"Hello, kids. Let’s play another game of hide and seek. Except, this time you find me. When, or if, you find me, I let you go. But, if I get to safe first…you die. And, let me tell you something. You can’t win. I’m not going to tell you where safe is. I’ll just give you this clue: Everyone can’t be in there at the same time. Yet, everyone has been in there. You’re smart; you’ll figure it out! But, you won't live, Hardys...you're going to die, just like all those other boys whom I murdered...because you don't love me! The game starts…now"

Frank and Joe looked at each other, wondering what this guy was talking about. And, then, it hit Frank.

"‘Like all those other boys whom I murdered…’" he said out loud, and then looked at his brother. "Joe…that means that the killer and our stalker are one and the same! Just like we thought," he said excitedly. "It has to mean that!"

"But Frank," Joe said, "We compared all the evidence. The handwriting on the ball and notes were different!"

"I know, that’s the weird thing…" Frank mused. Then, he shrugged. "I don’t know, but what I do know is that we better find this guy, and find Jason, before this guy gets to ‘safe’, wherever ‘safe’ is." he said.

"What a weird clue, though." Joe replied. "Everyone can’t be in there at the same time…yet, everyone has been in there." Frank nodded in agreement.

"Want to try the basement first?" Joe whispered.

"Sure, just be careful," Frank warned him.

They decided to stay together. Creeping along the wall, there were no holes in the floor. Joe opened a door that looked like a basement door. He spotted a set of steps going down. Cautiously he took a couple of steps down. Frank followed behind, ready to grab hold of him in case he fell. Getting to the bottom of the steps, Joe tried to move forward but tripped of wire. Frank grabbed him and pulled him back. Just as he did that, a bag filled with several bricks crashed to the floor.

"Thanks," Joe managed to say.

"Don’t mention it," Frank replied.

They walked back up the stairs, closing the door behind them. They looked around, trying to see if Jason was there. They listened but didn’t hear him any more. They walked through the living room. Spotting no more tripwires, they checked under the cloth covered furniture. Several set mousetraps had been set, and they went off as they pulled the sheets off. Seeing nothing, they continued walking through the rooms of the mansion. The Kenforth mansion was one of the largest homes ever built in the area. Many had felt that it was a sad thing that the home had become run down. Frank looked around and saw the numerous cobwebs that had built up along with the piles of dust that had settled in. Joe carefully took one step after another. He didn’t want to take the chance that something had been spilled onto the floor.

"I haven’t felt anything slippery yet," Joe quietly remarked as they carefully walked through the living room. Just then Joe felt he stepped on something other than the floor. He heard a creaking noise above him.

Before Frank knew what was going on, Joe had pulled him to the side and landed on top of him. "Wh…What’s going…." He tried to say. His voice was drowned out as the chandelier landed with an enormous crash where they had just been standing.

"Whoa…" Frank whispered, staring at the thing that could have nearly crushed him. "Thanks, Bro…" Joe just smiled at him, and then they continued out of the living room. Outside, Frank saw a bathroom. He very carefully walked in, trying to see if anything was there. All of a sudden, Joe grabbed his brother. Frank, scared something had happened, whirled around to see what was wrong.

"Joe! What is it?" he asked.

"Frank! I just figured out what ‘safe’ is!" Frank looked at his brother expectantly, not saying a word. "Frank, ‘safe’ is the bathroom!" Frank’s mouth dropped open. "Think about it!" Joe continued. "Everyone can’t be in there at the same time…yet, everyone has been in there. We’ve all been to the bathroom before, Frank…but usually, no one’s in there with someone else!" Frank grinned.

"Brat, you’re a genius!" he exclaimed.

"I know…" Joe said, with fake modesty.

Frank was about to say something when they heard a child-like scream. It was Jason!

"Jason," Joe whispered.

Frank grabbed a hold of Joe’s shoulder before he could get up from the floor.

"We can’t run through this house," Frank warned him.

"Did you hear where the voice came from?" Joe asked still seething at hearing Jason’s voice.

"No, it might be somewhere upstairs, but it sounded like it was coming from all directions," Frank replied.

They got up from the floor, and continued walking. Joe looked around and saw the various tripwires that had been placed about the room.

"Want to try upstairs?" Joe suggested.

"Let’s try the dining room and the dance room before we go upstairs," Frank replied. "We have to make sure that he doesn’t get to any of the bathrooms…but how do we do that?" he asked.

"I think we should set traps of our own first…that’s all we can do. We’ll have to set them in all the bathrooms." Joe replied.

"That’s a good idea…" Frank said. "But do we have enough time?"

"We will…" Joe said seriously, "If we split up. There are four bathrooms…two downstairs, two upstairs. I think we should split up with one of us and the other down. We can also look for Jason upstairs and downstairs."

"NO!" Frank said. "There is no way we are splitting up. Joe, remember what happened LAST time we were stuck in a house with this guy?"

"How can I forget?" Joe asked wryly.

"We’re NOT splitting up. End of discussion." Frank said, angrily, turning away. Joe sighed, then said,

"Well, since we’re down here, let’s set up one of the traps." Frank nodded, and asked what to do.

"Well…let’s get the soap in there and spread it all over the floor. Anyone that walks in, slips." Frank agreed to the idea, and the two worked quickly. Soon, they were done, and then were back on their way. They walked slowly towards the dinning room. The room was very large. There was a huge cloth covered table in the center. Joe looked under the table, and saw one of Jason’s sneakers lying there!

"Frank, one of Jason’s sneakers is here!" Joe nearly shouted but kept his voice calm.

"Joe, don’t touch it. He may have rigged it," Frank warned.

"I don’t see any wires or motion sensors around it," Joe replied. He went underneath the table, and picked up the sneaker. Coming back from under the table he handed the sneaker to Frank.

"Yeah, it’s one of Jason’s. I remember going to the store, and getting them for him," Frank replied.

They heard Jason scream again. It sent chills through them, causing them both to look at the ceiling.

Jason wiggled in his chair. The ropes were hurting him, and the man holding the knife was scaring him. He was sure he had seen the short man before, but he wasn’t sure where. All that he did know was that he wanted his big brothers. He had screamed several times, when the man had talked through them through the thing on the wall.

"Why are you doing this," Jason asked in a small voice. "Why are you hurting me and my brothers?"

"They aren’t your brothers. It’s because of you they hate me. Now they have to be punished, just like you will," the scary man replied. He flashed the knife in front of him. He started to scream again.

Frank took a hold of Joe’s shoulder again. "Easy Joe, you’ve got to keep thinking straight."

Joe swallowed and knew Frank was right. If they were going to find Jason, they’d have to make their way through the death traps that the man had set up. "All right, but let’s get him out of here as fast as we can," Joe replied.

They walked on to the ballroom, stepping over the tripwire that they could see through the goggles. Joe’s footing gave out on him, and he fell to the ground. Floor wax! He groaned as Frank had fallen on top of him.

"He’s put wax on the floor in this room," Joe said, trying in vain to stand up.

"We’ll have to crawl out," Frank replied.

They got on their hands and knees, and started to crawl back the way they came. It was slow and frustrating. The wax made it just as hard to crawl as it did to walk. Finally getting out of the room, they climbed the stairs and came to another room with a closed door. Joe was about to open it when Frank grabbed his wrist.

"Let me go in first," Frank told him.

"Why? I’ll be fine," Joe replied.

"I want to go first, and I’m oldest, so I get first pick. Get it?" Frank said, slightly crabby. Joe rolled his eyes, but reluctantly he stood aside, and let Frank pass him. Frank tested the knob then gave it a twist. The door opened quietly. The room it opened to was dark. The goggles revealed lots of cloth-covered furniture of odd shapes. He took a couple of slow steps inside, and felt an arm snake around his neck!

Joe saw the movement and kicked at the form that had attacked his brother. The attacker let go, and Frank took a deep breath. A flash of light temporary blinded them, and the attacker fled the room. Joe wanted to run after the attacker, but had to know if his brother was breathing okay.

"Are you alright, Frank?" Joe demanded.

"I’m fine," Frank managed to say. "Go after him!"

Joe ran out and saw the fleeing man run down the steps. He ran up after him. He went down two at a time, not bothering to check for tripwire. The masked attacker ran down the large hallway, towards the back door. Reaching it, he threw the door open.

Meanwhile Cliff waited impatiently outside. He had heard the sound of an enormous crash. He radioed into Mr. Hardy what he had heard. Fenton was reluctant, but he told Cliff to wait where he was until there were signs that someone was coming out. He said that Con Riley was on standby, and waiting with two other units. Cliff looked around, but could see no one through the curtain-covered windows.

Frank had regained his breath. The chokehold put on him was an expert hold. Had Joe not stopped the attacker when he had, he was positive the hold would have killed him. He regained his footing, and ran in the direction that he had seen Joe take. Running down the steps, as Joe had done, he saw the back door open, and ran out in the same fashion. At the opening into the woods, he saw Joe standing there.

"Joe!" he shouted, running towards him. Panting, and out of breath, he asked him, "What happened?"

"He ran into the woods," Joe replied. "I wanted to go after him, but Jason’s still in the house." Frank bit his lip, thinking for a moment, before deciding what to do.

"I’m going to call Dad and Cliff, and tell them to go inside and find Jason." He said, already taking his cell out. As soon as his Dad answered his phone, Frank started talking.

"Dad, it’s me. The guy has run out of the house, but Jason’s still in there somewhere. Get Cliff, and go get Jason. But, be careful! There are still traps all over the house."

"Okay, son. But, where are you?" Fenton asked.

"At the edge of the woods. The guy ran in, and we were just going to go after him, but we decided to call you first." Frank replied.

"I don’t know, Frank…" Fenton said doubtfully. "I’m not sure you should go in after the guy." Frank sighed, and said,

"Dad, we have to, or else he’ll get away. Now, I have to go! Goodbye!" and with that, he hung up the phone, before his dad could say anything else. He jogged into the woods, followed by Joe.

*******************

Fenton, meanwhile, rounded up Cliff.

"We have to go get Jason, but afterwards, I want you to go into the woods after Frank and Joe in case they are in trouble, okay? I’ve already alerted Con, but it’s only him and another officer, it’ll be hard for them to find the boys all by himself," he said. Cliff agreed wholeheartedly, and they ran into the house to go get Jason.

********************

Frank and Joe ran after the guy, looking at the footprints in the dirt, along with the trampled trail, to try and find the guy. Soon, Frank noticed blood on his little brother’s shirt.

"Joe!" he shouted, coming to a halt. "What happened? Why are you bleeding?" Joe stopped too, looking at his shirt. And, then, he realized that his stitches must have come out. Telling his brother that, he took out his shirt, and tried to stop the flow of blood. Seeing the bleeding had gone down, he threw his shirt, and tried to go away, but Frank stopped him, handing him the button down shirt he had on over his shirt. Joe took it, and put in quickly, then started running again, Frank running behind him. Suddenly, Joe tripped and fell. It was another trip wire. Then, they heard a loud crack. Looking up, they saw a large tree about to fall and hit Joe! Frank grabbed Joe and pulled him backwards just as the tree came crashing across the trail! Joe gasped, and then looked at his brother. Frank said nothing, but his face spoke it all.

"Come on," was all Frank said tersely after a few seconds. He was mad, and he wanted to get this guy, and get him now. They continued running, when they got to a clearing. As they were running into it, they masked man came and ran right into Joe! Joe fell backwards, and the man retreated into a corner of the clearing. The boys ran in, and then realized the reason the guy had trying to run back. Con Riley and another officer were standing at the other end of the clearing!

"Are you two okay?" Con called. "We found a bloody shirt!"

"We’re fine," Frank called back. "But we now have this guy cornered!" He said. He started walking towards the guy, but he pulled out a gun!

"Don’t come any closer!" he yelled, pointing the gun at Frank and Joe. They both stopped walking forward, and put their hands up.

"Drop the gun!" Con yelled.

"No!" the guy yelled back. "You drop it. Or else, I’ll shoot! You know I won’t miss, not at this range!" Con, and Officer Michaels realized he was right, and dropped their guns. The guy kept his gun trained on Frank and Joe.

"Why did you kidnap Jason?" Joe asked him angrily.

"He turned you against me!" The guy yelled back just as angrily. "I was going to kill him, before realizing that killing little kids just wasn’t my style. But, I would have no qualms about killing you! So don’t try anything!" he warned, steadying the gun. Frank watched the exchange quietly, wondering why the guy wasn’t trying to run. He had a clear path to the right of him. Just then, a flash to the left of the killer caught Frank’s attention. He saw Cliff there! Realizing he had to divert the guy’s attention, he started taunting him.

"Jason’s so much better than you! You’re just a fool…an idiot!" he taunted. The guy’s eyes widened, and he took aim at Frank, cocking the gun. Just then, Cliff ran out from the left of the guy, scaring him. He ran two steps to the right instinctively, and then screamed in pain, as a sharp twang was heard. He sank to the floor, whimpering softly. Cliff stood there, next to Frank and Joe, staring just as they were.

"He had a bear claw trap over there…" he breathed softly, looking stunned. Frank and Joe were just as stunned as he was, as were Riley and Michaels, who had run over after grabbing their guns. Frank shook himself and then walked over to the guy.

"Well," he said, taking a deep breath. "Let’s see who this guy is." He slowly reached forward, and tugged at the ski mask covering the guy’s face, and slowly, it came out. Everyone let out a collective gasp at the man sitting there in front of them, his face twisted in pain.