Book - 01 Faceless

Book Includes: 192 pages 20 Chapters: Intro, 17 chapters, Lost Episode & Intro Know Fear Written by Scott Ciencin Published by Random House Copyright 1996

This was the first book of the series. Included was the Lurker Tracker Disk, that I lost many years ago. It contained files on the main characters of the stories and some other things, but I forget what else.

Summary
Gia Gibson is a new student at Wintervale University. Follow her as she maneuvers through an online campus community called the Ratskeller. Suddenly, her roommate disappears. As she tries to discover what is happening she finds out she is being stalked by a masked person. Who can she trust? Can she even believe what her eyes are telling her?

Faceless: Who's Where?

Intro
Gia Gibson sits in a dark room in front of her computer. Using the screen name Ripley, she talks in a private chat room to one of her friends, Wally Dietz, known online as Beaker. Gia has been trying to get into the Ratskellar, a popular online campus chat area locked by the 'Gatekeeper'. She asks Wally to help her make a run at the Rat, but he quickly leaves.

After Wally leaves the chat room she feels totally alone. Her roommate, Peggy Parrish, has been visiting her family for the weekend and hasn't come back yet. Gia thinks about going upstairs to Wally's dorm room to apologize for pressuring him to take her to the Ratskellar, but when she tries to close the private chat room on her computer the computer is hijacked and a window pops up called the 'Dethboy's Lair'. On the 'Dethboy’s Lair' she is shown a brutal first person account of Peggy's murder. Then she sees grotesque images of people in terror, pictures of dead people and one particular picture of a dead person that looked exactly like Peggy. Then the screen goes black with only a message, "Dethboy: I see you, Gia... YOU'RE NEXT."

Episode 1
Gia turns off her computer and someone knocks on the door. It is Jenny Dvorak, a sophomore sorority sister, and she has an email from Peggy to Gia that was accidently sent to Jenny. It was sent from someone called ‘Lean Machine’ to Gia Gibson. The email explained that Peggy had found a boy name Troy, and had run away with him. Peggy mentions Gia’s crush on Darren McKeirnan and about the Snoopy Dance and signs the email Peggy Poodles. These things make Gia think it is really from Peggy. As Gia looks up she notices Jenny looking at her funny and realizes that Jenny now knows about her feelings for Darren.

She thinks about going to the R.A. Marissa Valero, but decides to go upstairs to see Wally. As she climbs the stairs she runs into her friend Lee. He says that Wally is missing, and Gia explains everything that has happened to her. Lee suggests they send an email to Lean Machine and they head out to a party hosted by Darren at his and Darren's fraternity house.

Episode 2
Gia gets ready, but Lee tells her she is wearing a wearing a very similar outfit to Jenny. Having no time to change, Gia and Lee leave for the party. When they approach the frat house a frat boy with a buzz cut leaves a group of students sitting around the porch and asks them for the password. Lee picks up the boy and puts him out of their way.

Inside, the party is total chaos. The band, Colonel Mustard, is playing. The drummer stops in the middle of a song and appears to start channeling. He then picks out a young man from the crowd wearing a black T-shirt and a fuzzy pair of bright earmuffs. The drummer then "knights" the man wearing earmuffs ‘The Life of the Party’ and asks him for any words of encouragement for the party. Earmuffs yells "PARTY!!!"

When Lee puts away Gia's jacket everyone notices her outfit, even Jenny who storms off in a fit of rage. Darren McKierman explaims that she’s very bold for the outfit choice. Darren leads Gia over to the refreshment table where a frat boy is ladling out punch.

Darren mentions to Gia that he has seen her working for the literary magazine; he sometimes works on the magazine cover as an artist. She has been trying to get on the campus newspaper but it is very difficult to get on. He offers to contact someone he knows on the paper to get her a job there. They enter the fraternity’s computer room and, using programmable function keys, Darren is able to bypass the Gatekeeper and enter the Ratskellar. He takes Gia on a tour of the rooms where she sees a group talking Japanese, Lord Myron, and Pundit along with others. He sees someone called Studpuppet; his newspaper contact. Darren then changes his name from Fratboy to Raspuddin a campus legend to even people who have never been in the Ratskellar. He challenges Studpuppet to a duel, seemingly a trivia contest, but before they can have their duel someone turns off the power, attacks Darren, and leaves a message for Gia.

Episode 3
The message to Gia is from D.B. about their date, which Darren sees and assumes it is from her boyfriend. He gets upset and wonders why he is standing up for her when everyone else is bashing her and storms off. Jenny tries to tell Gia something, but Lee steps in the way and tells her Wally was there looking for her. Lee goes after Darren, and Gia goes to find Wally but before she can find him she overhears two girls talking about Wally having punch spilled on his shirt. Gia notices the punch is red, like blood which makes Gia wonder if Wally is Dethboy.

Gia goes upstairs trying to find Lee or Darren, but not finding either, takes her jacket and leaves. Walking home she passes the main auditorium and heard a noise. Suddenly she sees Dethboy. He is wearing jeans, black gloves, and a pea green winter coat with a hood covering his face. He pulls back his hood and shows a black mask with slits for eyes and mouth. He mentions their date, using an altered voice. Gia runs away as he quotes Lord Byron and talks about Romeo and Juliet. Dethboy gives chase, but quickly falls. She tricks Dethboy by running towards a dormitory but at the last second darts into the Shaffer Library. She runs to the old newspaper vault and after a struggle with Dethboy is able to lock the door. Safe for now she swears she will find out who Dethboy is.

Episode 4
The next morning Gia wakes up in the library by a loud pounding on the door. Fearing the Dethboy is back, she is overjoyed when she finds out it is Mrs. Burgess, the school librarian, wondering about the mess in the library. Gia admits to breaking a window (to distract Dethboy) but learns that many of the outdoor lamps were broken. Mrs. Burgess walks Gia to the campus security. Brian Donachy, head of campus security, takes Gia to a back office where she tells him about her encounter with Dethboy, but he pays her no attention. Instead he has a file where three boys have accused her of various harassment. Gia begins to understand the bad treatment she has been having on campus. She denies everything and wants to face her accusers, but Donachy says if he catches her near them she'll be suspended.

She leaves campus security and runs into Wally who apologizes for leaving her in the chat the prevous night. He admits he had never made it into the Ratskellar and tells her he went to the party to find her. Gia confesses to him everything that has been happening to her and he offers her help in finding the Dethboy's Lair. They go to her computer and try to find the saved pages on her computer, but instead they find a place called ‘Wally's World’ that makes fun of Wally, calling him names and is said to have been done by ‘Ripley’. Wally admits that Gia couldn't do it, but her friends in the fraternity could. Upset with Gia he storms off. She rushes after him but he is gone. Going back to her computer she sees she has email from someone called ‘Goldeneye’ who asks her to meet him in the old bell tower and signs the email Adrian. She responds that she'll be there.

Episode 5
Gia waits in the old bell tower for Adrian. The bells suddenly start ringing and a figure appears in front of Gia startling her and she's knocked off the landing,but she catches a wooden plank. Then she sees the figure is Dethboy. Another voice calls out behind her, it’s Adrian. Gia chooses Adrian to help her to safetly, but when they turn around Dethboy is gone and people have approached the bell tower to find out why the bells was ringing. Adrian tells Gia that Dethboy must have followed her.

Adrian takes her to a darkened lecture hall that is playing Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. Adrian tells Gia about how his girlfriend, Rebecca, was having the same experience as Gia is with Dethboy last year. Everyone turned against her, then on Friday she vanished. He also tells her he was at Darren and Lee's party and overheard them talk about what was happening to Gia, but even they didn’t believe what was going on.

Adrian says he was once in the Dethboy's Lair, which is a room off the Ratskellar, but he can't figure out how to get back in. Gia mentions Darren's programmable function keys and he tells her how to print them out. He tells her she has to do this herself, but he will take care of Dethboy and see her online under the screen name ‘Goldeneye’.

When Gia leaves Adrian, under the screen name 'Goldeneye' waits for someone named 'Q'. Adrian tells him everything that has happened between him and Gia. Q tells him that no one does anything in the real world without his say so. He also lashes out at Adrian for questioning him. Adrian signs off knowing he had just talked to the Lurker.

Episode 6
Gia enter the fraternity using the back door, darting room to room to evade the frat brothers. When she finally makes it to the computer room she is spotted by Jenny, but Jenny helps her in the computer room under the pretense to find Jenny's earring. While alone Jenny tells Gia that Lee has told her everything. Jenny wants to help Gia, but tells her that it might better to leave Wintervale. Jenny tells Gia that that ‘He’ never leaves Wintervale. They are busted by two frat boys who are nice to Jenny, but barely acknowledge Gia.

Gia makes her way back to her dorm room. She goes online to talk to Adrian, and confesses she didn't get the program codes. Jenny didn't help her and actually told her to leave Wintervale. Goldeneye says maybe she should, but Gia says she can't; she has worked too hard. Goldeneye gives her codes he says he paid for. He wants to go on a run at the Ratskellar with her, but Gia leaves to answer a phone call from Peggy.

While waiting for Gia to come back, the Lurker wonders how to handle Jenny's betrayal but he is satisfied with how his agreement with Adrian is baring out.

Episode 7
Gia answers a phone call from Peggy, or it might be Peggy, but when she tries to ask any question Peggy won't respond and the line is filled with static. Peggy does tell Gia they will meet on Friday. Marissa is relieved that it was actually Peggy, but tells Gia that all Peggy would do is ask for Gia. Marissa asks if Peggy mentions Troy, and Gia thinks Jenny probably told her.

Gia goes online to talk to Adrian. She explains to Goldeneye everything that has happened and Goldeneye tells Gia about Rebecca. First, Dethboy took her into his online lair on Sunday. That night Dethboy chased Rebecca, but she escaped. On Monday Rebecca was accused of stalking some male students. On Friday she vanished.

Gia offers to make a run at the Rat with Goldeneye to find any information, but Goldeneye declines and says he will look up more information on the people who put complaints against her. He advises Gia to change her screen name, which she changes to 'Night Beest'.

She travels from room to room overhearing many different conversations. She enters a room with Raspuddin, Darren’s online name, and sees he is trying to get out of his duel with Studpuppet since he doesn't want the favor anymore but Gia gets upset and says he needs to own up. Lord Myron agrees and Gia remembers that the Dethboy quoted Lord Byron and tries to follow Lord Myron, searching room to room, but can't find him.

Gia enters a room where they are speaking Japanese. She remembers the word from the other night and types "Meinichi". All goes silent and someone types more Japaneses to her. She responds with the only Japanese she knows: 'hai'. She is given some codes that takes her to a new room and someone called ‘Penndragon’ asks her how she heard about the 'Fraternity’. She doesn’t respond. He asks her why she was here. She tells him Dethboy. He says to meet the next day, same room.`

Gia gets an email and there is pounding on the door. She is told the dormitory is on fire as she sees an email from Beaker, Wally’s online name, and he tells her he is trapped in his room. She grabbed her printouts and runs to Wally's room.

Episode 8
Gia rushes upstairs and on the way a man she doesn’t know calls her by name and tells her she has to leave. She evades him and keeps going upstairs. She enters Wally's room, but Wally isn't there. She checks his computer but it is cold and she realizes the email couldn't have come from there. She finds a metal box she doesn't recognize and pockets it. She hears the door slam behind her and turns to see Lee telling her they are trapped. She suggests they use the window and they break through it and land into the waiting arms of students.

When they are safe, Lee starts to ask Gia what she has been doing. She tries to explain to Lee what was happening to her and even tells him about Rebecca last year, but Lee was around last year and never heard about Rebecca or her vanishing.

Lee notices the metal box in Gia's pocket and grabs it telling her he knows what it is. He speaks through it and the voice sounds just like Dethboy's. Lee asks to borrow the box to show Wally and Peter and Gia reluctantly agrees as Marissa arrives asking Lee to help setup the gym since most of Crane Hall will be staying there. He agrees and they walk towards the gym.

Inside the gym Gia is by herself. A woman carrying a punch bowl bumps into her and spills punch all over her. Gia quickly checks her printouts, but they are only wet; not ruined. As she is checking them out someone whispers behind her "Do you believe in the Silence" She is shocked and turns around to find Peter, Wally's roomate, reading over her shoulder. He tells her what it says, explaining that ‘meinichi’ means ‘death day’. Peter then leaves Gia.

Episode 9
The next morning Gia leaves the gym to go to Crane Hall. She passes a group of students talking about a new campus radio station with Val Kirk as the new DJ. She goes to her dorm room and receives an email from Goldeneye. He says he is going hiking with the three men who made accusations about her. He also says he saw her in the gym, but she was already asleep so he left her alone.

She calls Mrs Parish, Peggy's mom, to tell her about Peggy. Mrs. Parrish says she already knows about Peggy running away with Troy. She received a typewritten letter from Peggy postmarked from Texas. Gia asks Mrs. Parrish to overnight the letter to her and after Mrs. Parrish agrees she quickly hangs up before any questions can be asked.

Gia heads for the library and runs into Lee. He still doubts what happening to her which gets on Gia's nerves. They check the previous year newspapers and finds they are missing, even the microfiche. He blames Gia causing her to get really upset. Just then a group of girls appear harassing one girl. Gia and Lee realize they are tormenting Jenny and they keep teasing Jenny until they force her into a fountain. At that point Lee can't take it anymore and runs the girls off.

Jenny tells the two that the family’s financial adviser took all her family’s money and left the country. She quietly wishes the Dvoraks never met her. She accepts a hug from Lee then leaves.

Brian Donachy approaches Gia and shows her the dress she was wearing at the at the frat party. He tells her it was found in the air vent of another student's room (Mark Anderson). He accuses her of planting it there, but he can't prove anything yet. After Lee leaves, Donachy tells Gia that she will be kicked out of school on Friday.

Episode 10
While waiting for her online meeting with the ‘Fraternity’, Gia goes room to room looking for Lord Myron but she can't find him. At nine pm she uses the codes from the printout to get to the Fraternity's room. There are eight people there but only three talk: Penndragon, Merlin and Taliesin. They still test her and reveal they are known as the Fraternity of Silence. She tells them she has the voice box and they tell her they want it. At one point they think she is someone called ‘Faceless’. She wants to meet them in person and tell them to wear something red at the coffeehouse in the morning. Suddenly, Goldeneye appears in a pop up window and warns her the Fraternity is trying to trace her. He tells her to meet him behind the old library and to pull the phone line before they can find her.

She goes to meet Goldeneye at the old library but instead catches Darren pulling out a covered painting from the back door of the building. Even though it looks likes it is a painting in his style, Gia can tell he has never seen it before. Darren accuses Gia of being Leonardo or the Lurker, but realizes she can't be because she wasn't at school last year. Darren asks her what she will do to him since she knows his secret. Gia reassures Darren that she will not turn him in, but he could get her the note from Dethboy and the video tape from the party.

Darren leaves and someone sneaks up behind Gia and drags her into the woods.

Episode 11
Someone dressed and sounding like the Dethboy restrains Gia and tells her that tomorrow she will learn that Adrian has gone missing on his hike. She is told that is a lie and she mustn't believe it. He tells her that Goldeneye wasn't Adrian, but she must still trust Goldeneye if she wants to get through this. She asks him if he is Lee, but he laughs and puts a rag over her mouth, knocking her out.

When she wakes it is daytime. Two girls help her wake up: Calle Ann in a motorcycle jacket and Amy in a medieval gown. They had just come from a tournament and taken a shortcut through the woods. Amy tells Gia she should go to the infirmary, but responds that she feels fine. Amy and Calle Ann depart on Calle Ann's motorcycle.

Gia goes to the student union to grab a quick bite to eat. She then checks her mailbox and finds Darren has dropped off the videotape and the Dethboy note into her mailbox.

She is then surrounded by a rush of students and runs into Mr. Jordon, her faculty adviser. He tells her that a student, Adrian Strauss, has gone missing while hiking. Stunned, she doesn't realize someone is walking with her. It is Peter, Wally's roomate, and he asks if Wally has talked to her. She says no and he hands her an email signed Beaker, to Ronin, Peter’s online name. It says that he couldn’t take the teasing from the Wally World website is leaving college.

Gia realizes that Peggy vanished on Sunday, Wally vanished on Monday and now Adrian has vanished on Tuesday. She thinks the Fraternity of Silence is abducting people each day which means someone will go missing today and tomorrow with believable reasons. Finally, on Friday it will be the "death day", the day she will go missing.

Gia notices it is almost noon and she needs to meet the Fraternity at Scribes and Jibes, the campus coffeehouse, but when she enters everyone is wearing something red. A blond girl tells her that the night before on Val's radio show they announced that if you wear something red you could get a free lunch. Now she is singled out by not wearing red. She is about to dart out when a woman grabbed her arm and sat her at a table. She introduces herself as Val and says she doesn't work for the Fraternity. She works for the Goldeneye. And the Dethboy from last night works for Goldeneye, but not the real Dethboy. Gia asks why would Val announce the free lunch if she worked for Goldeneye, but Val said someone called live on the air and put the request out. More and more people called until the owner of the coffee house called and said it is a great idea.

Gia gets up to get something to eat, but the man from her dorm, the one who tried to stop her from going into Wally's room during the fire, stood next to her. He quietly apologized to Gia then made a huge scene about Gia torching his room and planting her dress in his room so his girlfriend would get jealous. He then rushed out of the coffeehouse.

Gia goes to follow him, but Val stops her telling her that is what they want her to do but before Val can make a big exit, Gia explodes and announces that since she is getting expelled on Friday she might as well leave today. She finds a note on her door about the package from Mrs. Parrish has arrived. When she goes to Marissa's room she finds three students waiting for her. Gia deduces that Marissa is today’s missing person.

Episode 12
Gia waits for Lee at the football bleachers. She tells him that she is not leaving, but she wants the Fraternity to think she is so they will have to take her before then if they want to stick with their plan. She asks for the voice box and Lee says he will bring it to the bus stop.

Gia goes to her room and finds a message from Goldeneye to meet with her. She enters a chat room and tries to get some answers from him. He asks her if she is leaving. She accuses him of working with the Fraternity. He says she has to trust him. She then says she doesn't believe that there are two groups against each other. She says the Lurker is controlling everything which he denies, but she won't trust him. She says she is done playing the game and pulls out the phone cord.

Gia tries to stay in the public eye so the Lurker or the Fraternity can’t take her when she comes upon dozens of students going to the the football field. One of them tell her there is a prep rally going on and she decides to go with them. She finds a spot at the top of the bleachers. She tries to wave to Lee, on the field, but he is to busy to notice her. She then notices two students dressed as squires trying to flank her. She is able to fend them off and they drop their chloroform rag and a floppy disk. Lee comes to Gia's aid and the squires run off.

After retrieving the disk and chloroform soaked rag, Gia and Lee go to her room to see the the disk contains both the website of Wally World and Dethboy Lair and files on Gia, Wally, Peggy, and Adrian. There is also the Fraternity of Silence's Oath and files on Ted Leonetti and Mark Anderson. In Ted's files Gia discovers that Ted's father embezzled from his company and is forced or the information would be release. Lee breaks the disk and Gia realizes that he works for the Lurker.

Episode 13
After Lee's betrayal Gia starts thinking about everything the real Dethboy told her. He said "I see you, Gia... YOU'RE NEXT!" Gia thought this meant online, but what if it mean offline as well? She searches her room without looking conspicuous and finally finds a camera hiding in a spiderweb pointing at her computer screen. She realizes the Fraternity of Silence always knew who Night Beest was.

Gia decides she needs to go back online to find more evidence against the Fraternity. She enters a mystery chat room and starts asking them where someone could hide kidnap victims on campus. After much debate the room concludes that the perfect place would be the old library. She turns off the computer and leaves the room to see Marissa on the second floor landing. Gia says she thought she heard someone up there and follow Marissa to the first floor.

Marissa asks Gia to watch her room, which was broken into, while she gets campus security. Gia uses that time to watch the tape from the party. She realizes that Darren was trying to get her to work on the newspaper so she’d have to work for the Lurker. She starts to see the separate groups: The Fraternity lead by Faceless and the Lurker controlling Lee, Jenny, and Darren but she doesn’t why she was caught in the middle. On the tape she sees Wally and Mark Anderson talk while glancing towards the frat’s computer room Darren and Gia were in. Gia doesn't want to believe it, but Wally is working for the Fraternity.

Episode 14
In the old library Gia follows some voices coming from the air vent. She finds Wally talking to someone through a microphone. He is telling someone they had to give up. He deduces that the Lurker is ‘Romulus’ and Faceless is ‘Remus’. He explains that they used Gia to give the floppy disk to the authorities. Wally leaves and Gia sneaks in to talk to Faceless. Faceless, thinking she’s still talking to Wally, admits her plan against the Lurker including using Gia, creating Wally’s World and the Dethboy’s Lair. Faceless tells about her contacts within Lurker’s operatives including Lee, Darren, and Jenny. Gia demands for Faceless to come to the building but when Faceless refuses Gia turns off the computer. Wally enters the room dressed in the Dethboys pea green coat and carrying the Dethboy mask and voice altering device. Gia surprises him knockes him out. She uses a telephone in the room and calls Val at KRLK to tell her the Lurker and his people should come to the library. She then calls 911. Gia then ties up Wally and puts on his Dethboy outfit. She passes two men who are vaguely familiar and goes room to room looking for the ‘special guest’ and finds Peggy Parrish. She tries to assure Peggy that she isn't one of the people that kidnapped her, but before she can explain the two men enter the room.

Episode 15
She realizes they are Ted and Mark, her accusers, and they need Wally's help. The real Dethboy arrives and tells Gia to take the outfit off, but she refuses. Ted and Mark explain they tried to kidnap Darren but he escaped and he had a good idea where they were going. Ted almost admits to ‘Wally’ everyone in this is being forced to help except for him. Just when Gia convinces them she is Wally, Wally appearas having been untied by an unnamed person. Wally tells the three men to take Gia to a safe room and don't turn their back on her. After being unmasked she asks the real Dethboy why he won't remove his mask and Ted and Mark admit they have never seen his face. While going there the Real Dethboy admits to being the same one who chased her across the quad and the one in the bell tower. Ted is then left to watch over Gia, but Gia has the paper on Ted's father and uses it to prove that Faceless is about to turn the Fraternity in order to take down the Lurker; one online person making students do things against their will is as good as another. Only Faceless, Wally, and the real Dethboy would be the only ones not taken down at the end. Ted and Gia enter the computer room where Mark and the real Dethboy are waiting on Wally to reestablish a connection with Faceless. Gia explains to them that this is no better than the Lurker. Defeated Wally the connection is fixed he tells Faceless that it is all over, but he receives an answer from the Lurker.

Chapter 16
Lurker tells them that anyone under Faceless is now under him. He tells the real Dethboy that he needs to free Peggy. Also, if Gia tries to stop them that they need to stop her. Gia says that she is still being expelled and won't be able to get into another college. The Lurker offers her a deal but Wally unplugs the telephone cord, then attacks Ted so Gia can escape. She jumps on Dethboy and takes off his mask to reveal he has been Brian Donachy, head of Wintervale campus security.

Afterward Gia becomes the campus hero. Donachy confesses to the kidnapping of Peggy. He said he forced the three boys to file the complaints against Gia. The dean apologizes to Gia. Wally and Gia talk and he explains that while they are both free of the Lurker many students aren't. He laid out a plan to Gia. Gia decides that since she was out she didn't want to get back in. Besides she didn't even know the half of it. Wally says she can ask anything and he will answer. She asks who Faceless was and he points to a couple across the quad. There is a woman with dark hair and wore green-and-yellow Wintervale sweater and Adrian Strauss. Wally corrects Gia and explains that the woman is Faceless: she went ‘missing’ a year ago so she could setup this plan to take down the Lurker. Gia understands the woman is Rebecca.

Episode 17
Adrian admits to Gia that the Lurker has been using the online name of Goldeneye. He did this because the Lurker promised to help him get his girlfriend, Rebecca, back. before his hiking trip Adrian was kidnapped by the three accusers of Gia. He woke up and Wally explained to him what happened to Rebecca. Although Adrian was a prisoner he didn't care. All he wanted was Rebecca back.

Adrian explains what happened to Rebecca. She was an actress and the Lurker found her and the two of them started playing games with other people on campus. Some of the stuff became very bad, and if it came out it could land Rebecca in jail. One night the Lurker told her this and it destroyed the relationship between the two. She had become just another of his operatives. She asked Wally to helpher make a run at the Lurker and steal any information they could. They found the disk, but Rebecca, fearing retribution, went into hiding.

As their conversation wound down she caught Lee in the corner of her eye. She went after him and ask if he was there to apologize or to leave a message. He said both and he led her to a computer where she entered an empty chat room. Gia logs in as Ripley and the name Goldeneye comes up. He offers her the postion as his right-hand, but the Gia quickly becomes heated and she ends it before the Lurker could have the last word.

Gia proceeds to class when a tall man with a beard approaches her. He tells her he is Dan Washburn from the biggest newspaper in the country. He wants to hear her story and work with her on a story. It was everything she wanted: working on a story in the biggest newspaper. She tries to tell herself this isn't from the Lurker, but after he admits that Wintervale is his Alma matter she realizes she has to find Wally.

The Lurker, waiting in his lair for Gia to contact Dan Washburn to accept the journalism job gets an email from Gia. Believing that she could only directly email him with Wally's help he reads that since he can’t let her go she will be coming for him. He tries calling Darren and Lee to get Wally and Gia, but he knows it is too late. They had taken a bus far away from Wintervale. They would go underground, living off Wally's trust. They are going to work on taking down the Lurker, and when the time was right they would come back.

Lost Episode
Val goes to a party and meets an unnamed man. She is in high school but loves to get out of her house and hang with college kids. The man seems to know Val and takes her into a room with a computer. He intruces her to an online chatroom called the Ratskeller. She chooses the name Isolt. Her online partner chooses the name Tristram. They have a little mischef and the next morning Val sees the fruits of their action.

Val can't go out much because she has to watch her younger siblings. Her mother ran off, her father works all the time and her older brother is off in college and rarely comes home to give Val a little time off. Val and Tristram meet online each time playing more and more dangerous games. Val wants to go to college, dreaming of Wintervale, but can't because of her family obligations. Suddenly her mom returns home and starts taking care of the family. Val quickly sents her application to Winterval and is accepted. After the Faceless Incident Tristram starts acting strange. One night he tells her he forced her mom to come home and if Val ever betrays him he would let her mom go and force her back to help the family. Felling betrayed Val changes her online name to Vader, knowing she has just become another pawn of the Lurker.

Unanswered Questions
{These questions should be put under which episode the arise in}

Unanswered questions

Was it the fraternity that was speaking Japanese in the chat room?

Why were they speaking Japanese?

Why would Faceless call herself Remus and the Lurker Romulus when Remus died, maybe by Romules and Romules was the success?

Gia had three victims but only 1 is named, who were the other two?

What does the Lurker have on Mark Andersen?

What does the Lurker have on Lee?

Who is Studpuppet?

Who is the Lurker?

Why would the real Dethboy work for Faceless?

Did Faceless know who he was?

Intro
Is the Gatekeeper a real person or a program?

Why doesn't Wally want to go into the Ratskeller?

Who is the Dethboy?

How was her computer taken over?

Why would Peggy be kidnapped and murdered?

Why would Gia be next?

Episode 1
Did Peggy send the email to Gia?

Who is 'Lean Machine'?

Why did Jenny get the email?

Does Jenny Like Darren?

Why was Lee in the building?

Where is Wally?

Episode 2
Who is Lord Myron?

Episode 3
Did Wally ask Lee where Gia was?

The later video doesn't show it.

Who is the other Dethboy?

Which came first: the Lurker or Dethboy?

Who created Dethboy?

Episode 5
Is the Dethboy after Gia, working for the Fraternity, the same Dethboy who worked for the Lurker to terrorize Rebecca?

How did Dethboy switch sides?

Why would Faceless use Dethboy?

Maybe Faceless had something on Donachy and created him in Lurker's Dethboy's image. When the Fraternity fell the Lurker got the information on the new Dethboy and he quickly fell in line?

Did Dethboy know about the Lurker before hand?

Dethboy (not sure which one) terrorized Rebecca and Rebecca told Adrian about it.

Why would Faceless still use Dethboy or not even at least tell Adrian about it?

How does the Lurker know to trust Adrian?

Was that really Peggy or a tape? (most likely a tape)
How was the tape created?

Who created the tape?

When the Lurker is talking to Gia as Goldeneye is he talking as Adrian or the Lurker?

The first time the Lurker was trying to get Rebecca, but Rebecca vanished. What was supposed to happen?

Again, is it the same person posing as Dethboy?

Who set the fire? Who sent the email from Wally?

Episode 8
If Mark Anderson (the man in the stairs) works for the Fraternity why would he stop Gia from going upstairs?

Who left the voicebox in Wally's room?

Who sent Lee to get Gia in Wally's room?

If Dethboy is Donachy why would the bells ringing in chapter 5 (?) drive him crazy?

Again, why does the Fraternity speak japanese?

What is the Silence?

Episode 9
Did Adrian or the Lurker really see Gia in the gym?

Who sent the letter to Mrs. Parrish?

Episode 10
Who are the eight people in the Fraternity of Silence?

Does the Fraternity not know who Night Beest is?

Episode 11
Who is this new Dethboy?

Could he be he Lurker?

How does he know about Adrian?

Why doesn't he know about Wally?

Lost Episode
Q. Why does the Lurker have to blackmail people who like him and use it before they try to betray him?

A. I think after the Faceless episode... wait does that mean the Lost Episode take place around the Faceless book? But after the Faceless incident he didn't feel safe with anyone and felt he had to tell people they had no choice but to work with him.

Who was the nameless guy at the party with Val?