Chapter 2
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Ralph leaned against the inside glass of the phone booth. Holding the reciever to his ear after pressing the last few numbers, he waited for an answer as he looked toward the afternoon sun.

"Ah.. Mrs. Blake, this is Ralph Hinkley. I'm Rhonda's schoolteacher..." he said standing up after getting an answer.

"I'm doing fine. I hope you are doing well. ... That's good." He smiled. "Listen, the reason I called is that I wanted to speak to Rhonda and remind her to bring the audio tape with the Halloween sound effects with her tonight."

He paused listening to Mrs. Blake. "It's sitting on the counter?" He chuckled. "You'll tell her when she gets home?"

"She hasn't returned home yet, Mr. Hinkley." said the voice on the other line.

"She didn't?" He asked with a hint of concern on his face.

Pam walked out of the discount store holding several filled bags. She headed over to where Ralph was at the phone.

"Yes, you're probably right. ... Ok. I'll see her tonight then. Have a good evening. ... I hope to see you soon as well. Goodbye." Ralph hanged up the phone and left the phone booth.

Pam handed Ralph a bag to carry. "Did she remember to bring the tape tonight?"

"She wasn't there." He said as they walked to the car. "Her mother said she hadn't come back yet from being at the house this morning." Ralph unlocked the passenger door and opened it for Pam.

"She's not back yet?" Pam got in the car. Ralph shut the door and entered the car on the driver's side.

"Yeah. She's probably still with Tony and the guys." Ralph stated as he turned the key in the ignition.

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Bill looked around the shaded room, rubbing his arms as if he was cold. "Boy, nuthin' like being by yourself in some old, dusty house. This would even give the spiders the willies."

Bill picked up a box of party favors off the table, along with a pink headband. He examined the headband and put it with the party favors. He headed out of the room and went downstairs.

Ralph and Pam entered the house with the bags from when they went shopping. Bill walked down the stairs to greet them.

"Hey kids, I'm hungry. I hope you brought some snacks." he said as he scanned the bags hoping to spot something to eat. "By the way. I found this box of party favors upstairs. I figured you might need them." He handed the box over to Ralph distracted by a box of Milkbones Pam offered. He grabbed the box of dog biscuits. "You're an angel, Counselor!"

Ralph looked at the box of party favors. "This was the box I asked Rhonda to get for me earlier." He rubbed the back of his head. "It was still upstairs?"

"Maybe she forgot it." Pam said taking out a bag of chips from the shopping bag.

"Maybe she didn't plan on retrieving it in the first place." Bill said munching on a couple dog biscuits.

"No, that's not like her." Ralph said with a concerned look. "She's one of my good students. She wouldn't blatantly shrug off something like that." Ralph took notice of the pink headband. "What's this doing in here?"

Pam looked at what Ralph was examining. "Rhonda was wearing that earlier. I remember it." Pam gave Ralph the same concerned look.

"Gang, it's just a headband. That could have come from anywhere." Bill said trying to be the voice of reason.

"Bill, I called Rhonda's house while we were gone. Her mother said she hadn't arrived back home yet." Ralph said, now worried.

"Yeah, and?" Bill replied trying to put everything together.

"And the fact that Rhonda isn't the type of student that would go off without donig a simple task. The fact that an article of her clothing was found at the box Ralph asked her to pick up. Not to mention the fact that it's been an hour and she hasn't been home since." Pam answered hoping he would understand.

"Right..." Bill said as he swallowed the piece of dog biscuit he had in his mouth. "Okay, I guess we could look around this place and see if she's still here or something." He said standing up and putting the box of Milkbones on the table. "Counselor, you look around this floor. Ralph, you and I will check upstairs."

Ralph agreed and went up the stairs with Bill. Pam searched around the rooms.

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As Bill and Ralph searched one of the upstairs rooms. Bill noticed movement in a sheet of curtains substituting as a doorway. He pulled out his gun. "Agent Maxwell.. FBI. Don't make any sudden moves." Bill said clearly aiming it at the curtain.

"Bill!" Ralph said as he pulled Bill's arm away from pointing the gun at the doorway. "For all we know that could be Rhonda." he said shocked at his partner. "Rhonda? Rhonda? Are you there?" Ralph asked to no avail.

"MEEEEEOWWWWWRRR!"

All of a sudden a black streaming shadow darted out from behind the curtains and headed left. Bill aimed his gun and took a shot at it. The streaming shadow stopped and was revealed to be a sheet of cloth. Movement under the cloth however, didn't stop. A cat crawled out from underneath and ran off towards the other rooms.

"You were going to shoot a cat." Ralph said annoyed. "You know, cats DO sometimes enter old, abandoned houses and live there."

"Sorry kid, I was going on instinct there. Besides it's got nine lives as opposed to the one life I'VE got." Bill sheepishly replied.

They head off towards another room.

Bill stands in the doorway examining the room. Ralph walks towards a closet.

"I'm gonna check this closet area just in case there's something here." Ralph said as he opened the door to the closet and went inside to look around.

"You do that. I'm gonna check the other room." Bill replied as he gave the room one last look. He went to the hallway to check out the other room.

Ralph stood in front of Bill in the doorway of the other room.

"DOH!" Bill said startled to see Ralph standing in front of him. "RALPH! Don't do that! You know I can't stand it when you do that with the jammies!" Bill gave Ralph a look as if he noticed something. "You don't have the jammies on right now do you?"

"Nope." Ralph replied.

"What is going on in this wacko house?" Bill asked a bit confused.

"Secret pathway." Ralph said as he pointed to where a moved bookshelf stands in front of an opening.

"Secret Pathways?" Bill said to him stunned.

Ralph shrugged. "It's an old house. They had a lot of those back in the day." he said as he tried to make reason out of the unexplained.

"Okay, I've had my fill of these games." Bill said a bit annoyed.

"I just want to find Rhonda." Ralph said hoping nothing terrible had happened.

"Let's head downstairs to see if the Counselor found anything." Bill said assuringly.

Ralph agreed, "Alright." Both men headed downstairs.

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