JULIA

Julia was jarred from a deep sleep by the nerve-racking sound of a scream. She bolted up and looked around to see what horrible thing was happening. She saw that the screams were only coming from Madison, who was yelling at the students to get up.

Julia obeyed and rose to her feet, although she still had no idea what Madison was yelling for. "What is it?" Julia asked her, rubbing her eyes.

Madison's face was white, and her voice was strained. "I think we should wait for everyone to be awake." She looked around at the few students that were still blinking the sleep away from their eyes and hollered, "Wake up! WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!"

Eventually, all the lazy teenagers drifted to their feet. Most of them were yawning and stretching, but Julia was very awake now. "What is it?" she asked.

Madison did another sweep of the room to make sure everyone was listening. Dwain and Lara moved to stand beside her.

"We have really bad news," Madison started, her voice shaky.

She had everyone's attention now, including Star's. "What is it?" she muttered. "Did you lose your basketball?"

Madison shot Star a look that silenced her immediately. "No," she said, continuing quietly. "We lost Rick."

"What do you mean?" Star exclaimed, her eyes wide. She looked around the room, her blonde curls shaking. Everyone else checked, too. Rick wasn't there.

"I had a dream tonight," Madison said. "I saw Roy. I think he's alive somewhere, but he needs help."

Julia let out a sigh of relief, but most of the students were still anxious. "But what about Rick?" she heard Heather exclaim.

Madison's eyes grew clouded. "I was getting to that. I told Rick about my dream, and he believed it. Before anyone could stop him, he ran out of the library to find Roy."

"All by himself?" Julia asked, growing more afraid.

"Yes. Lara, Dwain, and I went after him as soon as we could, but we had no idea where he went. We searched wherever we could. He wasn't anywhere inside, so we went outside."

Julia noticed Dwain and Lara take a small step back. It was almost too subtle to see, but she had caught it. Whatever they had found outside was not good.

"We followed the path," Madison said in an almost a whisper--another sign that she was about to say something bad. "We came to the pond...."

Lara started crying.

"We found this on the bank," Madison said, holding up a card in her trembling fingers.

Julia knew what it was. A joker. That meant that Rick was either kidnapped, or....

"He's gone," Madison said shakily, confirming Julia's fears. "We think he was drowned in the pond."

"How do you know that?" Star cried out in a shrill voice. "He could have been kidnapped, like Roy!"

Madison shook her head grimly. "That's what we hoped. But we read the card."

"Let me see that!" Star walked forward and snatched the card from Madison's hand. She lifted it to her eyes and started reading it aloud. "Hello again. You've lost another one of your players, this time more...permanently...." She trailed off. When Madison saw that she wasn't going to read any more, she took the card back and finished reading it herself. "If you don't want anymore losses, stop trying to find me. If you don't, I'll see you again."

The students looked paralyzed. Julia glanced over at Amanda and Kathryn. They were the two main people trying to find the murderer. It must be hard, Julia thought. They probably feel responsible.

Julia looked at Stewart, who was acting differently than everyone else. Sure, he looked sad. But his eyes were also filled with a light, as if there were a hundred wheels turning in his head. He stood like that for about a minute, then slowly turned and walked to the back corner of the library. No one else saw him leave; only Julia knew where he was going—the room where Amanda was keeping all the evidence that wasn't in her notebook.

Julia wondered if she should follow him and quickly decided against it. Let him do his own thing, Julia thought. If he's always this sneaky when he looks for clues, maybe he can solve this before the murderer even knows he started.

Julia returned her attention to the other students. Lara was still crying, Dwain was trying to calm her down, and Amanda was questioning Madison.

Kathryn walked up behind Julia. "What do you make of it?" she asked quietly. Since the news had been broken, everyone's voices were hushed.

"I think it's horrible," Julia replied, still trying to listen in on Amanda and Madison's conversation.

"Did you find anything else by the pond?" Amanda was asking.

"No, just the card."

"But it's a good thing we know Roy's alive," Kathryn said, bringing Julia's attention back to her. "If not, there would be three deaths."

"I think two's more than enough," Julia replied flatly.

"Of course. But I think we're close to finding the murderer. What happened to Rick and Roy means that the murderer is still in the mansion. And the more they strike, the more evidence we can uncover."

Julia shook her head. "We're not close enough. How many more people are we going to lose?"

Kathryn sighed. "I don't know."

Julia's attention was again drawn to Madison and Amanda, who were starting to raise their voices.

"Are you saying that you left the students behind, unguarded, to go after Rick?" Amanda almost yelled.

"Yeah, we did! We thought you were waking up. We weren't exactly being quiet. But I guess everyone's so lazy that they just went right back to sleep!" Madison retorted.

"You should have been more careful! Someone back here could have been hurt. Or someone could have woken up, gone outside, and pushed Rick into the pond!"

Madison turned red with shame and anger. "I'm sorry, okay? We weren't thinking! I'll take all the blame if that's what makes you happy!"

The students who were watching were stunned. Amanda and Madison seemed stunned as well, when they realized how loud they were.

Of course it's not Madison's fault, Julia thought to herself. It was the murderer, not her. Unless she is the murderer.

Amanda shook her head hopelessly. Madison collapsed into a chair. Covering her face in her hand, she said quietly, "I am sorry. It was stupid. I should have realized...."

Amanda cut her off. "No, I'm sorry. If someone just ran off like that, I wouldn't be able to think either. I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Me too," Madison muttered.

When the shouting was over, the other students found their voices again. Nathan separated from the crowd and walked over to Amanda. "What are we going to do now?" he asked.

Amanda shook her head and sighed. "I don't know," she said.

Julia was shocked. It sounded like Amanda was giving up.

Who would help them now?

"If I could make a suggestion," Kathryn said, "I think I know what we can do."

Amanda raised her eyes to look at the girl. "Yes?" she said.

Kathryn took a step forward. "Well, there were a few things the students found in the mansion that they mentioned yesterday. Some of them haven't been thoroughly examined."

Amanda's eyes grew brighter. "Yes?" she said again.

"For example, the basement. Madison and Lara found a whole box of things that might be evidence. But they only took the birth certificate. I suggest we go down there and see what else we can find."

Everyone was obviously glad that someone was deciding to take action. They agreed immediately.

"So, Madison," Kathryn said, turning to her. "You found it before. Do you want to lead?"

Madison shook her head, still hiding her face in her hand.

"Okay then. Who wants to go? We need at least three people."

Without realizing she was doing it, Julia raised her hand. "I want to go," she said. She didn't know why. Maybe she was curious. Maybe she just wanted to be useful somehow.

Kathryn acknowledged her with a nod. "Okay, we have one. How about two more?"

No one immediately volunteered.

Kathryn walked over to Lara, who was still shaking from crying, and put a hand on her shoulder. "How about you go?" she said. "You and Madison are the only ones who went down there before."

"No," Lara replied with a small hiccup. "If it's okay with you, I'd rather not."

Kathryn sighed. "Can you at least describe the box?"

Lara nodded. "It's small," she said. "It's labeled 'PITY' in red. We found it in the right back corner of the room."

Kathryn nodded. "Thank you, Lara. Now, who else would like to join Julia?"

Nathan stepped forward. "I'll go," he said. "And James will, too."

James looked up, indignant. "I'll what?" he exclaimed.

"Good. You should get going. The rest of us will stay in the library and look for other clues. You should bring the box back up here."

"And bring an oil lamp with you," Madison mumbled from between her fingers.

"Yes," Kathryn agreed. "It's probably dark down there."

James rose to his feet. "Why couldn't J. Q. King have installed some electricity?" he muttered to Nathan.

Julia, Nathan, and James met in the middle of the room. Heather ran over to them and handed them an oil lamp that she had taken from one of the library's tables.

"Thanks," James said sourly, taking it from her.

"James, we don't need any of your attitude," Nathan said.

"You were the one who volunteered me," James grumbled. With that complaint made, the three of them left the library.

Julia could see why Madison and Lara hadn't spent much time in the basement. It was dark and musty. The door, which had been kicked down, was ancient, and the air itself felt decades old. There was no light other than the oil lamp they had brought. With its dim glow, Julia, Nathan, and James searched for the box. They found plenty of other boxes on their way to the back corner of the room, but they guessed that they were only filled with junk.

Julia followed Nathan, who was holding the light, and James, who was walking beside him. She stubbed her toe on a few of the boxes that were sticking out. She even tripped and tumbled into Nathan and James.

"Watch it," James snapped.

When the two boys didn't start walking again, Julia asked, "What is it?"

"We've reached the back corner," Nathan replied. Julia saw him bend over and move a few boxes around.

"Where's the box?" Julia asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

As Nathan searched some more, Julia's eyes wandered around the darkness, her mind drifting in thought. What else was in the box? What if there really were more clues? What if....

"This is not good," Nathan muttered.

Julia snapped back into focus, and her eyes went to the source of light. Walking towards it, she asked, "What is it?"

Nathan straightened up, holding the lamp level with his head. Julia could see his discouraged face in the yellow light. "The box," he said. "I think it's gone."

"Let me see." Julia took the lamp and walked over to where Nathan had been looking.

The floor was covered with a layer of dust, but there was a neat, little square section where the floor was somewhat clean. Something that had been there before had been taken.

That wasn't the only clue. In the middle of the clean square lay a joker with the words, "Finders keepers," scribbled on its white face.

"How...." Julia started.

"They knew we were going to look!" James said. "The murderer's a student!"

It did seem likely. If the murderer was a student, they had heard the conversations about finding the box in the basement. They could have slipped away and disposed of the evidence as soon as possible.

Julia stared at the empty spot on the floor. "What are we going to do?" she stammered.

James shrugged. Nathan took the lamp back from Julia. "We can't do anything down here," he said. "Let's go back upstairs and tell the others."