THE DOMINO THEORY

Benny walked up the stairs to the fourth floor. Bellboys weren't supposed to use the elevators unless they were serving a guest. He was a bellboy . . . a bellboy . . . a bellboy.

In a nifty double-breasted red uniform with shiny brass buttons and a matching strap-on cap. With starched white shirt and black silk tie carefully tied in a double-Windsor knot.

It was a strange echo that worked through Benny's mind. As strong a noise as a hammer hitting an anvil. YOU'RE . . . A . . . BELLBOY . . . JACK . . . at the LEEBLAINE HOTEL! YOU'RE . . . A . . . BELLBOY . . . JACK . . . at the LEEBLAINE HOTEL!

Benny wished he could forget that. He hated being bewitched like this! But he couldn't show it, and although he had his memory back and freedom of action, he had to do everything as if he loved being a bellboy, was a bellboy since he was born, and being a particularly stuck-up bellboy was the entirety of his life's ambition.

And because Benny had stolen from a hotel guest, and the one staying in the Royal Suite at that, the anvil chorus of "You're a bellboy Jack" kept playing in his head.

But, with an effort, Benny was able to genuinely look proud of himself. He had heard some bad news, but on other hand this news meant Stephanie was preoccupied for several hours. It seemed to Benny that Stephanie was the main boss, and, like a video game boss, you faced her last. This kept her out of the way until then. She'd be locking herself up in the hotel's main ballroom for the day.


Ethan had been restlessly opening and closing drawers while Benny was gone. They drawers in Room 407 were mostly empty. All Ethan found was an old school coffee maker, a kettle and a tin of tea, a deck of cards, and some dominoes. Ethan couldn't really "play" dominoes, not by himself. So Ethan set them up to knock them over. Ethan set up the dominoes on the sitting table, thinking of past adventures.

By the time Benny finally knocked, Ethan was examining his incisors in the mirror, which looked like short fangs.

"I think I'm right and Benny was wrong. All he ever did was ask Ask Google" Ethan muttered, before closing his mouth. "Come in Benny . . . Jack."

Benny went in the door, and stood just within saluting. Ethan couldn't help but be reminded of a vampire being stopped just without the door.

"At ease, Jack" said Ethan ironically.

"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't make fun, sir" said Benny. "This isn't easy."

"I'd hate to be a bellboy in this place" Ethan agreed.

"Never mind. I have him, sir" said Benny.

"Where?" asked Ethan.

Benny removed his cap, and put Astronaut Rory on the table next to the dominoes.

"You put him in your hat?" asked Ethan incredulously.

"Call me Rorster" said Rory.

"Only because you're an action figure" Ethan told the plastic figure awkwardly. "Why did you carry him in your cap . . . Jack?"

Benny had already replaced his chin strap. He managed a sigh of relief, as the pounding in his head finally stopped

"I had to hide him, sir. I accompanied Stephanie and Erica to the main ballroom. And served their lunch."

"Why?"

"It's lunchtime. Would you like me to go to the kitchen and fetch you something, sir? Our cook has moose steak on the menu."

"Benny, FOCUS!" said Ethan impatiently . . . and with a embarrassed grimace.

"It's Jack, sir. J-A-C-K."

"Why are Stephanie and Erica going to the ballroom!" Ethan exclaimed.

"Oh!"

Benny shook his head, and sat down.

"Ethan, we only have until midnight to save Erica. Stephanie can't stand being with Jesse and she's somehow brought up the time for her evil sacrifice."

Benny managed a look of disgust that equalled Ethan's current gaping look of horror.

"It has something to do with the curtains being heavy and the ballroom being on the ground floor facing to the west" Benny added. "She called in several of the skeletons to move the furniture, and she's sent someone for red paint."

"I bet that room is huge" said Ethan, looking around at the comfortable but claustophobic Room 407. "So maybe she can cheat with a larger pentagram? Just like tuning in a radio with a powerful antenna. It's easier to tune into the channel you like."

"I don't know, sir" said Benny. "Nonetheless, the answer might be here."

Benny unbuttoned his red jacket showing a stiffly-starched white dress shirt and black tie in a Windsor knot. From under the jacket he removed the battered old spell book his grandmother had given him over two years before. He carefully re-buttoned the brass buttons up to his collar.

"Dude" said Ethan, clapping Benny on the shoulder. "You've got the book back."

"Jack" Benny corrected. "J-A-C-K."

"Jack" said Ethan irritably.

"I'm unable to do anything with it, sir" said Benny. "No magical powers. And I regret to say that Stephanie does have a witches's spell book."

"That black book you were talking about, the one written in blood?" asked Ethan.

"I would have looked in it" said Benny.

"For what?"

"The master reversal potion"

Ethan looked at Benny.

"The one that cured me of being a werewolf the first time? The one that cures everything, even vampires?"

"Yes, sir" said Benny. "It may be in there. There's only one problem. Grandma told me never to even try to look in a witch's spellbook."

"Serious black magic?" Ethan guessed.

"No" said Benny. "You sell your soul when you look in one of those books."

"Automatically?" asked Ethan, surprised.

"I think you have to make a contract with the book" said Benny. "Very much like a security code, sir. Or signing before reading. In your blood. Of course, Grandma didn't know for sure. Nobody does who hasn't made a deal with Old Scratch."

"Forget it . . . Jack" said Ethan, who thought that a book that should definitely be burnt. "I don't even think a devil's spell book would have a master reversal spell. It's too cool . . . too good a thing to know and definitely not black magic."

"Besides, sir" added Benny. "Our friends have already been cured. Of vampirism that is. And for the next few years, Whitechapel remains a vampire-cure in and of itself."

"That's true" Ethan said, cheering up. "I've been thinking B. . . guys."

"Rory can't hear you" said Benny. "See, sir"

Benny tapped Rory on the head.

"Whazzzzzzzzzzz up" Rory said.

"I know that, Jack" said Ethan, looking at the action figure of his second-to-best friend. "I just felt like being . . . courteous. And don't do it again. It gives me the creeps."

"Will do, sir" said Benny, standing up with a salute.

"At ease, Jack" Ethan said, suppressing a growl.

When Benny had sit stiffly in his chair, Ethan went on.

"Sometimes, our cases are like dominoes" Ethan said eagerly. "It takes one step, one big reveal, and everything falls into place. One domino after another Our villain . . . bad guy . . . supernatural enemy . . . goes down after one big reveal. Think of our first case; the attack of the vampire pizza boy, making friends with Sarah, and Rory innocently spilling Jesse's plans."

"That's three falling dominoes, sir."

"Or I have one vision that's a breakthrough" Ethan went on, petulantly. "The vampire nurses and the blood drive. Or events just start falling our way, when we find the key, the plan. Like having the Rorster, when he was possessed by an evil mask, turning you into a combo luchador and wizard."

"Removing the evil mask with my super-powered lightning hands" observed Benny, with little emotion.

"Or the king gremlin using his brainwashing powers on our subconscious minds to sleep-attack each other. His plan fell apart like dominoes. All because of Rory's dog. Krypto woke Rory, Rory woke Sarah, Sarah woke you."

"As we took care of the gremlin, sir, you had a completely pointless duel-to-the-death with Erica" said Benny. "Not that you could harm each other. Erica was human by that time and she wasn't so vulnerable to the U.V. lightsabre. Nor could she do more with her teeth than give you a hicky. Which, of course, she did."

"That's not important" said Ethan embarrassedly. "I mean that I'm the first domino this time."

"If you say so, sir."

"You know what I mean, dude!"

"Jack. J-A-C-K"

"Jack. I'm human . . . in human form and myself again. You're . . . kinda . . . yourself again. We can rescue the others."

Ethan tried to give Benny a high-five, but Benny just watched Ethan make the gesture.

"I can't, sir" Benny explained, after shaking the cobwebs from his mind and remember what exactly a high-five was. "They didn't have high-fives in 1956. It's a hand shake or nothing."

Ethan obliged with the hand shake. After that, Ethan proved his "domino theory" by knocking down the first dominoes and the two boys watched in satisfaction as they fell perfectly. Benny, unfortunately, struggled so much as to smile.

"I think we need to go after Stephanie first" said Ethan. "I'd sooner go and save Sarah from Jesse, but Erica's in the greatest danger now. Besides, the moment we take away Stephanie's powers, we can get ours back. We can free Erica, and the three of us can fight Jesse."

"On the contrary, it's Jesse we must fight first" said Benny. "Begging your pardon."

"What did you do?" asked Ethan perplexed. "Oh, I get it. You're the bellboy, I'm the guest, and you're disagreeing with me on something important. You want to argue but can't? Sorry, Jack. Um . . . permission to speak freely?"

Ethan was unimpressed by Benny's theory that as Stephanie was the most important "boss", she was the one they needed to face last. Ethan thought the reasoning was downright stupid.

"We're not even sure Stephanie's the most dangerous" Ethan said. "Jesse's upgraded to spellmaster and, I'm sure the guy is smarter than Stephanie. He has an ego the size of the death star, but he's dangerous."

"You're contradicting yourself" said Benny. "If you think Jesse's the most dangerous, by your reasoning we should see to Stephanie first. And how, sir, are we going to deal with her? You know my grandmother said we had to de-power her before we undid the spells. We have nothing but the smart phones to make it work. By the way, Ethan. Where is my phone?"

"They didn't have them in 1956 either" Ethan joked, but opened his briefcase after z look at Benny's impassive face.

Benny neatly took the phone, and again removed his cap. He careful placed the phone in the lining of his cap, and put the cap, chin-strap and all, back on his head.

Benny ignored Ethan's stunned expression.

"And you may not know this, sir. But Stephanie will have her own magical defences now. To make it work, you need to de-power her defences, then take away her powers and then undo the spells."

"I know that" Ethan growled. "That's why we're going to have Jack the hotel bellboy pretend to give her a message from Jesse. To distract her."

"What about her having judged us?"

"Then pretend I'm an appeals judge" Ethan retorted. "Benny . . . Jack, she's no more a judge than us."

"But what will you do, sir?"

"There was something Jesse said to me in the woods, the night of the full moon" Ethan replied. "It made me think . . . ."

Benny managed a look of genuine surprise as Ethan detailed his plan.

"Duuuude" Benny stammered, as Benny had said he was constrained in what words he could used. "You would do that . . . sir?"

"I think it would work. It'll make me puke, but it should work."

"What about Jesse?" asked Benny.

Ethan looked to Astronaut Rory.

"Jesse's stolen his life force. But Rory's soul is still trapped in this action figure. You've never seen an innocent soul. It's like a . . . slowly travelling beam of light. The souls of Sarah's Dusker friends destroyed Jesse by just travelling through him."

"You are depending on Rory to destroy Jesse?" said Benny. "And then just reflexively restore his body? Count me sceptical, sir"

"You release Rory's soul, that'll be the end of Spellmaster Jesse" said Ethan confidently. "It may not be technically Rory's body, but it's his life-force Jesse's stolen. And it doesn't matter what fubrecarb Stephanie gave us about a judgement. She may think she has that right, but she didn't do anything but put curses on us and call them judgements. Jesse's been reanimated into a stolen body. He'd be destroyed by Rory. Even the Rorster! I've seen what souls can do. And not just to vampires. I've seen souls pull away Coach Ed into something called the locker of the night. I told you about that."

"I know, sir. But you know sir, as a spellmaster myself, I had a spell to knock the soul out of someone's body. Maybe you should leave it to me."

"You told me all about it, when Doug Falconheart was in town" Ethan said dismissively. "But we don't even know you if you could work that spell on Jesse. And if we did it that way, we'd still have to take care of Stephanie first."

"There is one incontrovertible reason why we should deal with Jesse first."

"Sarah?" said Ethan. "I mentioned her."

"No, sir" said Benny. "But . . . did I place my smart phone in my cap?"

"Yeah . . . Jack"

"Well, there isn't anything I can do about it now" Benny said, with the shadow of a disgusted look on his face. "However, consider this Ethan! So long as Stephanie's preoccupied with her spells, she's safely out the way in the ballroom with Erica and a few right-hand zombies and skeletons. We needn't worry about a team-up."

There was a moment's pause.

"You're right" said Ethan. "Jesse first."

"Besides, sir. You'd sooner rescue Sarah before Erica. I know we want to rescue both, but we know who you like more. But about Rory? How will you release him from the plastic astronaut suit."

"He's an action figure" said Ethan. "His arms are made to pull off. It might hurt him a little after, but when he's flesh and blood again he should automatically return in one piece."

"Should, sir?" said Benny.

"There's a spell to re-attach his arm in your book" said Ethan bluntly. "It's either risk that or he spends the rest of his life as a plastic astronaut. I know the Rorster, I knew he dreamed of being an astronaut . . . but not a toy one."

"Awesome" said Rory, as Ethan put him into the briefcase.

"I hope that's a good sign" Ethan said.

"Then I'll guide you down to the movie theatre, sir" said Benny. "It's in the basement. Since I'm with a guest, that means I . . . we . . . can take the elevator."

Ethan shrugged, and with one last look at Room 407, followed Benny out and closed the door behind him.