The Prisoners of the Thirteenth Floor by Michael Dahl

Author:Michael Dahl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 9781434265081; Lisa K. Weber; Michael Dahl; Stone Arch Books; Hocus Pocus Hotel; magic; magic tricks; magicians; Stage magic
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2015-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

Once Tyler and Rocky had been taken away on stretchers by the EMTs, the hallway emptied quickly.

A half hour later, the last ones remaining were Charlie, Brack, and Mr. Yu, who frowned, examining the splintered door frame. “I can’t leave it like this,” he muttered. “What a terrible accident.”

“I don’t believe it was an accident at all,” said Brack. “Do you still have your flashlight, Charlie?”

Charlie nodded. He didn’t need to hear another word from the old magician. He turned on his light and stepped into the room. Back and forth, he swung the flashlight’s beam.

It was a single open room, a large hotel room with only ancient gods and spiderwebs for guests. He saw the statues. He saw the door to the bathroom that Brack and Tyler had both used. He saw a few pieces of old furniture. He saw an open space that was probably supposed to have been a closet but never had a door attached to it. The one thing that Charlie did not see in the glare of his flashlight: another door or window.

“Do you see what’s missing?” whispered Brack.

“Yeah,” said Charlie. “No way out.”

“That’s not what I meant,” said Brack. “Something else.”

Charlie swung the light some more. What else was not there that should have been? Did Brack mean — no, it was impossible.

Charlie used the flashlight as a spotlight on each of the Twelve. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, Apollo, Athena, Hades, Artemis, Demeter, Hephestus, and…

Where was the beautiful woman holding the apple? He counted them a second time.

“Aphrodite is missing,” Charlie said. “But, Brack, how could that be? I saw Aphrodite when we first came in to get you.”

“I saw her too, Charlie,” he replied. “But someone got to her.”

Charlie shut his eyes. He tried to think back. When he first entered the room, he had seen all of the Twelve, even if he saw a few only out of the corner of his eye. He could count them all.

And then he pictured the second time he came back, with Ty and Cozette. He remembered how crowded it had felt, walking through the forest of frozen figures in the stuffy room. But, yes, he had counted then, too.

There had been twelve gods and goddesses of stone. He was sure of it. They sometimes seemed to twitch and blink in the moving beams of light from the flashlights and Cozette’s phone. The muscles in their fingers flexed, the veins in their necks pulsed. But there had been the Twelve.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.