Jack crossed the hall while Stephen waited from the threshold of the portrait room. Jack checked that door and moved down to check the next. Four doors later he turned and called out to Stephen, “This one is open — come on.”
Stephen looked back to the portrait room. He felt like he was being watched. He stepped into the hallway and shut the door to the portrait room most of the way, but didn’t latch it. He wanted a quick escape route, if he should need it.
Walking down this perfectly normal hallway, it was hard for Stephen to imagine he was still in the same building. Somehow it felt like the hotel waspretending to be normal in this hall, and that made it more sinister. Stephen thought about mentioning this to Jack, but then held back when he saw the look on Jack’s face. His friend appeared enthusiastic about this discovery.
“Ready?” asked Jack.
“I guess,” said Stephen.
Jack turned the handle and pressed open the door. It was spring-loaded and he had to reach into the dark room to open it all the way. Stephen flipped the switch and overhead lights came on, revealing the room.
The carpet was dark tan, and the walls were papered in a mute pattern of light-green and gold. Red curtains covered the entire far wall. Jack crossed to one of the beds and Stephen caught the door before it closed. He took off Ben's backpack and used it to prop open the door and then followed Jack in.
“Hey!” exclaimed Jack. “The remote is glued to the nightstand.”
Jack pressed the power button and the television on the bureau came to life. It showed channel two with the volume all the way down.
“We've got cable,” laughed Jack. “This is awesome.”
“So does your house,” Stephen said. He poked his head in the bathroom and turned on the light. The bathroom had no dust and looked freshly scrubbed. His curiosity was rising and Stephen indulged it by pulling a towel from the rack and smelling it. He took it out to where Jack sat on one of the beds. “I think someone has been here. Recently,” he said, as he held up the towel.
“That’s crazy,” said Jack. “It’s just that nobody has been here to make it dirty.”
“Does your mom leave the guest room made up all the time?” Stephen asked.
“No, she makes it up right before company comes,” answered Jack.
“Yeah, that’s because everything would smell stale if she didn’t.”
“Maybe she’s just lazy and puts stuff off until the last minute,” said Jack.
“I’ve only known your mom a couple of weeks, and even I know that’s not true,” answered Stephen.
Jack thought about that for a second before countering, “Well, maybe the same people hired to replace the money, also keep this room clean.”
“Let’s just hope it’s that simple,” said Stephen. “It seems more like someone knew we were coming.” Stephen sat down on the edge of the other bed and looked through the drawers of the nightstand. He found a pencil, a pen, and a blank notepad. Jack flipped through the channels on the television.
Suddenly, Jack sat up, staring at the TV. Stephen looked up and was shocked by what he saw on the screen — he saw an overhead view of someone strapped down to a reclining chair. They instantly knew they weren’t looking at a regular television show. It looked more like a closed-circuit shot they would see in a convenience store.
“Holy fuck,” Stephen gasped, he glanced at Jack who sat slack-jawed, eyes locked on the video. “That kid is naked. That can’t be cable.”
The boy appeared young — younger than Jack and Stephen, and he was bound to the chair at his wrists, ankles, and around his torso. His painted skin resembled the painting on the wall in the drawing room — he had an anatomical drawing on his skin.
“Nope,” said Jack, “not cable. That’s Gabe Vigue — my neighbor’s kid.”
“What?” Stephen jumped up. “That's the kid who's been missing all this time? He’s still alive — we’ve got to help him.”
“Hold up — not necessarily,” said Jack. “It could just be a tape.”
“Yes, okay, true,” said Stephen. “Let’s go get an adult — one of your parents, or that kid’s dad or something.”
Jack didn’t react to the suggestion at first, then he tore himself away from the video and looked at Stephen. “Wait now. That’s not smart at all.”
“Why not?” Stephen challenged.
“We don’t have any evidence of anything, for one. Except for breaking and entering, we’ve got tons of physical evidence of that,” said Jack. “What are we going to say? We broke into this place for weeks and then saw a blurry overhead shot of a kid on a nineteen-inch TV? Who’s going to believe that?”
“We have to do something, Jack. If that’s the kid, then what if he’s still alive and we don’t help him?”
“That’s what I’m thinking, we’ll try to help him,” Jack reasoned. “Or, if we can come up with a way to prove that he’s here, then we can go get the cops.”
“Alright, but we have to have a deadline,” said Stephen. “I say if we don’t find anything by tomorrow then we have to tell someone.”
“Yeah, okay,” agreed Jack. He leaned over to the remote mounted on the nightstand and changed the channel. He surfed up through the rest of the channels until he looped back around. “Maybe we should watch this for a bit to see if there are any clues.”
“I think that’s a waste of time,” replied Stephen. “How much time do we have before we have to leave?”
“For what?” asked Jack.
“To get back for lunch — your mom said.”
“Oh yeah,” Jack consulted the clock on his phone. “About forty-five minutes.”
“Let’s see what else we can find,” said Stephen.
“Maybe we should split up,” offered Jack.
“No way,” said Stephen.
After switching off the television, Jack stood up and joined Stephen, who headed for the door. Stephen put his hand on the door and then paused. “I want to see something,” he said to Jack. He crossed the typical-looking hotel room again to the curtains on the far wall. They looked like they might hide floor-to-ceiling windows, but when Stephen pulled them aside he revealed a crude brick wall. The mortar was slopped between the bricks and spilled on the carpet in several places.
Stephen caught Jack again at the door and they headed into the hallway. They tried each door, Jack taking the right-hand of the hall and Stephen taking the left. All the doors were locked until they got to the end. Jack’s last door was open. Instead of a number next to the frame, this one said “Vending” and showed an illustration of a glass filled with ice cubes. The door opened out and Jack pulled the handle revealing a small room with several machines, fluorescent lights, and a tile floor.
“Now what?” said Stephen, walking past Jack into the vending room. Jack followed him in and let the door close behind them. “Wait! The door.” yelled Stephen. It was too late, the door closed behind Jack.
“What?” said Jack. He backed up a step and opened the door a crack. “It’s fine — it didn’t lock or anything,” he said.
“Okay — I just want to be careful,” said Stephen.
Together, they looked at the machines. The small room contained an ice machine, a soda machine, and a machine that dispensed snacks, gum, and candy. The soda and candy machines were lit up and the ice machine hummed softly. Jack pressed the lever on the ice machine and a small handful dropped into the basin below the dispenser. Pressing a button on the soda machine caused the display to light up with “1.50” for a few seconds.
“Expensive,” Jack said.
“So, dead end?” asked Stephen.