Monday, July 16
----

Elizabeth "Efad" Milton peered around the corner carefully. She had been hiding in the topmost floor of First Presbyterian Church, the very same church she'd attended for ten years, but something... something didn't feel right. Everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

She watched both ends of the hallway for a moment, then ducked into the closest classroom. She felt a confident smirk cross face as she turned, keeping all four doorways in her line of vision, and bent to untie her shoes. Right now, she knew she needed all the stealth she could get, and her shoes made far too much noise.

The stillness of the room shifted. Before she could move, something was already pressed into the back of her head. She froze with her hand halfway to her pocket of ammunition.

"I wouldn't do that," a calm voice said. "Now, let's see... I bet you're wondering if this thing's loaded, eh? Well? Did I fire five shots or six?" There was a chuckle. "...so, you've gotta ask yourself one question..."

Efad rolled her eyes. "You're a dork, Aaron."

Aaron Sidnay grinned. "Yup. And now you're a hostage! C'mon, stand up... there ya go. So, still willing to bet I'm out of rubber bands?"

"If you are, you're poking my head for no reason." She smirked. "And I could hold YOU hostage with my supply of ammo."

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me." And open hand came over her shoulder. "I'll be needing that, by the way. Hand it over, shweethart," he said, slipping into his best Bogart imitation.

Efad frowned. "Sure, but you'll have to get it."

"Where is it?"

"In my back pocket."

There was a pause, then a hesitant, "ya play a tough game, shweethart."

At that moment, the classroom's side doors were thrown open and in came Justin Layor and Christien Phileman with rubber bands ready to fire at Aaron's head. "Let the girl go, Aaron," Christien said levelly.

Aaron cackled and caught Efad's neck in the crook of his arm, holding his other "armed" hand like a gun against the her temple. "Don't move, or the Efad gets it!"

"Don't I get a say in this?" She asked, trying not to lose her balance and fall onto her captor.

"Nope, sorry. They're the ones who get to negotiate."

Efad hesitated, weighed her options, and grinned as she gave Aaron's arm a fast lick. The boy squawked and retracted his arm defensively; Efad ducked from his grip and turned as she retreated to safety beside Christien. When Aaron looked again, a third rubber band was aimed at him.

"You fight dirty," he said scornfully, wiping his offended arm on his shirt.

She laughed. "Licking has always been self-defense. Fighting dirty would've been a bit more painful on your part."

Justin suddenly yelped and turned, only to be shot in the nose. Kevin McGorma, from the fourth unoccupied doorway, poked out from behind a storage cabinet and fired at Christien. The younger boy ducked and whispered to Efad, "run, they're after you!"

"What?" She surveyed the scene, mildly astounded. "What is this, Capture the Efad?"

From the nearest stairwell, the voice of Brian Layor was heard shouting, "CAPTURE THE PRINCESS!"

Christien frowned as Kevin tossed more ammunition to Aaron. "Hurry, before Brian gets up here, too!" He muttered.

"Oh, great," Efad groaned. But without further hesitation, she bolted for the stairs at the opposite end of the hall. She heard thundering footsteps behind her and shouts of "Head her off, Brian!" as she jumped the four stairs and skidded on the landing. She briefly regretted taking off her shoes; socks added stealth, but they were awful on the tiled landings at the staircases.

She reached the lower hallway, listened for Brian's footsteps to disappear down towards the Coke and Coffee Kitchen in the lowest level, and then quietly stole into the nearest utility closet. The footsteps stampeded past her hiding place. She chuckled silently in the darkness and pressed herself against the side wall, concealing herself in the shadows.

Then, Efad heard the outside door open and close. She immediately held her breath. Who went out there? she wondered, creeping forward to look through the crack between the closet's doors. No one's supposed to go outside...

To her surprise, a man's voice she did not recognize gruffly said, "c'mon, and quit stalling. I told ya, no one's here! It's after hours!"

Efad's heart was in her throat. I've got a very bad feeling about this...

Another voice, a little farther into the tenor range than the first, followed. "I don't know, man. You're sure it's still in here?" Both men passed in front of the closet. "They probably found it long ago..."

"I'm sure it's here," the first snapped. The chapel door opened. She pressed her ear to the door to better hear the now muffled voices. "Why else would they've sealed up those stairs? I tell ya, they hid it there!"

Now her mind was racing. The secret passage? What would anyone want with that? It's been closed up for a few years now...

Not that there had been a big secret surrounding the "secret passage" -- it was, or had been, a stairway that connected the Pastor's office, the chapel, and the youth room at the time (before the youth group had moved across the street to the Big House). But to many a new Jr. High, as Efad had been at the time, the secret passage was dark, dusty, and morbidly magical. It wasn't very much use for the rest of the church, and the decision had been made three years ago to seal it off; there were hardly any youth who still remembered the passage, aside from Efad and her friends.

But what did these guys hope to find in that long-abandoned passageway?

"It's no good," the second voice said. "I don't have the right tools with me right now."

"Whaddya need, then?" The first asked tersely.

"If I could cut an opening into the back of the closet... they wouldn't've put wiring or plumbing through here, I don't think. We could get in and seal it up in one day, but I can't do it today."

Efad frowned. There's nothing left in there, she thought dryly. Just a bunch of cobwebs, stairs, and maybe some old drama scripts... what're they looking for?

The chapel door closed, and my closet's doorway was darkened. "I'll just put this in here, Vic," the second said. And to Efad's horror, the doorknob next to her ear began to click. She fell back and tried to scramble into the shadows, but the door was pulled open and the man's shadow fell over her. They stared in shock at each other, and neither moved.

Another guy, presumably Vic, looked over the first guy's shoulder. When his eyes fell on Efad's trembling form, he swore loudly and shoved his mate out of the way. She tried to scoot back on her hands, but before she could react Vic raised whatever was in his hand and brought it heavily down on her head.

The pain exploded in her head and down her spine, and sparks flew in front of her eyes. Then, there was only darkness.

---

"...did you find, Chris?"

"The only blood was on the floor where we found her. She had help knocking herself out, I'm willing to bet."

"But we were the only ones in the building, weren't we?"

Slowly, Efad's foggy mind climbed out of unconsciousness, and she realized she hadn't been imagining the voices around her. She eased her eyes open and allowed them to focus. Efad found herself in the chapel, laying with a cushion underneath and wood to her side. She groaned at the incessant throbbing in her head put her hand to her forehead. Instantly, the relieved faces of Aaron, Kevin, and Christien appeared from the pew behind her.

"Are you okay?" Kevin asked softly.

Efad covered her eyes with her hands for a moment, then partially uncovered them. "I dunno... I kinda feel like my skull is trying to beat itself to death with a hammer. What happened?"

Aaron shifted on the pew cushion. "We were hoping you could tell us, E. We found you in the utility closet. Why were you even in there in the first place?" He asked, suddenly exasperated. "It took us forever to find you!"

"Only twenty minutes or so," Christien corrected with a tired grin. "And then Justin remembered that you'd hidden in there during a game of Sardines."

"So, why were you in there this time?" Aaron persisted, frowning.

"I was hiding," Efad moaned, uncovering her eyes the rest of the way. "But when you guys went by, I stayed there, and... these other guys came in here, into the chapel."

Kevin scowled. "So someone else WAS in the building. We thought we heard the outside door close after we realized we couldn't find you."

"They're the ones who knocked me out." She closed her eyes, trying to rack her memory for anything that would be useful... "One of them was called Vic, I think."

Christien's brow furrowed. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

"No... we had all the lights off for our game." Efad hesitated, then added, "I'm sorry. I'm not a very good witness, I guess." There was a brief pause. The passage...? The thought made her gasp and sat bolt upright (and nearly knock heads with Christien). "The secret passage!" She cried and tried to stand, but Aaron put his hands firmly on her shoulders. Her head throbbed harshly at the change in altitude.

"Take it easy there, Speed," he said sternly. "What about the secret passage?"

She tried to free herself from his grasp. "That's what I need to find out! They're gonna come back and-- will you PLEASE let go of me, Aaron?" She finally snapped.

Kevin sighed tiredly. "Let's try this again. What do you need to know about the secret passage?"

"The two guys were going to open it up and look for something," Efad explained slowly. "They think there's some hidden... oh, I don't know what they're looking for! But they think someone hid whatever it is INSIDE the passage when it was closed off!"

"Like what?" Christien looked very interested now.

"Not you too, Chris!" Kevin groaned and put his forehead in his hand.

The younger boy rolled his eyes. "Don't you wanna find out what these guys were after? I mean, if they're willing to hurt a girl hiding in a closet just to keep it a secret..."

For a moment, Kevin looked thoughtful. "...fine," he said sourly. "but we're not getting in too deep this time, okay? Remember when we helped Jacen out of the "goodness of our hearts," and his maniac brother tried to burn Efad alive in an abandoned warehouse?"

The other three shuddered at the memory. Then Aaron said, "but we did the right thing, and Jared went to jail."

"And Efad's not dead," Christien added.

Efad grinned tiredly. "C'mon, Kev, aren't you curious? Just a little...?"

He frowned at her, and almost glared before he could stop himself. "You want me to be curious," he said. "You just want to make sure I'm with you all the way, so I won't tell the Elders or the Pastor what's going on. You want to have your little investigation and catch the bad guys, but you don't want anyone to know about it."

Aaron scowled. "Don't be that way, Kev. What's the harm in making sure these guys don't tear down our entire church?"

"Plenty," Kevin snapped. "I'm just trying to be logical about this!"

Brian and Justin poked their heads into the chapel. "Logical about what?" Brian asked.

After a moment of silence, Kevin sighed and put his head on the back of the pew. "Go ahead," he said wearily. "Once those two know, I'll be the only one opposed to this insanity. We might as well do this together, because you'll all be miserable if I argue any more."

Justin raised an eyebrow. "...now I really want to know what's going on."

---

They all spoke a little longer of it, but soon it was time for everyone to go home. As Efad opened the glass door and stepped into the muggy mid-July air, she caught herself looking for any cars she didn't recognize. I was probably out for a long time, She thought drearily. Those guys could be on the far side of Montgomery by now. Her head throbbed painfully from the light of the streetlights, and she was secretly glad it was nighttime -- the sun would've hurt even worse.

The door slammed behind her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. No one's there. There's nothing behind you, don't even look.

Efad felt a hand grab her shoulder. She screamed and whipped around to strike her attacker, but her fist was caught. Before she could cry for help, a male voice hissed, "calm down, it's me!" She opened her eyes and saw Aaron standing there, holding her wrist inches from his shoulder.

"Oh... Aaron, I'm sorry, I just--"

"Yeah, I know." He grinned. "Great defensive strategy, by the way. Were you planning to overpower your attacker with sheer strength, or were you hoping to just deafen him with the scream?"

Efad frowned, retracting her arm as it was released. "Funny. Did you sneak out here just to scare me?"

"Surprisingly, I didn't." Aaron shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Just checking on, y'know... on your headache. Are you okay to drive home?"

She anxiously cracked the joints in her wrists. "I... didn't drive today," she began awkwardly. When Aaron sighed in exasperation, she grinned sheepishly. "Mom's been getting on about how I need to exercise more, so I walked down here. It isn't that far, really -- I'll be fine!"

He leveled a tired look at her. "I'm starting to believe you do have a concussion. Well," he said with another sigh, "I was going to walk you to your car, but now I'll walk you to MY car. C'mon, let's go."

"No, don't," Efad moaned. "It's completely out of the way for you!"

Aaron rolled his eyes. "You think I care? Come, ye rebellious child, let us journey forth."

She tried to protest, but Aaron wouldn't hear of it. She finally resigned myself to her fate, and was hanging her head shamefully as she sat down in Aaron's car. "You're going to too much trouble," she muttered and fastened her seatbelt.

"I'll let you know when you're too much trouble, all right?"

There was a moment of silence as the car roared to life and the two teens started down the road, until Aaron broke the tension with, "So, how do you plan on getting into the secret passage, anyway?"

Efad sighed. "I was hoping to have a plan, but it looks like I'll be playing it by ear."

"You mean, "we", I'm sure."

"...I didn't want to make any assumptions, but--"

Aaron laughed. "After everything that happened tonight, I think it's safe to "assume" we're all going to want in on this bizarre scheme of yours. And now, what time do you plan on meeting tomorrow?"

After a moment, Efad gave up trying to find an argument. One thing she had to attribute to her friend; he was nothing if not persistant. "Well... they'll probably be coming back the same time they came tonight, so I plan on being here earlier than that."

Now it was Aaron's turn to sigh. "...you know, we probably should involve Albert or Alfred, just to be on the safe side."

Efad half-grimaced in thought of telling Albert and Alfred Wadsworth, two highly-respected men in the church (who were the local Chief of Detectives and Chief of Police, respectively), all about their experience that evening. "Yeah, that'd be wonderful. Never mind that I broke into the church after hours with my dad's STOLEN key just so my friends and I could play a game, and that we could have been in serious danger being there without adult supervision..."

"But we don't want to break any more laws than we might've already broken, right? It's better to err on the side of caution."

"...if it comes to needing their help, I'll call them. Does that make you feel better?"

Aaron frowned as he turned onto the street where Efad lived. "Maybe. But... we've handled rough situations before, I know, but this... this is so different than anything else! This is almost bigger than helping Jacen, and definitely bigger than the trip to Ohio."

"Speak for yourself. Does the term "recurring nightmare" mean anything to you?"

"All I'm saying is," he persisted, turning onto the hill only known to half of Prattville as The Miltons' Driveway, "we can't fly by the seat of our pants this time. This is big. This... this is "guys with guns" big. You DO realize they won't always have wrenches and pipes, right? They will have guns, and they will be unafraid to use those guns." Aaron shifted the car into park, and caught Efad's arm as she started to unbuckle. "We've gotta tread softly this time," he said sternly. "Either we tread softly, or not at all."

She looked into her friend's worried eyes, and after a moment she smiled tiredly. "Okay," she said softly. "We'll be exceptionally careful, and if we actually see something criminal happen, we'll at least put in a call to Albert."

Aaron grinned. "Good girl, E. Now get inside and get some sleep. And take something for that head," he called as she stepped out of the car.

"Yeah, I'll tell Mom and Dad this is your fault," Efad laughed, gingerly feeling the knot on the back of her head.