The Prisoners of the Thirteenth Floor, page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
1: Shifting Shadows
2: The Thirteenth Floor
3: The Twelve
4: The Old Magic Returns
5: Standing Guard
6: The Locked Door
7: No Way Out
8: The Third Flower
9: Shadow Man
10: Ty and the Trap
11: Ancestors
About the Author
About the Illustrator
Discussion Questions
Writing Prompts
Glossary
Multiplying Money Magic Trick
Copyright
Back Cover
Charlie Hitchcock had never slept in a magician’s house before.
It was disappointing. No unearthly moans. No rattling chains. No phantoms flitting through walls. Charlie would have welcomed them, and would have spent the rest of the night trying to solve the mystery of what they really were. He loved solving puzzles.
Charlie yawned and pulled the blanket to his chin. Counting ghosts would have been a lot more fun than lying there counting sheep. Instead, he listened to the rumbling of the thunderstorm outside and to the ticking of a grandfather clock. The clock faced the sofa on which he was trying to fall asleep. A flash of lightning lit up the dial.
Almost three o’clock? he thought. Only four more hours! He groaned and rolled over, gazing around Brack’s sitting room.
Brack — also known as Abracadabra, the legendary magician — was the founder and owner of the world-famous Abracadabra Hotel, the only hotel made by and for retired magicians, and Brack’s home was a special penthouse on the windy roof of the building. But Brack was not there. The old magician was missing.
Groans came from the closet.
For a nanosecond, Charlie hoped it was a ghost, but he knew the sound was just old floorboards settling in the storm.
The boy glanced over at the magician’s big, wooden desk. The pile of books and papers covering the desk was the reason he was staying overnight. They had also led Charlie into his latest adventure, along with Tyler Yu.
The hotheaded Tyler was known at Blackstone Middle School for having enemies. But he and Charlie made a good team. They had solved a number of weird puzzles in the old hotel. This newest mystery was the weirdest. Brack was missing, and Tyler had also vanished.
On the magician’s desk lay a clue that Charlie hoped would lead him to his friends. It was a sheet of paper that held an unusual list of words:
Charlie was convinced that “lily,” written in Brack’s spidery handwriting, referred to a flower in the hallway of the hotel’s fourteenth floor. A flower that stood out strangely from the rest of the old-fashioned wallpaper.
But it was the last entry in the list that bothered him the most. THE 12. Did that mean the twelfth floor?
Then why hadn’t Brack written it the way he wrote 13th floor just above it?
Dnnng! Dnnng! Dnnng!
Three o’clock. Charlie shifted on the sofa and pulled the blanket around himself more tightly.
What — or who — are the Twelve? he wondered.
There were twelve months in the year. Twelve numbers on a clock. Twelve days of Christmas.
Twelve signs of the Zzzzz…
Brack’s sitting room soon echoed with the thunder-like rumbling of Charlie’s snores.
And while the boy slept, a dark figure — waiting patiently in the shadows — slipped from the closet, made its way to the front door, and darted away from the magician’s house.
* * *
Four hours later, Charlie yawned and stepped off the elevator, shuffling through the vast lobby of the Abracadabra, which was also known as the Hocus Pocus Hotel to the staff and its guests.
“Charlie! Over here!” came a voice.
Charlie rubbed his eyes and saw Annie Solo waving furiously near the front desk. Another girl stood next to her.
“Charlie,” said Annie, smiling widely. “This is Cozette. She’s new here. Just started a couple weeks ago.”
The other girl held up a hand and said, “Hey.” She had thick dark hair and bright eyes, and wore pink shoes that matched her fingernail polish.
“Cozette’s going to help us,” said Annie. “I figured two heads are better than one, and, well, three heads are better than two.”
Before Charlie could ask a question, Annie grabbed his hand and pulled him, along with Cozette, toward the hotel restaurant. “Come on, I’m starving,” she said.
Tyler’s dad, Walter Yu, was the head chef of the Top Hat restaurant. He showed them to a table. “Breakfast is on the house,” he said. “Thanks to you, Annie, and your friend here, we can all keep our jobs. And the hotel is safe!”
Cozette looked puzzled, so Annie said, “I’ll explain it all later.”
And she did, with help from Charlie, while the three of them dug into eggs, toast, bacon, and fruit.
Annie explained how the two of them, but mostly Charlie, had saved the hotel from falling into the hands of a magician known as Theopolis.
“That snake threatened to take away the Hocus Pocus if Mr. Brack didn’t pay the rent,” said Annie.
“But Mr. Brack is missing,” said Cozette.
Annie and Charlie nodded. Charlie had kept Theopolis from stealing the hotel, by threatening to reveal one of his most amazing magic tricks. But who knew how long that would keep the evil magician quiet? Charlie was afraid the man would come up with another awful plan. And soon.
“That’s why we have to find Brack,” said Charlie.
“And Tyler, too,” added Annie. “They’re both in trouble.”
“We told Ty’s parents that he’s been helping us look for Brack,” said Charlie. “But if we don’t find him soon, Mrs. Yu’s going to get suspicious.
“You should call the police,” said Cozette.
“We will,” said Annie. “Tomorrow. If we still can’t find them by the end of the day. But we know they’re somewhere in the hotel.”
“On the thirteenth floor,” said Charlie.
“Thirteen?” said Cozette. Her eyes grew wide. “That seems unlucky.”
“But we’ll go to the fourteenth floor first,” said Charlie.
“Right,” said Annie. “The lily.”
Cozette put down a forkful of eggs. “Lily who?”
“No, it’s lily what,” said Annie. “A flower.”
“But not really a flower,” said Charlie.
Cozette sighed. “I don’t know why you talked me into this, Annie.”
“Because we have to help Tyler,” said her friend.
Cozette and Charlie shared a glance. They knew Annie liked Tyler. Really liked him.
Cozette patted her lips with her napkin and then dropped it on the table. “Okay then,” she said. “Let’s go rescue Tyler.”
When they got off the elevator at the fourteenth floor, Charlie led them to the hallway he and Annie had investigated the day before. Annie waved toward two doors, side by side. “That’s where the magicians are staying this week. Theopolis there, and Mr. Dragonstone there.”
“David Dragonstone?” said Cozette. “He is so cute! Do you think he’ll come out if we knock on the door? Will he be wearing his cute white suit?”
“We’re here to look for Tyler, remember?” said Annie.
“Besides, David Dragonstone might be involved in this,” added Charlie.
“Charlie figured out how Mr. Dragonstone did his magic tricks,” said Annie. “Figured it all out by himself. Except for one thing.”
“What’s that?” asked Cozette.
“The trick where he walks through a glass door down on the twelfth floor,” Annie said. “Charlie knows how he got through the glass. But he doesn’t know how he got to the twelfth floor in the first place.”
Charlie walked down the hall. “Tyler stood at one end of that hallway. The solid glass door was at the other end. But somehow Dragonstone appeared in the middle,” he said.
“How?” asked Cozette.
Charlie was staring carefully at the wall. “I think it has something to do with this.”
The two girls rushed over to him.
“That’s the lily!” said Annie. The dark wallpaper was covered with patterns of lilies. The flower Charlie was staring at, however, was not printed on the wallpaper. It was made of plaster and sat on top of the paper, in three dimensions, but blended in with the flowers around it. If a person hadn’t been looking for it, they would have overlooked it in the flowing pattern.
“Brack’s writing,” said Charlie, referring to the paper he had found the day before, “had the words ‘turn lily there.’”
“I figured out that part,” said Annie.
“So, how do we turn it?” asked Cozette.
“I’m not exactly sure,” said Charlie. He took a few steps back for a better view. On the floor beneath his shoes was a rectangle. It was the only shape in the otherwise plain, red carpet. A rectangle made of twisting lines of gold and emerald and cream. Charlie was sure that the two items that didn’t fit in, the rectangle and the flower, were parts of the same puzzle.
Cozette shrugged. “Why don’t you just try turning it?”
She reached out and
Something thudded in the hallway and shook the floor. Annie gasped. The rectangle in the carpet tilted downward, like a waterslide, into a dark rectangular space. The last things Charlie saw were Cozette’s pink shoes.
He fell through the floor, then rolled into something hard. With another thump, the carpet above him tilted back up and the light disappeared.
Charlie heard a wrenching sound, a scream, and then nothing. He was in darkness.
True, deep darkness.
Charlie felt his heart pumping faster. He started breathing harder.
Then he heard something.
… beep… beep…
“Ty, is that you?” he called.
“Yeah, it’s my stupid beeper,” came Tyler’s familiar voice. “It’s gone off about a million times. If my parents had given me a phone, then maybe I could have called them and gotten out of this hole, but no, I’m not responsible enough. Even though I do all the work around here.”
The darkness in front of Charlie’s eyes appeared to swirl. A shadow separated from the others. A silhouette.
“You’ve been on the thirteenth floor the whole time?” asked Charlie.
“Yeah, and I’m not the only one, brainiac. Brack’s here too. But I think he’s hurt.”
“You think? Don’t you know?”
“I can’t see him,” said Ty.
Charlie’s heart began beating harder again. “There’s no lights in here?!” he said.
“Well, there aren’t any windows on this floor, but there’s a few lights. But that’s not the problem. He’s locked behind a door and neither of us can open it. So I’ve been looking for a way out for hours!”
Light burst above them. Charlie could see that he and Ty were sitting in a hall that resembled the others in the hotel.
The secret rectangular door had re-opened overhead and slanted toward them. Annie and Cozette ran down the carpeted ramp.
“Tyler!” exclaimed Annie. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“Yeah!” said Ty. “Now we can get out of here.”
But as soon as the two girls stepped off the ramp, it sprang quickly back into place, and out of reach.
“Don’t worry,” said Charlie. “I think I know how we can get out of here.”
“You do?” said Ty. “Then why did you take so long? I’ve been starving!”
“I waited so long because I just figured it out,” answered Charlie.
“We just figured it out,” said Cozette. “I was the one who turned that weirdo lily thing.”
“We need to get Brack,” said Ty
“I’ve got a phone,” said Cozette. She turned it on and its pale blue light helped guide them through the hallway.
Tyler Yu looked the way he always did. Spiky black hair, jeans, boots, and a scowl on his face. He stopped before a door. “We have a slight problem,” he said.
“Now what?” asked Annie.
“It’s locked,” Ty said. “Brack’s inside.”
“I have a passkey!” Charlie said. He pulled the keycard out of his pocket.
Charlie heard a low moan from the other side of the door. “Brack!” he called. “It’s us!” Cozette’s phone light made it bright enough to see the door.
Charlie looked at the door and then stopped. “Uh, where’s the slot for the passkey?” The old wooden door had a traditional lock and keyhole.
“These old doors don’t have the new electronic system,” said Annie. “We need an old-school metal key.”
“And that’s probably been missing for fifty years,” said Charlie, groaning.
“Now that you mention it,” said Annie, “there are some old keys hanging behind the desk.”
“You mean these?” asked Cozette. She held out a small ring of dark metal keys.
“How did you —?” Annie started.
“I figured if we were going into the old part of the Hocus Pocus, we might need them,” said Cozette.
“You’re smarter than you look,” said Ty.
“Stand aside,” said Cozette. She tried a few of the keys in the lock. Finally, there was a click.
The door opened, and in the phone’s blue light, they saw a closet door just inside.
“Brack!” called Ty.
A groan came from within the closet. Ty twisted a deadbolt knob on the door and opened it. The four companions saw an old man on the floor inside, his thin back against the wall, his wrinkled face stretched in a grimace of pain.
“Master Hitchcock!” said the man in a tired, raspy voice. “And Master Yu. And Miss Solo.”
“How are you, Brack?” asked Charlie.
“Body and soul still together, young man,” said Brack, pushing himself into a better position. “And this charming young woman must be Miss Bailey.”
Cozette stared. “You know who I am?” she said. “I’ve only worked here a few weeks.”
“We need to get you out of here,” said Ty.
“Carefully,” said Brack. “I think I may have sprained an ankle.”
“Who did this to you?” said Charlie.
“I have an idea,” said Brack. “But I don’t have any evidence, of course. It was dark when I woke up here. The last thing I remember was sitting in my house.”
“With Theopolis!” said Charlie.
Brack blinked, surprised. “Why, yes. At least, that’s who he turned out to be. He was wearing a disguise.”
“A red beard,” said Annie.
“Somebody better explain what’s been going on,” said Ty. “And I mean now.”
“First things first,” said Brack. He lifted a shaking hand and pointed. “I believe there’s a men’s room in that direction. I could hear the pipes through the wall.”
Ty gently hoisted Brack to his feet and hunkered under one of the older man’s shoulders. Charlie and Annie supported him on the other side. Cozette raised her phone and a door loomed out of the darkness. While Ty helped Brack walk inside, the other three turned and gasped.
A hand reached out toward them. Icy white fingers. Annie screamed. Charlie couldn’t speak. Ty stepped out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Cozette pointed. The clutching white fingers hadn’t moved. They could see the hand was attached to a bare white arm that led to a naked shoulder.
“Look out!” said Ty. As Cozette’s light traveled up the mysterious white shape, Ty saw another figure close behind.
Neither of the white shadows moved. “Who are you?” Ty demanded.
The four companions jumped as something moved behind them. It was Brack, who had opened the bathroom door and was grasping the side of the doorway for balance. “I’m afraid he can’t answer you,” he said. “None of them can.”
Cozette lifted her light. They saw more and more figures crowded in front of them.
All pale, all frozen in place, all silent.
“Statues,” said Charlie.
Brack nodded. “They are the great secret of the thirteenth floor,” he said. “A secret I thought was a rumor until I saw them just now with my own eyes.”
“Who are they?” asked Ty.
“The Twelve,” said Brack.
Charlie looked closer at the blurry, bluish shapes in the cellphone’s gleam. One of them brandished a sword. Another held a spear with three sharp prongs. A female figure wore an old-fashioned helmet and carried a shield.
I’ve seen them before, thought Charlie. He had a memory that held onto images like a computer hard drive. “Acute visual memory,” his teachers called it. Other people might call it a photographic memory.
Once Charlie saw a picture or a movie or a show, he never forgot it. For example, the photo he had seen in an old book at the library of some statues. The same statues he’d seen on a show on the History Channel.
“The Twelve Olympians,” said Charlie.
“You mean, like athletes?” asked Annie,
Ty rolled his eyes. “Like the Greek gods,” he said. “Clash of the Titans, The Immortals, Percy Jackson.”
“You read?” said Cozette in a quiet voice.
Ty ignored her. “That must be Ares,” he said, pointing at the statue with the sword.
