Chapter 6: A liar's hope.

Will picked up her phone quickly. "Hello?" She asked.

Hay Lin's eager voice squealed so loudly Will had to pull the phone away from her ear. "Will! You'll never, ever, ever guess in a million years what happened!"

Will leaned against the wall. "What?" She asked.

"Are you setting down?" Hay Lin gushed.

Will glanced at the unvacuumed floor and winced at the thought of sitting on the dusty floor. 'I need to vacuum before Mom gets home.' She thought. "Close enough." She replied. "What happened?"

"Cornelia and Caleb broke up!" Hay Lin gushed. "Caleb's taking it pretty well, and I have a feeling it was over you!"

Will felt her heart flutter. 'Over me?Wait, Caleb's single? Oh...my...gosh...I should really ask him to go with me to the dance next week end. Hey, who am I kidding? The guy's probably hurting. I should back off for a while.'

She thought.

"You there?" Hay Lin asked.

"Barely." Will replied absentmindedly. "Um, can I come over?"

Hay Lin giggled. "Oh, sure. Come on over." She said. "Wait--Will, don--" The line died.

Will left a note for her mother on the t.v., put on her jacket and walked down the road to Hay Lin's house. But when she got there, she saw that all the lights were off but the door was cracked. Picking up a heavy rake for self defense, she edged into the house. "Hay Lin! Where are you?" She shouted.No answer. Will shut the door behind her and edged into the living room. To her alarm, when she opened the door Will saw a path of candles.

'What the heck?' Will wondered. 'This is such a fire hazard. Why so many candles?' She walked slowly down the hall to the basement. 'Oh, I see where this is going. To Caleb's room. They must want us to talk.' Will decided as she walked down the candle path.

Heart pounded, she edged the door open...and stared at a very cleaned up bed room.

"Hello?" She called. A loud thumping came from the closet. "Hello!" She shouted again. The thumping grew more vigourous, and Will edged the door open. Caleb was sitting in the closet gagged and bound hand and foot. Will knelt beside him to pull off the gag. "Oh, Caleb!" Will cried. "Are you okay? Who did this to you?"

Caleb twisted around until Will undid the gag, which fell lifelessly to his lap. "Trap!" Caleb shouted.

Will looked around. "What?" But as she turned, a large, heavy object bashed into her temple and she fell limply to the floor.