

"Which one?" Madison asked.

J. Q. King looked bewildered. "I'm not sure, now that you mention it. They all look the same. Two threes."

Madison didn't want to play the card game. It was her turn, but she set her cards face-down on the table. She only wanted to figure out exactly how much J. Q. King knew. She locked him in a determined glare that demanded that he drop his cards as well. He noticed, tucking his cards neatly into his pocket and lacing his empty fingers together on top of the desk. "You want to talk, Miss Levine," he said simply. "You can talk."

Madison didn't need to be told twice. "How did the maid know about my nightmares?" she asked, jumping straight to the point.

J. Q. King grinned. "She didn't. She only noticed that you didn't look as well-rested as the other students and informed me. So instead of prodding her for more details that she wouldn't know, I decided the only person to ask about your sleeping problem would be you."

Madison blinked twice. It made sense.

"I was planning to meet with all the students anyway. All I had to do was establish that it wasn't lousy accommodations causing your sleep deprivation. My only assumption left was that you are having nightmares, which you readily proved correct. So now I ask, Miss Levine...." He leaned forward. "What are these nightmares about?"

Madison was annoyed. She couldn't believe J. Q. King had weaseled the information out of her so easily. The last thing in the world that she wanted to do was talk about it, so she stood and turned to leave.

"You don't wish to finish the game?" J. Q. King called after her.

"No," she replied. She knew she couldn't trust him.

"Are you sure you do not wish to discuss them with me?" he called again.

Madison tried to shut his voice out of her thoughts.

"You may need to. Dreams aren't always just dreams, you know."

She couldn't take any more of it. She turned, looked J. Q. King directly in the eye, and snapped, "I don't care!" She pushed through the door as if it were as light as styrofoam. She was gone.

"Oh well," J. Q. King said with a short sigh when she had left. "I win then."

As soon as she had come out, Madison was led to a small room where she was supposed to spend the rest of the day and the night. While she was awake she sat on the couch and stared up at the empty ceiling. She wondered what J. Q. King would do with the information. Would he do nothing and keep going along, playing cards up in his office as if he had never known? Would he try to get her some help? Or would he do something bad with what he knew? As far as Madison could tell, anything was possible.

While she was asleep she dreamed. The nightmare that came was unlike the ones she had had before. There was no maze, no darkness, no bottomless lake. She was only in the mansion, although the lights were dimmer and the students and maids were nowhere to be seen.

Madison was walking down the dark hallways, running her hand along the wall. She was in the students' hall, passing each door slowly on her way to the lobby. There was no light coming from the slit underneath each doorway, but she still felt as if there were people behind them, waiting to let her in. She raised her hand once to knock, but she withdrew. Something in the back of her mind had stopped her.

Madison exited the hallway and came out into the lobby. Once there, she looked around for something that would give her an idea where to go. Her eyes landed on a strange object lying in the entrance to a hallway. She drew closer and picked it up to study it in the meager light. It was a card, soft around the edges. The picture was faded, but it was visible enough for Madison to just make it out. "A joker," she whispered.