The Dare Diary

Zoey and Liz were in the middle of an intense thumb war when Allen called.

"You're going to break my thumb!" Liz complained loudly, moving her whole arm around.

"Finger trap," Zoey said triumphantly, ending the round. She let go of Liz's hand and picked up her phone which was currently blaring Muse's "Uprising." Still grinning at Liz she answered, "Hey, Allen."

Liz watched as Zoey's facial expression went from blank to confused to suspicious while she talked to Allen. When she hung up Liz asked, "What was that about?"

Zoey just shook her head. "Come on, get your jacket."

When they arrived at Allen's apartment Zoey immediately asked them, "So is this some kind of joke?"

"We don't...really know," Mark said, unsure.

"I wouldn't mind if it was," Jack added sourly.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Liz demanded. She flitted over to Jack and put her arms around his waist. "What is it? Something the matter?"

"Like I said, we don't really know." Mark held up the diary. It was leather bound and tattered-looking. Pages stuck out. Θυμόμαστε θανάτου was carved on the front.

"What does that mean?" Zoey asked, pointing to the symbols.

"It's Greek."

"For what?" Zoey raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure. I'm familiar with the symbols, but I don't actually know what it says."

Liz spoke up now. "Why are we even making a huge deal out of it? Seriously. For all we know, it could just be some random package that was randomly and"--she looked at each of them--"accidentally. It obviously doesn't belong to any of us, so we should just give back to the post office or whatever."

Nobody said anything. It's a rare moment when Liz says something reasonable and worth listening to.

"She's...got a point," Allen said slowly.

"Of course she does," Jack bragged, kissing Liz profusely on the lips.

Mark didn't say anything.

"So it's settled then?" Zoey asked, though a little unsure. "We'll just take it back to the post office?"

"There's just one problem," Allen interrupted. "How will the post office then send it to the right person, if there's no address or anything on it?"

That stopped everyone in their tracks. An ominous silence washed over them.

Then a knock on the door made everyone jump about two feet into the air. Liz and Allen squeaked.

"You guys?" Alyssa's voice came from outside.

Everyone chuckled nervously and Zoey answered the door. She was just about to say something when she noted her twin clutching her head. "What happened?"

"Brain freeze," Alyssa muttered in a strained voice with clenched teeth. She walked passed Zoey into the room. "Hey, sorry, I was meeting with a teacher when I got your message. What's up?" She took off her old fashioned cap and set her tan bag on the couch.

"Err...nothing anymore I think," Allen said. "Jack, take it to the post office."

"I'm not! You're the one that found it and mistaken it for my por...err...I mean, stuff!"

Alyssa racked a hand through her short hair with a puzzled look - an excellent impression of Robert Pattinson. "Am I missing something?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it," Zoey said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder. "We've taken care of it. Allen, put the diary back in the box and--"

"A diary?" Alyssa questionably at Zoey.

"It's nothing. Really. Just some misunderstanding. We got someone else's mail." She waved dismissively.

"Hey, I came all the way here, the least you could do would be to fill me in."

"Where'd it go?" Allen asked, looking around himself.

"Who?"

"Where's Mark?"

"Mark?" Alyssa called, going to his room. "Not in here."

"Shit, what the hell?"

"He's not here! Find him!"