"We're missing something," you say abruptly.
"What?" the twins ask in stereo.
"I don't know. But something must not be here. There has to be something... else."
On cue a loud noise rumbles into the room, rolling along the broken corridor. It grows more and more familiar as it grinds away.
"The elevator!" Evan cries. "It's moving!"
44
The three of you sprint back to the elevator. Your heart drops the second you realize the doors are closed.
"We're stuck down here!" Evan gasps, glancing around. He's trying to keep it together but his voice is lined with panic. "There's no button to call the elevator back!"
"Someone will see the key sticking out," Jenna reasons. "They'll turn it, and end up here."
Reluctantly you slip the long silver key from your pocket and hold it up. Everyone's shoulders slump. It's one of the few times you wish you weren't so thorough. Then...
"Wait," Jenna says. "It's coming back!"
The grind and screech of ancient cables grows louder as the old elevator rumbles downward. It stops before you in a puff of dust. The doors open... and James Roakes steps out.
"Hello," Mr. Roakes says genially. He's fully dressed now. Under one arm he carries a large mirror with floral accents at the corners. It's the same mirror you noticed hanging in his suite. And also--
"That's the mirror!" Evan cries. "The one from the photograph!"
James Roakes nods. "Yes it is. I thought you could use it." He turns to Jenna, his expression going solemn. "You shamed me young lady," he says. "But you were right. My inaction has been inexcusable, especially considering all that you've done tonight. I need to thank you for that." Jenna smiles, and Mr. Roakes smiles back.
"How do you know about this place?" you ask. "How'd you even get down here?"
The man points backward. A long silver key sticks out of the elevator, identical to your own. "You're not the only one who knows the Aurora's secrets." He brushes past you, still carrying the mirror. "Shall we?"
Back in the ceremony chamber, everything is still arranged. You and Evan hang the mirror carefully, right between the outline of the two bookcases. Mr. Roakes produces a matchbook and lights the oil lamp. He also lights the candle. The illumination makes the room instantly warmer. Brighter.
"Alright," you say, reaching for the back of the chair. "Let me try this again." But before you can sit down, a hand closes over your own. The grip is firm, the voice commanding.
"No," James Roakes says. "It has to be me."
45
James Roakes takes his seat at the table, looking very much like his great grandfather. The entire scene resembles the photograph so much it's actually spooky.
"Five past one," he says, pulling out an old pocket watch. "Three minutes to go."
You look confused, but this time it's your cousins who have the answer. "That's when the original ceremony took place!" Jenna reasons. "And that's why the old clock in the lobby is stuck on 1:08."
Mr Roakes doesn't respond. He seems to have fallen oddly silent. Abruptly, a wind picks up from out of nowhere. You hear whispers. Voices. They seem to come from all directions, but also, from none.
"It's happening," Evan breathes. "It's--"
He stops mid-sentence as light flares from the ball of crystal in the center of the table. There's some kind of white smoke inside it now, churning slowly, as if somehow alive. The temperature in the room has dropped at least five degrees.
James closes his eyes, extends his arms, and places his hands face down. The second his palms touch the surface of the table, everything moves. The bell shifts over an inch. The candle begins flickering. The book springs open on its own, flipping wildly through its leaves. Moving left and right, it finally settles on a pair of pages.
"Look!" Jenna cries over the rising wind. "The portal!"
46
The light from the oil lamp, reflected in the mirror, is casting an image on the opposite wall. You can see the gateway now. It's a portal of sorts, reaching through space and into a dark, purplish-colored void. Meanwhile, the pure white smoke in the crystal has gone utterly grey. It seems to grow darker with every second that ticks by. You check your phone. 1:07. One minute to show time.
All of a sudden an unseen force strikes you -- an intense pressure, shoving you back from the scene at hand. You push back against it, fighting to stay on your feet. To either side of you, Jenna and Evan have been pinned back against opposite walls.
"Fight it!" Evan shouts. "I--I can't..."
You push harder. Turning your body sideways, you knife your way through. You take another step forward and break into the eye of the supernatural hurricane. The candle is still lit. The smoke in the crystal is midnight black. Mr. Roakes is mumbling something unintelligible, his eyes rolled back in his head. There's a deafening roar in your ears. Everything is vibrating.
"Do it Scotty!" you hear Jenna scream. "Do it now!"
Okay, this is it! What do you do?
If you reach forward and ring the bell, TURN TO PAGE 144
If you blow out the candle, SEE WHAT HAPPENS ON PAGE 58
If you pick up the crystal ball and smash it, GO TO PAGE 70
If you lean over and read the book, HEAD DOWN TO PAGE 114
47
You step back as Evan unlocks the door to 109. Almost immediately, your cousin is bathed in crimson.
"This is the red room," he explains. "Another of the Aurora's owners thought it would be fun to do a bunch of rooms in different colors."
You enter the room, your eyes struggling to adjust. Blood-colored walls blend with crimson linens, all set squarely upon a deep red rug. You can't even imagine the kind of person who thought this would be a good idea.
"I never liked this room," Evan says. "Mostly because of the artwork."
It doesn't take long to see what he's talking about. Several paintings are hung about the room, depicting landscapes that seem totally off. The skies are all wrong. The mountains and forests seem warped and twisted. Everything has an almost alien-type feel to it, and not in a cool sci-fi way. To make matters worse, most of the artwork is hung crooked... and in all red frames.
Determined to ignore all this, you commence searching the big scarlet mess. You're about to declare the place empty when you come across an inscription scrawled at the base of one of the paintings:
What you seek lies beneath
"C'mere," you call your cousin over. "Check this out."
Evan reads the inscription with a raised eyebrow and then carefully removes the painting from the wall. There's nothing behind it. There's also nothing between the painting and the frame itself. He sets it aside.
"Beneath, beneath..." you repeat like a mantra. You look down. Evan follows your gaze to the only two things beneath the painting: a decorative bronze vent cover (painted red!) and the trailing edge of the heavy burgundy rug.
"Gotta be one of those," your cousin shrugs.
If you want to pry loose the vent cover, FLIP BACK TO PAGE 59
If you'd rather try rolling back the area rug, HEAD DOWN TO PAGE 132
48
You pat your leg. Something hard juts from one of your side pockets.
The ring!
Reaching in, you pull it out. The jewel set into the gold seems almost alive -- it's definitely glowing red now. Stepping forward, you pry Mr. Roakes's hand from the table and slip it onto his right ring finger, just like in the photograph. Then something amazing happens.
The light in the mirror projects itself outward, swirling through the glass. It materializes at James Roakes's side, coalescing from a shapeless mass into a much more solid form. The nethergate pulsates. The crystal globe hums, the swirl of shadows now moving at impossibly high speeds. A painful ringing noise assails your ears. It grows higher and higher in pitch and volume until the ball of crystal finally explodes!
Whoa! Quick, TURN TO PAGE 96
49
Quietly, you and Jenna slip into
the hotel lounge. Rich mahogany bookcases line the walls here, filled with hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of old, dusty books. A handy ladder is mounted on slide rails for easy access to the top shelves.
"This was once the Aurora's library," Jenna says unnecessarily, "back when people, you know, read a lot of books."
"Hey, I still read books!"
Jenna smirks and waves an arm at the stacks. "Not real books, cuz. Paper ones, anyway." Admittedly she's got you there. Jenna pulls the old photo of Alastair Roakes from her pocket and points to it. "The good news is if this book is anywhere in the hotel, it's probably here."
"And the bad news?"
Your cousin makes her way over to the wooden ladder and shakes it. It doesn't budge.
"Oh."
"Yeah, dad screwed it into the wall a while back. Too many kids were playing with it, and guests weren't using it anyway." Jenna scrambles up a shelf, which bows slightly under her weight. She grabs one of the books at the top, and flips it forward onto its spine. "It's not this one," she declares.
"How do you know?"
Your cousin jumps nimbly down and thrusts the photo into your hand. "Because look. Alastair's book has these thingies on the edges."
"You mean corner-guards?"
Jenna punches you in the arm. "Yeah, those. Smart guy." She slips the photo back in her pocket. "So that's the plan. We turn every book in the library on its edge until we find the one we need. You want me to do the top rows since I'm lighter? Or would you like the honors?"
If you think Jenna should search the top bookshelves, FLIP TO PAGE 28
If you'd rather do it yourself and let her search the bottom, HEAD TO PAGE 131
50
Bravely you fling open the door and step out into the hall. All the way down, at the opposite end, you can make out a figure just turning the corner. "Come on!" you shout back to Evan. Then you start running.
You tear down the carpeted hall, turn the corner, and pick up speed again. For some reason the hall seems to get longer, not shorter. Gradually it becomes smaller too, more narrow and confined. As the walls seem to be closing in, a strange sense of vertigo slows you down.
Off to one side you pass a strange-looking room marked as 126. There's an old man inside. His mouth is moving, but no sound is coming out. He seems to be pointing upward...
The door slams shut so hard it knocks you to your knees. When you look up again, all the doors are gone. You're in a dead end. Impossibly, both ends of the hall are cut off. The vertigo returns, worse than before.
Darkness seeps in along the edges of your vision.
You're spinning...
Falling...
51
"Scott!" Evan's voice comes from a place that seems muffled and very far away. "Scott, wake up!" Pain flares as your cousin slaps you hard across the face. You reach up with one hand. By the warmth radiating from your cheek, it's probably not the first time he's hit you.
"Oh man, I thought I was losing you!" Evan gasps. "Are you okay? Should I call a doctor?"
"No," you croak. "No, I'm fine. I was just... I...." You rub your eyes. "What happened?"
Evan shakes his head. "You fainted, that's what happened." The hall you're in is very short, with doors lining both sides. Everything looks normal again.
"Did you see the guy in 126?" you ask.
"126?"
"Yeah. He was... weird. Like he was there and not there." Your voice cracks, and Evan hands you a water bottle. You accept it gratefully. "And he was pointing," you continue after downing three huge gulps. "Pointing up. What's up?"
"Third floor," Evan says. "And of course, the roof. You sure about the room number?"
You nod your head, and your cousin looks genuinely concerned. "Scott," he says, his voice placating, "there is no room 126. After a bunch of construction in the 1950's, the rooms were made bigger on this floor. There hasn't been a room 126 for a really, really long time..."
More ghosts? You bet!
Grab your courage and check the next room when you TURN TO PAGE 126
52
The dread overwhelms you. It's just too much. You feel yourself sinking to the floor, only maybe it's your soul that's sinking. As far as your mind is concerned, your body no longer exists.
"Scott!"
From somewhere distant, your cousin screams. Your heart fills with grief, anguish, sorrow -- and a whole host of other, more terrible emotions you never knew existed. You can no longer feel yourself breathing. Darkness closes in.
"Scott...."
Evan's voice barely reaches you now. It's like he's a million miles away. He might as well be, because you know with a sudden, frightening certainty you're in a place he can no longer help you.
Whatever happens to be behind the door, you're soon going to face it. Alone. Which means, of course, that this is
THE END
53
You throw Jenna one last skeptical look. Then, moving with deliberate slowness, you push your finger past the broken teeth and into the statue's mouth...
"YAAAHH!!!!"
Jenna's shout is loud, guttural. It scares the absolute daylights out of you! You jerk your arm back reflexively, scraping yourself on the broken stone teeth. A tiny droplet of blood forms on the top of your finger.
Your cousin doesn't even notice. She's too busy laughing.
"Oh man! I can't believe you actually did it!" Her laughter makes you feel all the more foolish, but on seeing your wound her face softens a bit. "Aww, sorry Scotty. I didn't mean for you to get--"
"Forget it," you say bitterly. But then you catch your cousin's gaze and the two of you can't help but burst out laughing again. "Alright. You got me."
"You can get me next time," Jenna says. "Fair's fair. Now come on. Let's hit the lobby."
Check out the lobby OVER ON PAGE 68
54
"I guess I'll check the bathroom," you tell Evan. "Call me if you find anything."
You slip inside and flip on the light. It's a pretty standard hotel bathroom, except for the dark wood fixtures that match the rest of the 1970's decor. The tub is empty. The cabinets too. But the mirror...
You lean forward. When you look closely, there appear to be streaks on the mirror's surface. Or maybe writing. Instinctively you close the door and twist on the shower, setting the handle to maximum heat. You turn the hot water spigot beneath it on full blast as well, and the room begins to steam up.
Gradually, a message appears in the mirror. The letters appear doubled-up, and when you wipe a finger across them they don't smudge. As if they were traced on the glass from the inside...
The door opens and Evan enters with a swirl of steam. "Nothing in there," he says. Your cousin glances up at the mirror. "Whoa..."
"Yeah," you agree. "Better write this one down."
Check out the next room on the manifest when you TURN TO PAGE 69
55
The food makes you uneasy. You are however, thirsty. Maybe just a little drink...
As you pick up the glass, every other ghost at the table does the same. "To Alastair!" the head ghost declares. He stands and lifts his arm in salute. Reflexively, you find yourself doing the same.
Slowly you bring the glass to your lips. The amber liquid is both delicious and refreshing as it slides down your throat. It's so cold it's like drinking liquid ice.
"Fruit juice," Jenna declares. You notice her own glass is already half empty. "Not sure which fruit, though."
Off to the side, something moves. You catch it in your peripheral vision. Turning, you realize it came from the mirror. But rather than see your reflection -- or the reflection of everyone else at the table -- you see a lone man staring back from beyond the glass.
It's the man from your cousins' photo. Alastair. He looks straight into your eyes as he holds up his left hand; empty palm and empty fingers. He points to it...
"Cuz?"
You blink and the image is gone. Jenna is waving her hand before your eyes, trying to get your attentio
n. She puts down her glass and points to the place settings.
"We eating any of this stuff or no?"
You can try the cream soup by GOING TO PAGE 135
You can try the weird salad when you TURN TO PAGE 65
You can taste the roast beef by FLIPPING DOWN TO PAGE 152
You can also eat nothing. If this is your choice, GO TO PAGE 64
56
Room 103 looks as plain and nondescript as a hotel room can get. It's furnished with a mixture of new and old, but there's enough modernization to realize it's been recently updated. There's also a chill in the air here. It makes you wish you'd gone exploring in more than a T-shirt.
"No TV?" you ask. "What kind of place is your dad running here?"
Evan smiles and pulls open a giant armoire. Hidden behind the doors is a flat-screen television. "I'll never understand why people hide TVs like this," he says. "Like they're some dirty little secret or--"
Your cousin stops talking. He stands there, eyes wide, as the apparition of a woman fades into view. She floats toward him, slowly and deliberately. She reaches out...
... and closes the armoire.
You blink once and she's gone.
"D-did you see that!" Evan stutters.
You nod, numbly. Up until now, the only ghosts you've seen have been in movies. But this is real. This is...
The Secret of the Aurora Hotel (Ultimate Ending Book 5) Page 4