JULIA

Nobody liked what Amanda was saying. The murderer's letter was forged?

"Wait a second," Julia said. "Are you saying we have no way of telling who the murderer is?"

Amanda nodded, a gesture that sent a chill crawling down Julia's spine. Then what do we do?

"What will we do?" Star wailed, voicing Julia's thought in a more melodramatic way.

"I'm working on it," Amanda replied, pacing around a table.

Julia watched the panic building in the people around her and felt the same feeling bubbling up inside herself. Is there really anything we can do? she asked herself. We had a new lead, and now it's gone. She shuddered. And if the murderer actually had a reason to kidnap Roy, it just meant they were even smarter than the students already thought. What kind of thing could they be planning? Some sort of evil, twisted....

Snap out of it and think, Julia told herself. That's what Amanda's doing, Kathryn too. Probably  also Stewart. I should be thinking with them, and trying to find a solution.

Julia's gaze wandered throughout the library. But what can I offer, really? Julia racked her brain. Nothing.

There couldn't just be nothing. Even the smallest thing....

Julia struggled to reach farther back into her mind, a slight headache forming at the effort. She was looking for something--anything that could help.

A nauseous, choking feeling swept over her like a wave. Her stomach convulsed, and she felt sweat bead on her brow. Just when she felt like she was going to black out, it all stopped.

She was in J. Q. King's office, but it was different than she remembered. There was no body on the floor, and warm rays of sunlight filtered in through the open windows.

Julia stood in front of the door, watching.  There were four people in the room with her. J. Q. King was reclined in the chair at his desk, his amber eyes glowing and his shoulders shaking with a laugh. At his side stood a lanky boy with dark hair and the same amber eyes, wearing a small smile on his face as J. Q. King talked to the two people who sat on the other side of the desk. They were a man and a girl,  and they were laughing, too. The young girl wore a white and yellow dress, and her short, blonde hair bounced around her head as she giggled.

"Good one, David," J. Q. King said to the man, breaking through the laughter. "Do you have any more?."

The man--David--shook his finger. "I don't think so," he said. "It's time for you to open your present."

J. Q. King straightened up. "You got me a present? You shouldn't have."

David laughed. "You always say that. You insist you already have everything in this mansion of yours. That's why I bought you something small."

J. Q. King raised his eyebrows in curiosity. "Oh? And what is it?"

David nodded his head at the girl, who reached behind her back and pulled out a small brown box. She rose from her chair and eagerly presented it to J. Q. King.

"Thank you, sweetie," he said, taking the box.

"You're welcome!" she said with and excited smile. She hurried back to her chair to watch him open it.

J. Q. King made a face as he pulled out a package of postage stamps. "What are these for?"

"Look!" David exclaimed, pointing. "They're card-themed! Neat, right?"

"They do look great, but what am I going to do with them?" J. Q. King asked, frowning.

"Well, they're postage stamps," David began in a joking tone. "You put them on a letter, and you...."

"I know," J. Q. King interrupted. "I know," he repeated softly. Then he was silent.

The smile left David's face. "Come on, John, I'm trying to help you here. You can't just keep yourself cooped up in this old mansion. You can't avoid the rest of the world."

"Yes, I can," J. Q. King muttered.

"Well, you shouldn't. Promise me you'll use these stamps. At least one of them."

"I won't."

"Someday you might. Seriously, you...."

Julia felt a pull on her mind. She only blinked, and she was whisked away from the scene and waking up in the chair in the library.

Apparently no one had noticed her. Amanda was still pacing, and the group discussion was still going. She didn't join. She had her own things to think about.

It was another dream, like the one before, Julia thought. But it hadn't been a dream either. She felt like she had actually been there, like she remembered it. Why did I see that?  she wondered. What am I missing?

Her eyes fell on the letters in their bright red envelops, sitting on the table--discarded evidence for a discarded hope. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as a thought formed in her mind. When she realized what she was looking at, she jumped to her feet. She lurched forward and grabbed the pile of invitations, yelled, "Stamps!" and ran to the door.

"I'll follow her," Heather and Nathan both volunteered, running after her out the library door.

They weren't able to catch up with her until she had stopped--inside J. Q. King's office.

"What are we doing here?" Heather whispered. "Julia...."

But Julia didn't answer. She was too busy rifling through J. Q. King's belongings. After only a few minutes of searching, she stopped. "They're not here," she breathed.

"What's not here?" Nathan asked.

Julia ignored his question and turned to Heather. "You met the real J. Q. King in the forest?"

Heather looked around the office nervously. "Yes..." she replied.

"Do you remember how to get to his hideout?"

"I think so...."

"Then take me there!" Julia exclaimed. When she saw Heather's eyes widen in surprise, she breathed out to calm herself. She explained, "I'm trying to find something, and I think J. Q. King has it."

"What are you looking for?" Nathan asked. "Will it help us?"

"A clue." Julia nodded. "And probably."

Without much more questioning, Heather led Julia and Nathan out of the mansion toward the forest. Julia was a little nervous as they walked through the trees, since they had told none of the other students where they were going. If the murderer attacked, they would never know exactly what happened to the three of them. But Julia kept herself going by telling herself that there were three of them and only one murderer. Those odds would have to be good enough.

Heather brought the group out of a cluster of trees and into a small clearing, where a worn-out, crooked shack sat. "Here we are," she said, gesturing to it. "J. Q. King's 'mansion.' I'll see if he's home." She walked up to the small cut-out window and called in loudly, but there was no response. "That's funny," she said, walking back to the other two. "He's not there."

"He's probably out in the forest somewhere," Nathan suggested.

"How do we get in there?" Julia asked Heather, who was turning to leave.

"Excuse me?" she said, surprised.

"We should check inside anyway. But how do we get in? There are no doors."

Heather shook her head. "There's a lever, I think. But it's on the inside."

"Then how does he get in?" Julia asked.

Heather paused. "I don't know. I guess there's...."

"Another lever?" Julia finished. She wandered around the outside of the hut, looking for anything suspicious. When she found nothing, she continued her search in the tall grass that filled the clearing.

After a moment of standing awkwardly, Heather joined Julia to look for a way in, although less enthusiastically. Nathan didn't bother looking and sat down on a rock to get comfortable. He gasped when the rock sunk into the ground a few inches. He stood up quickly, but the rock stayed down. A moment later, a trapdoor appeared in the ground near the shack.

Julia poked her head out from behind a tree and ran toward the hole. "Good job, Nathan."

He shrugged and muttered, "I just sat on a rock."

The three teens went down the entrance one at a time. They all landed softly on the red cushions waiting at the bottom.

Julia looked around the room, her eyes blinking erratically as they struggled to take in the mess and confusion that sat before them. There were overturned tables, broken vases, floorboards and carpets that had been peeled up, open drawers spilling their contents, and chairs with their cushions torn off and scattered all over the floor.

Something caught Nathan's eye, and he walked toward the staircase.

"What is it?" Julia asked.

Nathan pointed to a reddish-brown smudge on the staircase railing. "Is that blood?"

Heather looked up from a faded picture on the floor with a hole punched through its middle and shook her head dismally. "This place is trashed."

"J. Q. King wouldn't have done this to his own hideout," Nathan muttered, his voice heavy.

Julia was about to answer when Heather called to her and Nathan.

Heather plucked something from the ground, her hands shaking as she studied it. "It's a joker," she said. "There's something written on it."

"What?" Nathan stepping toward her to get a better look.

Heather glanced at him briefly before reading the card. "It says, 'The king of jokers is here.'"

Sornione! Julia thought.

Nathan cried out and jumped back, sending Julia's heart racing. She looked around for danger. "What--?" she exclaimed. "Who--?"

But there wasn't anything dangerous at all. "Heather...." Nathan stammered. "Your...your hair...."

Heather shot Nathan a confused glance. "What about my hair?"

When Julia realized what Nathan was talking about, she gasped. "Your hair is turning black!"

Heather's eyes widened in disbelief, and she bent over the broken fragments of a mirror on a desk to look at herself. Deep black streaks were appearing in her brown hair, starting at the roots and seeping down to the tips.

"What's happening?" she muttered. She turned to Julia, her shocked expression growing. "What's happening to you?"

Julia gave herself a quick examination. "I don't see anything wrong," she said, although a bit nervously.

"I glanced over, and in like...a second...you grew two inches!"

Julia couldn't believe it, and she doubted they could prove it. But then she realized that a few minutes ago she was almost eye-level with Nathan, and now he was almost eye-level with her.

Nathan looked from Julia to Heather and back again, his hand clutching his head. "Oh man.... What is going on?"