The next day, Frank decided to get to the bottom of the matter once and for all. Joe had avoided talking to him all morning and although Frank was dying to talk to him about the car, he knew better than to pursue the matter when Joe was in one of his moods. Something fishy is definitely going on here, Frank thought. He'd glanced at Joe a few times during the ride to school today and thought Joe looked peaked and distracted.

"Are you alright?" Frank had asked. When Joe didn't answer, he had turned to face Joe, finding him staring glassy-eyed out the windshield instead as if he hadn't heard a thing. "Joe?" Still Joe ignored him. Frank couldn't help feeling that Joe wasn't doing it on purpose. Oh Joe, if only you could tell me what's wrong and what you were doing, he sighed inwardly. He was very worried about Joe and with both his parents seldom at home, he should be acting as the parent. If only Joe were making his job easier.

There he is, Frank thought as he found the person he was looking for. It was lunch time but he was not going to eat until he found out what was wrong with Joe and what he had been doing all these while.

"Mr Weinhardt?" The drama teacher was sitting in the teachers' lounge, drinking a cup of coffee. This was the first time Frank had seen him up-close and he could see how Joe could admire him so.

"Yes?"

"Mr Weinhardt, you don't know me but I was wondering if we could talk?"

"Sure. Come on in, sit down," Mr Weinhardt said. Frank obliged.

"My name is Frank Hardy and I am here because of my brother." Frank could have just imagined it but he thought he could see the older man's lips tighten.

"Oh, so you're Frank Hardy. Joe talks highly of you," Mr Weinhardt said. "Well, what can I do for you, Mr Hardy?"

Frank told him. When he finished, Mr Weinhardt was no longer smiling. "Mr Hardy, I'm afraid there has been a misunderstanding. One thing I do not like is when students use my name or any other teacher's name to justify whatever it is that they are doing."

Frank couldn't believe his ears. "Are you telling me that there were no rehearsals on both nights? And you didn't invite Joe over to your house last night?" Mr Weinhardt nodded gravely.

"Frank, I hope you can do something about these-these lies Joe has been telling you. He seems like a nice boy and I'd hate it if anything happens to him or any other of my students. Now, if you'll excuse me-" he paused a while as the bell rang, "-I have a class to attend."

Now Frank felt more confused than ever. He ended up with more questions instead of answers. And he didn't like it. Not one bit.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Joe asked, his eyes narrowed to slits when Frank approached him that night. Vanessa had offered to cook dinner and they had invited Biff too. Just as Frank expected, Joe still insisted that he had been practising his role and he had no idea why Mr Weinhardt would say otherwise. When Frank didn't answer, he turned to Vanessa and Biff. "You too?"

"Mr Weinhardt told me himself, Joe," Frank snapped, tired of arguing about the same thing all the time. "Now, could just tell me the truth, Joe? Could you do that?"

"But I am telling you the truth! Why aren't you listening to me? Why don't you believe me?" Joe shouted, his blue eyes flashing angrily. "And you too. I thought you were my friends. Why are you doing this to me?"

"Joe, think about it for a minute, will you? There was no way on earth I could be there at the rehearsal with you that night. I was with Charlene, remember?" Vanessa asked gently. If she didn't know the truth she could have sworn Joe was telling the truth. She knew Joe very well and one look in his eyes told her that he wasn't lying. Or he didn't know he was lying, a little voice said in her mind.

Joe couldn't believe this. "To hell with you guys." With that, he ran up the stairs and a few seconds later, they heard the door slam.

"Frank, I think he was telling the truth," Vanessa said slowly, her eyes still on the chair where Joe had sat earlier. Biff bit his lower lip and nodded slightly. "Yeah, Frank, I've never seen him so agitated. He was looking at us as if WE'VE gone crazy. I think something's wrong."

Frank had considered the possibility that maybe Joe had been brainwashed. By whom? By Mr Weinhardt? Why? "Guys, I think we have a problem."

He closed his eyes and buried his face into Joe's hair, sniffing deeply. Joe leaned his head against his chest and snuggled against the naked torso. His love for this handsome young man was insatiable. Oh Joe, my love, my darling...

"Joe, darling?"

"Yes?" Joe whispered huskily.

"You like this, don't you?"

"I do?"

"Yes, you do. Very much."

"Yes, I do. I like it very much."

"Good boy. And you like to please me, don't you, Joe?"

"I-I..I do."

"Good. Now I want you tell me something." Joe stared blankly at him, waiting patiently.

"Do you love me?" Joe shuddered in his arms. Feeling that Joe was about to break, he tightened his grip around him. "Relax," he said softly. "Just look into my eyes and think of a calm, green lake. Take a deep breath and relax." He wanted Joe to stare into his eyes, to lose himself in the depths of his soul.

"You can't escape your fate. Everyone is trying to pull you away from me, and you don't like it. Do you like it when they try to take me away from you?" Joe moaned and shook his head. "Only, I can set you free, Joe. And together we can be free. You'd like that, won't you?" His voice was incredibly soothing, and already he could feel Joe's tense muscles relax.

"Tell me, Joe. Tell me who's been trying to break us up, Joe," he pressed gently. "Tell me who's trying to steal our freedom."

Frank, Joe thought through the syrupy fog in his mind. He whispered his brother's name softly, and Joe could hear him speak, but his voice sounded so far away to Joe- yet reassuring and inviting.

"Sleep now, my darling." Joe could feel someone caressing his face and a hazy memory nagged at him. But he felt so tired....

"And when you wake up, you will remember nothing of this."

Joe was becoming more and more withdrawn with each passing day. Miraculously after the talk Frank had with Mr Weinhardt the other day, Joe stopped going out at night but now he disappeared during the day. Frank found it getting harder and harder to talk to him as Joe kept avoiding the subject of both the play and the mysterious car. Frank had been asking around about the two-seater but no one knew anyone who had a two-seater, let alone knew anything about it. And the fact that he'd never gotten the license plate made it even harder. The other night it had been too dark.

As Frank sat in front of his computer that night, he couldn't help thinking what his father would have done in his position. Should he just let it go? The play was just a few days away and he barely saw his brother nowadays. Joe would be gone the whole day and return home at night without so much as a word. Everytime Frank asked him where he'd been, Joe would answer the same thing. "Rehearsal." When he checked it out with Vanessa or Biff, they would say the opposite. "No rehearsal." Now both of them were getting equally worried. Frank was about to shut down the PC to settle for the night when suddenly the silence of the night was shattered by a blood-curdling scream. And it came from Joe's room.

Frank ran down the hall barefoot and he threw open Joe's door. Joe was thrashing around in his bed, moaning and crying out bits of words that Frank couldn't make out. His heart pounding, Frank went to Joe's bed and shook his brother, trying to snap him out of it.

"Joe! Joe, it's me, Frank! Joe, you're having a nightmare!" Joe continued to thrash around, his eyes tightly closed, his face set in a grimace as if in pain, and he moaned again.

"Joe, wake up!" Frank yelled, shaking Joe's shoulders more vigorously. Suddenly Joe's body started convulsing as if he was having a seizure. With lightning speed, Frank's arm snaked out toward the bed-stand and immediately the room was bathed in soft light emanating from the lamp by Joe's bedside. Joe's blond hair was drenched with sweat and was matted against his scalp like a dust mop.

Joe convulsed again, once, twice, and then his struggles died down. Frank could see tears escaping the edges of his eyes and running down his cheeks. "Joe, what is wrong with you?"

Joe had stopped thrashing around and now he lay exhausted, his chest rising up and down rapidly with every ragged breath he took. "Joe?" Frank shook his brother again, gently this time.

Joe moaned softly and slowly his eyes fluttered open. "Frank?" He whispered hoarsely. "Frank, what are you doing here?"

"You had a nightmare," Frank said in concern. "Are you alright?"

"Wha-wh-A nightmare?" Joe sat up slowly, rubbing his temple absently. "I-I don't remember any of it."

"Yeah, well, it was pretty intense," Frank said, still worried. He had never seen anything like this happening to Joe since they were kids. And it scared him. "Do you remember what it was about?"

"I-I-" Joe shuddered as vague images flashed through his mind. He could still feel the invisible hands groping every part of his body, the feel of hard, rough skin against his own, the hot, fetid breaths down his neck...

"No!!" Joe screamed again but Frank was fast to hold him down.

"Joe, calm down, calm down." Frank got up and went to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. He gave his brother a glass of water and a Valium. "Here, this will help you rest. We'll talk tomorrow, alright?"

"Frank, I'm scared," Joe whimpered, his eyes glistening with tears. Frank could feel a chill running down his back as he stood, staring into Joe's eyes. Nodding, Frank took an extra pillow out of Joe's closet and slid under the covers next to Joe, feeling his brother's body shuddering and shaking, all the while wishing that Joe would open up to him.

"Did you hear that, Frank?" Biff asked nervously. Both of them were standing inside Bayport High staff's computer room after school where the teachers' personal files were kept. In a matter of minutes Frank had powered up one of the computers and expertly hacked through the system. Frank had just found the file he wanted just as Biff spoke.

"That sounds like footsteps. I think someone's coming!"

Frank desperately wanted to stay a little longer but not like this, when it was obvious that they had been snooping. No time to write it down, he thought as he tried to memorize everything on the screen.

"Biff, move," Frank said urgently, pushing his friend out the side door which connected the computer lab with the office. Just as Frank pulled the door behind him, he heard the click of the door inside and someone walking in.

"Did you get it?" Biff asked, as they walked down the deserted school hall. Frank nodded, smiling grimly.

Pain PG