A/N: (Review response)*awed silence*Are you serious, am I actually on that many people's Fav Stories List? I had absolutely no idea...hmm...I feel so special now! And slightly warm and fuzzy... And about the whole misspell on Keladry's name last time, I changed it...sorry about that...I was tired... Sorry "Mad Bio", or G (you know the rest) as I so fondly like to call you, that I didn't tell you earlier. If it's any consolation, I often do checkout your page and see if you've done anything new...Damn FanFiction.net! I would have uploaded sooner, but...it wouldn't let me!

***Inside Trycos's hideout***

Trycos stepped aside, away from the door and five people fell through. A sort of twisted smile appeared on his face, "Oh look. It seems that these are some friends of yours..." He looked straight into Alex's eyes, who was staring at the pile of bodies in the doorframe, "Kel, Alanna, George, Esmond, and Owen. I expect you four to make them feel welcome...I should go check to make sure none of them...stayed behind..." Trycos turned and left, locking the door behind him again.

The four rushed forward and heaved Alanna and George onto the two couches and spread Kel, Owen, and Esmond out on the rug. Devic cast a nervous glance at Tom, "Are they all right?"

"They should be fine in a few minutes...now you know what it looked like when you two came through the door."

Phi glanced up and caught Alex's eyes resting on her before he hurriedly looked back down at George, who he was testing for a pulse. She turned away and looked back at Kel, "You say it will only take a couple of minutes? They seem pretty out to me..."

"Don't worry, they'll come around soon."

***A few minutes later***

Alanna blinked her eyes open and tried to remember what happened. The last thing she remembered was passing through the wall...Trycos! Someone was looking down at her. She sprang up into a sitting position and drew her dagger. "Whoa! Alanna! It's Alex! Watch where you point those things...you could hurt somebody..."

She blinked a few more times and her vision cleared. Her blade was at Alex's throat, "Sorry about that...I thought you were someone else."

"I hope so..." Alex stood up and brushed himself off.

"Where's everyone else? What happened, and where is Trycos?"

Tom appeared next to Alex, "George is on the couch next to you, Kel, Owen, and Esmond are on the floor. They'll be fine in a few seconds."

As if on cue, George sprang to life. He sat up so fast that he threw himself off the couch, nearly landing on Esmond, who was just beginning to stir, "Gods! Oww...I should really learn to wake up more calmly..." George rubbed his nose where it had collided with the floor and cast a wary glance around the room, "Trycos has left, has he?"

Tom nodded, "Yep. He told us that we should make you feel at home..."

"I bet he did..."

Esmond sat up shakily and looked sleepily around the room. When he had taken everything in, he elbowed Kel lightly in the side and she woke up too. Owen rose onto his elbows, "What's going on?"

Phi appeared behind him, Devic right beside her. She grinned, "Welcome to our prison..."

Kel stared up at her, and then at Devic, Alex, and Tom. They were still in their outfits from the burning house, and they looked very disheveled and a little crispy, "What happened to you?"

"I was caught in a burning building and jumped out of a second story window...but besides that, not much."

Owen looked confusedly at her, Devic, Tom, and Alex, "But how in the world where you able to get out of here?"

Tom gave him a hand up, "We never left..."

George glanced around the small room, shot Alanna a glance that said I-hope-we're-not-too-late and turned back to Phi, "You say you jumped out a second story window?"

"Actually," Devic stepped forward, "It was more like two and a half stories..."

"Oh...I see..."

Alex rolled his eyes at Tom, knowing full well what was going through the Tortallians' heads, "We're not crazy, yet anyway. But I guess you won't believe us until Trycos comes back...maybe one of you will give him some new ammo to 'play' with..."

Alanna turned to him, "I do not understand..."

Alex sighed, wishing more then anything else at the moment that they would believe him, "Don't worry, you will soon enough...Just remember, when he comes back, which should be any minute now that you all are awake, don't believe anything you see..."

Phi helped Kel and Esmond to their feet, glanced at Alex, and continued his sentence for him, "...even death is an illusion here."

"Oh...We will try to keep that in mind..."

***Outside...***

Numair felt a ripple in his magic. Someone was coming back through the wall! He leapt aside and hid behind some old crates across from where he had cast the spell just in time to miss being seen by a man who stepped out of the wall and peered around. Numair peeked over the top of the crate, thanking the gods that it was so dark. He didn't recognize the man and by the sneer that appeared on his face, he quickly realized that he must be Trycos. But then what had happened to the others? Did they get trapped inside too? The mage slid down against the wall and waited silently for the man to leave.

But he didn't move. Trycos just stood there, gazing unblinkingly around, then turned around and stepped back through the wall. Numair shakily stood up. That had been much too close a call for comfort, but something was bothering the mage. He had no doubt that the man had sensed him, or at least his magic, after all, Trycos did walk through it and unless he was a complete idiot he should have felt something strange.

***Back inside***

Trycos appeared again and everyone turned to look at him. Kel relaxed somewhat when she saw that Numair wasn't with him. She had been fearing that Trycos would have found the mage outside and brought him in too, but they needed him to stay where he was in case anything went wrong. Trycos sneered at her, "Of course I found him! But I thought it would be more interesting to leave him where he was..."

Kel's eyes widened in surprise but George snorted, totally unimpressed by the man's mind tricks. Trycos sauntered over to him, "Well aren't we full of ourselves, George Cooper? I see you recognize me. No, I don't age, do I? Unfortunately, you did." George's eyes narrowed. Trycos had obviously hit on one of his soft spots.

Trycos walked back over to the door and stood in the front of the room, "I am sure that Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic already informed you about what I can do here. Wait...they haven't? Oh, well this will be fun then! So many minds to enter, we must find something that will do some damage to all of you though...hmm...let's see how you handle this..."

The room dissolved again into the milky white haze and another scene began to rematerialize, just as it had before when Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic had gone into the burning house. Now, a wooden deck appeared under their feet, the smell of salt and fish filled the air and dark, stormy clouds appeared overhead. Kel, Owen, and Esmond gazed around amazed, but George and Alanna immediately began to hurry across the deck, searching for any kind of weapon.

They were on an old, 15th century ship, or that's what it looked like anyway. Phi raced over to the railing and looked out over the gray, churning ocean. There was no sight of land anywhere. She turned back around and realized that they were all wearing baggy shirts, breaches, and boots. This wasn't one of Alex's, Tom's, or her thoughts then, "Who recognizes this place and where are we?"

Kel shook her head, "I have only heard of days like this from sailors, I have never actually been out on a day like this."

They had begun to yell because the roar of the waves crashing against the side of the boat was beginning to drown out every other sound. Alanna stumbled back from the other side of the main deck and leaned against the railing, "There is not a single sword on this entire ship..."

"...Or harpoons, nets, or spears!", George came around from the other side, "As far as I can tell, we're the only things on this heap of scrap wood!"

Alanna's face began to turn a sickly shade of green, "I hate boats..." She leaned out over the edge of the ship and stared down at the water, trying to calm her stomach.

Owen was still looking around, awestruck, "What happened? How did he do that?!"

Tom turned to him, "He used someone's thoughts or memories to sort of re-create this ship and whatever happens to it...the only problem is, we don't know what is going to happen!"

"Mother Goddess..." The water that Alanna had been staring at began to boil and churn.

Everyone ran to the railing and peered into the water. Alex turned to Tom, "What the hell is that...?"

Kel answered the question for him, "Not good. Tom, I though that you said Trycos could only recreate memories?!"

"Well, that is what we thought! Why, what is going on?"

"This is exactly like a story I heard from an old sailor when I was traveling. You know that saying, 'Seeing the Kraken'?"

Esmond turned to look at her, his eyes growing wide, "Please don't tell me that that is a..."

But he didn't have a chance to finish his sentence. A huge tentacle shot out of the boiling spot in the water and lashed out at the ship. The tentacle smashed into the main mast and sent it hurdling out into the ocean. Another tentacle came out and thrust itself into the hull of the ship, breaking an enormous hole into it.

Kel reached for her dagger, but when her hand couldn't find it, she looked down at her belt. Her dagger was gone. The boat began to lurch and tip down, the hole slowly taking in water and the hull of the ship began to sink.

More tentacles were flung out of the water and wrapped themselves around the ship, shattering the woodwork and frame and sending splinters and beams crashing down. Alanna stood up and began trying to blast at the tentacles with her Gift, but every hit only seemed to make the Kraken angrier and one of the tentacles whipped around and smashed the deck where the Lioness was standing, sending her flying several feet. George ran over to her and helped her back onto her feet, "What do we do?!"

Kel dived out of the way of an incoming tentacle, "Without weapons, there's not much we can do!"

By this time there was about twelve tentacles lashing themselves around the boat, and something large began to surface from out of the ocean. Devic, who was against the railing, looked over and shouted, "Look! Its head is coming up!"

Just then, a tentacle reached out and grabbed Devic from the side, smashed through the railing and pulled him over the edge. Phi dashed over, but the Kraken was already drawing Devic into the water, "Devic! The Kraken has Devic!" Before anyone could stop her, she dove off the ship after him.

Alex ran over to the spot where she disappeared and Tom was just able to stop him from jumping overboard too. Tom hulled Alex back to the middle of the ship, where the rest of the group was, and it took him and Esmond to keep him there, "Alex! She is fine, remember?"

"But they can still feel it Tom! Remember when Phi died and afterwards when she said it actually had felt like she was dying?! It might not be real, but they're going to be in pain anyway, they're going to feel it!"

"I know Alex, you don't have to remind me..." Alex turned around and looked into Tom's face. A firm and determined expression was set on his face, but Alex could just make out unshed tears hanging in his eyes.

Esmond called out in surprise as another tentacle wrapped around his legs and began to pull him to the edge of the boat. Kel leapt up and grabbed Esmond's hands to try and pull him out, but the Kraken pulled harder, yanked Esmond out of her grasp and sent him plummeting into the sea. Kel fell backwards, a strange, vengeful glare sparkling in her eyes, "When is he going to stop this, when we are all dead?!"

Trycos's voice rang out over the ship and the ocean, drowning out all other sounds, just as it had for Tom and Alex back in the Devic's old house, "Why, I was just waiting for someone to ask...". The scenery began to dissolve into whiteness again and the wooden desk was replaced by long red carpet, the ocean replaced by tall, wallpapered walls, and the stormy sky replaced by a vaulted ceiling adorned with a very expensive looking diamond, non-electric, chandelier.

Trycos's voice appeared again, "I took this lovely thought from, Alex I believe. It sounded interesting so I though I might have the lot of you try it out..." Alex looked around at the mansion-ish house, then down at his clothes. He was wearing a sort of suit that looked as if it had come straight from the late 1800's in America, with cuffs and really shiny black dress shoes.

He looked up at Tom who seemed to be wearing some sort of cloak thing...Alex choked back a laugh. He looked for all the world like Sherlock Holmes! He even had that ridiculous hat. Slowly, Alex turned and looked the others over, who were glaring around the room, not looking too pleased with their current situation, but Phi, Devic, and Esmond where still missing. Kel's hair had been pinned up and she was wearing a green dress, Alanna's hair was down but she had a well fitted gray dress on that looked like it would have been the female version of a suit. George and Owen were dressed much like Alex and didn't looked to happy about their clothes either.

Alanna turned to him and glared, "Well, what is going on, and where are we?"

Alex snapped back into reality (well...not really reality, but you all know what I mean), "I dunno. I've never been here in my life..."

Kel sighed, "Well then you must have heard about it from somewhere..."

"Maybe...but this isn't even our time period, this is like a hundred years too early..."

Tom's face became thoughtful, "Maybe...maybe it is from a story you read or a movie you watched?"

"Maybe so Sherlock..." Tom looked down at his outfit and grinned while everyone else just looked even more confused at the comment, "But if this memory matches up with the others in frightening levels, you would think that I would...remember...it..."

"What is the matter Alex?" Owen's voice was shaking a little, obviously expecting something to jump out at them from on of the multiple shadowy corners in the room.

"I just remembered where we are..."

"And?"

"This is part of an old horror movie I watched when I was like eight or something. It was made in the forties, I think, and it was in black and white. I can't even remember the name, but it gave me nightmares for months..."

Tom grinned a little at the last comment, "Oh, I think I remember that. Didn't you watch the movie and then you refused to come over to our house for a sleepover for three months because you were afraid of something 'getting you'?...Say, Alex...what were you afraid of?"

Alex took a deep breath and sighed as the chandelier flickered and went out, "Ghosts..."

A/N: Wow, this story is getting confusing...let's see, for anyone who needs help with my completely screwed up plot-line that I'm having way to much fun with...the first big vision Trycos gave them was that of being in Devic's first house that had burned down when he was a young boy. The second was they were on a boat that got attacked by a Kraken and Phi, Devic, and Esmond "die". (sorry for any misspellings but I was too lazy to look how Tamora Pierce spelled it and there is more than one way...this is mine.)The third is when Trycos sticks the survivors into a haunted house.