A/N: Hey, guys. This is going to be a three-or-four part story, and this is part one. I tried my very best to make Sammy sound in-character. I really hope you like it, cuz I spent a lot of time editing it and attempting to get into Sammy's head. YES, there will be Cammy in it, so don't just close it the minute you start reading it. I know some people only like Cammy, so yeah. There's Cammy, guys. You just have to read it from the beginning to understand it. That's all! Disclaimer: It's almost like a sci-fi type of story, it involves a lot of supernatural things. And, just like the real Sammy Keyes mysteries, you actually have to pay attention for clues and what-not. This isn't a dilly-dally flowery romance. It's hard-core SAMMY KEYES-NESS! I do not own Sammy Keyes. Or the title of the story, which is a Muse song. :)

Prologue

I'm not usually a mean person. I mean, sure. I punched Heather on the first day of school, but that was only because she jabbed me in the butt with a pin.

You would punch her snotty little nose, too, if she had jabbed you with a pin. Believe me.

But sometimes I do tend to get a little nasty towards people. Mostly in my thoughts, anyway. I don't actually go around calling people names. I just think them.

Like if Debra knew that I thought of her as Debra-the-Dodo, well, let's just say that I wouldn't have been a part of her and The Borscheman's wedding.

And if Officer Borsche knew that I thought of him as The Borscheman, then he probably wouldn't like me very much anymore.

I mean, Officer Borsche can be a real pain in the rear end sometimes, but he's pretty decent once you get to know him.

Kind of.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that I can get pretty nasty with my thoughts at times, and I usually keep them to myself. But sometimes I slip up, okay? It's not my fault I have a big mouth.

But then I accidentally opened my big mouth one day to Billy Pratt, and- well, things didn't turn out very well. We'll put it at that.

And now I'm in a big amount of trouble with no one but a bunch of idiots to help me out. And a couple friends. But mostly, a bunch of idiots.

Me and my big mouth.

Part One: Mansions and Basements and Jack Daniels, Oh My!

Do you really wanna know how it started? You do? Fantastic! Let's go sit on a couch in front of a fireplace with hot chocolate and enlighten each other with our wonderful cute little bedtime stories!

Please.

I'm being sarcastic here. I'm not going to tell you. Nuh-uh. You can say and do what you want, but I'm not budging.

Stop it.

Stop staring at me.

Okay, fine! I give in. I'll tell you. But you better keep your mouth shut, alright? We already have more than enough loud-mouths in this room right now.

Here's how it all began...

I was walking to school on a regular October day, you know. The typical weekday. Nothing unusual going around...

When all of a sudden, Monet Jarlsberg saunters up to me and practically spits in my face as she snaps, "Heather just wanted you to know that her brother totally hates you. He thinks you're a total nerd." she sneers down at my rugged white high-tops, "I mean, look at those shoes. You're a freak, alright? Just admit it already."

The thing about Monet is, is that she sounds like she has something shoved up her nose. Maybe it's tissues from her never-ending "cold". Maybe that's why her voice is so nasally. But it sounds like she's permanently pinching her nose, making herself sound like a Barbie doll with a fly up her nose.

I just rolled my eyes and walked past her. Seventh grade had been a horrible year thanks to Heather and her little crew, and I didn't want eighth grade to be the same. So I just walked around her and started up the steps on Bullfrog-Junior-High, aka William Rose.

Monet followed me, though. She started right up the steps behind me, and when she finally realized that I wasn't going to stop to listen to her Snotty Spiel, she marched right in front of me and blocked my path.

"Listen, you high-top wearing, nosy little nerd, Heather told me to tell you that you better stay away from her brother or she'll make your life a living hell."

"What's she gonna make my life a living hell with, huh?" I asked, "Her firey hair? Or her earring-daggers?" sarcasm oozed through the tone of my voice.

"Trust me, she will." Monet snapped as she glared back at me. Then she whipped around and marched away. Just like that.

Heather has tried to break up me and Casey before. Trust me, she has. She's attempted to cut up my shoes and follow me home for it, too. She's tried to send him notes signing off "hang ten, Sammy" that lead him to me, when Billy Pratt kisses me.

She's done a lot more than just tackle me and forge notes, believe me.

But I'm pretty confident now that no dumb trick Heather pulls will get in between me and Casey. I mean, sure, he'd kissed me once. But that was at the very end of summer and we've been back to "just friends" ever since, and it's been two months. School has started, and we're still "just friends".

And I don't spend my time sitting around and crying over Casey. I mean, I like him. I really do. He's funny and really nice, and he's cute. Really cute.

Not that I'll ever admit that to anyone, of course.

And Casey seems to like me for, well, me. He doesn't care that I wear high-tops, and he doesn't think I'm a "nerd".

I'm positive of that. Heather always lies, anyway. She once told me that Casey said he'd rather kiss a codfish than kiss me, and I actually believed the dumb lie for a little while.

How stupid am I, sometimes?

But then he told that she had lied, and now I sort of realized that Heather's favorite pastime is lying. And I'm used to her conniving ways, so I don't even let it get to me anymore.

But the way Monet had said "living hell" was kinda freaky. So... Final. So I went into homeroom.

Mr. Vince is definitely my favorite teacher. He's mean, annoying, smelly, likes to scratch himself, and chews tobacco.

How much more appealing can you get, right? Again, I'm being sarcastic.

I hope you realize that I'm very sarcastic, by now.

Mr. Vince was not in a good mood. He snapped the whole Pledge, and when that was over, he made us sit in silence all through homeroom.

So after homeroom, I caught up with Billy and said, "Hey! What's up with Mr. Vince? He was in a doubly bad mood today!"

"Who caaares? Let him be the Grumpy dwarf all on his own!" Billy laughed, "Although we'll have to face him in history."

I sure wasn't looking forward for that, and I didn't really wanna talk anymore about watching videos on the Indian tribes that helped the first settlers when they landed in America. I could care less about Squanto, really. Squanto can go meet up with Santa Claus and have a joyous, peaceful brunch and I still wouldn't give it a second thought. So I changed the subject, "So... What's up in life?" I asked like a moron.

Seriously? 'What's up in life'? Did I have brain problems? Why do I have to be such an imbecile sometimes?

Billy just laughed again, "Nothin' much, except I got a job babysitting!"

My jaw drops. My ears pop. My eyes bug out. And I must've looked like Dumbo the Elephant or something, with my head tilting forward and my eyeballs popping out of their sockets, and my ears tearing away from my head 'cause Billy laughs all over again and says, "What's wrong? Can't I babysit?"

I started walking again to our next class. "Billy, I can't believe anyone would trust their kid with you. Who in their right mind would let you stay alone in a house with their kid? All night?"

"Ms. Bettaglia, apparently."

"Who's Ms. Bettaglia?"

"You don't know her?" he asked, right as we entered science class.

I blinked at him. "No. Who is she?"

"Her husband, Doug Bettaglia... He owned the Landmark...? Died three months ago...?"

I stopped and stared. "He died? How old was he?"

"Only fifty six. His wife, Ms. Bettaglia is in her forties, but now that she has to work full-time since summer is over, she needs someone to watch her kids all week. So she has a different babysitter for the weekdays and another different babysitter-that would be me-every Saturday and Sunday, from 8 pm to 11 pm. She works late hours on the weekend so she can spend some time with her kids."

"How many kids does she have?"

"Two. Oliver Bettaglia, he's five. I'll be babysitting him. And Ben Bettaglia, he's my age. He never sticks around home, and he sure won't babysit his brother for his mom!"

"Really? That must suck, having a son who won't even take care of your other son for you. Even after the dad is dead."

"It does- Mrs. Bettaglia thinks Ben is a hopeless case. She says she thinks he's on drugs, but I've met him and I don't think so. Ben told me he occasionally did pot but other than that, he doesn't do drugs." Billy lost his goofy smile as he scowled, "Ben recently broke up with his girlfriend- she was your age- but he's pretty upset about it, and he's being really mean to his family about it. He never talks to his mom anymore, and he's always picking on poor Oliver. My family has been good friends with the Bettaglias for a long time, so I thought I'd help out for a couple months. Since Ben won't do anything. And I definitely don't mind helping out because Oliver's a fun guy- and plus, they have every X-Box game known to man in that house- but it bothers me that Ben is so moody and mean to his family. It must be pretty rough on all of them. Imagine going through all of summer without your dad- imagine starting school without your dad- it must be terrible!"

I did imagine it. And I knew how it felt. No dad to drop you off at school or pick you up after practice after school. No dad to ruffle your hair or joke around with. I knew how it felt.

But I was also noticing something else, too. Billy had a serious side. A normal side. He was always goofy and joking around, but he was acting very... I don't know... Serious a few seconds ago. Strange.

He snapped out it pretty quick though, because the bell rang and class had started.

After school, Billy caught up to me and Marissa. "You guys wanna hang out with Casey and Danny and me? We're gonna go hang out at the mall, do whatever you know. Hey, where's Holly and Dot?"

"Holly is at the Humane Society. And Dot's dad drives her all the way home after school every day, remember? And we'd love to hang out." Marissa looks over at me, "Right, Sammy? We'd love to hang out?"

I laugh, "Sure!" and all three of us head off to where the high school is.

Santa Martina High isn't a very big high school. It's not very small, either. It's definitely way bigger than WRJH, but it looks packed air-tight. Like they just had enough space to squeeze in their last kid.

But right now, school was out so there were teenagers all over campus, sprawled around like a beach on a hot summer day. Kids were on the grass, talking with friends. Under trees, talking with friends. On benches, talking with friends. Walking, talking with friends. Then there where the loners, who just strolled around, their iPods or mp3s plugged in their ears as they strolled to wherever loners went to after school.

Spotting Casey wasn't hard, because he was with Danny, and they both spotted us right away, too.

"Sammy!" Casey said as they caught up to us, "What's up?"

I shrugged. "Not much." then I grinned and said, "Did'ja hear about Billy's babysitting job?"

Casey laughed, "Yeah! I still can't believe that he's doing it. But it's pretty cool of him, since the Bettaglias are having a hard time." he lowered his voice a little as he said to all five of us, "I was talking to Ben the other day, and he said pot was easy to score. He said Taylor introduced him. Taylor Briggs. Then he said he met Heather and smoked pot with her, and when I told him she was my sister, he didn't seem to care at all. If Heather thinks she can get away with smoking, she's dead wrong. She'd barely even fourteen yet! What makes her think that stuff is cool?"

Marissa put a finger up. "It's deadly. And gross. And creepy. Smokers are weird."

"She's been smoking for a long time now," I blurted.

All five of them turned to stare at me. Finally Casey said, "How do you know?"

"I..." I instantly regretted saying it. "I've seen the cigarette pack under her bed."

"When have you been under her bed?" Danny asked, and Billy piped up with, "Because Sammy is the Boogey-Man! She'll haunt you in the dead of the night!" he wiggled his eyebrows.

"I've been in her room once. At that Halloween party last year."

"But you weren't invited...?" Danny said.

I looked at Marissa and she looked at me. We both blushed.

"What?" Casey asked, "Did you, like, crawl in through the window?"

"No!" I said, and Marissa said, "Sammy crashed the party as 'Dot's cousin Nikki'. In a princess costume. So she could plug a baby monitor under Heather's bed and prove to the school that Heather the one calling Jared."

Casey grinned at me. "So that's how you did that P.A stunt during the assembly."

I blushed some more. "Well. Yeah."

Billy looked at his watch. "Hey! Guys! I gotta go! Babysitting, remember?"

"I thought it was only Saturdays and Sundays." today was a Friday.

"Yeah, but Mrs. Bettaglia offered to double the price this week if I filled in for the other babysitter, Julia. 'cause Julia has piano lessons after four. So just for this week I've been babysitting Oliver after school." he's about to head off when he turns back around to say something. He didn't have time to say anything at all, because Heather and her two cronies come strolling over right at the moment. Billy pauses a moment and waits, as Heather crows. "Hey guuuuuys!" she fake smiles and then glares at me.

"Hey." Danny was the only mumble back. The rest of us stayed silent.

I could tell Casey was beyond annoyed, especially when Monet moved in on and him and smiled at him,

"Hey Casey. Whaaaaasssup?"

Casey took a step back from her. "Um, nothing. What about you?" he looked pretty uncomfortable.

Heather looked at Billy, "I'm sorry. Were you about to say something? Go on."

"I..." he looked a bit nervous now. "I was gonna offer for Sammy, Danny, Marissa, and Casey to come to the Bettaglia's while I babysit there. Because Oliver loves company." Billy laughed, "Oliver and Company!"

Heather sneers all around her, "What about us? You so rudely didn't invite us, Billy!"

There he is again, looking as nervous as ever. "Umm... Why… Why not?" He said, meekly.

"Great. Come on, let's go." Heather grabbed on to Danny's hand and Monet grabbed onto Casey's.

I don't know if Casey meant to do it on purpose or not, but by instinct, he pulled his hand right away from Monet's.

Monet looked up at him with big wide hurt-eyes. Casey looked away and finally he managed to say through his teeth. "Sorry, Monet. I can't hold your hand. I… I have a girlfriend."

The world seemed to slow down for me as I all of a sudden stopped. I didn't say anything. I just stared at him.

Then I felt stupid. Why was I so upset? It was his life. He could have a girlfriend if he wanted to.

But when I met Casey's eyes, he winked at me, secretly.

Ohhhh. So he was lying to get Monet away from him. Clever.

Marissa elbowed me, signaling that she had also seen the wink.

"And who is your girlfriend?" Heather demanded.

Casey's eyes shifted as he said, "Uh, Sammy."

Now, I know Casey likes me. At least, I think he does. He probably does. He kissed me, after all. Why would a guy kiss a girl if he doesn't like her? And he knew I liked him.

But the thing was, we've never actually said it aloud before. We've always, sort of, you know…implied it. By the way we act around each other.

But here he was right now, really, really heavily implying that he liked me, by calling me his "girlfriend".

Even if it was fake.

Heather looked back from me to Casey and me to Casey. I was half expecting her to tackle me or something, but Heather knows she can't tackle me when she's surrounded by my friends. And her brother.

So instead she breathed heavily through her nose, muttered a few cuss words about me, and marched along.

We walk to the Bettaglias' house pretty much in silence, with Billy being the Head Entertainer.

When we finally arrived, Billy rang the bell and Ben answered it.

"You're here." he groaned. "And you brought friends, too."

Now, I wasn't paying much attention to Ben. I was looking more at the house. It was big. And creepy. It was made of wood and dark panels, and the windows looked uncleaned and old and creaky. The door made a big credit sound and when it shut closed behind us, it made a loud BANG! in a big, hollow room with an old couch and dusty Oprah magazines on the dusty coffee table. It seemed like Mrs. Bettaglia was always busy working so she could never tidy up around the house, ever.

It was a big house, and it had nice potential, but it was really old-looking and creaky and wooden so it was really weird-looking. The floors were made of creaky old dark-wood and the stairway seemed to go on forever in a big spiral. It literally looked like the set of a haunted house movie. It looked like a big, giant version of Monster House, only not cartoony, and much, much creepier. It was five times the size of Marissa's house, that was for sure.

The kitchen was much nicer than the living room. The kitchen had a bowl of half-rotten fruits on the center table, but other than that it had boxes of Krafts food lined up by the stove. Mostly macaroni and pasta and stuff. The floor was still wooden, but the cabinets were stainless steel. All of them. It was like seeing Iron Man walk into a Jurrasic Park movie. High-tech Iron Man verses Ancient T-Rex.

Classic.

Anyway, I decided to check out Ben a little better. He was the same height as Casey, and he had dark black-ish hair and deep blue eyes. His mouth was a half-smile half-frown permanently, and his eyes were completely narrowed. Like, permanently. He was chewing that Big League gum that baseball players chew instead of tobacco. I could tell, because I could see a big dark purple wad of sticky glob chompin' away inside his mouth. You could see that gum from a mile away. And smell it, too. I could smell the intense grape flavor from all the way across the room.

Oliver Bettaglia skipped into the kitchen. "Hi Billy!" he beamed when he saw that Billy brought a lot of friends. "Yay! People!"

Billy laughed and bent down so he was eye-to-eye with the big-blue-eyed, black haired kid. He had a little bit of freckles across his nose and I tried not to think of Casey who was standing right there anyway. I mean, a five year old reminding me of my pretend-boyfriend? How pathetic was I?

I glanced up at Casey who was grinning at me. "What are you thinking?" he asked.

"I have no idea, really." I said, taking a deep breath. "I really don't even know what we're doing here."

Billy spun on me. "You guys are all here to stay with me and Oliver while I babysit! Oliver loves company!"

Ben rolled his eyes and opened the fridge. "Okay, Billy, say whatever you want. I know my mom doesn't mind at all, but don't you think it's a little suspicious to bring a bunch of girls with your guy friends in here alone? Even a little?"

Billy looked hurt. "Um, no! These are all my friends. That's all."

Ben eyed us girls and gave Casey and Danny a little smirk saying, "Don't you guys mean 'friends with benefits'?"

Casey gave him a disgusted look, "Look, dude, if you don't have anything even remotely civil to say, don't say it at all."

Ben tightened his smirk, pulled a bottle of Jack Daniels from the fridge and eyed Heather. "Oh, hey, Heather." he said to her like he was noticing her for the first time today. "Didn't notice ya here. I'm going to a party-" he waved the bottle around- "wanna come along? You can bring Monet." he grinned creepily at Monet and Monet blushed.

"Hey, what about me?" Tenille whined.

Ben gave Tenille a little look. "Um, sure, you can come too." it was obvious he didn't really like her. I didn't blame him. Tenille was the most annoying and the most moronic out of the Three Biggest Morons ever, and that was saying something right there alone.

Heather gave us all a little wave, "Byyeee lossssers!" she said as she went across to the kitchen to Ben.

"Where do you think you're going? Most definitely not to any party right now." Casey gave Heather a quick dirty look and something about the way they were looking at each other made it obvious that they were silent-sibling-talking with their eyes. The thing about it was, was that Heather listened. And fast. She slowly turned to Ben and gave him an apologetic blink.

Ben didn't think twice about it. He turned to the door and said to Monet, "You can still come." he faced Tenille, "And you can stay with Heather." he rolled his eyes again as he left with Monet. And Jack Daniels, for that matter.

The minute they were gone, Casey turned to Heather and said through his teeth, "You're not going to hang around Ben Bettaglia anymore, understand?"

Heather glared back, "You can't tell me who I hang out with!"

He snorted, "I can if you're hanging around people who are influencing with you to smoke and drink."

"And Taylor and Jake were any better, huh? Hypocrite!"

"Do you ever see me smoking?"

"No-"

"Then there you go! That's your answer! Stay away from Ben, or else I'll have to tell mom about the pack of cigarettes under your bed." then he turned away and they didn't say another word to each other.

While the whole brother-sister-spiel was going on, Billy and Danny were pulling things out of the pantry.
Billy pulled a bag of marshmallows out from the pantry. "Who's up for a game of Chubby Bunny?"

Marissa jumped up, "I AM!" because Marissa was like the Chubby Bunny Champ or something.

All of a sudden Ben and Monet burst back though the sliding wood paneled door. "All the doors are locked." Ben breathed, "We've tried them all. All of them. Every door, even the patio doors on the top floors. Even the windows. Everything. And I mean everything is locked." he slammed the Jack Daniels bottle down on the counter, then thought twice about it, picked it up and began unscrewing the cap off.

Monet tried to act like a damsel in distress, but since none of the boys were exactly offering to personally comfort her or anything, she soon gave up and joined Heather and Tenille in the corner. "It's true." she said, "It's completely true! We're locked in! This is like, Scary Movie 3 or something!"

I rolled my eyes, and for the first time in like fifteen whole minutes I said something, "How is this like Scary Movie 3? That doesn't make any sense."

"Shut up, I never said it made any sense, did I?" she said stupidly through her nasally voice.

"Are you sure the doors are locked? Try my keys." Billy handed Ben his keys but Ben shook his head, "Those keys only work to get in the house, Ben. No one uses keys to get out of a house. Only to get inside. And I don't see how it's even possible to lock the doors from the outside." Ben lifted the bottle of Jack Daniels and took a long, choppy swig from it and since I was the one closest to him, he held it out and offered me some, "Wan' some?"

I wrinkled my nose. "Um, no thanks."

He shrugged and took another long, desperate gulp straight from the bottle.

All of a sudden we heard whimpering. It was coming from Oliver, who was crouched on the ground, making little fussy whimpering noises. Even slightly crying.

I bent down next to him. "What's wrong, Oliver?"

He said in a very frail, shrunken voice, "Whenever Big Brother drinks anything from a bottle like that he becomes different. He becomes weird and scary! Stop him!" he was pointing to Ben and the bottle.

I turned to Ben. "Dude, could you stop drinking? It's freaking out your brother."

Ben just laughed but from the way he laughed I could tell- he was far too much in it to get out now- it was too late to stop him, now. He was already a little frisky yet wobbly from the drink.

He waggled the bottle everywhere. "What? A bottle is freaking out my brother? Puhhhh-lease!" he snorted. "Now lemme call my mom to tell her about the messed up doors."

Ben rang up his mom on his cell phone while Danny was telling Marissa something- a joke or something, because Marissa was laughing and smiling. Obviously they weren't worried about being locked in a huge creepy house that didn't belong to them. And maybe I shouldn't have been worried either, but something about the whole thing was wrong... Something felt out of place.

So Casey and I listened as Ben bantered with his mom. "Mom- can you just listen to me-? Yes, we're locked inside… MOM...! MOM! Yes, I tried to patio doors... Mom, I know about the- mom, you're being stupid... YES, you're stupid. STU-PID! YOU'RE STU-PID! You don't know what you're talking about! There's five girls and four older boys, and then there's Oliver. Mom! Fine! Wait, you're coming home late tonight-? Of course I knew! STOP IT! No, I didn't take anything from the fridge... Fine, I did, but who cares? Just... Shut... Up!" and he snapped his phone shut and looked at us with a bemused expression. "My mom's being 'unreasonable'." he cackled. He grabbed the bottle and took another long gulp of Jack Daniels.

"Can you stop drinking that?" Danny asked. "We need to get out. We all have families and homes we need to be getting to. We don't want to stay here watching you get drunk out of your mind."

Ben waved his hands around. "Guys, come on; follow me to the living room. We can at least sit there."

So we all sort of shuffled behind Ben and in the living room we all sort of sat around or stood awkwardly.

Ben took a seat next to me. Real close. He smiled at me, and it was this really creepy, dirty smile which made my stomach do flip-flops inside.

"What's your name?" he mumbled.

"Um... Uh... Sammy..." I choked out.

He smiled that smile again and I could smell his acidy breath as he breathed, "Sammy... Niiiiice."

So since he was creeping me out, I got up and found a seat next to Casey who looked relieved to see me get away from the drunken fourteen/fifteen-year old.

Ben moved onto Marissa and said some creepy things to her too, which made her scooch away and change the subject, "So-"

All of a sudden it thundered a big, booming thunder that made everyone jump out of their seats.

Then everything happened at once.

Ben started laughing hysterically, and he was laughing so loud he was practically shrieking and howling with laughter. We could hear his echoing howls bouncing around the big old wooden hallways around everywhere. And then, following his shrieks, the lights went out and a giant thunder boomed again. Then the power went out and lightning lit up the room for a brief second. Ben was still laughing just as hard but now he was pounding on the big wooden coffee table in front of him. He was pounding and laughing and pounding and laughing.

The thunder was booming, there was the patter of loud, fast rain outside, the lightning was flickering the room every once in a while, and the Oliver began to cry. Billy and Marissa hurried over to him and since Ben was now really close to me and his pounding was banging up my ears, Casey grabbed me and pulled me close. We could barely see anything, except a silhouette of Ben pounding and shrieking hysterically. Then he stopped and rested his head against the front of the couch, by my legs. And he passed out.

I bent down and poked his face. He didn't move or flinch.

"He's officially out." I announced. I felt this sick feeling creeping through my body.

"Nooo," Oliver whimpered. "This happens all the time! I hate it! Nooo!"

Monet was also whimpering in her seat next to Tenille. Heather was plenty freaked out too but she was attempting to keep herself calm and collected.

Meanwhile, I held myself together as Casey pulled me back away from Ben. "I don't want you by him." he whispered in my ear. His voice rang around my head; his warm breath tickled my ear and made my face burn hot. I was so glad it wasn't bright outside so he couldn't see my flushed face.

We sat around in silence for a little while.

"Looks like we're gonna be here a while." Billy said, fumbling around for the emergency matchbox under the coffee table. He found the matchbox and fumbled some more with the candles and finally managed a dim light giving the room a low, faint glow.

We all sat around in silence some more and all of a sudden I could feel Casey's hands on my shoulders and his face close to mine and then I had a mental freak-out. I couldn't let him kiss me here! It was dark and... And scary! I didn't pull away, though, and he didn't end up kissing me like I was afraid he would. He just whispered to me, "Are you okay?"

I nodded. Through the dim light I could see Marissa's face, pure fright pulled into a horrified grimace. She looked at me with wide eyes and then back at Ben, "S-Sammy-?"

"Yeah?" I answered back.

"Can we leave now? I mean- I have to get home- Mikey is all alone!"

I gave her a half-smile, trying so sound upbeat as I said, "Don't worry, Mikey goes to Hudson's house after school now, remember?"

She sighed, "Yeah, I remember, I just wanted to get out of here."

Ben let out a soft moan. I got up and bent down beside him. "Don't you think we should do something about him?"

Just then the lights flickered and Oliver let out a little yelp and everything went dark again. Even the candles were out now.

Billy managed to light a couple more candles and then he gasped and said, "Oh no, where did Oliver go!"

We looked around and sure enough, there was no Oliver.

I walked over to where the grand staircase was. "Oliiiiiiver! Oooooooliiiiver!" I called out. "Come on, Oliver! Come back!"

We all called his name out for a while and then Danny said, "You think we should go look for him?"

Billy nodded quickly and Heather snorted. "Who cares? It's his house, he obviously knows his way around."

"But I'm babysitting him. I need to know where he is." Billy said.

Marissa whimpered, "I... I think I'll stay here to keep an eye on Ben... Or... Or something..."

Monet said, "I think I'll stay here too." and Tenille agreed quickly.

You could tell Heather was dying to stay behind too, but much to Marissa's dismay, Danny grabbed her arm and said, "Come on, Heather. You can search with me." so Heather gave in and trotted up the steps with Danny.

I looked back at Marissa and she waved her hands a little as if to say, Go on! Don't worry! I'll be fine here with Psycho-Monet and Psycho-Tenille!

I nodded and she gave me an encouraging half-smile as I turned back to Casey and Danny. "You guys can check this floor. It's big enough for someone to get lost in... I'll go to the basement, okay?" I turned to leave and Casey said, "No! Uh... I mean... I don't want you to go alone."

I rolled my eyes. "Casey. I'll be FINE. I can handle myself."

There was worry in his warm brown eyes. "But-"

Billy piped up with, "I'll go along with you, Sammy!" and jumped beside me.

I kinda gave Casey a, What can I do? shrug and headed off to the basement with Billy.

The dark wooden steps creaked every time we took a step. We went downstairs and there was a normal couch by two washing machines, and lots of doors surrounding the room. Lots of them. All white and freshly painted with shiny brass doorknobs. What the heck? I opened one and stepped inside with Billy behind me. Nothing. Nothing but a big white room with nothing in it. The white room had a bunch of doors in it too, but I soon realized that the doors in the big white room were the same doors that the basement doors led to. So why did a room so random need a bunch of shiny white-and-brass doors? Just for emptiness? No windows, no wooden floors. Just a white floor with white walls and a white ceiling.

Billy looked pale. "Maybe we should go now." he said softly and we turned back to go upstairs, since there was nothing in the basement.

We found Casey in one of the hallways upstairs.

"Find anything?" he asked.
I shook my head, "We found this huge white room with a bunch of doors that led right back to the same main basement. It's really weird."

Casey eyed me and Billy and then he grabbed my hand. "And I didn't find anything either, so let's just go tell Danny and Heather upstairs."

We all headed up the large red-carpeted spiraling grand stairwell. Casey kept looking back at me, which made my face feel flushed and hot and awkward. Finally when we got upstairs he let go of my hand and called, "Danny! Heather!"

No one answered.

"Danny? Danny! HEATHER!"

Still no one. Then we heard banging in one and room and we opened the door to the room and couldn't believe what we saw.

Ben and Danny strangling each other.

"Hey! Hey! Guys!" Casey ran to break them up. They finally stopped and panted for air and they glared at each other and then at Casey. They had swollen eyes, messy hair, bloody noses and bloody, cracked lips. Their shirts were rumpled and messed up.

I took a step closer. "What happened?"

Ben spat out, "He was hitting on Heather."

Danny snapped, "So? I can hit on whoever I want."

"Yeah, well not Heather. She likes me, not you."

"Oh yeah? I don't think I saw your name on her, huh?"

"Shut up-"

"Stop!" Casey finally cried out. "You guys were fighting over Heather? As in Heather, my sister, Heather?"

They both nodded vigorously and Casey said, "Then where is she?"

Both their eyes widened as they scrambled up and we all called her name out. No Heather.

Heather was gone too.

This really was beginning to seem like a sick horror movie!

We all finally plopped down in one room where there was two big beds to take a break from searching.

Billy was holding his head. "Man. Maaaan. God, what am I gonna do!"

"We'll find them once the power comes back." I said, "Don't worry."

Ben gave me a rugged grin, "I forget- you're Sammy, right?"

"Uh, yeah." I was wondering how Ben had gotten up so fast. Hadn't he just passed out like an hour ago?

Ben grinned even broader. "Heather's friend?"

"Not really." I said. Casey snorted.

"Hm, well you don't mind being a sloppy second do you?" He got up and sat down beside me, grinning from ear to ear, his eyebrows raised mischievously.

I hesitated. "What?"

"I want to know, do you like Vodka? I can get you whatever you want." he smiled that smile again. "You know, loosen you up."

"No! Leave me alone! Get- away- from- me!" I got up and backed away from him and Casey said, "Dude, back off."

All of a sudden from under the bed something grabbed onto my ankle. I screamed and jumped up and backed away again, and screeched, "What was that!"

Everyone was startled by my scream, all right.

"What happened!" Casey asked.

I pointed under the bed. "Someone is under there..." I said, shakily.

Casey gave me a half-smile, "I think you're imagining it, Sammy."

"Ca-sey! I wouldn't just lie about- oh, just go see for yourself!"

So Casey got down on his knees and lifted up the hanging bedspread. In an instant he saw something and backed away a moment and went, "Woah! There is someone here!"

I smirked, "I told you!"

Billy got down beside Casey and Ben just laughed. "Sammmyyy seeeesss a ghoooosttt!" he sang loudly.

The thing under the bed started giggling. Wait a minute. Giggling? I got down and looked under just to see Oliver, crouched under the bed, giggling his head off.

"Nice," I said sarcastically, "I've just been scared by a five-year-old." I got up, "I think I'm going to go downstairs and get Marissa and the rest of them. I bet Heather joined them downstairs. As I headed downstairs, I looked down at the red-carpet stairs, and on the seventh step I felt the carpet loosen as I walked over it. That was strange. A loose carpet? On stairs? I bent down and tried lifting the carpet but it wouldn't lift. I banged my fist against it once and heard a hollow, cabinet-like sound. There had to be a secret door or cabinet down there, it felt just that way. I slid my hand through one of the bars on the side-post, and found a little knob right by the loose-carpeted stair.

I grabbed the knob, twisted it and pulled. Nothing happened. I twisted and pulled again, expecting a little hand-sized door to swing open. Still nothing. Then I twisted it and pushed. Immediately the door thing swung inside the little room and sure enough, this little step on the stair was a secret cabinet. I searched around with my hand and found a little box. Pulling it out and staring at it, I felt guilty. Should I really be going through this stuff?

But then I noticed something. The little box I was holding was dusty and it looked like someone hadn't touched it in over fifty years or something. I carefully lifted the lid off, and inside the box were a rusting old key and a paper.

"Casey! Billy! Ben!" I ran back upstairs, my heart racing, as I read the old faded words on the paper.

The paper read, 'Daed si AilgaHed RevilO'.

Daed? As in that Greek god, Daedalus? And si as in the Spanish word for yes? And what did 'AilgaHed' mean? And 'Revilo' sounded like some sort of medicine. Or something.

Casey and Billy came running out of the room into the upstairs hall, followed by a swaying Ben.

Casey asked, "What's wrong?"

I showed him what I'd found and Casey stared at the paper. "Maybe this is a clue to where the key is supposed to go? And besides, Sammy. Why does it matter? We don't need an ancient key! We need a Schlage, that's what we need- to get out of this house!"

"I know! But this note is really bothering me."

Billy grinned, "I told you she does this all the time!"

Casey shot Billy a look. "Look, we really need to find a way out of this house. It's dark, raining, there's no power, and Ben here is drunk out of his mind. I don't think Mrs. Bettaglia should store that stuff in their kitchen anymore." he eyed Ben, "He got some more after he woke up."

And then Ben collapsed. Again. Except, this time he did it right next to me so I made a feeble attempt to grab him and hold him up but he was too heavy for me. Thud, he fell to the ground.

Casey tsked and pulled Ben up again. He shoved him at Billy. "Here, dude. This time you're holding him."

Oliver suddenly appeared beside me. He smiled faintly. "This is fun!" then his eyes gleamed. "I love company!"

"I know you do." I grumbled.

Suddenly Ben started to mumble something even though he was passed out. "Not my fault... He died... Mom... Just... Two of us... Alone... Now...?"

"What?" I snapped. "What does he mean 'just the two' of them? What about Oliver! That's three of them!"

Oliver smiled faintly again, "I don't count in this family." he whispered. And then he said hoarsely, "Technically, I don't even exist..." then he wandered down the steps into the kitchen.

I took off after him, calling, "Hey! Where are you going? What do you mean you don't exist? OLIVER!"

And one minute he was walking, the next he vanished. Just like that. Into a small closet. I opened the closet and stepped inside. Nothing. No one. Nobody was in the closet. It was just an empty room with...
All of a sudden I noticed a keyhole! A keyhole! I raced back to Casey, "Give me that key I found."

"Why?"

"Just give me! And c'mon, I need to show you something!"

Casey ordered Billy to stay behind with Ben as he followed me back down the steps to the closet I had found. "What's the deal, Sammy...? I don't get it... Why are you acting so strange...?"

"Just follow me and be quiet!" I snapped as I opened the closet door. I stuck the key in the hole and turned and pushed. Immediately the wooden wall opened up like a door and we faced a long narrow hallway.

Just then the closet door banged shut behind us- by itself. No one had been in the hallway but us.

Casey tried to open it, then he whispered, "It's locked, Sammy."

"It can't be..." I tried to open it too, but it was true, the door was locked tight. We were locked in the closet. Together.

Oh, God, why?

"Let's see if there's another way out this hallway." I pointed to the dark hall.

Casey took out his cell phone and used it as a flashlight to guide our way, "Okay. Stay next to me." he grabbed my hand. For an instant I forgot about the mess we were in and my heart jerked around in my chest at the feeling of Casey's warm hand wrapped around mine. Then I shook off my star struck thoughts and we entered the hallway, with nothing but a cell phone and a paper to accompany us in the dark, soundless halls of the Bettaglia Mansion.

A/N: If you couldn't tell already, some romantic Casey/Sammy moments will happen in the next chapter. So… don't die on me yet, Cammy fans. :D Comment? Like, please? Love you!