This was, undoubtedly, the second best day in fifteen-year-old Mitchie Torres' life. The very best day had been her first time at Camp Rock. The second was, as expected, her second summer at the place she had come to call her home away from home: the place where she fit in and truly belonged.

Her mother had become the official camp cook, so Mitchie arrived via their Barney's Burgers commercial van. Tess, of course, pulled up fashionably late, daintily stepped out of her stretch limo, and tossed her long blonde hair while peering out from behind her diamond-studded sunglasses.

However, if Mitchie had bothered to take a second glance, she would have noticed something different about Tess Tyler. Gone was her usual confident and superior attitude. In its place was an emotion close to anxiety, and it totally changed her otherwise perfect features. She also would have taken in the way Tess would nervously sneak a look at her luggage from time to time, as if she were worried that something inside of it might break…or be discovered.

But Mitchie was too busy catching up with old friends and greeting a whole boatload of new ones, trying to make Della Livingston, one of the many newcomers, feel welcome as the others had once done to her.

"Caitlyn!" she exclaimed upon seeing her best friend. After their ups and downs, the two girls had quickly formed a strong bond. "How's the music producing going?"

"Good," Caitlyn replied, her dirty blonde curls bouncing slightly as she nodded her head to the beat of a song playing from her iPod. "And how's the singing for you?"

"Awesome - I just recorded my first demo CD," said Mitchie proudly.

"So…do you want to go put your stuff up?" Caitlyn asked. A moment's pause, and Mitchie still hadn't answered. "Hey! Earth to Mitchie!" she joked.

"What? Oh, sorry. I was, um, looking for somebody." Mitchie blushed.

"Lover boy's over there. Go ahead and talk to him."

"Really? You don't mind?"

"Shane hasn't shut up about you since he got here. Believe me, you'd be doing us all a favor!"

"Thanks, Cait!" Mitchie set down her bag and walked over to say hi to her favorite cookie-cutter pop star. She tried, unsuccessfully, to sneak up on him, but upon hearing her footsteps, Shane almost immediately turned around.

"Mitchie!" he said, excitement gleaming in his eyes. How that boy still managed to send her breathless was beyond Mitchie, but those dark, chocolate brown orbs always got her good.

"Never fails! I can't believe it's been a year since I've seen you! Man - did you get taller?"

"Five nine, baby!" Shane bragged, smiling. "I've beat Jason by about an inch, not that he'd notice with his head up in the clouds. Or trees, I should say."

"And Nate?"

"Serious as ever, and still at five six. Where is my little fro-bro, anyway?" "I think he's over there, having a conversation with a friend," replied Mitchie, jerking a thumb in Caitlyn's direction. "They would make such a cute couple."

"Cute? No. Perfect? Yes! Maybe Caitlyn can start teasing him instead of me."

"She only does it because you drive her crazy!" she cried in her bud's defense.

"And proud of it! Come on, Mitch. Let's stop playing matchmaker and go to the orientation before it's too crowded," suggested Shane as they began to walk together.

"…And here at Camp Rock we don't say, we sing! So could you repeat that for me?" said the camp instructor/counselor, Dee (AN: I guess that's her name. I couldn't quite tell! Correct me if I'm wrong).

Immediately, the whole group of teenagers chorused, "Hi, Dee!"

"Not bad! A little pitchy, but we can fix that! In the meanwhile, why don't you go on to the mess hall and have something to eat? I hear that the kitchen's fixing up some great burgers!"

"Ah, not more burgers! I swear, if I eat another of my dad's signature grilled Barney-burgers, I may just sweat meat juice," said Mitchie. "I'm gonna go wash up, OK? I'll meet you there."

After saying goodbye to Shane, Mitchie headed towards her new cabin to put up her special journal containing all of her ideas and songs. She quickly flipped through the book's worn pages and smiled, reminiscing over the fond and not-so-into-the-distant-past memories.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the famous Mitchie Torres, come to grace her presence at Camp Rock?" said a voice sarcastically. With a start, Mitchie immediately spun around to see a familiar face.

"What are you doing?" she asked warily. Something was very wrong. She could practically taste the suspense hanging in the atmosphere surrounding her and her visitor.

"No need to be so nosy, Mitchie. I can say hi to my friends, right?"

"Last time I checked, you weren't my friend. In fact, I thought you pretty much hated me," Mitchie replied.

"You know, you're right! But I have my reasons. You and your little friend, Caitlyn," spat Tess, "ruined everything I ever wanted. I was so close, but then you waltzed in on the scene and took it with one fell swoop! It's not fair that a newbie got everything within a matter of weeks! Everything!" She was almost in tears, but quickly recovered when Mitchie tried to speak.

"I'm sorry that I took that from you, but it wasn't even your to begin with -"

"Oh, but it will be. I'm not stupid, Mitchie. Did you really think that you would get away with it so easily? Did you really think that I'd just let you skip away with Shane off into the sunset? Like I didn't matter? Like I didn't even exist?" Tess questioned, a note of pain ringing through her bitter words. "Nobody is my friend. Not Ella, not Peggy, and certainly not Caitlyn. Not anymore. Why should you be friends with the whole camp, while I have no one? Why should you have anyone, anyone at all?"

"I…" Mitchie truly didn't have anything to say. She was shocked into silence.

"You don't! After last year's Final Jam, while you were off celebrating with Shane and Jason and Nate and all the others, I was thinking. My own mother doesn't care about me, but both of your parents were there in the audience, cheering you on. All my friends had deserted me, only to turn to you after they stormed off and left me without a single backup singer. It didn't have to be that way. I could change everything with just one click of a button, and think nothing of it."

And, with that, Tess opened her jacket to reveal something hidden in its pocket. She pulled it out, pointed the gun straight at Mitchie's head, and placed her finger on the trigger. "I'm in control, Mitchie," she said, almost as if she were speaking more to herself than her hostage. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

Lunch had started twenty minutes ago, and there was still no sign of Mitchie. Shane was beginning to grow worried. It wasn't like her to say that she'd come and then just not show up. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Ring! Ring! Ring!" His phone vibrated loudly, somehow managing to be heard over the loud chatter vibrating throughout the mess hall.

He picked up his phone and looked at the incoming text. It was from Mitchie. Shane quickly opened the little envelope and looked at the words, standing out against the stark white screen:

Come 2 the cabin in the woods. I have something I need 2 tell u and the others. Luv, Mitchie

Weird. Oh well - it must be important if she wanted all of them to be there.

"Guys. Mitchie wants to talk to us in that old cabin in the woods," Shane announced to the whole table.

"Why?" questioned Caitlyn who had just returned from the ridiculously long lunch line. Apparently, pie was popular among people that weren't on the math team.

"I don't know, but I guess it's important," he shrugged.

"Why can't she just tell us here?" asked Nate, always the questioner of the group.

"C'mon, Nate! Where's your sense of adventure? Let's just go. No need to have a Nate's Great Debate over a little outing," said Shane. He rose from his seat and headed towards the door. Rolling his eyes, Nate followed suit, along with Caitlyn, Jason, and Ella, the last two lagging slightly behind as Jason informed his new girlfriend on the many varieties of birds.

Shane really didn't know why Camp Rock didn't just tear down the old, abandoned cabin the woods. It was in horrible shape: covered in thick ivy and really hard to find unless you knew your way around. He supposed it was sentimental to Uncle Brown - maybe it was special back when he was a camper. Rumor had it that the cabin was haunted, but Shane knew than to believe ghost stories. Although Camp Rock was a camp for dancers, singers, and people who just loved music, it was a camp nevertheless, and a camp isn't a camp without campfire tales.

"Not the best day to wear ballet flats," commented Ella as she tried to avoid the leaves and brambles catching in her long, dark hair.

"It always pays to wear a comfy pair of converses," replied Shane, who was having no trouble navigating his way through the underbrush. "We're almost there, anyway. How are you holding up, Caitlyn?"

"As good as ever with you as a leader," she teased. "It's a miracle that we didn't get lost ten minutes ago."

"Hey! I take offense at that! I've been here longer than you, Miss Smarty-Pants, and after four years, I'm pretty sure I know how to follow a few mental directions."

"Just keep going, Gray," replied Caitlyn, shaking her head.

All too soon, the five friends found themselves right in front of the cabin. The door was left ajar, and Shane took it as an invitation to forge ahead. He pushed it open and stuck his head inside the dark interior.

"Mitchie?" he called. No answer. He peered inside and, finding it supposedly empty, he and the others went forward, searching for a light switch with their hands.

Once they had all stepped inside the cabin, the door swung shut behind them, entrapping them in the utter darkness.

"OK…that was creepy," said Ella. "It wasn't that windy outside!"

"Mitch!" Shane tried again. "Where are you?"

"No!" yelled a voice. It sounded close. "Go back, Shane! It's a trap! Tess -"

Just then, the darkness suddenly lifted, and the lights mysteriously snapped on. "So the amazing six are finally here all together. I think it's time for a little reunion. Don't you?" Standing before them was none other than Tess Tyler, a strange gleam in her eyes. In her hand was a loaded gun, trained on the five in front of her. "I suggest you don't move. If you do, it might just be your last."

"Tess? This is crazy! What are you doing?! Uncle Brown knows we're gone. He's going to come out here any minute -"

"No, he won't. No one knows you're here, Shane. I know you. You wouldn't have told anyone where you were going. Nice try, though. Sit on the floor, all of you. Now."

The gun followed them as they all carefully sat down on the dirty floor.

"Why are you doing this?" Shane asked quietly, but he was afraid that he already knew the answer. If he were correct, then they were all goners.

"You all took everything - everything from me. I had it all, and then sweet, perfect, shy little Mitchie came along and it was gone within a month. You broke my heart, and you don't even care," Tess replied, pain and cold steel breaking her voice with every word she spoke. "Caitlyn. You just had to pretend to be my friend, and then take him away from me, too!"

Caitlyn was, and not for the first time in her life, thoroughly confused. "I didn't take Shane from you! He's like my brother!"

"Not Shane, you idiot." Tess shot a glare laden with ice towards one certain Connect 3 member. "Nate."

"Me?" Nate asked, his expression matching the way Caitlyn felt: as if he'd been punched in the stomach. "But…I thought you liked Shane."

"Now. But I'm not going to go into my love history for you guys. You don't deserve to listen. All you need to know is this: no one is going to make it out of this place alive. It's totally soundproof. No one suspects or knows you're here, and if they do happen to find out, you'll be long dead before they even arrive. I'm calling the shots. There are no second chances."

"Please, Tess," said Shane. "Don't do this. This really isn't you. I know the real Tess Tyler would never go so low as to murder someone in cold blood."

"Apparently you don't know me at all." As Shane looked into the blonde's eyes, he knew that there was no hope for them. Her once bright blue eyes were cold and lifeless: devoid of spark and happiness. "But, then again, no one does. So welcome to my world, Shane. Get used to it, because this is the way it's going to be until you leave it."

AN: This is my first suspense story ever. Get prepared for some drama! I'm trying to make Tess's reason for going 'off the deep end' plausible, so stick with me for a second.