I'm sorry again that I haven't posted for the past few days. I was really busy and didn't have time:( But, here I am with the eighteenth chapter!

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, it means a lot!

Hope y'all like the rest!

Later that day Mandie went up to her room and closed the door behind herself. She went slowly over to her
bed and sat down.
"Oh, God. Why is this happening to me?" Mandie said outloud, looking up at the ceiling. "How did that man get in our house?"
Tears filled Mandie's eyes, but she immediately wiped them away. She stood up and walked over to her vanity and opened the
top drawer on the left. She fumbled through the papers inside until she came across the paper with the hymn. Mandie held it
up to her face and then sat back down on the bed. She looked at the paper, and then she realized something.

1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early In The Morning our song shall Rise to thEe.
HOly, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God In Three persons, blessed trinity!

2 HoLy, holy, holy! All the saints adoRE thEe,
Casting down their golden Crowns aroUnd the glassy sEa;
ChErubim and seraphIm falling down before thee,
Who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

3 HolY, Holy, holy! Though the darKness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy GlOry may not see,
only thoU art Holy; there is none beside thee
perfecT in pow'r, in love, and purity.

4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed trinity!

"Some of the letters are capitalized where they're not supposed to be," Mandie said outloud. She got up and grabbed another
piece of paper from her vanity and a pencil and sat back down on the bed. She wrote down all of the letters that weren't
supposed to be capitalized.

E from "early" in the first verse.I from "in" in the first verse.
T from "thee" in the first verse.
M from "morning" in the first verse.
R from "rise" in the first verse.
One of the E's from "thee" in the first verse.
O from "holy" in the first verse.
One of the E's from "three" in the first verse.
L from "holy" in the second verse.
R from "adore" in the second verse.
One of the E's from "thee" in the second verse.
C from "casting" in the second verse.
C from "crowns" in the second verse.
U from "around" in the second verse.
E from "sea" in the second verse.
E from "cherubim" in the second verse
I from "seraphim" in the second verse.
W from "who" in the second verse.
Y from "holy" in the third verse.
H from "holy" in the third verse.
K from "darkness" in the third verse.
O from "glory" in the third verse.
U from "thou" in the third verse.
T from "perfect" in the third verse.

Mandie wrote down the last one and looked at it.
"Ugh, it doesn't make any sense," she complained. "Wait! Maybe I need to put certain letters together to make words!"
Mandie started with E since it was the first capitalized letter.
"Now what words start with E?" Mandie tapped her pencil on the paper. "Eat? No. Enchanting? No. That can't be right." She
crossed her hands under her chin and sat there thinking. 'Maybe I need to start with the most plausible letter for the
beginning of a word,' she thought. Mandie sat up straight and looked through the letters.
"I'll do C," she said. "Now what other letters? Wait, Clue! It could be Clue!" Mandie exclaimed.
She looked through the letters." There's an L from the word holy in the second verse! And a U from the word around in the
second verse! And an E from the word sea in the second verse! C-L-U-E! It spells clue!" Mandie wrote it down on her paper
and marked out those four lines. Mandie looked through the rest of the letters until she figured words from every one.
The message said:

Clue Eight:

Tick tock.
Time.
Where are you?

"It's the next clue!" Mandie exclaimed. "That's why the seventh one said, 'Read the song!' We had both clues at once and didn't
even know it!" Mandie gazed at her hard work and then picked up both papers and the pencil and put them back in the drawer.
She stood up and hobbled out her bedroom door. She made her way slowly down the stairs and walked into the parlor. There was
Joe, Celia, and Johnathan.
"Guys! I found the next clue!" Mandie exclaimed.
Celia looked at Mandie questioningly for a moment and then stood up and led Mandie to a seat.
"Are you alright Mandie? Are you sick?" Celia asked her, feeling of her forehead. Mandie rolled her eyes and pushed Celia's
hand away and replied, "No, I'm not sick. I really did. It was the hymn!"
"What?" Johnathan asked, flabergasted.
"Remember how the seventh clue we found in the stone said, 'Read the song?' Well, it meant that the next clue was the hymn
that we found along with the clue. Several of the letters were capitalized when they weren't supposed to be. So I wrote
down all of the letters and figured all the words out. It is the next clue," Mandie explained.
"Can we see it?" Joe asked, running his fingers through his unruly curls.
Mandie nodded her head and headed back upstairs. Celia, Joe, and Johnathan followed close behind her.
Mandie opened her room door and walked over to the vanity. She opened the drawer and pulled out the hymn and the other paper.
Mandie held the papers out to show her friends. They leaned in close and studied every part of them.
"And how, may I ask, did you figure this out?" Celia asked, impressed.
Mandie smiled, "I don't really know."
"So the clue is 'Tick tock. Time. Where are you?' It doesn't give much information," Celia complained.
"I think it's a clock," Johnathan stated.
"Hey, I think you might be right!" Mandie exclaimed in excitement.
Celia smiled, "So, we check all the clocks in the house?"
"I suppose so, there's not much else we can do," Mandie replied, putting the papers back in the drawer and closing it.
Suddenly Liza walked into the room, "Miss Celia, Mrs. Shaw be a wantin' you downstairs in the parlor right now."
"Alright," Celia replied. Then turning to Mandie she said, "I better go."
"I'll go with you," Johnathan put in. Then Celia and Johnathan followed Liza out of the room.
Mandie shuffled her feet nervously and looked up at Joe. Joe walked towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Now can you tell me?" He asked, turning his head to the side.
Mandie looked down and cleared her throat, "Maybe. I... I don't know."
Joe squeezed her shoulders tighter and urged, "Please tell me."
"Last... lastnight there... there was someone... in... in my... room," Mandie shot out before she could stop herself.
Joe's brown eyes widened, "What!?"
Mandie nodded her head, "The man with the scar. The one that kidnapped me. He... he held a knife to my throat and made me
give him the next clue. I... I don't know how he got in the house." Mandie began to cry softly.
Joe pressed his lips together and pulled Mandie into his arms, "I won't let anything happen to you, Mandie. I promise."
Mandie squeezed Joe tight and sighed, "I know you will, Joe. I know. I'm just... scared."
Joe stroked her back and whispered, "I know. We'll figure this out. There are only two clues left to find."
Mandie pulled away from Joe reluctantly and said, "We better go downstairs."
Joe nodded slowly and they walked out of the room...

I hope the whole Secret-clue-encoded-in-the-hymn wasn't too confusing, I tried my best to explain it in detail and not make it sound a little too far-fetched:)