Trace made his way through the noisy crowd looking for one person, the one person he really needed to talk to at that point. After minutes of searching, he found her.

"Kim! Kim! Over here, I need to talk to you!" he called to her, ignoring the fact that Jake was standing right next to her.

"Shut up, Trace. Kim's my date, not yours!" Jake yelled back at him.

Kim turned to Jake. "Jake, it's OK. He probably just wants to learn a new dance step so that he doesn't trip over himself like he did last year," Kim said, walking towards Trace. But even Kim knew that she was lying.

"Kim, let's go to Jax's. We can talk there."

"Trace, what is it that you want to say to me? I have to go see Jessica. Did you know that she is in the hospital?"

"No I didn't! What happened?" Trace's voice was full of genuine worry. Jessica was a friend to them all.

"I don't know, but I need to go there to find out, so could you tell me what you need to say now so that I can go over there?"

Trace took a deep breath. "It's something that has to be said in private, because I could get into serious trouble if someone ever found out what I did."

Jake looked at Trace & Kim with angry eyes. It was obvious that they were in deep conversation, and Jake didn't like to see that. To tell the truth, Jake knew he was over-protective, but it wasn't often that a nice girl came his way.

A hand tapped Jake on the back. Jake jumped and turned around, startled. His frightened face quickly melted to a face of relief. "Matt, it's you. You scared me there for a minute!"

"Why? Did you think I was someone else?" Matt questioned.

"No, no! Of course not. It's just I was daydreaming I guess. Can you believe that Francesca won?"

"I know, man! But the way that Amber stormed up there and yanked Francesca behind the stage makes me wonder if Francesca will live to fulfill her title."

"Yeah, Amber's a tiger. Hey, have you noticed anything strange going on between Kim & Trace lately?" Jake questioned, more for his benefit than he wanted to let on.

"No, I don't think so. I've just seen them talking a few times. You know Kim might just be talking to him to teach him a few dance steps to-"

"...prevent what happened last year. Yeah, I know. That's what she said. But for some reason, I don't buy it. Trace makes it loud and clear that he wants Kim, but he doesn't take seriously when I tell him that I will not let him do that." Jake said firmly, his eyes sparking a blue fire.

"What do you think you're doing?" the black-attired man's deep voice boomed.

Mel & Brent looked up at the huge, over-shadowing tower of a man. He had dark brown skin and black sunglasses that shaded his eyes. He was a very large man. He scared them out of their wits.

"What do you think you are doing?" the man repated, his voice rising.

Mel's quick wits came back to him just in time. "Well, actually, sir, we were looking for the restroom. But it looks like it's not in here, so if you'll excuse me we'll be on our..."

"HOLD IT!" the man boomed, blocking the door. "You're not going anywhere."

Brent gathered up his ounce of courage and faced the man. "Who are you? What is this place? Why do you want to keep us here?" he fired questions rapidly at the man.

The man smiled, revealing two rows of gapped, yellow teeth. "Well, as far as what this place is, you must never know, and if you do find out, you'll never be able to leave. Why do we want to keep you here? Because you have discovered something that we have worked long and hard to protect and keep secret."

"We won't tell a soul. I promise," Mel said hastily.

The man laughed. "And we're supposed to believe you? I don't think so. Now, for the last question: who am I? For now, you can just call me Mr. X. I'm what you could call your room service man, here to see that you stay alive and don't get out, because trust me, little people, you can't get out of here, no matter how hard you try."

Kim & Trace arrived in Jax's promptly. They sat down at a table in the corner of the place and ordered two cokes.

Kim looked at Trace for a while, expecting him to say something. When Trace did not, she spoke up. "Well, Trace? What do you need to say?"

Trace inched up on the table. "OK, look. Remember hearing me say before that you would win, no matter what? Well, I did something really bad."

"What did you do, Trace?" Kim questioned, getting super-serious.

"Well, you see, I tried to fix the ballots."

"You what?!" Kim shouted, forgetting to whisper.

"Shhhh! Yeah, I tried to fix the ballots. Kim, you just don't realize how much I wanted to see you become the Miss Midway of 2000. I really did. But someway, somehow, Francesca came out with more votes. I don't know how, but she did."

"Trace...Trace..." Kim said helplessly, her face completely white and her lip color drained.

"I'm sorry, Kim. I really am. I didn't mean to. God, I was such an idiot!" Trace apologized frantically.

"Do you realize how much trouble both of us could get in to? We are in for it if anyone finds out what you did!" Kim screamed in a whisper.

"I'm so sorry, Kim," Trace repeated. "But what's done is done."

Kim looked a Trace long and hard. Then she clenched her jaw, pursed her lips, and looked at Trace with new eyes. "You're right. It may have been a mistake, but we're in this together. No one must ever find out. It'll be our secret. Ours...together."

Matt sighed. "OK, Jake. Do whatever you want, but don't say I didn't warn you! You're going to have to really fight for Kim, you know?"

"Yes, I know! I can do it too! It's just going to be a tough battle, but I will win, Matt. You'll see."

"You don't have to convince me, Jake. I'm behind you all the way."

Jake looked around for a moment. "Have you seen Randall lately? I need to talk to him about something, and I haven't seen him in a while."

"Yeah, I talked to him a few minutes ago. He said he had to 'take care of something.' I wonder what it is." The wind began picking up and tossed Matt's blond hair around. "Man! I just fixed this before I came! Excuse me, I have some work to do on this. Make sure you don't get killed!" Matt said, running up the hill towards the dorms.

"Oh, I won't, Matt. Trace had better hold on tight, because he's gotten on to one rollercoaster he can't get off."

"OK, fine, Mr...X," Mel said. "Maybe we can't get out of here, but if we never see the light of day again, that's OK, but we will find out your secret."

Brent shoved his elbow into Mel's side. "Are you crazy?! You're ruining our chances of getting free." he whispered fiercely.

"Just go along with it," Mel whispered back.

"Whatever you two are talking about doesn't matter. You won't find out our secret, despite your presence in this room." Mr. X. said matter-of-factly.

"Then why are you holding us here? For the last time, if we have no purpose here and are not a threat, then let us go!" Brent shouted, losing his patience and part of his sanity.

Mr. X. laughed again, his long, echoing laugh. "No, no. You see, just your knowledge of this room could be hazardous for the safety of our secret. You'd go and tell someone who just might be able to find out what our secret is, and we sure don't want that to happen. Now I hope that you two boys have brought along a few things to keep you occupied, because you won't be leaving for a long time."

Mr. X. walked out and closed the big black door. Mel & Brent looked at each other. It was a choice between two things: be kept safe but slowly rot...or find a way out of the secret room.

Post your thoughts of today's episode in The NEW Forum!

Go Interactive!