Ike Hamill - The Vivisectionist

He had stood in that thing’s den — where it slept; the thought made him shudder. Stephen hunched his shoulders and quickened his pace.

Back at the house he almost broke from the woods into the yard where Jack’s mom stood, hanging laundry. He dropped down and made himself still, hoping she hadn’t heard his jogging approach. She seemed oblivious, and Stephen quickly realized why: she was talking on the phone using a headset. Cautious of her peripheral vision, Stephen looped wide around Jack’s mom and found his way into the garage. He let himself in and carried out Jack’s plan.

Stephen stretched out on Jack’s bed and tried to look casual. He found a book and spent five minutes skimming the same page. He looked at the words, but nothing sank in — he kept thinking about what could have happened if they hadn’t made it out of that hotel room, and how easy it would be for that crazy guy to follow them to Jack’s house.

Footsteps rushed up the stairs and Stephen relaxed a bit. He closed his book on his finger and waited for his friend to come through the door. He heard the footsteps slow as they approached, but then nobody entered — they kept walking. Puzzled for a second, Stephen bent his head and returned to skimming the pages. Looking up at the clock, he tried to calculate how much time had passed, and when he should expect Jack. In truth, he really didn’t have a good guess as to how long it would take Jack to navigate back to the bag he had left behind.

After another few minutes, a terrible realization dawned on him — Jack had to get up the five-foot ledges on his own. They had only gone through the big maze a couple of times before finding the shortcut, and although Jack had pioneered the technique of jumping up those ledges alone, it still seemed a risky proposition. Stephen imagined Jack missing on his first attempt, and then slipping on his second, and then not having enough energy to get up at all. Every minute that passed convinced Stephen that Jack was now stuck deep inside the hotel. The last thing he wanted to do was navigate those traps alone to try to find Jack.

He heard footsteps pass down the hall again and figured it must be Jack’s mom. The clock changed to twelve twenty-eight as he stared at the digits. He had first looked at the clock seventeen minutes earlier. Jack’s mom kept strict deadlines, and she had asked them to be back for lunch. He wondered how much time he had left until she came looking for Jack; until he had to admit to her that Jack might be stuck in a hotel owned by a kidnapper. He decided, right then, that he wouldn't search that creepy hotel on his own. Jack would get mad, but Stephen would tell Jack’s mom everything that had happened.

Stephen put his book down on Jack’s bed and rose to go find Ms. Randolph. He took a deep breath — he felt a little light-headed and nervous. When he had composed himself, he crossed the room and exited to the hall. The bathroom door was still closed with the light and fan on. Stephen opened the bathroom door and flicked off the switches.

“Hey!” said Jack from the dark bathroom. “Don’t you knock?”

“Oh, sorry,” said Stephen. He fumbled the switches back on and closed the door. He was excited that Jack was okay, but also a bit deflated after working up his nerve. He went back to Jack’s room to wait.

A couple minutes later, Jack strode through the open door.

“Hey — your bag is downstairs,” said Jack.

“Cool — thanks,” said Stephen. “I thought you’d never get here.”

“Yeah, took me longer than I thought,” said Jack. He looked at his elbow where a small scrape was still oozing. “Plus I scraped my arm.”

“I think you’ll live,” said Stephen. He regretted his words immediately as an image of the boy strapped to the chair jumped into his head. Based on the cloud that passed over Jack’s expression, he thought Jack might have had the same thought. “Anything else happen?” asked Stephen, attempting to change the subject.

“Nope, just normal stuff,” said Jack. “Hey, it’s going to rain tomorrow and my dad will probably be around all day, so I think we should wait until Monday to go back. Plus I’m way too tired to go back tonight.”

“I’m totally on-board with that,” said Stephen. “We can hang out here for a while and then get some rest.”

“So you changed your mind about going back?” asked Jack. Stephen mused that Jack suddenly didn’t look tired at all; he looked really intense.

“I never said, that,” Stephen said. “You said that.”

“Yeah, but you were thinking it,” said Jack.

Stephen couldn’t argue that point, but didn't want to admit that to Jack. Ben had made a stand about the hotel, and Jack turned on him. Alone with Jack, Stephen felt safer not arguing about going to the hotel.

Neither boy said anything for several seconds. Stephen broke the silence — “Hey, let’s get some lunch.”

Stephen didn't do much on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. As far as Jack’s parents knew, both boys spent the day in the basement, reading, watching television, and playing video games. In reality, Stephen did those things but Jack disappeared for substantial stretches. One minute, they both watched a program about sharks, and then the next, Jack wandered off. An hour or so later, Jack reappeared and settled back down on the couch. He timed his absences when his parents were otherwise engaged, so they were never the wiser.

During one of Jack’s recesses from the television, Stephen headed up to the second floor to pretend to get something out of the guest room. As he expected, he spotted Jack sitting in his room, looking at the computer. When he came back out of the guest room to go back downstairs, Jack had moved on — neither at his computer, nor in the basement. It remained a mystery for Stephen, and Jack walked in twenty minutes later as if nothing had happened.

“Where do you keep running off to?” Stephen asked him.

“Nowhere. Just reading about something on the computer,” said Jack. That was the closest Stephen would get to a direct answer all day.

Jack’s luck ran out midway through Sunday afternoon. Stephen sat alone, watching television when Jack’s mom came down the stairs.

“Jack?” she called when she was still about halfway down the stairs.

“Uh, he’s upstairs I think,” said Stephen.

She paused, one step from the bottom. “Huh. I just came from there. I didn’t see him.”

Stephen smiled and shrugged. “Was he in the bathroom?” he asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said as she turned. “Tell him to come up when you see him.”

“Okay,” said Stephen.

Jack came in from the back of the basement a few minutes later. His shirt looked slightly wet — drops of rain stained his shoulders and chest.

“Your mom is looking for you,” said Stephen. His tone was clipped — annoyed at being left out of Jack’s activities.

“Okay, thanks,” said Jack. He dug through the cabinet and pulled out one of the spare shirts hidden there after the dye incident. The wet shirt went in the dryer and he pulled on the dry shirt as he walked up the stairs. “Be right back,” he said. Stephen flipped through the channels and tried to stop guessing at what Jack had been up to. He wanted to be aloof, and he suspected that curiosity about Jack’s activities and the hotel would only lead him to danger.

A program about snakes had almost captured his full attention when Jack came dashing back down the stairs and flopped down next to him.

“Hey,” said Jack.

“Hey,” Stephen replied.

“My mom wants me to visit my grandparents at the beginning of August,” said Jack.

“Oh yeah?” asked Stephen.