Chapter 12
Chris woke up. He rubbed his eyes and turned to look out the window. It was raining. Chris turned away from the window and looked around the bedroom. It was dark and lonely. Chris could hear the pitter patter of the rain against the house. Chris could see Joseph's electrical four-poster bed. He could see that the covers were pulled up. Joseph must have gotten up! Would he really dare to go alone in the Stauf manor at night? Chris thought about this. Then, he realized that Stauf must have taken Joseph away.
Chris immediately jumped out of the bed, and the covers were flying in the air and then landed back on the bed. Chris ran so fast that his robe tail was flying. He ran out the open bedroom door, down the hall, down the stairs, and then, he suddenly stopped. He saw fluorescent lighting on the ceiling. "Joseph must have done that," Chris thought. "I'm glad. It's so bright in here, and it chases away the ghosts. Chris began to walk to the kitchen and then, he opened the door. There, Chris saw Joseph cooking bacon for breakfast. "Where did you get that bacon?" Chris asked Joseph.
Joseph turned to Chris. "I packed it," he said. "Hey, Chris," Joseph said, turning back to the bacon. "Did you know today is our last day here?" Joseph questioned turning back to him briefly and then turned back to his bacon.
"But we have more puzzles to solve, and then, we go back upstairs and solve whatever's behind that door," Chris said.
"Oh yeah," Joseph said. "Last night, I was staying up to complete all the puzzles except for whatever is behind the door upstairs," he finished.
"Great!" Chris exclaimed excitedly, who was also smiling.
"After breakfast, we're probably going to spend a short time in the room behind the door, and then, we're outta here!" Joseph exclaimed.
Joseph put the bacon strips on two plates Joseph had found in the basement that morning. He had cleaned them thoroughly to make sure it was safe to eat food that was on them. Before, they were covered in dust and had tiny bits of dried blood and oil on them.
Joseph gave one plate to Chris, and then, he grabbed the other plate. Joseph bent down a little bit and spit into the stove. The fire went out. Joseph set his plate down after getting up, and then, he took the greasy frying pan off the stove and put it in the sink. Then, Joseph turned the water on and turned it off when the sink was half full. Joseph put the beige rubber plug in the sink and took his plate with bacon and left the kitchen.
Chris followed Joseph out of the kitchen with his plate. Joseph turned right from the kitchen and opened one of the double doors. It went into the dining room. Joseph had set up some French toast, orange juice, rolls, and other common breakfast foods. There was a banner that said, "Last Day in the Stauf House!" Another one said, "One More Puzzle to Solve, and we're Outta Here!"
One strange thing was that Joseph's posters were ripped, and they were designed to be rip-proof. Once again, Joseph saw the same, straight cut he saw on the electrical wire.
"I think Stauf did that," Chris said to Joseph.
"Well, the messages on the posters are right, though," Joseph said.
Chris and Joseph went into the dining room with their plates. Joseph sat on one side of the table, and Chris sat on the opposite side. Joseph and Chris took some food from the table and put it on their plates and began to eat.
"So, what went on last night?" Chris asked with his mouth full with a fresh roll in it.
"I solved a puzzle in the art gallery and the music room," Joseph said.
"Art gallery?" Chris said surprised.
"That's the room where I saw Stauf's picture moving," Joseph said. "You know what else was strange last night?" he continued.
"What?" asked Chris in an eager way.
"I installed some fluorescent lights between the stained glass door and the stairs as you may have noticed, but every time I left the room, the lights always went out, and they went out the first time because the wire was cut. What was even stranger, was that the cut was perfectly straight, just like the cuts on the banners. It was the straightest cut I've seen in my life. No scissors or knives could cut nearly as straight as what I saw. Then, I put some aluminum foil between the ends of the cut wire. I turned the lights back on, but when I got back from the art gallery, the aluminum foil had fallen off. Then, I fixed the wire and went upstairs," Joseph said. "Even when I came down this morning, the lights were off when I had last left them on," Joseph said.
"Strange," Chris said wide eyed looking at Joseph excited. Chris did not seem to be scared by the events that happened the night before. He did not seem to be taking them seriously.
"Chris, this isn't funny, it's scary! Look, we're in a scary house that does things that makes you want to leave right then, and you think it's cool?" Joseph said shocked.
Joseph looked at Chris and realized that he had gone out of his mind. Chris was looking at Joseph in an evil way. In Stauf's voice, Chris said, "I warned you: stay out of this house! Now you'll have to pay!" Chris jumped on the top of the table, and everything on it crashed to the floor. Joseph jumped backwards and knocked his chair down.
Joseph stayed clutched to the wall as Chris jumped down and approached Joseph. A knife materialized in Chris's hands, and Chris grabbed it with his right hand. The door on the double doors slammed shut and became locked faster than light-speed. Chris took the knife backwards and then forwards towards Joseph. Then, Joseph knew what to do.
Stauf had taken over Chris's body, so there was one way to stop it: to get Stauf out of Chris! Joseph stared angrily at Chris, swung his right hand backwards and then forwards faster than Chris did with his knife. Then, Joseph gave Chris a big fat slap on the cheek.
Chris's knife disappeared like POOF! And then, Chris fell to the floor and the doors opened. "Why am I suddenly here?" Chris asked.
"Stauf had taken over your body just after I told you about what happened in this house last night."
"That IS strange," Chris said. "It would have to be Stauf," he continued.
"Well, I'm getting bored here anyway. Good thing it's our last day here," Joseph said.
"Why are you bored?" Chris asked.
"Well, there just aren't any people around," Joseph said.
"Oh well, now that we're done with breakfast, why don't we go upstairs, get dressed, and solve the last puzzle?" Chris suggested.
Joseph cleaned up the mess in the dining room and put all the silverware and plates on the table. Then, both boys went upstairs and went to their bedroom. Chris went to the bathroom and got dressed, and then, Joseph did. When they were both back in their bedroom, Joseph took out the remote control to his bed. He pressed one of the buttons, and his bed folded up into a suitcase with a handle again.
Then, Joseph took all of his belongings, which were in the bedroom, and put them in his cardboard box. Joseph taped the box again, and then, he picked it up. Then, he picked up his bed and left the bedroom, placing his items in front of the picture in the middle of the hall. Chris put all of his things in his backpack, and then, he placed his backpack on his back. Chris also made his bed, and then, he left the bedroom, meeting Joseph in the hall. Joseph walked down the hall. Chris followed.
Suddenly, Stauf jumped out of the right wall and yelled, "AH HAA! I'VE GOT YOU NOW!" Suddenly, studio lights appeared from the ceiling downstairs. Joseph, Chris, and Stauf looked curiously down there. Men and women scattered from downstairs in different areas and met in between the stairs and the stained-glass door. They were all talking in a normal tone, and their chattering was being echoed around the house.
The director ran where everyone was, turned, and faced the stairs. "Mr. Stauf, you were supposed to do that in the attic, and besides, what you did wasn't in the script anyway!" he said.
"Sorry," Stauf said.
"Oh well, as long as the cartoon has paused, why don't you all just have an orange soda break?" the director offered.
"I never knew we were in a cartoon," Chris said.
Joseph pulled out three orange soda bottles from his left jacket pocket. They were plain and clear. Joseph smiled as he handed orange sodas to all three of them. Joseph and Chris finished their orange sodas first, and then, they looked surprised at Stauf to see that he was still drinking his orange soda.
"Will you hurry up?" Chris asked impatiently.
Stauf gulped a few more bits of orange soda. Then, he said, "Just a minute." Then, 15 seconds later, Stauf finished his orange soda.
"Finally," Joseph said relieved. Joseph, Chris, and Stauf threw their orange soda bottles down the stairs. They finally dropped to the ground. The janitor walked over to the foot of the stairs and picked them up. The janitor walked away from the cameras.
"OK, let's roll it!" yelled the director. Everyone downstairs left each other and went back to their assigned positions.
Then, the studio lights dimmed, and then, the house was once again dark and inhabited by evil ghosts. Stauf ran down the hall and then turned the corner to go to his designated position.
"Let's follow him," Joseph said. "Where he's going is our last place to go," Joseph said.
"Are you kidding?" Chris said, surprised. "Now we know that…he's up there!"
"Come on, Chris, just one more puzzle, and then, we're outta here," Joseph said bravely. Joseph and Chris walked down the hall and turned right just as Stauf did. There was a door in sort of a small hallway.
"Hey, this is the same spot where we appeared from the secret entrance from the library!" Chris said. Then, the boys approached the door. Suddenly, they realized that they were about to have to solve another puzzle.
A red knocker with a serious face appeared on the door, and then, the boys walked closer to it. Then, many miniature knives appeared and jabbed into a star on the knocker. The knives stuck to different points on the star.
"This looks easy," Joseph said. "All we have to do with the knives is jump over other knives to capture their pieces, just like you do in checkers, and you are supposed to have one knife left if I'm correct," Joseph said. He was right. In about 50 seconds, the boys solved that puzzle. Suddenly, the door opened, and the boys were stunned to see what was there.
There, behind the door was a somewhat spiral staircase. Joseph and Chris knew that whatever was up those stairs would probably lead them to the end of their lives…for good!
The boys slowly walked up the stairs. Near the top of the stairs, an incandescent bulb was glowing on the ceiling. The boys saw a gray door at the top of the stairs. Joseph and Chris got near each other, and then, Joseph slowly turned the doorknob, cautious of what might be behind it. Exploring whatever was behind the door could mean the end of their lives.
Then, the boys saw an attic. Both boys entered feeling relieved. Suddenly, the door slammed behind them. It was boarded up. Then, three bad dogs with blood hanging from the bottom of their snouts, just like the one in the children's room, appeared. Then, they slowly disappeared.
The attic looked like a typical attic. It had junk, trunks, things that were part of something that wasn't in use, and other miscellaneous items. The attic was long and had three windows. There was one window on the left side of the attic and two on the right side of the attic. In the back of the attic, there was a mysterious door. There were a few steps leading up to it.
On the right side of the attic, there was a model building. It was a model of a tall skyscraper. It had many windows of different shapes. Joseph and Chris walked up to it and looked at the bottom first. They touched one of the windows, and to their surprise, it lit up, as well as a few others. Joseph and Chris realized that they were probably solving another puzzle. The boys knew what to do, but it took them a while to solve it. An hour later, the boys solved the entire puzzle.
The boys walked away from the model skyscraper, and they suddenly saw Mrs. Knox's head on a dressmaker's dummy. Apparently, her head had been cut off or something. Tad was there, too, but then, Heine sneaked behind him and grabbed Tad. She walked him to the back of the attic and headed toward the door in the back. Then, the drama ended, but then, a trunk in front of the boys opened, and a skeleton got out of it. He turned to the boys and put his arm in the direction of the mysterious door. Then, his jawbone moved, making seem as though the skeleton were saying, "That way." Then, he fell apart, and all of his parts fell into the trunk. The trunk closed, and then, Joseph and Chris slowly approached the door.
Joseph and Chris looked to their right when they thought they saw a ghostly image. There was a mirror, and they saw a ghostly image of Tad. His image wobbled and shook, just like a ghost. His appearance was faded a bit, so his features were not completely distinct. But there were also voices in addition to the apparition. Heine was taunting Tad and saying other bad things to him. She was trying to take him somewhere. Tad shouted, "Let me go!"
Joseph and Chris suddenly began to remember everything they forgot about the Stauf mansion. Chris did not know as much about Stauf as Joseph did, as Joseph told him very little about Stauf before entering the mansion. Joseph remembered all of Stauf's secrets that he read about in the book he borrowed from Stauf. He also remembered the outcome of The 7th Guest, and he got nervous when he realized that Chris and he were at the point where the game was about to end. Joseph also realized that he had taken the book with him to the Stauf mansion, but it was gone.
Now, it was 10 times scarier for the boys to be in the house and to know everything they remembered. The drama ended, and then, Joseph and Chris, who now remembered what they forgot when they first entered, slowly approached the door. They knew it was the door that led into Stauf's evil room, but they did it anyway.