"Zac…what are you doing?" Kathy asked of Zac when half past midnight came, and Zac was looking curiously out of the living room window with a pair of binoculars in his hands, the plastic strap around his neck.

Kathy had snuck up behind Zac, making him jump, he let out a quick gasp, letting go of the mini binoculars, they fell to his chest. He looked at her. "Geez, babe, don’t do that," he complained.

Kathy smiled wryly. "Why not? Did I scare you?"

"Yeah, you did," Zac admitted, pouting. Then he looked back out the window. "And to answer your question, I’m looking out for that creep who got in," Zac answered quickly.

"How could he have gotten in if the doors are all locked…how many entrances are there to this house?" Kathy leaned against the windowsill.

"A front door, a back door, the rolling garage door, and shutters that lead into the basement," Zac answered. "The shutters that lead into the basement are padlocked – I didn’t check, but I know how my dad is about security in this house, so I know that’s gonna be okay. And I checked all the other doors, so I don’t think anyone could have gotten in. Our windows only open a little, so there's not enough room for anyone that big to get in…you could barely fit a cat through our windows when they’re open."

"So…" Kathy shrugged. "Now that you know the whole house is secure then you must be thinking to yourself that maybe it is possible you were just seeing things…"

"Maybe, but…I saw something before you came like I said…so it isn’t like I’ve just started seeing things since beginning to watch the movie, Kathy…"

"You mustn’t worry…" Kathy sighed.

Zac took the binoculars of and he put them on the coffee table in the middle of the room. "I know, but…I know I’m not seeing things, and if you were me you’d be sure too, its not my imagination…"

"Okay, then, Zac," Kathy sighed. "Lets say for instance, it isn’t your imagination and that there was someone here? How did they get in, without breaking a window or without coming through a locked door? Who are they, why would they want to terrify us?"

"They wouldn’t want to terrify you…me, maybe, but not you…"

"Why you more than me?" she asked frowning slightly.

Zac sighed, sitting down, folding his arms. "For the money, what else?"

"Money? What money?"

"The money…we’re worth a lot of money right now," Zac admitted.

"But how?"

"Maybe you should wait for Ike to come home before you ask," Zac said. "He explains it better than I do…"

"Explains what better than you do?" Kathy demanded, her serious eyes squinting in confusion.

"Its not important right now," Zac stated.

Just then, the lights went out, the room – and expectantly the rest of the house – was swathed in the cruel blackness of night. Zac let out a howl of frustration and fright, and jumped out, grabbing Kathy’s arms.

"Zac?!" Kathy asked, jumping, she reached out, found his face, and calmed down a little. "God, I thought you might have been…" she trailed off.

"The guy! You believe me then?!" Zac asked, looking around in the darkness.

"Yes…I think I do," she admitted, she found his hand. "Zac…why did the lights go out?"

"I don’t know…it can’t be a power-failure, can it?" Zac asked.

"Maybe the fusebox is dead," Kathy suggested.

"Its down in the basement…I'm not going down there, girl," Zac said, fumbling around finding the mantle. The fire had almost died down completely, only barely glowing and letting them see each other after a moment.

"I’m not going…unless you come with me…" Kathy said.

"I…I’m too scared," Zac admitted. "I mean it, I’m really scared…and I don’t scare easily, Kathy…"

"I’ll hold your hand all the way, Zac…now come on…"

Zac let go of her hand for a moment, and found the cabinet, he immediately found a flashlight and held it up, flicking it on, its dim white light cut through the darkness, he found Kathy nearby. "Okay…lets go…" he sighed.

They made their way into the hallway, and around the corner to the end of the hall where the basement door was. Zac reached out for Kathy’s hand, and held it for security, then he used his foot to kick the door open, and he shone the light in.

"You know…maybe the guy who called me tonight is the same guy who’s doing this…" Kathy suggested.

Zac let out a laugh in spite of his fear. "I doubt it, Kathy…" he admitted.

"Why?" Kathy asked.

Zac turned to her. "It was me and Ike who made that call…breathing down the phone," he admitted.

"You and Isaac…?" she sounded surprised, and hurt. "Why?!"

"Because it was a prank," Zac said. "I told Ike to do it, but we just picked your name at random, we probably would have called back and said sorry…"
"Oh, Zac! Do you know how scared I was when I got that call?!"

"Yeah, probably as scared as I am now…"

Kathy sighed.

Zac looked down into the basement. It was empty, except for a few spiders. "It looks safe…" he shone the light on the fusebox. The fusebox was closed, but somehow, Zac felt that someone had been tampering with it. He shivered at the thought of it. He began his way down the steps very slowly, keeping her hand in his. "Watch out for the steps…there's a loose step here…" he warned.

"Okay…" Kathy nodded, and was very careful as she followed him hand in hand. "Zac…maybe we should phone someone – your parents maybe?"

"My mom and dad would kick up hell if they found out that Ike had gone out and left me in the house alone with someone who is practically a stranger," Zac admitted. "No offence, but they’re pretty suspicious about anyone we haven’t known for a long time, because of what me, Ike and Tay are worth…"

"Why are you even telling me about you, Isaac and Taylor being worth so much?" Kathy asked softly.

"Because eventually you’re going to find out about it from somewhere, and better us than a magazine or the radio or TV. Ask Ike when he comes home, he’ll explain it to you…"

"Okay," Kathy nodded.

Zac let go of her hand as they reached the bottom of the stairs and he moved over to the fusebox, and pulled the door open, looking in as he shone the flashlight upon it. "Geez-lou-eeze!" he exclaimed in a voice that spoke his surprise.

"What?" Kathy asked, moving over, peering over his shoulder.

"Someone flipped this switch…and took out the amps!" Zac turned to her, blinking. "Someone was here, Kathy! There’s no other explanation…and if someone was here, they could still be here!" Zac whispered.

"Zac…the electricity might be out, but the phones won’t be…" she suggested, her voice full of hope, and anxiety. "We should phone the cops…"
"Yeah, come on," Zac grabbed her hand and began running up the stairs with her behind him. Both were tripping all over the place, banging into walls, trying to find their way around, even with the help of the flashlight, their confusion in the dark and their fear caused them to go the wrong way a couple of times.

Eventually they found their way into the kitchen and found the phone, Zac lifted it up, and put it to his ear, he listened, there was no tone. "The phone is dead…" he whispered.

"What?" she asked in a gasp, she gripped onto his shoulders in desperate fear. "What do you mean its dead?!"

"Its dead! As if the line has been cut or something!" Zac whined. "And if someone is outside or in this house, we don’t have a chance in hell of getting far…"

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Zac noticed something at the kitchen window, a figure, face pressed up against the glass, a white face, dark, dark eyes, and hair to its shoulders, tangled and matted beyond believe. Zac didn’t need to think to scream, he just did, making Kathy turn and see the horrid man there, she screamed too, then turned as a lankier figure stood at the side of the door, Zac lifted his flashlight quickly, seeing an almost identical horror, with the same hair and the same face, in black clothes. It reached for them.

Kathy yanked Zac’s arm and pulled him towards the door, she shoved the thing out of the way and dashed for it, just as they reached the front door, and Zac fumbled to get the locks open, they heard a loud maniacal laugh, tripling their fear. Zac tugged the door open hard, and he found himself staring at the thing that had been at the window, it was holding up a knife. He looked back, seeing the other one. They were caught at either end. There was no way to escape.

Kathy grabbed onto Zac’s wrist and pulled him up the only way they could go – the staircase leading to the second floor of the house. Zac cried out in pain, her grasp was hard, but he did not complain, she was trying to save his butt, they looked around desperately, Zac jerking the flashlight around in fright. "There’s no where to go!" he screamed.

"Sssh!" Kathy ducked into a bedroom – it happening to be Zac, Isaac and Taylor's bedroom – Zac followed on, and they leaned up against the door, Zac shoved the wedge under the door, which would securely lock it for now, he fell onto Taylor’s bed, gasping for breath, tears streaming down his face. "We’re gonna die!" he screamed.

"No we’re not…" Kathy moved over to the window, and opened it. "Zac, you could fit through this window…I couldn’t, but you could…"

"Are you kidding, I could never drop from the second floor, I’d fracture an ankle or something!"

"Its either that or those too creeps get us! One of them has a knife, goddammit!" she cried.

Zac heard something thud against the door, the haughing as the two things tried to push the door open with no success.

"Come on, Zac, you don’t have much time!"

"I can’t!" Zac whined, putting his hands to his head and closing his eyes tightly.

"But—!"

Just then the door flew open, and the wedge flew across the floor, landing against the Lego table. The two figures stood there, laughing, glaring, Zac screamed in terror, and waited for his death, as did Kathy.

But they waited, and nothing happened.

Zac lifted his eyes to the monsters, and found that they’d been replaced by the faces of his own two brothers Isaac and Taylor, and he let out a gasp.

Isaac was smiling wryly, and Taylor was laughing hysterically, holding onto his stomach.

"What the hell—?" Kathy asked in confusion, the look of fear on her face replaced by an expression of complete bewilderment.

Isaac put his hands to his face, laughing.

Zac saw the mask in Taylor’s hand, and then realised what they’d done, he felt his anger rise in place of the fear. "You bastards!" he cried.

"Geez, Zac…" Taylor shook his head, rubbing away his long tangled hair from his face. "It was just a halloween joke!"

"How did you—?" Kathy tried to ask.

Isaac sighed, and sat on the bed, pulling off his black sweater. "We got in through the basement, we found my dads key for the padlock," he explained, he was still laughing. "This is my way of getting Zac back for getting grounded and for my not being able to go to the party," he said.

"But you were at the party!" Zac whined. "So how were you managing to appear here and there at the same time?!" he demanded.

Isaac chuckled. "That was the good thing about having Tay around…" he said. "We took turns of coming over and back. Originally, it was just gonna be a little thing, but then you insisted I go to the party, so I cooked this up, borrowed one of dads black overall suits and got a mask from a friend so me and Taylor could both join in." Isaac said. "Then when the party shifted into the graveyard, I stayed behind and began work here while he went for a while, and then made his way back here, and took the amps from the fusebox while I took the phone plugs out of the sockets," Isaac explained.

Taylor laughed. "But I replaced the amps when you went upstairs, you didn’t see me when I was hiding behind the boxes," he smiled. He reached out and turned on the lights. "See…"

Isaac looked at Zac. "Man, is that real tears?" he asked seriously.

Zac turned away. "I hate you!"

Isaac and Taylor glanced at each other. "Aw, c’mon, Zac, it was only a joke…"

"It wasn’t funny! I was scared!" Zac whined.

"Yeah…that was the point of it," Taylor admitted.

"You scared Kathy!" Zac continued.

"You made me scare her earlier with the phone-call," Isaac pointed out.

"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" Zac hissed.

Kathy looked at Isaac. "Yeah, Isaac, that wasn’t funny…"

"No more than Zac’s hyperness was funny when he got me caught home babysitting for him…" Isaac explained.

"I’m telling mom and dad!" Zac stated.

"You do and I’ll give you something to really complain about, Animal," Isaac grinned.

Zac sighed.

Isaac looked at Kathy. "Sorry we dragged you into that, but we were just fooling around," he said. "Sorry about the phone call also," he added.

Taylor looked at Kathy. "Hey, I’m Tay…"

"I know, we spoke on the phone…" Kathy nodded. "I’m Kathy," she added. "Well, since you’re here, Isaac…Zac said you could explain something to me…"

"Let me guess…" Isaac stood up, and kicked off his black shoes. "The group thing…right?" he asked, he looked to Zac.

Zac nodded.

"Group thing?" Kathy asked.

"Yeah, I thought Zac would have explained it…" Isaac nodded. "We’re in a band…Hanson…Haven’t you heard of us?"

"You’re Hanson?" Kathy blinked. "You’re the three who sang Mmmbop?!"

"Yeah…haven’t you seen us on television?"

"No…but I’d heard about you on the radio…" Kathy admitted. "I never knew I was living next door to Hanson…no one even mentioned…"

"Probably assumed you knew," Taylor said.

"Thanks for babysitting," Isaac smiled. "And for not punching me in the face for scaring you and Zac out of your wits," he added.

"That’s okay," Kathy said. "I…guess I should be getting home now…"

Zac sighed, and stood up. "I’ll get you to the door, Kathy," he said.

"Okay…see you two later," Kathy looked at Isaac and Taylor.

"Maybe we’ll call you," Isaac nodded. "I’d kind of like to make it up to you, I wish I didn’t have to drag you into this, it was just part of the plot unfortunately," Isaac admitted.

"Bye…" Kathy nodded.

"Bye!" called Isaac and Taylor.

Zac and Kathy made their way through the house – once in light again – and they went to the front door, Zac opened the door for Kathy, and walked out into the yard with her. "Sorry about my two brothers," he admitted. "They’re jerks."

"Its okay, Zac…at least it wasn’t serious," she reminded.

"Yeah," Zac lowered his eyes. "Man, I can’t believe I cried…" he shook his head, then began laughing.

Kathy laughed too, "I was near to tears myself," she sighed. She looked over to the side where her house was. "Well, I gotta go, I’ll see you around sometimes…"

"Listen…can I just ask one thing?"

"Name it," Kathy admitted.

"Don’t think about the being famous thing," Zac said. "Its not important to us…if you started liking us because of our fame, I think I’d really be upset…"

"I liked you before I found out," Kathy reminded.

"Yeah, well, just don’t give us any special treatment…that’s if you wanted to hang out with us again, though after tonight I’d see why you wouldn’t want to…"
"No, Zac…I wouldn’t mind hanging out again," she smiled. "I better go now…"

"See you around," Zac said.

"Bye, Zac…"

"Bye…" Zac said, and then rushed into the house, Taylor and Isaac were waiting for him in the hall. "Hey," Zac said.

"You like her, don’t you?"

"Hey, she’s okay," Zac shrugged. "I know she seems like a bookworm and stuff, but she was okay, tonight."

Isaac leaned against the wall. "Sorry for scaring you," he said.

"Yeah, and I’m sorry…" Zac nodded.

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for what I’m about to do to your guitar strings!" Zac grabbed a pair of scissors from the shelve in the hall and ran to the garage listening to Isaac’s calling him.

"Zac – you dare!"

THE END…