"So, Bryan and Kyara will team up and go west. Hugo and Bella team up and go east, while the two of us," Dad pointed to him and Mom, "Go straight through the castle toward the north."

"Sounds good," I said as we walked up toward the castle. It was a pretty long walk. We had already walked half a mile, but we were almost there.

Bryan looked at me and nodded. "We got this," he held his hand out in a fist for me to pound. I did so.

It was dark out. The full moon was our only source of light. Our eyes had adjusted quite well. Before we had left the house, we made sure that Liam and Luke were okay to stay behind.

Luke and Liam were probably talking right now, worried about us, but trying not to be. Mom was going to stay back with them, but if we had three groups, we'd cover more ground, and be quicker to find the phone.

It felt odd carrying a knife in my hand. I surely didn't plan to use it on someone, unless it was self-defense. Everyone had a small knife in his or her hands, just to play it safe. It made us all feel a little more protected.

We made it to the door, finally, and Hugo unlocked it to pull it open. We entered and looked around. There were two statues of knights on either side of the door, and there were three corridors, one to the right, one straight ahead, and one to the left. Perfect for three groups. There were also several torches that lined the walls.

"Alright. Let's do this," I said as Bryan and I started for the left corridor.

"Wait." Dad stopped us. "We need to meet back here at the chime of the bell, to make sure we are all okay. If we find the phone within that time, good job. If not, then we go for another thirty minutes. And so on. Got it?"

"Sounds good," Bella said.

"Everyone take a torch, too," Dad said. We did as he commanded.

"All right. Be careful." Mom said after we had all grabbed a torch, and we all shared hugs with one another. After everyone gave each other a hug, we were off.

Bryan and I started speed walking through the left corridor. It came to a dead end after about a hundred yards and cut to the left. We followed it. We had, so far, seen no doors, but Bryan said that every door we see, we needed to check out.

Another fifty yards later, we came to another left turn, and right as we turned, we found a door.

"Come on." Bryan said, and we entered it. Thankfully it was unlocked.

The room was about the size of our house back at home-the downstairs part of it. There was a huge table in the center of the room with stacks of books on it, and rows of books outlined the walls.

"This must be the library."

"You think?" I said, a little sarcastically.

"Let's look around. Just to make sure the phone isn't in here."

I nodded and went to my right. I was in awe of the number of books that this place held. I was also in awe of the idea that there were these many books in this era. I picked one up but couldn't read it. It was in a very confusing font and language. I put it back and started looking across the shelves.

"Hey Bryan? How long do you think we've been looking? We need to make sure we're back when the bell chimes."

"We're about ten minutes in, I think."

"Okay." I started walking through the aisles faster.

After a few more minutes, I met up with Bryan at the other end of the library. He had found nothing, same as me. We exited the library and started going through the hallway again. It had been a little more than ten minutes and we hadn't found a single thing.

"You think we should run?" I asked.

"Yes, but just remember. The distance we run, we're going to have to run that distance back to the first door."

"That's fine."

"You sure you can do that? Is your head okay?"

"Yeah. I feel fine."

"All right. Let's run then," and Bryan started to run. I followed his lead.

"Just don't fall. We have knives and torches, remember?" He said.

"Yeah, of course." I held my knife up slightly and torch steady and watched where I stepped to make sure not to fall.

For the amount of room this castle had, there were not many rooms, or doors leading to rooms. After about twenty seconds of running, we found another door.

It was locked, and it was probably a good thing because I had a bad vibe about it.

"We should keep going," I said.

"Yeah. You feel that, too, don't you?" He was referring to the bad vibe I had.

"Yep." We started running again. The door that was locked, opened and the second I looked back, a man shot an arrow, which flew by my face, missing me by not even an inch.

"Faster!" Bryan said, and we turned a corner. The man we fled from hadn't even said a word, and he had a bow and arrow, ready for use.

"That was weird." I said. "He didn't even yell at us."

"Yeah, he just almost killed you, without asking who you were. Something doesn't feel right."

"What if he knows? What if all the guards know that we were coming back? And they're waiting for us?" I asked.

"I don't think so. They would have found us sooner."

"Bryan. . . We have to go back that way-to get back to the first door. What should we do? We can't kill him."

"He almost killed you!" Bryan said a little louder than he should have. But the guard didn't come after us, so I figured we were okay.

"How long has it been?"

"About twenty minutes."

"How long will it take to get back?"

"About five minutes if we run."

"All right. Let's figure out if the guard went back into his room. If he didn't, we'll find another way back."

"There is no other way back, we have to go the way we came."

"Fine then let's pray for safety," I said, and started going back toward the corner that we came around to flee from our captor.

"Let me look around the corner first," Bryan said.

I rolled my eyes and said, "fine," giving him the way ahead.

He peeked his head around the corner and made a thumbs-up with his hand. "We're good. He's out of sight."

"Should we run past his door?" I whispered.

"No, we need to be as quiet as possible."

I nodded, and we started walking down the corridor, past his room, making as little noise as possible. Our footsteps echoed slightly, but not enough to wake someone up or give someone behind a door a reason to come out. We passed his door, on the far side of the hallway and started speed walking to the corner where we would turn right. We made it, after what felt like the longest walk in the history of walks.

I took a deep breath when we rounded the corner; I hadn't realized I had been holding it.

"We should run back," Bryan said. It's now about twenty-five minutes.

"Okay," I said, and we began to run.

We passed the library and then turned right once, then twice, ran a hundred more yards, and we were back at the beginning door.

We were the only ones back.

"How long has it been?"

"We're basically at the thirty-minute mark. So, they're not late or anything." And the chimes sounded, making me realize how much of a time savant he really was.

I nodded and sat against the wall.

"I hope one of the two groups found it. I don't know what we'd do if we didn't. At least we know our corridor goes nowhere. I have a good feeling that someone found it. Don't you?"

"Yeah, but something feels wrong, too. I don't know."

I bit my lip. For some reason, I felt as if someone had been captured. I'd soon find out I was right.

~ ~ ~

Bella and Hugo came running back. Hugo's knife was dripping with blood, and Bella didn't have her knife with her, but she held her torch. I jumped up from my sitting position.

"What happened?" Bryan and I asked, our eyes wide with concern.

"You're parents. They've been taken," Bella said.

"What? How! We have to go after them." I began toward their corridor.

"They found the phone."

"What? Where?" Bryan asked.

"It's being defended by the king and two guards," Bella said.

"Wait. I thought the king was in France?" I said.

"Apparently not. Anyway, they found us. We were fighting off other guards. They must've known we were coming."

"It was us two against four guards, until your parents came. Hugo stuck one of the guards in the arm with his knife, and I threw a knife into the other guard's gut, but the two other guards took your parents with them, back toward where the phone was-at least that's what the guard said. We told the two guards we were fighting to tell us what was going on, or else we would kill them. The guy I hit with my knife couldn't breathe, so the other one told us about the phone-he didn't know exactly what it was, but we found out that he was talking about the phone. He asked to take the other guard to the infirmary, and we said yes, and that's when we came back."

"So, what do we do? We have to get that phone," I said.

"The only problem is that it might be defended by more than just the king and those two guards that went back to where the phone was. And now that your parents are with them probably, we have to get them and the phone," Hugo said.

"We have to go now then!" Bryan said.

"Do you know where they are?" I asked.

"The guard pointed us in the right direction, so yeah," Bella said, and with that, we were off through the corridor that Hugo and Bella had just appeared from.

We ran for what felt like a mile, but I knew in my head it had only been a couple hundred yards. We stopped and stood outside the largest door I had ever seen-a wooden and gold painted door.

"This is it," Hugo said.

"We need to think of a plan. There could be hundreds of guards in there," Bryan said.

"We have to get Mom and Dad, and the phone, too." I said. "We can't do anything but charge in and demand for them to be released. We don't need a plan." I started to push the door open, but it was too heavy, I could barely move it.

Bella began to help me, and then Hugo, then Bryan, understanding that we did not need a plan. Once we opened it, we saw the king and two guards guarding something in the center of the room, but no Mom and Dad.

I held my knife up, as Bryan and Hugo held up theirs. Bella stood behind us.

The guards and King Edward took out their long swords, and as they did, Hugo and Bryan at the exact same time, threw their knives and hit the guards straight in the chest. They fell backward, knocked over the case that held the phone, the glass broke on the stone floor, and the guards fell on the broken glass, starting to heave for breath.

"Give us the phone," said Hugo.

"Where are our parents?" Bryan said at the same time as Hugo.

I handed my knife to Bryan, because he had better aim than me, but told him not to kill him, and that I had an idea.

"We know about Edmund," I began. "Your son that you had with Marguerite, one of your maids. And we will kill you if you don't tell us where our parents are. You also better give us that device."

"How could you know about Edmund?" King Edward said. But then his eyes grew wide. He then pushed the guard away, picked the phone up, and tossed it to us, and held his hands up in surrender. Bryan caught the phone and started smiling. We could go home now.

"Where are our parents?!" I screamed at the king. I didn't care that he was my very great grandfather and that I should respect him. I only cared about my parents.

"I'm sorry," was all he said.

"What do you mean?" Bryan said.

The king said nothing.

"Tell us!" I took the knife out of Bryan's hand and held it up high, ready to throw at the king. It didn't matter now, if I killed him. Edmund was already born. Edmund was our true ancestor.

"They've been executed."

My heart stopped, my knees buckled, and I fell to the ground. If only we had been faster and hadn't taken the time to listen to Bella and Hugo tell the story.

"You're lying!" Bryan said, but as he did, his voice cracked.

"I'm sorry. But your friends at home will be executed, too, if you don't get them quickly."

"Liam! Luke!" I found my voice, shot up, and started running out of the castle. I heard Bella, Hugo, and Bryan, following me, but didn't look back.

This could not be happening. Luke and Liam had to be okay. Mom and Dad were most likely dead. Amy was dead. We had lost everyone. And whose fault was it? Blake's. Not Bella's-she had nothing to do with this. Not Hugo's. Blake's fault. I would kill him if I ever saw him.

"Kyara!" Bryan said, I could hear him fighting off tears. "When we get Luke and Liam, we have to leave. I'm sorry, but we can't go back for Mom and Dad. Once we get home, and we will this time," he caught up to me, and I could feel him staring at me, but I wouldn't look at him because I know I'd start crying, "we have to get Blake to get our parents out of this time."

"Bryan!" I looked over at him for a split second and felt the tears come to my eyes. "They're dead. Along with Amy. We just have to accept that." I wiped away my tears as we entered the town. The town was completely empty, and once I reached the house where Luke and Liam were, I crashed through the door and screamed for them.

"Kyara!" Liam was okay.

Luke came running out, "Is everything okay?" He said.

Bryan stood next to me, holding onto the phone, tears streaming down his face. Hugo and Bella ran in after us and started to catch their breath.

I ran into Liam's room and once I saw him, the tears fled from my face, quicker than I thought was possible.

"Kyara, what's wrong?"

I sniffed and managed, "My parents are gone. We got the phone though. We have to get back to the future now. Or else Mom and Dad will be long gone. The guards are coming after us."

Bryan came in carrying Luke in one arm, and the phone in the other. He handed the phone to me. Hugo and Bella ran in and told us they were ready. Everyone held onto me and I looked at the phone. I turned it on and prayed for us to get home. I could barely see the letters-my eyes were too watery.

I then typed in the words, "The future, please," hit send, and the six of us began to spin-faster and longer this time. I began to get quite dizzy and it felt like we were never going to stop. Then, at last, we stopped.

I fell to the carpeted floor, as everyone else let go and fell as well. I looked around after I regained my vision.

We were in a large room but only one thing was in this specific room. There were doors that led to other rooms, probably, but this room had only a large steel box, about the height of me and the width of three of me. I decided I would check that out later, and right now I needed to make sure everyone was okay.

Liam was right next to me; Bryan, who was on the other side of me, still held Luke, but Luke got up and crawled over to me. I hugged him. Bella and Hugo were about five feet away, still laying on the floor and staring at the ceiling. I looked up and saw a glass roof. Beyond was the night sky. Stars everywhere, with a bright full moon. I thought I saw something zoom past above, but I figured it was just my imagination.

I let go of Luke and stood up, the lights instantly turned on. Not that it was that dark before, because the stars and moon were light enough.

"Motion censored, probably," Bryan said. "Maybe we're back in the future."

My eyes widened, and I wanted to smile, but for some reason, something seemed off.

The phone was, of course, nowhere in sight, so either we lost it again, or we were back in the future. I hoped it was the latter of the two.

I looked at the steel box again. It had a knob on one side of the box, the side facing me. I walked over to it and the view outside the window stunned me. We were about two hundred feet above ground. My mouth dropped, and I stepped backwards-away from the window.

We were in the future, but the year we were in was unknown. What was known, however, was the fact that we were not in our time. We were after our time.