Chapter 1

The Message

25 year old Dr. Cody Martin sat unmoving behind the desk in his office in New York City, staring at his cell phone with a look that was a mixture of perplexity and restrained fear. From outside came the sound of cars whizzing by and the general sorts of sounds you typically hear every day in the midst of the big city: honking, the occasional police siren, and the whole cacophony of noises that the big city is known for. Everything on the outside was going about its average routine with nothing out of the ordinary. Not in here, though. Everything average about Cody's day was now entirely disrupted. Maybe not for sure, but just enough to warrant the unwanted feelings of worry and indecisive anger that were certain to put a negative tone to the rest of the day. If.

Cody was still staring at his phone, frowning. He had replayed the message about ten times so far and tried to call Zack's cell even more, but Zack's phone always went straight to voicemail.

Cody opened up the texting screen and began typing out a message for Zack:

Zack, what the hell, man? April Fools was months ago. I'm not going to fall for it this time! Give me a call back. Or pick up your phone.

-Cody

He pressed send and sat back for a while, still staring at his phone with a faraway look in his eyes.

Cody wasn't sure what to think.

If Zack was serious...

But on the other hand, it was a known given that Zack loved to play pranks. It was one of his defining characteristics. There were two different kinds of people in the world, according to Cody's philosophy: those who grew from kids to adults, and kids who grew into bigger bodies and remained kids relatively all their lives. Zack was one of the latter.

But was this a prank? Cody, who had always been more of a History and Discovery Channel kid, had seen all the documentaries about the Tipton Hotel growing up. The subject had heavily fascinated him, and he had read up on it from about as many books as he was able to get his hands on.

Cody couldn't say for sure what his opinion on the subject ultimately was. He was a very open minded person who saw the world as a fascinating phenomenon filled with all sorts of unknown mysteries and wonders. He liked to believe that everything in existence had a reason for working the way it did. He was also the type of person who liked to consider every single possibility rather than closing his mind off to just one.

Everything has a certain way of working, even if we humans haven't figured everything out yet. It's possible we were never meant to.

There was a certain way of working behind the disappearances, too. There had to be. Was there a normal, reasonable explanation behind what had happened? It was possible. Was there an unusual, possibly otherworldly, bizarre explanation for what had happened? That was possible too.

If it were the latter...

Mr. Tipton's eccentricity was definitely no secret. For this reason, he was often accused of being the most likely suspect behind everything. Of course, since he disappeared too, he couldn't be reached for questioning.

But to Cody, who liked to think of everything in a logical, yet open minded manner, had always had a different possible theory.

The media had been all over the Tipton case for decades, and everybody in the nation ate it up. Everybody was caught up in the "fad" speculating on what might have possibly happened, and the supernatural was definitely among these speculations.

But how many of these people really believed in a supernatural possibility? Cody didn't think very many. Sure, nobody in the nation wanted to even go slightly near the Ghost Zone of Boston, but if you looked at the pattern of the number of the materials that were published on the incident, the mainstream publications were always the ones that investigated the incident from the angle of a possible conspiracy. Either Mr. Tipton was a devil worshipper who abducted (all 400+ people?) as part of some Satanic ritual, or maybe it was perpetrated by the US government for reasons unknown and then covered up, or maybe it was even a secret plot by Al-Qaeda...

You could find any of these books in the History section or on display in the lobby of any bookstore. But the moment you put out a book suggesting aliens, ghosts, parallel dimensions, time warps, and other such possibilities, you pretty much got labeled as a crackpot and relegated to the Speculation section of the bookstore along with the other goofballs who believe the government is being controlled by aliens, the Matrix is real, or that the world is going to end in 1999/2001/2012/2016, ect.

In Cody's opinion, though, it was a dangerous thing to just immediately regard any possible otherworldly speculation pertaining to the incident as total bunk. For if there had been something unusual going on, then how would one expect to stop it if they didn't even want to consider the possibility of something unnatural? Cody had learned from experience in his own personal scientific dabbling that this was very flawed thinking.

He also knew for a fact that the outlandish speculation books sold probably more than the books coming from a conspiracy theory angle.

There were some reports that Mr. Tipton had had a bit of a fascination with the occult. Indeed, it had been known that he had liked to collect books on the subject, but increasingly even more so in the years leading up to the disappearances. It was from this that the speculation about 'devil worship' came from. Cody didn't know about that, but he had his own theories as to the sudden increased fascination.

What if he knew well in advance that something was wrong, and on its way, and he was trying, like I would have done, to try to find a way to stop it?

Just like a machine that required mechanical parts to be repaired,

wouldn't a potentially dangerous supernatural force require some sort of supernatural method to correct it?

This was all in very wild theory, though, with no evidence to support it. He had thought about publishing a book with his own thoughts on the subject, but he knew better. He might be more open minded than most, but he still held pride in the way people perceived him, and he couldn't bear the shame of becoming known as yet another crackpot speculation author. There was nothing for him to gain by publishing such a book.

People only want to believe in reason and logic. They don't want to accept a possibility of a more unusual truth beyond their understanding, yet to some extent, their actions would indicate that the fear of such a thing actually does exist within their subconscious.

If it didn't, there would be no such thing as a 'Ghost Zone of Boston.' That was a really freaking ridiculously extreme measure to take against something that was 'certain' to have a 'normal, physical explanation.'

And as much of a pain in the ass as he could be sometimes, Cody really had to admire Zack for making such a ballsy move although he himself hadn't wanted to admit that he had been a little scared for him.

The one curse to being open minded and considering every possibility is that it tended to turn one into a worry wart.

Cody was, and Zack knew it. And despite the fact that they had not spoken much to each other over the last few years, it wasn't something that was likely to ever change.

Any time it was possible there was something that could go wrong, it weighed heavily on Cody's mind, no matter how much he tried to repress it. Zack had loved to torment him because of it as a kid.

And even all the way up till college.

Once, when they were ten, Zack had dared him to go into an old abandoned house near their neighborhood, telling him wild stories about it being haunted:

"They say an old woman lived there once. She lived all by herself and never spoke or talked to anyone. Sometimes late at night people would hear weird noises or screams coming from the house. They said she was a witch. Then one day, she simply vanished! Several other people moved in after that, but they all ended up dying of unknown causes. They say that she still wanders the house, cursing anyone who dares to trespass on her territory and devouring their souls!"

Cody, who had once seen a horror film on TV without his parents' permission, had insisted from that point on that his room was being possessed by monsters, and his parents had had to sprinkle holy water over the walls, bed and furniture before he would sleep in it again.

Zack had made fun of him nonstop after that. Cody had been terrified of the house, too,

"The spirits of the people she killed can sometimes be heard coming from the walls... begging someone to put them out of their misery!"

but Cody, who had wanted some sort of vindication and not to be looked upon like a chicken anymore, had reluctantly agreed.

They found a conveniently broken window and snuck in. Zack had been trying to torture him the whole time by telling him more horrific stories of the place, claiming to hear things that weren't there, and yelling out that he saw something, and when Cody turned to look,

"Ha ha! Gotcha! Man, you're such a chicken!"

there was, of course, nothing there.

But what had really taken the cake was when Zack had managed to sneak away from Cody, and when Cody turned around and there was nobody there,

"Zack?! ZACK! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

he had panicked something fierce.

He had run around all over the house for five minutes, screaming Zack's name, wanting to just run out and leave the place behind, but he couldn't, because he was also scared to death for his brother.

Then the banging started. And the voice wailing from the walls...

"COOOOOODDDDYYYYY... HEEELLLLLPPPP MEEEEEE... I'M TRAPPED IN HERE... THE PAIN... I CAN'T TAKE THE PAIN ANYMORE!"

Cody would run to where the noise was coming from, but since Zack had already scoped the place out before hand

that damn "conveniently" already broken window

he knew the house real well and would run somewhere else and start banging on the walls and wailing.

"COOOOOOODDDDYYYYY... WE'RE ALL HERE... WEEEE'RRREEE WAAAIITIIIING FOR YOU TO JOOOOOOOIIIIIN US..."

"COOOOOODDDDDYYYY... WEEEEEEE'REEEEEE COOOOOMING TO GEEEEET YOOOOOOUUUU..."

Cody had finally ran out of the house screaming like all the demons of hell were on his tail.

And he'd thought they really were.

Cody had been practically hyperventilating when he had gotten back to the house. His parents couldn't get him to calm down. When Zack had walked into the house 15 minutes later, laughing his head off in sheer diabolical glee, he had been grounded for a month. Cody had tried to about half-kill him.

Not much had really changed since that time. The Zack of today still loved a good practical joke just as much as when he was a kid.

But could this really be just another one of his pranks?

He had been a little worried when Zack had taken on the project, sure. He had been nervous about it the whole time. And he'd done what he usually did nowadays when he got worried about something: threw himself into his work.

It didn't matter that he and Zack rarely spoke anymore. A part of him, just a small part, felt like he wouldn't know what to do if anything actually happened to his brother.

He wouldn't put it past Zack, though, to be aware of how Cody might feel and use the opportunity to screw with him a little.

If that was the case, he was going to pack up, go straight to Boston, and punch Zack square in the face.

But there was something about that phone call, too, that he could not quite put his finger on.

Zack had sounded genuinely panicked. But that was to be expected. Zack could practically win an academy award when he was screwing with somebody. But there was something else about the voice, too. Cody wasn't sure what it was. He thought it was probably just his imagination, but...

something seemed a little off?

Again, that might add more credence to the possibility of a prank, but something inside Cody wasn't so sure.

Cody suddenly snapped out of his thoughts for a bit when he realized that the Tipton hotel must have a landline. After all, there would be a construction crew there, along with those ghost hunters who were supposed to be staking out the place before it was bulldozed over.

He opened up his laptop and pulled up the website for ClubZack.org

Seriously, brother, could you be any more simplistic?

The only thing he got when he pulled up the Tipton location website was an 'Under Construction!' page with an oversized photo of a leaning, smiling Zack, a few photos of the area where the construction was taking place, concept art for what the club would look like when finished, and some backstory info on the history of the place that he was already well familiar with.

He closed down the page and looked up the main office number from the main website.

It rang three times before someone picked up and he got an overly enthusiastic:

"Thank you for calling Club Zack! Your number one choice for the hottest night on the town! Especially Houston, Texas! This is co-owner Lenny speaking, how may I be of service?"

Lenny was like a mass of infinite energy bundled up into a single human being that had nowhere else to go yet was always screaming to be let out.

He was the kind of guy that when you met him he would practically pump your arm off and then proceed to ramble on and on for hours about everything under the sun. He had Zack's life-of-the-party attitude and some of the obnoxiousness, too, but he was generally a decent, down-to-earth guy.

As a business partner, Zack couldn't have chosen anyone more in tune with his own childish personality.

"Hey, Lenny. It's Cody. I'm trying to reach my brother."

"Codester!" Lenny exclaimed. "Always a pleasure. But Zack's not here. I'd think you would know that, considering he's about the only thing on the news these days..."

"I know that. But I've been trying to reach his cell for the last few days and he won't answer his phone. Could you get me the number for the Tipton landline?"

"Yeah, sure. Just gimme a minute..." He said.

A few minutes later he came back on and gave Cody the number.

"By the way," Cody said. "You haven't heard from Zack recently, have you? Like in the last few days?"

"Nope. Not in weeks, actually. But that's not unusual. When he starts off on a new project like this, he might not be heard from for a month. He gets really focused. But you probably already knew that. Ya know, there was this one time that..."

"Actually, I'm really sorry to cut it short, Lenny, but I have an appointment I need to rush off to. I just had something urgent I needed to tell Zack, and I was really hoping I could catch him before I had to run off. If you hear from him, do me a favor and be sure to tell him to call me immediately."

"Hey, yeah, sure man. Understood. And don't be a stranger! It's been, what, a year, two years since you've been around?"

"Something like that. Talk to you later, Lenny."

"Ciao, man."

And with that Cody hung up.

Cody wasn't sure whether or not Lenny might be in on the joke. It was possible, which was why he was being very careful to mask any sense of possible wariness in his voice and why he lied about trying to reach Zack for days rather than just in the last hour.

Cody had been paying close attention to Lenny's voice for any sign that he might be repressing any sort of humor at the situation, but he had detected none at all.

Cody dialed the Tipton landline number into his phone. It rang about six times before his brother's voice came on.

"Hello, and thank you for calling the future site of Club Zack's Haunted Hotel of Horrors! We are still under heavy construction and may not be able to answer the phone at this point of time, but your call is very important to us! Please leave us a message after the tone, and we will get back to you as soon as possible!" *beep*

Cody didn't leave a message. He hung up the phone, pocketed it, and immediately went to his appointment list. He had made his decision.

If this is all a game, I'm not playing into it so easily.

He was going to finish up all of his rounds for the day, tend to his appointments, and keep trying the landline. He made a mental note to use a payphone just in case the landline had caller ID and Zack was deliberately not picking up the phone.

If he couldn't reach anyone by the end of the day, he was going to cancel all his appointments for the next day and head off to Boston.