JULIA

Julia finished her last sentence and set her paper on her desk with a sigh. The clock on the wall said that she had finished with about two minutes left. Her Social Studies teacher, Miss Dew, saw her put down her paper and came over to pick it up. She looked it over from top to bottom. Once she was sure it had been done correctly, she walked back to her desk, sat down, and set it with the other ones.

Julia looked over at Kathryn, who was sitting in a desk to her left. She was silent, completely absorbed in shuffling her cards.

Julia shifted her gaze and stared at her desk. She had experienced one of the strangest days of her life.

That pebble had disappeared. She hadn't told anyone because she was afraid that she might have been hallucinating.

There was also the maids--they all looked and almost acted exactly the same as one another. Julia hadn't seen all of them in the same room at once, so she couldn't be sure how it made sense. Were they a very large set of identical twins? Or was it something else?

No matter what, it's freaky, Julia told herself.

And then there were the cards. Everything about the mansion reminded her of them--a heart here, a club there. However, compared to all the new weird things that were happening, the familiarity of the decorations was almost starting to be comforting.

The bell rang, signaling the end of Social Studies and all other classes for the day. Julia leaped to her feet and turned to Kathryn, who was still shuffling mindlessly. "Come on, Kathryn." Julia prompted, "Classes are over."

"I know," Kathryn replied without moving. She still fiddled with the cards. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.

"Do you really have to shuffle those cards all the time?" Julia asked, growing impatient.

"If I want to play a fair game, yes."

Julia stood, watching the cards go back and forth until her eyes ached. Kathryn still made no sign of moving. Then she lifted her chin and looked at Julia. "You can go," she said.

"I'm waiting for you," Julia said. "You said we'd go back to the pond after classes were over. I'm not going without you."

"Didn't I tell you?" Kathryn asked with a confused look.

"Tell me what?"

"I'm staying here. I need to talk to the teacher."

Julia looked over to the teacher's desk. Sure enough, she was still there, sitting and waiting with her hands folded.

"Oh! I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Kathryn," Julia said. "You didn't tell me. I'll leave so you two can talk." She turned and hurried to the door. As she came into the hall, she muttered under her breath, "Though I don't think there's going to be much talking done."

Julia walked quickly down the hall, her thoughts racing. I won't go to the pond alone. The stone disappeared! The pond could be a trap, a hole, some sort of hologram covering something dangerous....

But I have to go. I need to know what's going on. This mansion's only getting stranger. If there's something going on here and I stay because I don't know about it, what if something even crazier happens?

Julia rounded a corner, her feet and mind working mechanically. But the pond could mean nothing. Maybe it's just some security thing that's out of order, and J. Q. King didn't notice it was broken, or he decided not to do anything about it.

Or maybe I'm just wrong. I could have hallucinated it. It was bright outside. My eyes were probably tired or unfocused.

Julia passed the lobby's empty couches and fireplace. She was so busy forming each new thought that she was barely aware she was still moving somewhere.

Yeah, I hallucinated it. There's no other logical explanation. Skipping stones don't disappear mid-skip. Ponds aren't holograms. Nothing strange or sinister is going on. Nothing....

Julia stopped when she realized where she was. It was the spade pavilion; her feet had led her to it. It was just as beautiful as it was when she had last seen it. It had the same gleaming glass walls and polished stone pillars, the same sweet-smelling, crimson flowers, and the same elegant grand piano. But today there wasn't a storm brewing above the clear ceiling. Today the sun was shining soft and bright against a blue sky.

Julia's gaze didn't linger upwards. Instead, she looked at the piano. Something so magnificent had to be used, played. It couldn't just sit in a room, however lovely that room was, and gather dust.

Julia went to it, this time experimenting more boldly. She pressed each note individually, played a few together, pushed harder and softer, and held the keys longer and shorter. As her hands moved across the piano's surface, Julia started humming along. She was playing and singing, not to some actual song but to her own series of sounds.

I didn't go unheard.

"You know, you have a really nice voice."

Julia turned sharply on the piano bench. There was a boy, dark-skinned and bright-eyed, leaning against the door frame. When he saw that she had turned, he shifted his weight onto his feet and stood there, arms crossed and smiling slightly.

"How much did you hear?" Julia asked, anxious to get the question out, but not to hear its answer.

"A little," the boy replied, "Halfway through a chromatic scale, I think."

Julia didn't know what that word meant. She tried to hide her confusion by looking at the floor, but the boy had seen it.

"If I'm not mistaken," the boy mused, "you have a great musical ear, but you don't know much about it."

Julia turned red. "It was rude to listen uninvited," she stated.

The boy shrugged. "It's not rude to walk where I want to. Tell me, how much do you know about music?"

"Um...." Julia started quietly, her face still flushed.

"Can you read notes on a page?"

"Notes?"

The boy frowned. "Too bad," he said. "You have such a good voice. If only you knew some music theory, you could do so much more...."

Julia shifted uneasily on the bench. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just wondering why you're here and when you'll leave."

The boy smiled. "You're not the only one who knows about this room. In my arts class we were told about all the musical instruments kept in the mansion. Most of them are in the theater, but there's a piano here. I'm supposed to write a song for a project in that class. I came here so I could do that. Then I heard you playing. And since you asked when I'm leaving...." He grinned. "I'm not. I'm going to write my song, and I want you to help me."

Julia's eyes widened. She jumped up from her bench, mouth hanging open in protest. "What?" she exclaimed. "Me? Help you write a song? I don't know anything about music!"

The boy waited until she was finished to reply. "I know that, but you can feel music, which I think is important."

Julia didn't respond.

He continued. "I have experience with musical theory and technique, but it wouldn't mean anything to me if I couldn't give my music some heart. You may be reluctant to help me, but I know you'll do fine. With your instinct and my knowledge, we can go a long way. Trust me. You're more talented than you think."

Julia stood in stunned silence. Talented? The boy thought she was talented? Talented, after everyone had made her feel so much like she wasn't--her peers, her little brother, even herself?

She chooses realized that she was one of the main reasons she thought so little of herself. She had subconsciously agreed with her little brother's belief that her invitation to PITY had been a mistake.

But now someone thought she was talented.

"Are you sure you want me to help?" Julia asked.

The boy grinned. "Positive."

Julia managed a small smile and nodded her head. "I'll do it."

"Great!" the boy exclaimed happily. "Let's write a song! But first, I need to know the name of my partner."

"Julia Forth."

"I'm Nathan Abbott. Now, let's go to the piano. I was thinking the song should be in B flat major, something upbeat and lively."

Julia didn't know what that meant, but she nodded anyway.

MADISON

Madison flopped down on her bed with a muffled thud. "Finally, school's over," she said. But her face was buried deep in her pillow, so it sounded more like "Ffiffuffee, ffuu's offfer." Either way, she was exhausted. True, school had only lasted for four hours, and of those four, Madison had only been in a class for three. However, any sort of school was tiring for her.

As she lay lazily on her bed, she felt her eyelids being weighed down with fatigue. In only a few minutes, they were closed, and her mind drifted off into the swirling sea of sleep.

When she woke up it was the middle of the night. The wind batted at her window and the oil lamp flickered slightly. Other than that, her room was completely still and dark. Not a whisper of sound was to be heard but her breathing.

Suddenly, something creaked. She turned her head quickly, her eyes pointing through the dim light to where the sound had come from. Her eyes became fixed on the smooth floorboards. A few minutes passed as she held her gaze. The sound didn't come again. Nothing was wrong.

But there was.

My room has carpets.

Her eyes darted back to the floorboards. It wasn't her room.

As soon as the thought came to her mind, she could start making out shapes in the darkness. She wasn't in her room, but in the crossroads of some massive hallway. Dark tunnels lead out infinitely in every direction from where she stood. The only light came from the small oil lamp that sat on the floor at her feet, its eerie glow flickering in the stale draft that filled the place. Madison stooped down to pick up the lamp with trembling hands. Something wasn't right. Everything was wrong. Where was she?

Thud!

The oil lamp fell from her startled hands with a crash of shattering glass, and the light vanished. What was that sound? she thought, her eyes desperately flicking left and right in the darkness. It sounded like a door closing far down one of those hallways. She listened closely. Then her heart jumped. She could barely make out the sound of...were they? Yes, footsteps.

She didn't know why, but she was seized with the urge to run. She didn't know what was coming toward her, but she knew it wasn't good. She picked a direction, any but the one that the sound was coming from, and ran.

The tunnel she had chosen was filled with the sound of her own frantic footsteps. She ran as fast as her strength would allow. Her heart pounded and her breath came in heavy gasps. But the further she ran, the louder the other set of footsteps became--louder, louder, until they completely drowned out any other sound. Then they stopped.

Madison's scream tore through the solid blackness. She had run right into the thing that was making the sounds. It was a man, Madison thought, though she couldn't tell without light. All she saw was a silhouette of some massive, human-like thing, towering above her and reaching toward her with an enormous hand. A deep, echoing voice rumbled from it. "I found you."

Madison tried to run, but her legs wouldn't budge. She tried to turn, but she couldn't even blink her eyes. She was frozen with fear and helpless to do anything as the hand reached down closer.

Then she heard the creaking again. It was coming from the floorboards. The creaking grew louder.

"I found you," the giant repeated, reaching, reaching, reaching...

Creak, creak, creeeeeaaaak...

The solid floor gave way under Madison's feet. She screamed, hurtling into unknown darkness as the floorboards peeled away and buckled under the weight of her fear. She knew she was falling, down into an infinite abyss, but she couldn't see anything. She could only hear the voice of the thing, reverberating endlessly....

Laughing.

Madison shot up in her bed. Sweat was beading on her face and her heart was racing. Her breath came in sharp gasps as she anxiously surveyed her surroundings. The hallway had disappeared. She was in her room again. Through the familiar stained-glass window, the sun was setting. She looked directly to her right. Lara was there.

"Wha...what are you...doing here?" Madison demanded between gasps.

Lara's expression didn't change. She sat near Madison with a mixture of concern, sympathy, and fear written across her features. "I'm here to help you," she said, her voice trembling slightly.

"Why?"

"I heard you scream. I came in here and found you tossing and turning in your bed. You were shaking and crying out, and your face was really white. I tried to wake you up, but you wouldn't open your eyes. So I just had to sit here and wait for it to be over." Lara paused. "What did you dream about?"

Madison shook her head. "I don't want to say."

Lara frowned slightly. It was the closest thing to impatience that Madison had ever seen in her expression. "Well, if you don't tell me, then how am I supposed to help?"

Madison considered it for a moment. She was still trembling from the horrible vision. She didn't want to think of it anymore; it was just too unpleasant. But maybe Lara could help.

"I...," she started, but her voice cracked. Taking a deep breath, she explained the entire dream. Lara listened, nodding her head every now and then.

When Madison had finished, she was shaking again. Lara put a hand on her shoulder to steady it, then said, "That does sound scary, but it was just a dream. Do you remember having any others like it before?"

Madison nodded her head. "Ever since I started high school. I had horrible nightmares just like this one every time I closed my eyes. I was afraid to go to sleep, until I got my...." She stopped. She had almost said it.

"Got your what?" Lara pressed.

Madison felt tears of embarrassment prick the corners of her eyes. She had to tell her. "My teddy bear," she said quietly.

Lara looked surprised for only a second, and then she smiled. "You sleep with a teddy bear?"

"Yes."

"And that keeps the nightmares away?"

"Yes. I also have a tiger and an elephant."

"And those help too?"

Madison froze. She looked to Dr. Gregg and Penny McParks. They were on the floor, flung off from her frightened tossing and turning. They had been there, but she had still had the nightmare. "No," she said. "Just my teddy bear."

"So why do you think you had the nightmare?" Lara asked.

Madison closed her eyes. "He's gone. Mr. Dimpleton--my teddy bear. I lost him."

Lara patted Madison's hand. "Don't worry. We'll find him."

Madison shook her head. "You don't understand. I had him right here in my room. I looked everywhere, but he's not here. Somebody took him."

Lara smiled gently and repeated, "We'll find him."

"No. We won't."

Lara sighed. "You don't have to worry, Madison. I promise I won't stop looking. We'll find him, and you won't have those dreams anymore."