the road that bordered the other side of the hotel, but nothing stirred near them. Jack felt they were being watched.
Ben was the first to dare into the field — hunched over, he trotted up the drainage ditch to the corner of the building. He wore a backpack containing the rope ladder. Briefly looking down the sides of the building, he gave Jack and Stephen a thumbs-up.
Jack and Stephen followed Ben’s path to the hotel, carrying the stepladder between them. When they got to the back of the hotel, they propped the ladder against the side of the building and Ben climbed up on top of the back porch roof. The other two followed and Jack reached over the side and managed to haul the ladder on the porch roof with them.
With no discussion, they took their places. They had planned these steps all morning. Stephen held the ladder, Ben pressed the button, and Jack climbed up to open the hatch as soon as he heard the click.
“Okay, hand me the rope-ladder,” said Jack.
Ben opened his backpack, withdrew a jumble of rope and plastic rungs and handed two hooks up to Jack. Setting the hooks on the lip of the entrance, Jack fed the ladder inside the building. He peered into the darkness, trying to see how far the ladder extended.
“Hit the switch,” said Stephen from below.
“Oh yeah,” said Jack. He reached up and flipped the switch mounted to the ceiling of the hatch. “I think it goes almost all the way down.”
“Come back down for a second,” said Ben.
When Jack reached the porch roof the three stood in a circle, eye-to-eye. “What’s up?” asked Jack.
“Okay,” said Ben, “this is where it gets serious. We could get into real trouble for going in here, and not just being grounded. There could be really dangerous stuff ahead — we don’t even know what.”
“Anything is possible,” said Stephen, “but we’ll just take it slow and we’ll be fine.”
“Who’s going down?” asked Jack.
“I want to,” said Ben. “But I’m just going to go down the ladder, look around, and then we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“Okay,” said Jack, “but I get to go second.”
“And I get your video games if you don’t come back,” added Stephen.
“We should have brought the walkie-talkies,” said Jack.
“You’ll be able to hear me,” said Ben. “It’s not that far.” He started up the stepladder. When he reached the top, he turned around and lifted his leg backwards through the hole. Jack and Stephen watched as he disappeared into the hatch. When his right hand let go of the edge Jack went up the ladder to look over the side. Ben was about halfway down the ladder.
“Can you see anything yet?” Jack asked.
“Nothing yet,” said Ben. He paused and leaned back and to his left. “Well, there’s a room down here.”
Jack held the hooks attached to the edge of the wall. Ben dropped the few feet from the bottom of the ladder to the floor and then took a couple of tentative steps away from the wall. His head turned for a few seconds, like he was scanning the room, and then he turned back to the ladder.
“Coming back up,” Ben said. When he was at the top, Jack cleared out of his way and they reconvened on the porch roof.
“It’s not very big,” said Ben. “Maybe a little smaller than your room,” he pointed to Jack. “Three of the walls are blank — kinda white or gray. There’s a picture of a man on one wall; like a biology picture or something. No doors or anything, but on the right wall there’s a ladder attached to the wall and a hole in the ceiling. I couldn’t see up there because it was dark.”
“Any vents, or outlets, or anything?” asked Jack.
“Nope, just blank walls,” said Ben. “I think the floor is concrete.”
“What kind of ladder?” asked Stephen. “Would it hold us?”
“Yeah, I think so,” said Ben. “Looked real sturdy.”
“We’ve got lights — let’s go,” said Jack.
“I think only one of us should go all the way in,” said Ben. “What if the hatch closes behind us, or something else happens. We need someone to go back to your house and tell your mom.”
“That sucks though,” said Stephen.
“Well, look,” said Ben, “you guys can go and see the ladder and I’ll stay here for now.”
“Yeah, and we’ll come back when we figure out where the ladder goes,” said Jack.
“Just make sure one of you stays close enough so I can hear if you yell or something,” said Ben.
“Okay,” said Stephen, “I’ll stay at the bottom this time.”
With that agreement, they took their places. At the bottom of the rope ladder, Jack and Stephen were impressed with Ben’s understatement. Three walls were blank, but the fourth wall was an amazing depiction of the inner workings of the human body. The painting was life-sized and stood about six-feet tall. The left half mostly showed skin and the right was a collection of muscles, bones, and organs.
“Wow,” exhaled Jack.
“This thing is creepy,” Stephen yelled up the chimney to Ben.
Ben didn’t meet Stephen’s gaze, but replied: “I know.”
“Okay,” Jack said to Stephen, “let’s check out this next ladder.”
They reviewed the ladder that was attached to the side wall. It was wooden and nailed together. Made sturdy by its attachment, it didn’t look like it would stand alone. At the ceiling the ladder passed through a hole cut into the drywall — the ceiling was about a foot thick and the sides of the hole were framed with lumber. Jack shone his light and realized that the ladder went just higher than the ceiling, stopped for a few inches, and then another section of ladder continued. The darkness above swallowed their lights, but it looked like there was a room up there.
“You ready?” asked Stephen.
“Don’t rush me,” said Jack.
“Want me to go?”
“No way.” Jack tucked his flashlight into his back pocket and started up the ladder — testing each rung. When his head was level with the ceiling, he paused and pulled out his light. He swept it around the space above him.
“Can’t see much,” said Jack. “There’s definitely a room, but it must be pretty big — I can’t see the walls.”
Jack put the flashlight in his mouth and climbed another rung. He was twisted away from the wall so he would see what was in the space behind him.
“Anything?” asked Stephen.
From just outside, Stephen heard Ben — “What’s going on?”
“He’s looking — there’s a room,” answered Stephen.
His left foot up to the next run, Jack prepared to rise into the room above. He looked around one last time and reached past the gap with his left hand. As Stephen watched, his impatience grew.
“What do you see?” Stephen asked.
Jack’s mouth was full of flashlight, but he began to answer as his left hand grasped the rung that was in the room above — “Huuu oy” he said and then several things happened at once. Jack bit down hard on the light, his body went rigid, and a panel began to seal the hole in the ceiling — closing at a measured pace towards Jack’s hand. He fell from his perch on the ladder, letting go of the rung just as the panel sealed shut above him. Stephen’s jaw fell open at the sight of Jack in a pile at his feet.
He rushed to Jack’s aid — “What happened?” he asked.
Spitting out the flashlight, Jack raised his hand to look at it. Stephen was now staring up at the ceiling — the panel fitting nicely into the gap in the ladder.
“It shocked me,” Jack finally announced. “Hey! Go back up there,” he yelled at Ben who was descending the rope-ladder.
“Okay, whatever,” Ben said and started back up.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Jack.
The two climbed out, pulled up the rope-ladder, and joined Ben on the porch roof.
