Chapter 9

Behind the door was a large, bright bedroom. It had mostly colors of gray and brown. It had a bed on the right wall. A far distance across, there was a dresser. On the front wall, there were three doors; the middle door being the one Joseph and Chris had just opened. Joseph and Chris shut the door and saw some cards on a nightstand by the bed. They walked over and smiled at them. They picked them up, and they played with the cards until they realized that this was another puzzle.

The boys tried to solve the puzzle, and then, 30 minutes later, they finished it together. They were moved over and had to solve another puzzle. Joseph tried to solve this one alone. 30 minutes later, he gave up, and he let Chris try. Chris solved the puzzle in less than a minute. Chris turned around, closed his eyes, and smiled triumphantly. He even lifted his chest a little bit to suggest that he was boasting. Joseph dropped his mouth open in shock after Chris had solved the puzzle so quickly.

The boys suddenly turned their attention to a drama. Dutton and Temple appeared in the room. Temple was still obsessed with trying to find Stauf's power. Then, he saw a top hat on a bed. He thought that it contained the secret to Stauf's power. Then, he saw a woman skeleton sitting on the bed. Temple yelled, "STOP IT, STOP IT!" Then, the drama stopped altogether.

Joseph and Chris turned around and looked at the three doors at the front of the room. "Which one goes out?" Joseph asked. The boys closed the door when they entered the room, and they hadn't paid attention to the door's location in perspective of the other doors.

"I'll try the door on the left, and you try the one on the right," Chris commanded.

"Right," Joseph agreed.

Chris went through the left door, and he found himself coming out of an oven. Then, Chris closed the oven door, and he looked around. He was in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Joseph went through the right door. Suddenly, he found himself in the library. The place was deserted. There was no Chris, no ghosts, and nobody else either. Joseph decided to solve the next puzzle by using the book without having to even see the puzzle.

Joseph walked over to the book and turned the page. Suddenly, he found himself in another room. He was looking straight into a painting of Stauf. Stauf looked mad. The face in Stauf's painting was changing shapes, and it was also trying to stretch out of the canvas. The picture was stretching outward because of that. Finally, the action stopped, and Joseph was back in the library.

Meanwhile, Chris saw a drama about Tad exploring the kitchen, and he saw another drama about Heine cooking soup, but the soup turned out to be blood! Suddenly, the blood level began to rise rapidly. Not only that, but it slowly began to turn into a face. Heine got scared, so she took a few steps back and dropped her ladle. "BRING HIM TO ME!" shouted the face in a sinister voice. Heine screamed and fell down. The face laughed the way Stauf did, and then, it sank back into the pot and became normal blood soup.

There was no one left in the kitchen except Chris. Chris, breathing extremely fast, clutched to a wall. He slowly began to cower. He had never seen anything so scary! At last, when he got over it, he walked over to the kitchen door and tried opening it. It had been locked! Chris began banging on the door. Then, yelling extremely loudly so that it would be possible for his voice to be heard everywhere in the house, Chris roared, "STAUF, I'M GOING TO GET YOU AS SOON AS I GET OUT OF THIS LOCKED KITCHEN! YOU'LL REALLY REGRET IT!"

Joseph ran out of the library because he heard Chris's yells for help. Joseph was looking in the library for books about Stauf when he heard Chris's threat to Stauf. Joseph went to the kitchen door and tried to pull it open. Then, Joseph yelled out so that the whole house could hear. "STAUF, IF YOU DON'T LET MY FRIEND OUT, I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU WILL GET IT!" Joseph threatened firmly and loudly. Nothing happened, although Joseph could hear faint evil laughter from upstairs. "THAT'S IT! IIIII'M GOING UP THERE!" Joseph yelled. Joseph leaned forward, bravely stomping so hard that he created dents in the floor. Joseph stomped upstairs. When walking upstairs in the same manner, Joseph created holes in the stairs.

Joseph called up the stairs, "IF I DAMAGE YOUR HOUSE, IT'S WHAT YOU DESERVE FOR LOCKING UP MY FRIEND!" Then, just as Joseph was about to make it upstairs, the stairs mysteriously turned into a ramp, and Joseph tumbled backwards, shortly being caught in the holes he created before. Suddenly, Joseph was coming to the foot of the stairs, when suddenly, because of his tumbling, he shot into the air. He was FLYING! Joseph enjoyed a good 5 minutes of soaring around the top of the tall ceilings of the house. Finally, Joseph slowed down and lightly landed on both of his feet.

Joseph lifted his arms into the air, and pointed his fingers upward, like an athlete did at the end of a well-done sport. Joseph lowered his arms, and boasted, "HA, HAA! I enjoyed myself, Stauf, so you can't make me be scared!"

Suddenly, billions of supernatural things happened at that instant. "OK, I'm scared," said Joseph pitifully. Everything halted, and then, the kitchen door magically flung open. The ramp turned back into stairs.

Chris ran out of the doorway and walked over to the stairs where Joseph was. "How did these holes and dents get on the stairs and the floor?" Chris asked.

"I did that after I began trying to go upstairs," Joseph humored.

"I'm sure Stauf will be mad at you for doing that," Chris said.

"I don't care. He deserves it for locking you up," Joseph said.

"Where did you end up when you went through the door upstairs in that bedroom?" Chris asked. "I went through an oven and became trapped in the kitchen."

"Well, I went to the library, and then, the strangest thing happened. About a second after arriving, I decided to automatically solve the next puzzle without going to it, but instead, I saw a painting of Stauf in some unknown room, and he was moving outward, and then…Chris?" Joseph stopped talking, realizing that Chris was gone.

Joseph was running around the downstairs floor for a moment until he found Chris cowering in a corner between the locked double doors and the library. "What are you doing here?" Joseph asked questioningly.

"Don't EVER mention magically being near anything having to do with Stauf, and something happening. That man is SCARY!" Chris exclaimed.

"I was scared too, but fortunately, everything became normal, and I was beamed back to the library.

"Then, about 5 minutes later, while I was looking for books having to do with Stauf, I heard, 'STAUF, I'M GOING TO GET YOU AS SOON AS I GET OUT OF THIS LOCKED KITCHEN! YOU'LL REALLY REGRET IT!' I rushed to the kitchen and found the door locked," Joseph said.

"Do you think that when Stauf was moving in his painting, he could have caused me to be locked in the kitchen?" Chris wondered as he got up, and walked towards Joseph.

"It's possible," Joseph said. "Let's see if the double doors over here are unlocked," Joseph suggested. Then, both boys approached the doors. Joseph pulled the left door open and saw a music room. It was large. It had smooth, beige paneled walls. A black grand piano was in the center of the room, and there were two bookshelves. On the front wall, there was a phonograph and the same double doors the boys stood in. Everything else in the room was musical.

"Well, it's getting too late to some anymore puzzles, so I'm going to bed," Joseph said.

"Me too," Chris said. Suddenly, the supernatural force pulled the boys to a plant in the room, and then, the plant stretched to the top of the ceiling, where a hole was spotted. Joseph and Chris climbed up and found themselves back in the room that went to the chapel.

Suddenly, a calm Stauf appeared, saying humorously to them, "What do you think this is, a hotel?" Then, he disappeared.

"Let's sleep in the room with the cards. It's larger," Joseph suggested.

"OK," Chris said.

Joseph pulled a remote control from his ear, and then, he pressed a button. The bed folded up until it turned into a small, thin box that was about the size of a suitcase. It even had a handle on top so it could be carried around. Joseph put the remote control back in his ear. Joseph looked at Chris and smiled.

Chris stared with his mouth open. "You have got to make me one of those things. They're so neat!" Chris said slowly. Joseph turned around and opened the door, and he walked down the hall. Chris closed his mouth and began to put away all of his things and put them in his backpack. He then got up and left the room. Behind Chris's back, the door slowly closed.

Chris walked right of the room and walked down the hall. Then, he saw the door to the room with the cards open on the right side of the hall. Chris walked in with his things and saw Joseph trying to get his bed open.

"I'm trying to get my bed to open, but it won't do it," Joseph said. Joseph pressed his remote control button frantically, and there were tiny bits of sweat coming out of his head.

Then, Joseph set his remote control down and knelt to the control box and tried to fiddle with the controls to find out what was wrong. Joseph found the answer right then. "It appears that there is some unnecessary radioactivity in the system. I can get it out, but it will take at least half a day to get out, and I want to sleep," Joseph said.

"Just open the bed manually," Chris said.

"I have designed it so that the bed always locks when it closes," Joseph said. "I guess I'll have to sleep with a blanket on the floor," Joseph said. Joseph got up and put away all his tools. Joseph shoved his bed to the back of the room, and he took a thick blanket from his supply box. Then, Joseph closed the door to the room and turned out the lights. Chris got into his robe, and Joseph did as well. Then, Chris got into the bed, while Joseph lay on the floor in his blanket near the center of the room. Chris fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow, but Joseph had a hard time going to sleep. He felt that something was watching him, and it wasn't good. It was evil and sneaky. Joseph's heart was beating at a fast rate. Joseph stared at the ceiling, hoping no scary face would appear on it or something frightening like that. Eventually, Joseph fell asleep, and then, right then, it happened.

The bed Joseph set aside opened up, and it seemed to walk over to Joseph. It set one of its hard and heavy feet on Joseph's stomach. Joseph's eyes popped open, and then, Joseph yelled,"OUCH!"

Chris woke up suddenly, and surprisingly looked at Joseph. The bed was sitting on Joseph! "What are you doing?" Chris asked annoyed.

"This bed somehow got on my stomach, and then, it even opened!" Joseph said.

"That's not true!" Chris said. "You must have been up working!"

"I was trying to go to sleep and nothing happened," Joseph said.

"Well, I guess that's true, considering the fact that this place is scary, and it's hard to get along with it," Chris said. "And I guess maybe a ghost moved that bed," Chris said.

"Might have been," Joseph said.

"Now that your bed is open, you can get in, and let's go back to sleep," Chris said. Joseph lifted the bed off his stomach and got out from under it. Then, he put his blanket in the bed and then, he got inside. Joseph pulled the curtains closed from inside his bed and zipped them shut. Joseph pulled the blanket over himself and decided to stay awake.

Joseph was thinking a little that night. "I believe we have been just about everywhere in this house," Joseph thought. "I'm extremely scared of this house because any scary event can happen, so I want to get out of here as soon as I can. I am also missing days at school because of this house. I think I should solve all the puzzles at night so that Chris and I can explore the last room up here and get out of here," Joseph continued to think. "But what if something bad happens here?" Joseph thought again. "Wait, I know what!" Joseph thought.

Joseph unzipped his curtains and jumped out of bed. Joseph jetted out of the room, ran down the stairs, and flung open the stained-glass door. Joseph got on his bike, and he quickly jetted back home. Joseph opened the garage door to his home, lucky that his parents still had the garage door open. Joseph darted upstairs to his room in the dark house. He then flipped on the lights to his room, and he saw his large red toolbox with all his wrenches, bolts, nails, screws, metal sheets, and other related objects. Joseph grabbed his huge toolbox, turned out the lights, and hurried out of his home and got on his bike. Joseph biked slowly, as it was hard to bike with a bulky, heavy toolbox in his lap. His bike wobbled a bit as Joseph returned to the Stauf property. Eventually, upon returning to the house, Joseph laid his bike down and took his toolbox inside. He shut the stained-glass door and set his toolbox in the middle of the foyer.