A/N: Just like I promised, here is the next chapter, in record time too. I will be updating all my stories this week just to let everyone know. :)

Chapter Eleven

By: TheEquestrianWriter

Sam woke up again disoriented and not knowing where she was. This room was smaller than the last with no windows, leaving the room in total darkness. She was lying on a small cot that moved whenever she did. Sam sat up and tried to see in the dark. When her eyes had adjusted to the dark she could see that there was a door across from her with a small window set into it with iron bars across it.

Outside the door was also dark, but Sam saw an orange flickering as well. Torches, Sam thought. She got up off the cot and made her way carefully to the door, she didn't want to trip and fall in the dark. Sam reached the door and tried the handle. It was locked. Sam suppressed a whimper and stood on tiptoes to see out the window.

"Help! Can anyone hear me?" Sam called out, gripping the iron bars with her hands. From what she could see, she was right about the torches. They were spaced at even intervals on both walls of the hallway. "Please help me!"

Suddenly, a face appeared in the barred window before her. Sam jumped back, startled. She could barely see his features in the dark, especially since he blocked out the light, but he only seemed a few years older than her, about twenty.

"Be quiet," he hissed, but his voice didn't sound harsh at all. It was surprisingly gentle for someone guarding her cell door.

"Please, let me go!" Sam begged him, feeling her eyes fill with tears, but she blinked them away hastily. "I want to go home!"

The boy's face looked pained as if he hated what he was about to say. "I'm sorry, but I must tell Caleb you're awake," he said regretfully. "Please stay quiet until I get back."

"No, please don't go..." Sam started to say, but it was too late. He was already gone. She tried the door again knowing it was useless. Sam slumped against the door, feeling what was left of her energy drain. She wasn't sure how much more she could take, but if she didn't do something soon it would be too late.

XXXX

It wasn't hard at all to find the abandoned house in downtown Dalton. Although there was no one around, the police had placed yellow caution tape around the house to prevent people from disturbing the crime scene. Jake had borrowed Darrell's car knowing that the Ely truck was more easily recognized. He parked the car in an alley two blocks away and walked back to the house. Dusk was coming, so Jake quickened his stride before he lost any daylight.

The house looked just like every other house on the street; there was nothing special about it that made it stand out from the rest. Jake stood behind the police tape, scrutinizing the building; looking for anything that didn't belong. Nothing. Glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was there, Jake ducked under the police tape and walked up to the house. The door was slightly ajar, so Jake pushed the door open all the way.

The interior was dark and desolate. There was a staircase in the front hall and from what Jake could tell there was very little furniture in this place. The floorboards creaked as Jake walked across the hall to the stairs. He'd start upstairs and work his way down.

Upstairs, the hall stretched out on both sides of the staircase, with two doors on either side. Jake went down the hall on the left and chose one of the doors at random. The room was small and bare except for a twin-size bed pushed up against one wall and a nightstand next to it. He stepped further into the room, his heart quickening. Sam could have been in this room. It wasn't that far-fetched. The door only locked from the outside and the window was bolted.

Jake sat down on the bed and ran his hand over the bare mattress. He glanced over at the rest of the small room seeing nothing but feeling his chest tighten. What had they done to Sam in this room? Was she just a prisoner or something worse? The bed squeaked and groaned as Jake stood up. He was wasting time, there was nothing in here. But something pulled Jake's gaze back to the bed, toward the flat, limp pillow.

There was something scribbled on the wall behind the pillow. It wasn't consistent with the other random marks on the wall. This was done purposefully and recent. Jake tossed the pillow aside revealing more of it. There were three words scratched sloppily on the wall, but Jake could read it easily.

Find me, Jake

It was Sam, of course it was. This message was for him. Sam must have known Jake was going to come here. She knew he was searching for her. Jake couldn't help but remember last winter when Sam became trapped in the phantom's secret valley. He hadn't stopped until he had found a way to get to her. When he did, Sam had scaled halfway up the canyon wall. She hadn't waited to be rescued. It would just be like that this time; Jake would find out where she was and Sam would be fighting her way out, her spirit unbreakable.

With a renewed vigor, Jake searched the rest of the upstairs. He found nothing that the police hadn't already. Downstairs was pretty much the same. This house was indeed abandoned as it always had been. Jake kicked a loose stone in frustration. The stone bounced and rolled underneath the staircase and didn't stop until it hit an uneven floorboard.

Jake stared; it wasn't just one floorboard, there was a patch of floor under the staircase that was raised slightly higher than the rest of the floor. He walked over and knelt down to inspect it. He slid his fingers between the raised edges and lifted. The dark hole beneath was big enough for a person to fit through and Jake could see steps leading down into the darkness. It was a trapdoor. Caleb had to have taken Sam and Cody down there, Jake was sure of it. It was a perfect plan; fool the cops into thinking you escaped when your literally right under their feet. Except their plan was flawed because Jake figured it out. He was going down that tunnel and he was going to bring Sam out.

XXXX

Sam was lying on the cot when she heard footsteps outside the door. She heard the click of the lock being turned over and the door opened. The torchlight from the hall filtered into the room allowing Sam to see who it was. It was the guy who had been standing outside the door earlier. In the faint light, Sam could see that he was younger than she originally thought. He had dark brown hair underneath a black ski cap and soft gray eyes.

He came over to her as she sat up on the cot. Without looking at her, he took her hands and bound them together with a nylon cord he'd brought with him.

"Caleb wants to see you," he said helping Sam to her feet. He tugged her gently out of the room and into the hall. Sam looked anxiously around the hallway, searching for an escape. But the hall went on endlessly either way; the walls were made of stone and floor was rough-packed dirt. Sam was afraid that if she did make a break for it, she wouldn't be able to find her way through the tunnels with dim lighting and her hands bound. Instead, she turned to her captor.

"Please help me," Sam begged him. "Just get me out of here and I promise I'll vouch for you with the police. Please, just don't take me to him."

"I'm sorry, but it's out of my hands," was all he said as he started walking down the hall. Sam struggled against his hold the best she could until he gripped her shoulder and pushed her ahead of him.

Five minutes and a lot of walking later, the hallway ended at a large steel door. The guy opened the door and pushed Sam inside. The room was brighter than the hall had been and bigger than her prison cell. There was a large, metal table in the center of the room. In the far corner was metal chair facing a camera tripod. Sam spun around when the door slammed shut, leaving her in the presumably empty room.

"I'm glad to see you, Samantha," came Caleb's voice. Sam turned to see him sitting at a desk by the door. "I was beginning to think you were up to no good." He closed the laptop on the desk in front of him and got up and came over to her.

"What do you want?" Sam asked taking a step back.

"Darling, I thought we've settled this," Caleb said. "Revenge." Chills went down Sam's spine a split second before Caleb lunged and grabbed her. Sam screamed and struggled to free herself, but Caleb clamped a hand over her mouth.

"No one can hear you scream, sweetheart," he whispered in her ear. Sam flinched away from him. "This room is soundproof. No one even knows we're down here."

Sam didn't waste another moment, she kicked Caleb as hard as she could in the leg. Caleb buckled, losing his grip on her. Sam raced for the door and tugged on the handle. But it didn't budge.

"What now, Samantha?" Caleb asked her. Sam looked around at him with a mix of fear and horror on her face.

XXXX

The stairs seemed to go on forever. If it weren't for the flashlight he'd gotten from the car, Jake wouldn't have been able to see a thing. He shined the light on the step in front of him so he wouldn't fall, keeping his tread light so he wouldn't alert anyone to his presence. The farther down he went, the colder it became.

Finally, Jake reached the last step. He clicked off his flashlight when she saw the tunnel lined with torches. Someone could be close by. Jake moved quietly and deliberately, eyes scanning behind and in front of him. It was quiet, and Jake suddenly had a thought that he was chasing a dead-end. No, Jake shook his head, everything made sense. This had to be the right way.

"Well, what do we have here?"

Jake looked up into two sets of eyes staring back at him in the dim torchlight. His heart hammered in his chest; they were armed. He was trapped.

A/N: I'm sorry it's short, but I'm just happy I got this chapter posted faster than before. As always, please review and tell me what you thought. :)