Ike Hamill - The Vivisectionist

“Aw mom,” Jack moaned. “A craft fair?”

“Relax. Just a suggestion,” she said. “I’ll leave you to your important activities.” She backed out of the room and shut the door.

Stephen whispered to Jack — “How come your mom doesn’t work? What’s she doing here all the time?”

“She and my dad own the HVAC business,” said Jack. “She does all the office stuff, accounting, and all that stuff. So, she works here.”

“That must be a drag — always having her around,” said Stephen.

“Nah, it’s cool,” said Jack.

“I like your mom,” said Ben. “She’s nice.”

“Yeah, I guess,” said Jack.

“Well she’s better than that new girl my dad is seeing,” said Ben.

“What happened to Broyhill?” asked Stephen. “My god, she had big tits,” he added.

“That’s old news,” said Ben. “She’s been gone for a while. You know, now that I think of it, you two guys are the only guys I know whose parents are still together.” Ben said to Jack.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” said Jack.

“So if you don’t have to go, are you going to come back to the place with us?” Stephen asked Ben.

“You mean the hotel?” asked Ben in a loud tone.

Stephen looked away from Ben and rolled his eyes at how Ben was trying to sabotage their secret. He raised his hands and shoulders in question and looked at Jack.

“Douche-ism,” said Jack. “It is catching.”

“That explains it,” said Stephen.

“I don’t know,” said Ben. “I guess I’ll go back with you guys. But I have to call my mom first.”

“Well get to it, son,” said Stephen.

Ben rummaged around in his backpack and got out his cell phone.

“That won't work around here,” said Jack.

“Yeah, I know, but I don't have everyone's number memorized,” said Ben. He searched through his contacts as he left to go use the phone in the guest room.

Stephen picked up his own pack and handed the third over to Jack. They found their sandwiches and began eating. Stephen opened a juice box and tossed another one over next to Jack.

“I hope he doesn’t have to go,” said Jack.

“Well, either way,” said Stephen.

“Oh man, how can you say that?” asked Jack. “Ben’s the best.”

“He’s normally the best,” said Stephen. “About this, he’s only fair .” Stephen tilted his hand back and forth.

“I think he’ll come around,” said Jack.

“Hey — what’s this thing?” Stephen had picked up a cuttlefish bone from the shelf. Jack began to explain it’s origin. A few words in and Ben came back in the room.

“What happened?” asked Jack.

“No answer,” said Ben. “Can’t get my brother either. I left a voicemail for my dad though.”

“Sounds like we’re on for this afternoon,” Stephen said through a mouthful of ham and cheese.

“If so, we have to get around Smoker,” said Jack.

“We ought to stay off the path completely,” said Ben. He grabbed his bag and pulled out his sandwich.

“We should check the fishing line,” said Jack. They sat in the woods near the edge of the hotel’s clearing. It took a lot of effort and time to reach the hotel and stay away from the normal path.

“Go ahead,” said Stephen. “We’ll wait.”

“Okay.”

Jack crept off to their left and, keeping his head down, made his way up the gully. From the corner of the building, Jack began down the old path and then bent over to look at the ground. A second later he stood up and flashed an “Okay” sign to Ben and Stephen.

Ben grabbed the ladder and Stephen helped him lift it into position. They got it against the side of the porch and then heard a distant ringing. Ben dropped his end of the ladder and pulled out his phone.

“Huh,” said Jack, surprised the phone worked.

“Hey Dad,” said Ben, trying to sound normal. He listened for several moments. “She said that we have to…” he continued. “I just thought…” Throughout the call, Ben never finished a sentence. “What about…” Finally, Ben said “Ok, thanks,” and hung up.

“Was that your dad?” asked Stephen.

“Who else?” asked Ben. “He doesn’t know what my mom’s up to, but he thinks it’s no good.”

“How’s his trial going?”

“Good, I guess.”

“But you’re not going to see him?” asked Jack.

“Nope — I guess not. Must be something my mom wants me to do then,” he said.

“I hope you’re here on Thursday,” said Jack. “That’s when we’re supposed to get the new envelope.”

“Oh yeah,” said Stephen. “We’re going to have to think of a way to watch the place all day.”

“Why day?” asked Ben. “What if they deliver it at night?”

Jack answered — “You’re right, it would be best to start watching Wednesday night, but I don’t know how since we’re sleeping in the house.”

“Do you have a video camera?” Stephen asked.

“Yeah, but we can’t leave it out all night,” said Jack. “Besides, the batteries and tapes only last a few hours.”

“Let’s get inside,” said Stephen. “We can figure this out later.”

On the way in they stopped at each room and Jack wrote down what they knew in a little notebook. Their goal was to document the tricks and traps so they wouldn’t forget anything. It didn’t take them long to write a sentence or two about the rooms — but they still couldn’t figure out a reliable way to trigger the door to the white room. When they reached the end of tripwire hall, they extinguished their lights and waited. For nearly ten minutes they debated possible solutions to inspiring the door to open.

Finally, the sound began, the crack showed and the door swung open to the blinding, white room. Jack wrote “?” in his notebook under “Open door to white room.”

In the attic section, Ben had an idea to solve their problem with the white room — “Why don’t we just figure out how to disarm this trap and lower down the ladder? Then we won’t have to go through the white room at all.”

“I don’t like the idea of breaking this trap,” said Stephen. “Seems like cheating.”

“You guys already broke through the wall in the white room — what are you worried about?”

“I’d be afraid that we wouldn’t be able to trust that ladder,” said Jack. “I mean what if we thought we had the trap disabled but it turned out it was still set?”

“Good point,” said Ben. “At least we know this way is safe.”

“Come on, let’s go down to the spiral room,” said Stephen. “I’ve got an idea about that.”

Stephen jumped across the pit and then they tossed their packs over to him. Once the gear was safely across, Ben and Jack followed.

“So what’s your idea?” asked Jack.

“It’s that people under the stairs thing — I’ll show you,” said Stephen.

They walked through the attic quickly and descended to the spiral room. Stephen explained his theory as soon as they had all reached the spiral tiles.

“See, we checked all the walls in here, but we didn’t check the stairs,” said Stephen.

He walked over to the narrow stairs and set his light down on the floor. Starting with the bottom stair, Stephen tried to lift the tread and pressed against the riser.

“Look at that,” said Jack as he crossed to the stairs to join Stephen. “Look at the wall there.”

Jack pointed his light at the wall above the third tread. There were faint scrape marks up the stud of the bare wall. He reached out to touch the scrape as Stephen lifted on the third tread. His hand was nearly pinched against the stud as a section of the stairs rose easily at Stephen’s push.