Nate stood, frozen in the threshold.

"How can this be?" he whispered to himself. Before Nate had time to think of what to do about it, Jason's limp body came to life; wriggling fiercely. Nate walked over to him, but made no move to help him, remembering what Jason had done to Linda and Nate himself.

"No longer the head in command?" he said, smiling slightly as he stared down at the helpless Jason. Jason stopped moving and lay frozen on the floor once more. "What happened? Mutiny, or did you do this to yourself?"

"N-nate?" Jason asked. His voice was hoarse and the words he spoke were barely audible. "Nate, is that you?"

Nate was surprised for a moment, but quickly regained his composure.

"Yes it's me, as if you didn't know," he responded bitterly.

"Nate, I'm so sorry. I tried to-,"

"Sorry?!" Nate cried. "Sorry doesn't cover even a quarter of what you did to Linda or me."

"Nate, what are you talking about?" Jason croaked.

"What am I talking about? I'm talking about your kidnapping Linda, those…appalling letters and that threatening tape….the whole nine yards. How could you do something like that?" Nate was practically screaming now, and his whole body was trembling violently. The part of Jason's face that wasn't covered was creased with worry.

"Nate," he said hoarsely. "Please don't scream. They'll hear you; and if they come up and find you here, God only knows what they'll do to you."

Nate took several deep breaths and then sat down on the damp, stone floor.

"What the heck is going on?" Nate asked; his voice was barely above a whisper and tears filled his eyes.

"Nate," Jason said. "I swear I didn't do any of that stuff to you. I was on your side the entire time."

Nate looked over at him and sighed.

"Fine. I believe you," he said as he pulled off the blindfold. Jason's big, puppy-dog eyes stared up at him and Nate suddenly knew that Jason could never be the one behind all this. But if he wasn't, who was? "Ok. It's not you. But what happened? How did you get here? Why did I keep hearing your voice?"

Jason sighed.

"Here's what happened: the other morning, when you were up in your bedroom, Shane stopped over and asked about you. I told him where you were and then he left. However, as he was walking across the lawn to his car, something dropped out of his coat pocket and onto the ground. I tried to call out to him, but he was already in your car and starting to drive away. Once he was out of sight, I ran over and picked up the object. It turned out to be a letter and, oddly, it was addressed to me. I opened it. Inside, there was a single slip of paper. On it, there was only a single sentence reading, "You're going to be replaced." As soon as I finished reading it, I felt something at the hit the back of my head and then I fell into unconsciousness. And that's the whole story."

Nate's eyes were large and his voice came out slowly and in a whisper.

"So, does that mean it's…….Shane?"

AHHHH!!!! (sorry it's so short) REVIEWS!!!! (and don't just say "I'm going to kill you if you don't write more. NOW.") Thanks!!