Chapter 7

Joseph and Chris woke up the next morning and got dressed. Then, they opened the door Chris discovered, and they were awfully surprised at what was behind it. It was a chapel! The room was dark, but it had a little bit of light coming in through the windows in the back of the room.

The chapel was made out of stone, and it had about six benches in the front. In the back near the altar, there was a window that seemed to point up. On the left side of the chapel, there was a short blue pipe organ. On the right side of the chapel, there was a door that led to a confession booth. In front of the windows, there was a pedestal with a woolly red blanket that covered it for the coffins to lie on without scratching the pedestal.

Even without the organ playing, sad music still echoed through the chapel without any definite source. "Come on, Chris! Let's check out the back of the room," Joseph said. Joseph began to run, while Chris slowly walked forward. Suddenly, Joseph tripped on something. "That Stauf!" Joseph yelled. "I'll get him for that!" Joseph's words echoed through the chapel.

"It's not Stauf," Chris said. "There's a gap in the floor. We need to find a way across it," he continued. Joseph pulled himself up, and he looked at the hole in the floor. "It's so small that we can just walk across."

Joseph ran and jumped over the hole, but an invisible bouncy force bounced Joseph behind the hole again. Joseph ran back to the door to get his B.B. gun to shoot at the invisible substance. He discovered that the door was boarded up and chained up. "Chris…look!" Joseph said in a scared manner. Joseph pointed to the door with his left finger. Chris looked and opened his mouth in horror.

"We're trapped in the chapel!" Chris yelled.

"Oh well, might as well try to solve the puzzle," Joseph said. While Chris took one of the benches and used it as a battering ram to open the door, Joseph calmly tried to solve the puzzle on the floor.

Finally, Joseph gave up, just as Chris was about to tear down the door. "Let's just have the book solve it for us," Joseph suggested. Then, Stauf magically reset the puzzle, and then, all of the colorful stones disappeared, leaving an even larger gap in the floor. Joseph and Chris fell through screaming, wondering if they would end up anywhere bad.

At last, they landed in the library. Joseph raced over to the book and turned the page. There were some hints on the puzzle. "Maybe these will help us," Chris said.

The clues said, "If you can make it to the other side, you may find salvation at my altar. But watch your step in this holey place!" Clue two said, "The markings on the stones represent numeric markings. Jump to adjacent stones according to the value of the stone on which you land." Then, the boys were transported back to the chapel.

Joseph and Chris were stuck in the chapel for about an hour. Joseph was frantically working at the puzzle, while Chris tried to tear the door open. Finally, Joseph had solved the puzzle, and he made the gap possible to cross. Joseph stood up and turned and looked at Chris. Chris had a triumphant expression on his face. He had discovered a large log in the chapel. Chris fiercely ran towards the door, and then, as he was doing it, slowly began to move the log backwards, and then, he fiercely moved it forward as he approached the door. Suddenly, there was a loud noise.

BANG!

It sounded kind of like an explosion in a way. For a moment, there was nothing to see in the room. Eventually, all the sawdust that had polluted the air after Chris rammed into the door began to clear up, and the boys could see the room again. They realized that Chris had finally torn the door apart. There were still ripped pieces of plywood still stuck in the doorframe that remained after Chris had demolished most of the other boards on the door. The boys could see into the other bedroom.

"I wanted to check out the rest of the chapel," Joseph sad sadly to Chris. Chris was proud that he had beaten one of Stauf's annoying obstacles. Now, they had easy access out of the room.

"HA! IN YOUR FACE, STAUF!"shouted Chris. After Chris said that, the door magically built back up by itself. It looked exactly the way it did before Chris tore it down. Chris scowled at the fact that Stauf had ruined his triumph.

"Come on, Chris, let's check out this place," Joseph said happily. The two boys crossed the chapel and approached the pedestal. The sad music the boys heard suddenly grew much louder and much sadder. Then, they saw Dutton meeting a man wearing a black cape that had suddenly appeared. Joseph and Chris looked closely at the man in the cape. They realized that the man was Stauf! Dutton was on the left side of the pedestal, and Stauf was on the right side of the pedestal. Then, the boys noticed that there was a dying baby lying on the pedestal.

Apparently, the baby was a sacrifice to something. Stauf gave Dutton a sword. The sword looked like it had electrical energy around it, as there was some sort of electric glow that surrounded the sword. Dutton grabbed the sword, and an electrical glow surrounded him as well. It seemed to weaken his strength. Stauf laughed evilly as he watched Dutton lose strength.

Then, Dutton, Stauf, the baby, and the sword faded away. The music toned down and became less intense. Joseph and Chris turned to their left. They saw that a skeleton was sitting at the pipe organ playing the same haunting tune that was heard when the boys watched the drama about Dutton and Stauf. The skeleton stopped playing the organ, but the music still continued to play. The skeleton turned his head and looked at the boys. Then, the skeleton faded away, and the music toned down once again. Joseph and Chris looked to their right, and they saw the dark brown door that led to the confession booth. The two boys casually walked over to the door and opened it. When they looked inside, they were surprised to see that the confession booth was actually hollowed out into an entrance to a metal door, which led to a laboratory. The boys slowly walked into the laboratory, and the metal door closed shut behind them.

The laboratory didn't have too much machinery, as it was really a simple little lab. It had cups and beakers that contained certain formulas. In the back was a microscope. All around the room, there were bookshelves. The bookshelves were filled head-to-toe with chemistry books, physics books, and personal science log notebooks. Above the lab, there was a simple light fixture. There was an old-fashioned stretcher with wheels in the center of the room. The stretcher had a brown leather pocket hanging from it. From where Joseph and Chris were standing, they could see an object that looked like a human brain in the pocket.

Suddenly, they saw an apparition. A brainless man appeared, and he was lying in the stretcher. He was moaning loudly and feeling around, trying to look for his brain. His right hand reached into the pocket and squeezed the brain, realizing that he had found it. Then, he disappeared.

Joseph and Chris walked over to the microscope in the back of the room. They both looked inside the microscope, and they saw two green cells and two blue cells. Each cell was isolated in its own corner of the playing area. Joseph and Chris moved the blue cells around a little bit, assuming they were supposed to remove the green cells. However, this puzzle was far too complicated, as the green cells were always expanding faster than the blue cells, and the green cells always were consuming blue cells. Joseph and Chris decided to go back to the library to have the book help them out.

Joseph and Chris walked away from the puzzle, and they went up to the metal door they initially came through. The door had a bunch of rods and gears, and they spun whenever Joseph and Chris tried to open the door. It would not open. Fortunately, the boys spotted another door. They went through the door, thinking they could go back into the chapel so they could go back to the library. To their surprise, the door they entered led them directly to the library.

Joseph and Chris opened the book and saw hints. "This game can be infectious. If your blue blood cells are effective, they should out number my green viruses by mutation in the end." Clue #2 was, "To replicate a blue blood cell, select a vacant space 1 or 2 spaces away in any direction. If you jump over 1 other cell, the cell moves but does not replicate."

The boys were transported back to the lab but still decided to have to book solve it for them. Then, they turned around and went through the door again. They were back in the library. Joseph walked over to the book, and turned its page. The words there said, "The puzzle is solved!" Then, the page turned over, and the door popped up. Joseph and Chris were pulled through the door, and then, they were back in the laboratory.

Then, the boys saw a drama about Temple, who thought he just discovered Stauf's power. He looked through one of Stauf's logbooks, but he was unsatisfied with his discovery. Suddenly, he disappeared into a flash of light. Stauf's loud laughter was heard in the room, though Stauf himself was not visible.

Then, Joseph and Chris decided to check other rooms for puzzles. Then, the boys took a large log they found in the lab and both lifted it up. They ran towards the metal door in the lab and burst it open.

The door had been pulled off its hinges, and it was ricocheting around the lab. Joseph and Chris sat down on the stairs that led to the door. They pulled out bags of popcorn from out of nowhere and enjoyed watching the door ricocheting around the lab. It was breaking bottles, smashing bookcases, and some machinery. Then, it finally fell to the ground after the things in the lab were destroyed. Joseph and Chris stood up and dropped their bags of popcorn. They started walking into the chapel.

Suddenly, as the boys entered the back of the chapel, they saw a huge enlargement of Stauf's face near the ceiling. This face was an apparition. "I'll give you three seconds to leave this building! Or else, you'll be cursed…1…2…" Stauf started.

Just on three, Joseph and Chris sprang off the ground and burst through the chapel windows. Shattered glass was flying everywhere. Joseph and Chris were actually flying! The instant they burst out the windows, they began to fly. They flew a few miles away from the house, and they eventually landed at Bob's house. They landed with a hard THUD!

Joseph and Chris panted in order to be relieved. Then, Joseph pulled an emergency scooter out of his ear. Joseph and Chris got on it, and they began kicking their way back to the house.

Many hours later, they arrived back at the hill. It was almost nighttime, which was the worst time to be at the Stauf house. Joseph and Chris slowly entered the house. Everything was normal. Still, Joseph and Chris walked upstairs very slowly and quietly. When they reached the top of the stairs, Joseph pulled out his emergency halogen flashlight from his ear. Joseph pressed the red button, and once again, the upstairs lit up as if it had electrical lighting. Joseph and Chris walked down the hall on the left, and they finally tried to open the door in the back of the hall. It was unlocked! Joseph and Chris slowly opened the door, and they were surprised to find what was behind the door.