A/N: I'm sorry. The last time I updated was in May, and it's now August. I've been busy starting school and getting used to the work again, but now I finally got time to write. I've been trying to continue my two "Harry Potter" stories, but I keep getting sidetracked. Anyway, thanks for the reviews! I was reading over the first few chapters of this story, and well. . .they kind of stink. So I'm thinking of revising them later. And I think some small details from earlier in the story aren't agreeing with later details. But for now, here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy it!

Identical Faces

. . .they were trapped.

Even Louis, as goofy as he was, was completely freaked out by the looks of this butler. He could pass for a zombie, just standing there. It was as if he knew they were there, but he didn't bother to acknowledge them at all. The suspense stirred up some mixed feelings about the different escape routes that might be available.

Tom was completely shaking, and although they were in a dark room, they knew he was because the floor was shaking slightly. No one dared to speak, it seemed so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The butler took another step further into the gift shop. Everyone held their breath.

"Um, excuse me."

Louis, Tawny, Tom, and Allison jerked their heads in the direction of the voice. The butler finally turned his back and left the room.

"What can I help you with, miss?"

"Oh, I just needed to find this small, yellow folder I'd been carrying earlier. It had all of my plans inside it. Have you seen one?"

"Ren," Louis muttered.

He slowly crept out of the room they'd been hiding in and peered around the desk. He could just see the back of Ren's head. By the sound of her voice he could tell that the butler spooked her too.

"I believe I have," the butler said slowly.

This statement was followed by the sound of distinct footsteps walking across the parlor to where the couches were. Then they came back the spot where's Ren's silhouette was.

"Oh, thank you!" Ren laughed. "Um, I'd better get back to my room. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

"Goodnight, miss," the butler said, and two pairs of feet went back up the stairs.

Still, no one spoke. It seemed like five minutes before Tawny asked, "Can anyone find a light switch?"

Louis, who was closest to the doorway, felt his way up the nearest wall until he felt something square. He found the middle of the square and flicked on the switch. After everyone's eyes had adjusted to the light, they looked around. They seemed to be in a storage room after all. There were black shelves lining the walls.

"So, do you think it's safe to go back upstairs?" Tawny asked.

"I think we should lay low here for a bit," Allison said.

She seemed nervous, and started to take in a big breath. As soon as she inhaled, she threw a coughing fit and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh! It smells like mothballs in here!"

"Not surprising," Tom said in his "superior voice." "The stuff in here must be pretty old. It's probably antiques they haven't displayed in the gift shop yet."

"You know in those old movies, where they always hide something good in the boiler room?" Louis asked. "That would be so cool if it was something like that here!"

Tawny rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing like that in here," she remarked, standing up. She looked around the small room. "There're only dusty boxes, photo albums. . ."

She picked one of the albums from the shelf. Allison stood up too and continued to survey the room. Tawny opened the album to the middle of it and blew the dust away.

Louis coughed and waved at the dust as it fell all over his head.

"Eh! Ugh, Tawny, try to be more careful." He said, annoyed.

Tawny ignored him, she was looking through the album. "This is really old."

Tom stood up and looked over Tawny's shoulder at the page she had turned to. All the photos were in black and white, and had turned a pale yellow from the years it had gone through. The page itself was torn and threatening to fall apart.

Louis finally got up too. He reached his arm right in front of Tawny's face (partly to aggravate her) and turned the page of the album. And what they saw on the next page, was nothing they would have expected. Even though the next photo was a little worn, it was clear they were seeing what they thought they were seeing.

Louis' face was staring up at them from the photo album.

It was definitely Louis' face, but not his body. This man had a tall, dark figure, broad shoulders, and a hand on his hip with attitude.

"Louis, he-he-he look's just like—"

"Do you know him?" Tawny asked, petrified.

"I dunno," Louis said slowly. "What's his name?"

Allison ran her finger along the edge of the picture until she found its caption. "Jacob Schemer at the Stevenson family's open house picnic."

"Jacob Schemer." Louis repeated. "Where have I heard that name before?"

"Jacob Schemer. . .didn't Miss Pateer say something about his name fitting his personality or something?"

"Oh my gosh," Tawny gasped. "Louis, you're practically the identical twin of the murderer of Stevenson House!"

>>>>

For at least ten minutes, Louis, Tawny, Allison, and Tom just stayed put in that storage room, observing the rest of the album. Tom and Allison had begun to look at the other old photo albums lining the shelves all around the room.

"Wow, the Stevenson's must have been pretty organized. All these albums are labeled the same: Our Life On Pages 1, Our Life On Pages 2. . .they were rich so they probably hired a lot of people to put these together for them." Allison commented as she pulled different albums from their shelves.

Tom on the other hands, was just dragging his finger along the spines as he read all the labels and walked in circles around the room. He stopped when he came to a gap on a shelf. The gap was in between OLOP 13 and OLOP 15 (a/n: the acronym for Our Life On Pages).

"Tawny?" he asked. "What number is your album?"

Tawny glanced quickly at the spine label and then returned to the page she had been looking at. "OLOP 9, Tom. Why?"

"There seems to be one missing," he said. "Number 14."

"So?" Louis yawned. "It's probably around here somewhere. Hey, can we go to bed now? I need all the energy I can get to avoid Miss Pateer tomorrow."

"Louis, we've got to find more pictures of this Jacob Schemer guy." Tawny started. "I mean, he looks exactly like you!"

"Yeah. . .but we know that already! I'm sure we can get some more time in here later. Let's just go." He stifled a yawn.

"Fine." Tawny surrendered the album she'd been holding and starting pushing them toward the door.

When everyone was out, she turned off the light and followed everyone else up the stairs.

It seemed to take at least five minutes to get all the way up the stairs, and luckily no steps creaked this time.

When they were all safe in Tawny and Allison's room, Twitty wasn't there. Apparently he was in his, Louis and Tom's room.

"Well, we'd better get to bed," Allison said. "But I don't think that you should try to avoid Miss Pateer and everyone."

"Why?" Tawny asked. "It's obvious she wants something with Louis and Twitty? Why else would she lock them in a room?"

"Because we found a passageway," Louis cut in.

"Yeah, and apparently she didn't want you to find it," Tawny retorted.

"Well, just to be safe, I say that we take Louis and Twitty back to the room they were locked in, lock them in, and then find Miss Pateer. If she wants to keep anything from us she'll have to let them out!" Allison grinned.

"I hope so," Tawny says. "Unless it's time for the evil villain to reveal her plan."

A/N: So there's the latest installment! Again, I'm sorry I haven't updated all summer! I promise I'll try to update more often! Please review!