"Find yours?" Cassie asked.

"My marbles! It's the treasure hunt," Jordan informed, hands on hips, as if exasperated by our stupidity. "Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah!" I said. "Do we get any hints?"

"Mm-hmm." She handed me a folded slip of paper.

If up the stairs you climb
You may find where I'm
Hiding the treasure. Look
In a 128 page book.

"How do you get marbles in a book?" Marco asked from behind me. Too close behind me.

"Bubble, Marco. This is Rachel's own personal space."

"Maybe the next clue is in the book?" Jake suggested.

Jordan giggled. "Not telling!"

"Guess we're on our own, then," Cassie said. She made for the stairs, then turned back. "Sara? Are you gonna be okay?"

She nodded, silently.

"D'ya wanna help us with the treasure hunt?"

"No thank you," she said politely through her missing teeth.

"Okay then." Cassie led the way up the stairs.

"Jake, do you even have any books?" asked Marco.

He did not reply.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well do you have any books?"

"Well should you care?"

"Well, Jordan's thing tells us to look in a 128 page book. Upstairs."

"Nah, I go for big tough books. 128's too wimpy for me."

Marco rolled his eyes. "Tom's room, then?"

"Sure," I said, pushing it open. "Although he's not the most literary either."

True to form, there was no semblance of a book in the visible areas of the room. Although between the clothes and CDs, there wasn't much visible area of the room.

"In the closet?" Jake suggested.

Marco opened it up. "Nope, no books. But we do have-" Marco tensed up and slammed the door shut. "No book. Moving on."

"What was in there?" Cassie asked.

"None of our business."

"C'mon," I pressed him.

"No." I lunged for the door, but I couldn't get past him. "Rachel…nope. We're looking for a book, right?"

"Right. 128 pages. Under the bed, maybe?"

Cassie poked her head underneath. "Errgh! This reeks of…testosterone!"

"Let me in," Jake said. "I can handle it." Sure enough, he submerged himself in the netherworld. "Oh yeah, there's a book here-oof! How did Jordan get here?"

"By being significantly smaller than us," Marco told him.

"Us? Not significantly." Jake emerged with a glossy manual: Quixotic Quest of Quirks.

"Hey, I take that as a personal insult."

"To some degree, that's how it was meant. Ten bucks says Tom never read the strategy manual." He passed it to me.

I opened it up. "You lose. He's highlighted something: While the benefits of playing as Thraukkew are evident, experienced players can find ways to stymie it.

Marco knelt down, head in hands. "I'm doomed."

I riffled through the book. "128 pages, all right. And here we have it!" A slip of paper fell out.

Cassie delicately picked it up.

Now downstairs you must go
And even more below.
I am certain
You want to find the curtain.

"Even more below? Did Jordan go into the basement?" Jake queried.

"Is there something wrong with that?" asked Cassie.

"Only that nobody's been there in the last…decade."

Marco shrugged. "We're trendsetters. Where's the basement, Jake?"

He led us downstairs, and through a mudroom. "Right down there." Cassie charged in. "Be careful, it's-"

There was a crack, an abrupt inhalation of breath, and then a desperate sound of scratching.