"Get up, Liz" Jessi said in an annoyed voice, "we have to go to work."

Liz turned over, groaned, and opened one eye. "Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh, can't I have breakfast first though?" she questioned.

"No, come on!" Jessi replied and giggled. Suddenly a shout came from downstairs, "GIRLS YOU'LL BE LATE!" Their mum shouted.

"I have to wait for Liz to get up first!" Jessi shouted back.

Jessi and Liz were two sixteen-year-old twins, they looked exactly the same from their long straight brown hair down to the little moles they each had on their middle finger of their left hand, but on the inside they were as different as chalk and cheese, as the old saying goes.

Liz quickly got dressed into an old pair of jeans with a hole in the left knee (from when she tried learning a motorbike but had crashed it into the curb and fell off. In the end she had to have six stitches because she cut herself so badly.)

On the way to work Jessi had a thought. "Hey didn't Bossy Ned say that we were out of Pringles?" she asked.

"Yeah," Liz replied slowly, "That must mean we have to go out the back to get some."

"Well yeah Duh," Liz answered.

"Damn, I hate going out the back!" Jessi complained.

 When they finally got to the shop the twins crashed into Ned while he was coming out the door.

"Girls!" he exclaimed "I need you, I'm just popping to Taunton for a bit, bye now!" And he left them.

Liz walked to behind the counter, muttering, "Our boss is soooo weird!" Then she said to her sister: "You're out back Jessi, it's far to boring out there for me."

Jessi let out a loud sigh but went round to the back anyway.

A couple of minutes passed. First a teenage girl came in for some chewing gum, and then there was nobody else. Suddenly a middle-aged man with a lot of stubble on his chin came in though the door.

"Six cansa' bitter," he growled.

Liz stepped back a bit, then turned her back on him to get it. The next thing she felt were his hands on her neck and a drug-soaked cloth covered her mouth and nose, then it went dark, and she fell to the floor...

"Liz, Liz, where are you Liz!" Jessi shouted, "Liz, I need you!" She let out a loud sigh and said to herself, "God, where is that girl?"

After she left work Jessi combed the streets for Liz, because they lived in a small village she didn't have to walk long, suddenly a thought occurred to her like a punch in the stomach Liz was missing...

 "Where are you taking me?" Liz demanded, she had now regained consciousness and was freezing, then her tone of voice changed and she began to talk softly. "I'm cold," she said miserably.

The weird man sneered and threw her a moth-eaten blanket, it was no use but Liz wrapped it around herself anyway.

After a while they came to a tumbledown cottage and parked on the road outside.

"This is my 'ouse, nice ain't it," the man said and looked at Liz expectantly.

"Y-yes," Liz only just managed to stammer.

 "Yours too, now," he said bluntly...

"Mum, Mum!" Jessi shouted as she came in the front door and slammed it behind her. She ran to the lounge and, breathing hard, she told her mum that she couldn't find Liz anywhere.

Her mum turned pale. "Oh no!" she shouted. "We have to send out a search party!"

"We could turn on the radio and see if anybody's seen her."

"There's not much we can do other than that right now," her mum sighed. "It's ten o'clock at night."

The next day Jessi struggled through her lessons. She failed a maths test, normally her best subject, and got three detentions.

At the end of the day one of her best friends asked if Jessi would take her dog Zulu for a walk, "Hey Jessi!" Nadia said "Want to take Zulu for a walk?"

"0. K," Jessi replied. "I guess it would take my mind off Liz..."

Liz brushed a little wisp of hair that had come loose off her forehead and sighed. She had just finished scrubbing the floor; it was very hard work because there was enough dirt and dust to feed an army (if they could eat it that was!) A minute later the weird man who had kidnapped her came into the room.

"l'ma going out," he growled then, after a long hesitation he said, "and I'm not goin' far either, so don't try to escape."

Then he was gone and Liz heard the door slam behind him.

 A while later Liz heard a dog barking outside. That sounds like Zulu, she thought, and stood up to go outside to look. Luckily for her the door wasn't locked so she went outside, and there before her stood a miracle.

"Jessi, Nadia!" she shouted, "come in!"

As they followed her in she warned them that they would have to be quiet because the man could be back any time now, but just as she was about to say it they heard footsteps coming in through the door.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" he shouted.

Jessi turned and screamed.

"Shush, shush," Liz soothed, then turned to Nadia. "You're the fittest out of us," she said, "so run to a call box and phone the police."

"Ah, but there's no need," she replied, "as I have a mobile right here." Nadia pulled a tiny Motorola out of her pocket and hurriedly pressed the button to turn it on. Slowly, a look of panic crossed her face and Nadia shook the phone hard.

"What's wrong?" Jessi asked her friend.

Nadia looked at her.

"It's not working," she said quietly.

A look of panic crossed Liz's face but then Jessi said "all right, that's fine, but Nadia you still have to run to a callbox."

"0.K." Nadia replied and ran to the door while Liz and Jessi tried to keep the strange man occupied by throwing things at him.

He sneered, "Your little friend left ya then."

"None of your business!" Liz shouted in return and picked up a chair to throw at him It broke over his head without causing any damage.

"That supposed to 'urt?" he asked sarcastically and picked up a small table.

Jessi and Liz both ducked, but a splinter came up and hit Liz in her back. "OW!" She cried but he just laughed. "Teach ya!" he said.

Jessi suddenly snapped. "DON'T YOU DARE DO THAT TO MY SISTER!" she shouted...

Nadia ran as hard as she could through wet mud and leaves. She must have ran about a mile and there was still no sign of a house or callbox, she was getting annoyed and tired but knew she had to keep going for her friends. "I can do it, I can do it,'' she was chanting, when suddenly a car cut out in front of her, in an attempt to stop Nadia skidded and fell...

Liz's hand closed around a small, hand made vase, as she lifted it above her head the weird man started saying, "it was only a splinter girlies, only a splinter."

He looks genuinely frightened, Jessi thought, and almost felt sorry for the man.

But then a kind of manic energy over came her - and Jessi shouted: "Go for it Liz, throw the vase as hard as you can!"

Liz did and as it cracked over the man's head he fell to the floor and his eyes closed.

 "Do you think we've killed him?" Liz whispered...

Nadia squeezed her ankle as hard as she could as the person that had knocked her down got out of her car and ran over to where Nadia was sitting.

"Are you all right, love?" the kind-looking woman asked. Nadia looked up at the old lady that was kneeling in front of her, she had greying hair that was pulled back in to a tight bun so she had funny lines on her forehead. But she had a friendly but worried smile.

Nadia smiled back at her. "Yeah," she said, "but I think I've sprained my ankle."

"Oh, you poor thing," the lady said, "would you like me to take you to the hospital?"

Nadia thought for a bit, the hospital was on the other side of town, although she wouldn't be able to go on if her ankle wasn't bandaged up. It was a hard decision, but in the end Nadia decided to go with the lady and go to hospital. She could get a lift to the phone box later.

"We can't have killed him, we're not murderers, and also it was only a vase so the worst injury he could have had would be some nasty cuts," Jessi said very fast.

"Yeah," Liz replied hesitantly "and he also has just sat up and picked up a gun that just fell out of his pocket."

"How could you make jokes like that now?" Jessi asked Liz crossly.

But as she turned around Jessi realised that her sister was telling the truth...

"Where do you live darling, and I'll take you home." the little old lady, whose name was Harriet, asked Nadia. Suddenly Nadia blurted out the whole thing about the kidnapping to this nearly stranger that had knocked Nadia in the street.

"Oh please!" Nadia cried, "help me! A strange man has taken hostage my best friend and I can't find a callbox anywhere so that I can phone the police to save Liz and Jessi!"

Harriet could only just make out the story that Nadia had just told her, and that's all she thought it was, a story. That was until Harriet saw the look of panic upon Nadia's face and remembered the time that she, Harriet had once been in the same situation and felt as scared as Nadia looked.

"I know of a police station not far from here," she told Nadia. "I'll take you there."

Jessi and Liz backed against the paper-thin wall of the house. The kidnapper had a snub-nosed gun in his hand and was threatening to shoot them with it. "You wouldn't dare," Jessi said in a shaky voice. She was chalk white. Then she added, "You'd be charged for murder."

"Oh well," he said in an oily voice, "it wouldn't be the first time. You know, I was only going to kidnap you Kiddo," he said, nodding his head towards Liz. "I would've made you work for me a bit and then told your parents that they could have you back for summit like, 1000 quid."

Jessi looked at him, wondering why he would have only asked for £1000 when he could have got a lot more from Jessi and Liz's parents - they would give anything for either Jessi or Liz.

He saw Jessi's queer look and carried on with his speech.

"1000 quid to bail me outta jail. But then all your snivelling little friends came along and now you all know where I live. So I have to kill you...

Nadia and Harriet ran as fast as they could to the police station, the only place they could find to park was quite a way away from it and they both knew that two people's lives were in danger.

"We're here," Nadia sighed with relief while Harriet tried to catch her breath. As they entered the lobby a young policeman (who Nadia thought was quite good looking!) looked up from his paperwork.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"Yes," Harriet replied. "One of our friends is in danger -" Nadia cut Harriet off and carried on with the talking.

"Liz has been kidnapped by this really weird man and he's taken her to an old, tumbledown cottage in Dead Man's Lane, that's in LittleBrook village," she told the young man as slowly and as clearly as she could without sounding too out of breath.

"I'll get someone on to it." he said to Harriet. While one man took Harriet's details Nadia told the policeman that - she rather liked - what Liz looked like and how old she was, where Liz lived and her phone number, things like that.

This is the end, Liz thought, as the man pulled the trigger. Liz saw her sister looking around, trying to find something to fight with. Jessi's gaze fell on a small dinner knife, which was lying on the floor. It wasn't much, but it was their only hope.

Jessi edged closer to the knife while Liz, seeing what her twin was doing, tried to keep the gunman occupied. "It won't do any good to kill us," she threatened him, "our family will find you - and you'll get sent to jail again. This time you won't be able to escape."

Suddenly, the kidnapper and Liz turned in unison. Jessi had managed to get to where the knife was on the other side of the room, and as soon as the man turned around she hurled it directly at his head.

She didn't miss, but the only effect her throw had on the kidnapper was a small cut on his forehead. "You'll pay for that," he told Jessi menacingly...

Nadia and Harriet were in the police car with two policemen called John and Tony. They were speeding towards Dead Man's Lane and Tony was talking to someone down a police radio. Nadia felt both car - sick and sick with fear. Harriet looked a little green.

Soon they had reached the cottage where Jessi and Liz were being held.

"In there!" Nadia shouted, pointing to a lay-by just outside the house. John pulled in and they all climbed out as quickly as they could. Nadia ran to the door and pulled with all of her strength. It didn't budge. She glanced around and saw a log holding down the lid on a coal store.

"Quick! Grab that log and try to bash the door down!" Nadia said to Harriet and the police officers.

All four of them picked up the log (it was rather heavy, not even three people could have picked it up!) and they stood back away from the door. "On the count of three!" John said.

"1,2, 3!" John and Tony, Harriet and Nadia ran towards the front door of the hut and bashed the log on the door.

"Again!" Tony shouted...

"AAAHHH!!!" Jessi screamed as the kidnapper shot again. She ducked out of the way and the bullet made a hole through the wall where Jessi's head had been just milliseconds ago.

"Quickly! In here!" Liz shouted to Jessi and pointed at the bathroom, which had a strong bolt on the inside of the door. Jessi made a run for it and was almost there when...

"Don't move! Or I'll shoot!" Jessi put her hands up and the gunman turned so that now the gun was aiming at Liz. She too held up her hands. The two stood totally still, hardly daring to breathe. Liz's heart was beating so fast and so loudly she could swear that her kidnapper could hear it. He was slowly lowering the gun to the floor, but. "A-A-TCHOO!" Jessi sneezed. He immediately picked up the gun again and pulled the trigger...

Suddenly there was a loud CRASH! And the front door crashed open! Nadia, an old woman and two policemen who looked a bit out of breath ran in to the room. While the policemen forced the kidnapper into cuffs Nadia ran over to Jessi and Liz and gave them a great big hug, while Harriet just watched everything from the door with a smile on her face.

"Who's that woman?" Liz asked when they were free from Nadia's hug.

"Oh, that's Harriet," Nadia replied. "When I was running and trying to find a phone she knocked me over with her car by mistake. But it was only a light bump, all I did was sprain my ankle!"

The threesome looked at the policeman who Nadia liked (John) as he said.

"Soon 'av 'im in!" John told them cheerfully, referring to the kidnapper.

"Oh! You were really brave!" Nadia smiled at John. Harriet, Jessi, Liz and Tony all laughed.