As he slept, dream after dream haunted Nate; all going by in a whiz of wild colors and sounds. He tried to run from them; tried to escape, but he couldn't. And whatever happened, Jason's face was always there. Cackling and laughing at him. As the face came towards him yet again, Nate screamed and then, suddenly, he was awake. He looked around him. Again, there was nothing but darkness. However, suddenly, he felt himself being pulled up by strong arms.

"Stand up," he heard a gruff voice say. Nate tried his best to stand up, but the drug Jason had given him still had him in its grasp.

"I said stand up!" the gruff voice barked. Nate slowly straightened.

"Where am I? What's going on?" he moaned.

"Welcome to the palace, your majesty," the voice said and then, suddenly, a blaze of torches were lit and Nate looked up at the massive stone pillars and walls of an old throne room.

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Shane paced back and forth in the dimly lit living room and Mitchie sat in the corner, crying. Suddenly, they both heard the doorbell.

"I'll get it," Shane said firmly as he walked toward the door. When it was opened, he saw a 13 year old boy standing on the door step; his hand paused halfway to the doorbell.

"What do you want?" Shane shouted, a little angrier than he had wanted to. The boy moved back a step and looked up at Shane fearfully through his immense brown eyes.

"I have a letter from Nate," the boy said, shaking himself and holding out the letter. Shane snatched up the letter from the boy and shut the door in his face.

"Who was it?" Mitchie asked, coming up to him in the hallway. Shane didn't answer her, instead tearing off the envelope and starting to read the letter. A moment later, he dropped it and turned away from Mitchie.

"What is it?" Mitchie asked, frightened at the numerous possible things that could have happened. Shane again said nothing and just stood in the hallway, facing the door. Mitchie picked up the letter and started to read.

"It can't be," Shane said. "That just can't be him. He wouldn't do something like that to us."

"It's his handwriting, Shane," Mitchie pointed out.

"It doesn't make sense," Shane shouted, turning back around to her. "He must be in trouble and someone must have forced him to write it or something. I'm telling you, he wouldn't do this."

"Don't yell at me, Shane. I'm on your side," Mitchie said gently, and then continued to read. Something suddenly caught her attention.

"Hey, Shane. Look at this."

"What?" Shane asked, coming over to her side so he could read along.

"This line: 'Say hi to Big Ben for me.' Doesn't something seem odd about that?" "Why would it?" Shane asked, confused.

"Well, for one thing, it says 'say hi to Big Ben' instead of 'bye' like all the other requests. That just seems strange."

Mitchie studied it for a bit and then turned to Shane.

"Shane, I think it's some sort of message. Maybe he's trying to tell us where he is or where he's going or something."

"Then why didn't he just tell us outright?" Shane cried.

"Maybe he couldn't. And you've got to calm down, Shane. I'm worried too."

Shane sighed as Mitchie continued to stare down at the letter. A moment later, Mitchie gasped.

"Shane, who does Nate know named 'Big Ben'?" she asked, drilling him with her eyes.

"He doesn't know anyone called that. Not that I know of anyway. Do you know this person?"

"I sure do. But it's not a person. It's the famous clock tower in London."

Shane stared at Mitchie in surprise and bewilderment.

"So….what does that mean?"

"I don't really know. But I think it means Nate wants us to go to England."

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"What is this place?" Nate asked, looking around at the large room he was in.

"It's an old, abandoned castle belonging to some Lord or other in the 1700's," one of the thugs answered. "And we got special orders from the head that you can explore anywhere you want, but you're to stay in this lower level."

With that, the thug that Nate assumed was the 'leader' of the group, gathered the others and headed out through a tiny door; locking it behind them and leaving only two torches hanging in sconces on the wall next to Nate. Nate picked one and started off for the other side of the massive room.

Before he reached the other side, he found a small, wooden door not unlike the one the thugs had left by.

"You might as well," Nate thought, moving forward and trying the handle. The door swung open easily, exposing a small, stone chamber with a tiny spiral, stone staircase leading upward in the corner. Nate was curious and started quietly tip-toeing up the flight of steps, forgetting the warning the head thug had given him.

When he reached the top, there was yet another small door. Nate opened this and found himself standing in a long corridor with sets of doors reaching down to the end and torches blazing brilliantly on either side of each door. Nate was about to start forward when he saw the first door opening and heard a voice from the inside. He quickly put out his torch and hid in the shadows just as a short, stout man came into the stepped out.

"And I better not hear that ever again," he said, his deep Yorkshire accent bouncing off the stone walls and resounding through the corridor. The man shut the door behind him and walked past Nate and through another door to the left. Nate heard the click of the lock and quickly came out of his hiding place and walked over to the fist door. Part of him urged him to have caution, but the other part was overwhelmed with curiosity as to who the man had been talking to and what was in the room. The curious part eventually got the better of them, and Nate breathed out slowly and opened the door. As he stepped in, he gasped. Lying in the corner of the small room, bound and gagged with a blindfold over his eyes, lay Jason.

HA!! I soooo have you people in my grasp!! Just kidding. I just enjoy leaving people hanging now and then……….ok, almost all the time. But thanks for reading and please REVIEW if you can!! Bye!!