Moaning in fear, Tracy and Holly kicked and squirmed in Moose's arms, but he was too strong for them. "Hey Joe, I just caught a pair of nosy teenagers snooping around out here," he called into the farmhouse.

The door swung open wide. "Hmm," the leader named Joe mused, staring Tracy and Holly down coldly, "What would two lovely girls like yourselves be doing out here on a night like this?" he asked them sharply, "Especially since there's nothing on this mountain for you to..."

"Please, sir, our car won't start; you probably saw it coming up the mountain," Tracy protested once the hand was removed from her mouth, and she and Holly were lowered to the ground, although Moose now twisted their arms behind their backs. "We, uh..." she fumbled for the best lie to tell, "We took a wrong turn, and the engine died..."

"They were looking in the window, Joe; they saw the jewels and the guard's body," Moose said firmly, gesturing at Holly's camera lying on the ground at their feet, "Even if they're telling the truth, they're spies."

"We didn't see anything!" Holly protested, trying to twist free, "We're sorry to have bothered you; if you'll just let us go now, we'll be on our way, and we promise we won't say anything about anything."

"Yeah, scout's honor; nobody will know anything," Tracy nodded firmly. The man named Joe waved his other colleague named Norman close and whispered to him for a minute or too, although Tracy couldn't tell what they were saying. "We didn't see anything..." she repeated loudly.

"Sorry, but I have no reason to believe you," it was a cold look on Joe's face as he turned to face her and Holly, "You still saw too much, even if you aren't lying to me. And nosy girls who see too much have to be punished."

"Listen, there's no need to do anything; we swear on our lives we won't tell anyone, not our families, not the police, anyone!" Holly begged desperately, "Our car broke down, I swear, we're just...!"

"Enough," he slapped her hard across the face, then pulled her away from Moose and flung her into Norman's arms, "You and your friend aren't going anywhere. Take them into the kitchen," he ordered his colleagues, "For now, we're going to tie them up for their own good."

"Come on, this isn't funny!" Tracy protested, kicking hard at Moose's shin to no avail, "You can't keep us prisoner here!"

"Oh yes we can," he snickered in her face, "And maybe we'll be doing a whole lot worse to you two girls before the night is done."

Both Tracy and Holly kicked and squirmed and struggled like crazy as they were dragged into the farmhouse, but their captors retained an almost iron grip on their arms. They were hauled into the kitchen and flung into a pair of chairs on opposite sides of the kitchen table. The men immediately hefted several lengths of rope. "Please don't do this!" Holly looked terrified as her arms were pulled roughly behind the chair, and her wrists tied tightly together, "Just lock us in a closet if you have to; you don't need to tie us up like this!"

"We won't try to escape...ow!" Tracy grimaced as her own wrists were tied behind her chair as well, "We're only sixteen; we're not worth the...!"

She whimpered as Joe slapped her across the face as well. "Here, gag the brats," he barked at his partners, pulling out a pair of large white cloths and handing them to his henchmen, "Better make absolutely sure they stay good and quiet."

"No you won't; HELP!" Tracy screamed as loud as she could towards the window, trying to jerk her chair away from Norman, who was lowering the cloth in his hands towards her face, "HELP, WE'RE BEING...MMMMMMMM!"

She was firmly gagged with the cloth despite her efforts to escape it, and across from her, Holly was unable to avoid being gagged herself. Numb, Tracy stared blankly at her equally blank friend as the two of them were tied firmly from head to toe to their chairs in no time flat. "There we go, this should keep you two out of trouble for now," Norman snickered, rifling through Tracy's jean pockets once he'd finished tying her up and pulling out both her cell phone and her car keys, handing them both to Joe. "Now, you two just sit tight and behave yourselves, unless you want it worse than you have it now."

"Stay here and keep an eye on them, Norman," Joe ordered him, taking Holly's cell phone from Moose, then tossing the larger criminal Tracy's car keys, "Moose, go get their car and get it off the road. I'm going to go make a little call that might decide what to do with our uninvited guests."

He walked out the kitchen door with Moose. Tracy and Holly exchanged horrified glances and started thrashing around in their chairs, even though Norman was now seated at the head of the table with a shotgun aimed right at them. It was clear they had to get out of this mess quickly, or they'd be in even hotter water...

"...yeah, it's me," Joe's voice came over the receiver in the leader's office inside the former insane asylum, "The bad news is, we couldn't pick up anyone for you alive when we hit the jewelry store; the police responded too quickly for us to take anyone alive. But the good news is, we just caught a pair of snooping teenage girls hanging around the farm; they're nice and tied up now, and they're yours if you want them."

"Oh I think two teens will suffice nicely, Noxen," he said with a knowing grin, "Good work; you've proved yourself nicely."

"Say, is it really serious what you said about tonight being...?" Joe started to say before he was hung up on. "Brother Imperio, we officially have two offerings to make," he eagerly told his adjutant, "Bastor will be pleased after all. Send the word to the bretheren; prepare the chamber for the ritual. Meanwhile, gather several bretheren and go pick up our guests-and begin the first phase of the offering."

"Yes, Your Excellency," Imperio started to leave, then turned, "If the troublemaker and my...?"

"They will not, because the troublesome one will go with you to pick them up; thus if he causes any difficulty, you may punish him as well as you see fit."

"Yes, Your Excellency," Imperio bowed and left, closing the door behind him. The leader casually walked over to the nearest closet door and thrust it open...

...revealing a statue of a hideous being, part man, part bull, and part wolf, with large ruby red eyes, large horns, and hairy canine legs. "Oh mighty Bastor," he mumbled reverently, falling to his knees before the statue, "We have ready for you an offering-two youths. They are young and lovely, and will delight you on this night when you need sustinance the most. I hope you will find this acceptable."

The statue's eyes flashed brightly red for a few seconds. "I felt you would be pleased, mighty Bastor," he said with a smile, "We shall bring them here and prepare them for you..."

"Please, please, give me some slack to work with!" Tracy begged the ropes on her wrists, pulling on them for all it was worth. They remained bone-crushingly tight, however, as did all the ropes holding her to her chair, and although she'd been struggling hard for at least an hour now (if not, it certainly seemed that way to her), they hadn't loosened one bit as far as she could tell. Indeed, her watch now beeped nine o'clock behind her back; given the drive time coming back from their anniversary celebration, it would be at least another hour and a half before her parents got home and realized something was wrong-and another three hours before the Reddicks returned if Holly's earlier estimation was correct. They were on their own and in deep trouble.

Still, she had to keep trying to get free, she knew in the pit of her stomach. She had all the incentive she needed in the large shotgun Norman was pointing alternatingly at her and Holly, who was jerking her chair wildly from side to side in terror, struggling like crazy. Tracy felt horribly guilty in the pit of her stomach; she'd promised Holly nothing would go wrong at all, and now her curiosity had gotten them both kidnapped, facing who knew what. Joe had made a phone call to someone a half hour or so ago; Tracy hadn't been able to make out much of what he'd said, but from his tone, she knew it didn't bode well for the two of them, whatever it was.

Moaning loudly into her gag, she twisted her upper body wildly around, trying desperately to find any slack. It was terrifying to be tied up and gagged like this, something even mystery books couldn't make as clear as real life now did. Tracy was starting to lose feeling in her hands, and the ropes dug deep into the rest of her body, making it impossible to move at all. And the gag was just as tight over her mouth, reducing her to making muffled animal-sounding noises, and hadn't loosened either even though she'd rolled her head around wildly trying to shake the terrible cloth off. Yes, she rued, it was a terrible experience to be a hostage.

And not least of all was Norman, who every now and then would rise from his position at the head of the table and check both girls' ropes to make sure they were still secured firmly. Then he'd lean back in his chair and point his gun back and forth between the both of them. Tracy couldn't bear having the gun pointed right at her, and clearly neither could Holly, who'd whimpered every time it had been aimed right at her.

"Oh, why'd I have to be so bent on getting a story!?" she lamented, feeling guilty now about her zeal to get something for the school newspaper, "Now I've put the both of us in terrible danger...!"

From outside the window came the sudden roar of the creature that had chased Holly and herself, making both girls jump in shock. Norman, however, seemed nonplussed. "Out hunting again, I see," he mused out loud, staring out the window, "Good thing he didn't get you two before we did," he turned towards the girls, "If you've had a run-in with him, that's the banetra-a special creation of some friends of ours who dabble a bit in experimentation. He roams the woods, eating anything in his path; real vicious guy too. But he seems to know who his friends are, and so we've been safe for a while now ourselves."

He chuckled darkly. "We chose to come up here for a hideout, knowing how isolated it was," he told his prisoners, "THEY found us, and wanted to use us for their purposes. I'll admit I was scared-we all were-and we begged like little girls to be spared, that we'd work for them if they work for us. And they agreed, and so, with every heist we've pulled since then, we've tried to bring them at least one live subject for their purposes. And now, girls, it's going to be your turn, once they get down here."

"Did you have to spoil the surprise for them, Norman?" Joe remanded him as he entered the kitchen, "Oh well, guess it doesn't matter; they should be here very shortly-ah, speak of the devil," he exclaimed at the sound of car doors slamming out front. "OK, ladies," he told Tracy and Holly darkly, flipping off the lights, "Like Norman here just said, I'm turning you over to some friends of ours; we've been helping them on the side in between our regular job in exchange for their protection, a pretty good deal if I do say so myself. They're very ritualistic people, so don't be alarmed if they seem a bit strange. "In here, in the kitchen," he called towards the front door as it opened. Immediately, loud chants could be heard. A cold chill shot up Tracy's spine. Added up to everything their kidnappers had already said, it appeared they were about to meet some unpleasant people.

The chanting got louder and louder, and a weak light could be seen reflecting off the living room walls. Moments later, Tracy's eyes went wide as a procession of figures in black robes and hoods and glowing green demon masks, as they could best be described, marched in solemn procession into the kitchen. The frontmost one was carrying a flaming torch, and the others various other items she couldn't make out in the weak light. Holly screamed in terror into her gag at the sight of them, and it was taking all of Tracy's composure not to do the same, particularly since the figures were staring right at the two of them. She noticed, however, that a sizably smaller robed figure in the back of the line was leaning forward and staring at her with what she thought was sympathy; it was hard to tell for sure in the darkness. But her mind was taken elsewhere as the figures began chanting louder in a strange language, one that seemed to use the word "bastor" a lot. "What exactly's going on here!?" she wondered to herself, not sure she really wanted to know.

She got her answer as one of the men started throwing salt or ashes of some kind in the air over Holly and herself. Tracy coughed hard, not liking this one bit. But then, she felt the left sleeves of her jacket and sweater being pushed up behind her back. Moments later, she shrieked into her gag in pain at the top of her lungs as a knife slashed deep into her arm. Across from her, Holly was shrieking in agony as well as the ritual was done to her too. "Don't panic, girls; they just need your blood for the ceremony later on," Joe said to them in the dark matter of factually, "These are standard preparations for anyone."

"Preparations!?" Tracy's blood froze completely through in terror at the dark thought. Were she and Holly being prepared to be...to be...sacrificed!? She felt the warm drenching of her blood from the slash point being spread across her forehead, as well as makeup of some other kind. But then she lost all vision as a blindfold was pulled over her eyes from behind and tied into place just as tightly as the gag; across from her, Holly let out another shriek, hinting she was being blindfolded as well. "Sorry, ladies, but they'd like the two of you to be surprised from here on," Joe said out loud. "Hope they'll suffice for you for whatever you're doing tonight," he could be heard saying to one of the robed figures.

"Yes, they will do quite nicely," one of the figures said in plain English, "Well, we'd better get them there; our time is limited," he said again, then started barking orders in the strange language. "So long, girls," Joe told the two of them, "Now you're going to see exactly what happens to snooping young detectives around these parts-they go and meet The Mighty Bastor."

"Speak reverently of Bastor," the English-speaking cult member upbraided him, "He hears all who utter his name."

Tracy shrieked as she felt herself being picked up, chair and all. Still chanting in the strange language, she and Holly, who she could hear shrieking in terror behind her, being carried towards the door. She felt weak and meek; it appeared they were about to be put through some terrible demonic ceremony of some kind.

"I guess this really is 'Terror Mountain,' then," she rued to herself, "There was real danger up here...and we might not live to see sunrise..."

She felt the blast of the cold night wind on her face as she was carried outside. She heard a scraping as she and Holly were slid chairs and all into what presumably was the cult's vehicle. The robed figures were still chanting as they walked past the girls into the vehicle themselves; Tracy swore, however, that she heard one whisper, regretfully, "I'm sorry," right in her ear as he or she passed by. It was small comfort, though, as she heard the back door slam shut right in front of her, and the vehicle started rolling forward, carrying Holly and herself towards an unknown destination...and perhaps their doom...