The Secret of the Aurora Hotel (Ultimate Ending Book 5)

by Danny McAleese

  Your trip to the emergency room is just beginning. But your quest to help the Aurora hotel is unfortunately at

  THE END

  30

  The constant vertigo of this room is making you sick. With no time to waste, you pick the right-hand door.

  It opens into light. Or maybe darkness. As odd as it sounds, it's impossible to know what's on the other side unless you step through. You do it without thinking... as if drawn through the doorway by some unseen force.

  "Jenna, Evan, I'll be right--"

  You look behind you. Of course the door is gone. Everything's gone, really, including you. Because no matter where you look, or how you turn, a landscape of nothingness stretches in all directions.

  Limbo sure looks boring, but at least you'll have a long time to explore it. As far as solving the mysteries of the Aurora Hotel however, this is definitely

  THE END

  31

  Fumbling in your pocket, you pull out the odd stone cube you and Evan had found earlier. You rotate it until the writing is on the correct side, and then slide it into the ledge.

  The cube fits the hole perfectly! For a few seconds nothing happens, but then you hear the loud grinding of stone on stone.

  "Look!" Jenna points.

  Directly above you, a stone ladder now leads straight up to the roof! The depressions have inverted themselves, creating perfect hand and footholds with which to climb.

  Evan's face is painted with tremendous relief. He even smiles.

  "Go go go!" you tell him, sending him up after Jenna. A brief, simple climb later, and all three of you are at the edge of the Aurora's vast rooftop.

  Pretty cool!

  See what happens next OVER ON PAGE 104

  32

  You stand with your hands out, fingers splayed in your best non-threatening gesture.

  "Sir, please listen to us. We entered your room by accident. We never--"

  "Liar!" the man shouts. "See? You even have a key!" He nods at Evan, who happens to be still holding the Aurora's skeleton key.

  Jenna gazes wistfully over at the fire escape. More and more it's looking like a good idea.

  The man's face dawns with sudden recognition. "Hang on a second," he says. "I know you. You're the owner's kids. The twins, right?"

  Evan's shoulders drop. "Yes," he admits. "But we--"

  "Don't say anything else!" the man sneers. "I'm calling the front desk." He grabs the phone from one of the nightstands. "Let's see what security has to say about this whole thing..."

  Your stomach drops. Explaining this to your Uncle Gus is going to be quite difficult. And since he'll be here soon, we might as well call this

  THE END

  33

  You don't wait. You don't ask. Poking two fingers through the ancient wallpaper, you tear a slit all the way down to the floor. It's just large enough to crawl through.

  "Scott!" Evan calls from behind you. "Wait!"

  The area behind the wallpaper is a world of darkness. Carefully you stand up without hitting your head on anything. Dust fills your nostrils. The air smells stale. Your fingers tremble as you fish out your cell phone and thumb the flashlight.

  You're in a long closet, or maybe a small room. There's barely enough space to move around, which makes it even more crowded when Evan suddenly appears next to you.

  "Curiosity finally got you, didn't it?"

  "Yeah, sure," he replies. "That, plus I'm not too thrilled with the idea of explaining to my father how you got swallowed by a wall."

  Your phone still paints the room with light. There's nothing much in here at all. A row of shelves line the far wall, empty but for a single, square-shaped item. Evan grabs it.

  "It's a stone cube," your cousin tells you. He turns it over a few times in his palm before handing it over. "There's some kind of writing on one side. Symbols, maybe."

  You shrug and place the cube in your pocket. It feels heavy against your leg.

  "Let's get out of here," you tell your cousin. "Before that ghost comes back."

  Backtrack into the hallway when you TURN TO PAGE 108

  34

  The more you think about climbing that ladder, the more you hate the whole idea. "Let's try slinging those candles down," you tell Jenna.

  Your cousin wastes no time. She twirls her homemade sling in a wide circle, using smooth movements that make you wonder if she's somehow done this before. Her first cast falls short of the chandelier. Her second one sails past it. The third throw is wild; and strikes the side of the antique fixture with a clang. The candelabra sways back and forth as the dust of decades rains down on you.

  "Easy!"

  "I'm trying to be," Jenna says. "I'm just being careful not to get it stuck."

  It turns out the fourth time's the charm. The string goes the center of the fixture and you catch the counterweight on the way down. Each of you pull on one end of the string, stripping most of the candles from their holders.

  With growing alarm you realize you hadn't thought about this part at all! A half dozen of them drop toward the floor...

  "That one!" Jenna cries. "The one with the triangle on it!"

  Quick! How fast are you? Roll a single die:

  If you rolled a 2 or a 4, TURN TO PAGE 120

  If you rolled a 1, 3, 5 or 6, FLIP OVER TO PAGE 85

  35

  The lock sticks to the next room, which is 112. Evan fumbles with the key for a minute before you finally hear the click.

  The door opens into a maelstrom of dust. It covers the floor, the furniture, and every last surface of the room. You find yourself leaving footprints as you walk the oaken floor. Obviously the hotel hasn't rented this place in years.

  "We rent this place all the time," Evan says, as if reading your mind. "But there's something about this room. No matter how much we clean it, it always gets like this."

  All of a sudden something hits you in the face! Your arms go up instinctively, hands frantically swatting the air as you brush away the remnants of a giant spiderweb.

  "This might be a good place to look," Evan says, ignoring your plight. "Let's get on it."

  You check dresser drawers, night tables, the armoire -- everything comes up empty. Your cousin eventually emerges from the bathroom, shrugging. You're about to go when you hear him gasp with a sharp intake of breath.

  "What is it?"

  Evan only points. You follow his arm down to the floor, where a message is scrawled in the thick layer of dust:

  I will NEVER leave!

  "That definitely wasn't there when we first came in," you say unnecessarily. Evan nods in mute agreement. You stand there wondering, hand resting on one of the posts of the four-poster bed, when you notice something scratchy against your palm. Something that contrasts with the smoothness of the wood.

  "Umm..." You remove your hand and motion your cousin over. There's a word there, carved crudely into the post: WARRICK.

  "Who's Warrick?" you ask.

  Evan shakes his head back and forth slowly. "Good question." He opens his mouth weirdly for a moment, but it's only to let out a violent sneeze. "Come on," he sniffs. "Let's go."

  Better get out of here before you start sneezing too. TURN TO PAGE 126

  36

  You step up to the black door. You're not even sure why. Reaching out, you turn the knob and pull...

  The door doesn't open. But instantly, a haunting laughter resonates from all around you. It's a loud, taunting, horrible laughter that should be terrifying... but it's not. Instead, for some strange reason, it makes you feel overwhelmingly sad.

  You try to take your hand from the knob, but you can't. You have no more control over your arm than you would over Evan's. You can only stand there weeping, tears running down both cheeks as your soul fills with melancholy. As the laughter continues, the melancholy is followed by an incredible sense of dread. It rises up in your chest, filling your lungs. Choking you...

  Hurry! Flip a coin!

  If it comes up HEADS
you should TURN TO PAGE 84

  If it comes up TAILS you ought to HEAD TO PAGE 52

  37

  You look the glass elevator up and down. "I've always wanted to ride one of these," you tell Jenna. "Let's go."

  Stepping into the old elevator is like stepping through time. Ten long panes of glass are arranged in a circular pattern, chased by gold leaf accents and polished wood paneling. The elevator dips significantly as you step into it. As Jenna jumps in after you, your stomach lurches.

  "Where are the buttons?"

  Your cousin laughs. "No buttons, silly." For the first time you notice a pair of long metal handles that sprout from the floor. Jenna grabs one and pulls it toward her, causing the elevator to lurch uncomfortably.

  "On second thought, maybe we should take the--"

  The elevator drops a few inches, jolting you right out of your sentence. Then it starts descending. You look out through windows, into the sprawling, well-lit hotel lobby. But just as you're getting comfortable...

  "This thing..." Jenna says. She now appears to be wrestling with the controls. "It's always getting stuck. I don't know why--"

  You drop. It happens so suddenly your mind doesn't even have time to register what's going on. One second you're enjoying the view, the next your stomach is somewhere up near your Adam's apple. As the elevator crashes toward the floor of the lobby, Jenna pulls back on the other stick with all her might.

  Screeeeeeeeeccch!

  The car shudders to a stop only a few inches above the floor. You hear a musical clink clink clink as one of the long glass panes becomes spider-webbed with jagged cracks.

  "Oh man, Dad's not gonna like that one," Jenna quips. She doesn't seem the least bit phased by what you've already chalked up as a near-death experience. "Come on," she says. "Let's investigate the lobby."

  Check out the lobby by FLIPPING TO PAGE 68

  38

  Evan pauses before the next door. It looks just like every other door in the hallway, only the number plate is missing. Numerically, it falls between rooms 113 and 115. But since the even numbered rooms are on the other side of the hallway, that makes no sense at all.

  "Maybe we should skip this room," your cousin says. There's an edge of nervousness to his voice. "I've never been in here."

  You take the key from his hand. "No," you say, unlocking the door. "That's exactly why we shouldn't skip it."

  Inside, the room is disappointingly plain. You and Evan get to work, and it doesn't take long to complete a thorough search. You're about to declare the room empty when you notice your cousin hasn't moved in a while. He's standing at one of the three windows, a look of confusion drawn upon his face.

  "Come look at this," he tells you. You follow his gaze. Not far from the hotel the landscape is blanketed by a thick forest of very large trees.

  "Is that the rear grounds?" you ask. "Not very developed for such an old hotel, no? But hey, at least it stopped snowing."

  "That's just it," Evan says. "This window is in the front. We should be looking out over the parking lot right now." His voice cracks. "And the snow didn't stop -- it's just gone. We had at least two feet of accumulation when you got here. And now... nothing."

  He's right. Curiously you move to the next window, where the landscape gets even weirder. Still no snow, but now moonlight glints off a lake, or maybe even an ocean. You could swear you see waves off in the distance, relentlessly pounding the shore.

  "How could this be?"

  39

  But Evan is already looking through the third window, set perpendicularly into another wall. Beyond it the landscape is barren, totally devoid of anything. Like a desert, you think.

  "That's impossible," Evan says, rapping against the glass. "This last window can't even be here. This isn't a corner room."

  Almost in answer the window glides silently open. Evan jumps back, his whole body covered in gooseflesh.

  You step past him and lean outside. The air beyond the window feels totally different. Down below, what looks like sand is piled up against the side of Aurora's facade.

  "This ledge looks wide enough to stand on," you say, placing your hands on it. "Maybe we could step out and get a better look."

  When you duck back inside your cousin looks absolutely horrified.

  Want to step out onto the ledge and see what's up? TURN TO PAGE 76

  Or maybe Evan's right and you should skip this room. If so, GO TO PAGE 108

  40

  Elephant tusk... elephant tusk... you know you've seen one before, but where?

  "The blue room!" you exclaim. "There was an elephant tusk in the blue room!"

  Both of your cousins are looking at you funny.

  Hurry up and TURN TO PAGE 119

  41

  After a quick breather, Evan unlocks the door to room 108. You step inside, only to be surrounded -- no, buried -- by references to the 1970's.

  The level of detail is impressive. Every piece of furniture screams retro, from the white shag carpet that covers the floor to the giant spinning disco ball that dangles from the ceiling. In the center of the room, a perfectly round bed is made up with zebra skin linens.

  "Wow," you say. "Is there a 1980's room too?"

  "Yes," Evan says, "but that one's always rented out."

  You laugh. "Why? Does it come with a Hot Tub Time Machine?"

  "I wish," Evan replies. "If it did, we could just go back to 1909 and stop Alastair from performing the ceremony."

  "Oh, I can think of a lot of other places I'd go first," you quip.

  The rest of the room looks complicated, with many places to check. An open door leads into a bathroom on your right.

  "Okay," Evan says. "Pick your poison. You want to do in here, or in there?"

  If you want to search the bedroom, TURN TO PAGE 160

  If you'd rather search the bathroom, HEAD TO PAGE 54

  42

  The air gets cooler as the elevator rumbles past the basement. Then, abruptly, it comes to a shuddering stop. The doors open.

  "This isn't the hotel anymore," Evan says. "Look at the floor..."

  You step out of the elevator, the three of you converting your cell phones into flashlights. The floor is hard-packed dirt, mixed with cobbles worn smooth by time. The walls are equally rough, and also dirt in some places.

  "Is this the sub-basement?" you ask.

  "Sort of," Jenna says. "All this was definitely here before the Aurora was constructed. Looks like they built the new basement over it, but someone still gave the elevator access."

  Cobwebs dangle everywhere. You walk with your arm out in front of you to brush them away. Broken brick walls stand partially collapsed on both sides, giving way to a curved passage up ahead. You continue along until the passage opens into a larger area.

  Jenna gasps. "Look!"

  The chamber before you is squared off. It has the details of an actual room rather than a cave. It's also completely blackened. The floor is singed, the walls charred as if from--

  "The explosion!" Jenna says. "It happened here!" She pulls out the photograph and points to two spots along the back wall. "Look, you can see where the bookshelves once stood. The walls are lighter there."

  "And that's not all," Evan calls from a corner of the room. Leaning against the wall is a round, oaken table. You rush over and help your cousin pull it into a standing position. Each of you take a side, while Jenna uses the photograph to help guide it into position.

  "Hang the lamp Scotty," Jenna tells you. "You're the tall one."

  You glance up at the ceiling. There's a hook there, exactly where you'd expect it to be. Your cousins arrange the other artifacts on the table as you hang the lamp from its chain. When you finally step back, everything looks pretty much as it does in the photograph.

  "What now?" Jenna asks.

  Evan pulls an an elaborate, high-backed chair from the shadows. He places it behind the table. "This."

  43

  Your cousin stares down at the cha
ir. "I guess I'll do the honors," he sighs. But as he goes to sit down, you stop him.

  "Let me do it."

  Evan looks at you funny. "Why?"

  "Honestly?" you shrug. "I don't even know." The truth is, you really don't. "But you guys asked me out here to help, so let me help."

  "And what if something goes wrong?" Evan counters.

  You laugh. It's a nervous laugh, though. "Well, let's not let it."

  "It won't," Jenna adds quickly. "So far we've done everything exactly as we were supposed to." She smiles. Then, after consulting the photo one last time, she shifts a few of the objects on the table ever so slightly. "Okay cuz," she says finally. "Sit."

  You sit... and you wait. Nothing happens. A full minute of silence goes by. You close your eyes and try to focus, attempting to feel even the slightest, most imperceptible change. No energy surges through you. No ghosts show up. The objects on the table remain exactly where they are, illuminated only by the spectral glow of your propped-up cell phone flashlights.