Hours of careful research had revealed Baal to be an ancient god who required child sacrifice. The ritual was brutaclass="underline" his worshippers would heat up a statue of Baal until the arms glowed red and then place a child in his arms. The child would die of the burns from Baal’s embrace.
Jack read quote after quote of Baal, and started to think that he had seen that name somewhere before. In a bright flash, the answer came to him. A little over a week before, Jack had stayed up most of the night decoding the letter from The Management. One of the details he could never decipher was the pattern of the sentences. The letter contained seven sentences per paragraph, and in each, the first letters of sentences spelled out “IAMBAAL.” Jack added spaces to that phrase to make it “I am Baal.”
Stephen wasn’t quite as young as Baal would prefer, but Jack figured it would be close enough to get him into The Management’s presence. Jack thought through his itinerary one more time and decided he had planned enough. Now he needed to turn off his brain and just relax — tomorrow would be a tough day, and he would need his rest.
Jack was relieved to finally get underway on Tuesday morning. So far, everything was perfect. His mom had agreed that they could go play until lunch again, and Stephen hadn't backed out.
They walked along the path to the hotel in silence until Stephen asked, “Hey, what do you think ever happened to Ben?”
His tone surprised Jack. Stephen sounded a little sad.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Jack replied. “Probably just on vacation with his mom.”
“I bet your mom tries to track him down before long,” said Stephen.
“You’re probably right,” Jack admitted. After Gabe disappeared, his parents had been extremely overprotective. Jack couldn't leave the house by himself for months. If something happened to Ben, Jack couldn't even imagine how his parents would react. He hoped for his own sake that Ben would call, but secretly believed that he wouldn't hear from Ben any time soon, if at all.
When they reached the hotel, Jack prepared Stephen for some small changes — “I think we’re going to have to do the whole trip. I accidentally let the secret door in the chimney close behind me the other day.”
“Oh, bummer. How did that happen?” asked Stephen.
“I don’t know,” Jack lied. It had taken him almost ten minutes to figure out how to close that door. He needed Stephen with him in the other part of the hotel, so it had been a necessary expense.
They worked together, exchanging few words, to set up the ladders and climb down into the drawing room.
Stephen hadn’t seen the anatomical drawing for several trips. “What do you think this means?” he asked, pointing to the painting which featured a half finished, half dissected man.
“Maybe we’re seeing inside him — you know, how he thinks of himself?” suggested Jack. “It kind of reminds me of a diagram we had in biology. But that one showed half a skeleton, and half exposed muscles.”
The boys climbed the ladder into the bishop’s room.
“We never did check behind those other doors,” said Stephen.
Jack noted that Stephen's voice had an air of finality. Jack saw all the possibilities of interesting things to discover, and Stephen talked about the things they had never done, as if they never would.
“Want to try them now?” asked Jack.
Stephen stopped mid-stride — crossing the floor of the bishop’s room from white tile to white tile. “I thought you needed my help moving something,” he said.
“Yeah, I do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a detour, right?” asked Jack.
“Nah, let’s keep moving,” said Stephen.
At the end of the tripwire hallway, they waited patiently in the dark for the door to the white room to open. Next, they made their way up the ladder to the attic. Both boys looked for the nest of baby rats, but the home had been vacated.
“Shit, how are we supposed to trigger that door?” asked Stephen. “Don’t we need something alive?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got another way we can go,” said Jack.
They hunched over the empty nest. Stephen straightened up and looked at Jack. “Another way?”
“Yeah,” said Jack. “Remember that vent that ended with the pole? That’s a shortcut to the basement. You just have to know how to get out from there.”
“Oh,” said Stephen. Jack expected him to be more inquisitive and had prepared a story about finding that shortcut when he had gone back for Stephen’s bag. It was a flimsy story, time-wise, but he thought that Stephen would buy it. In truth Jack had stolen away to the hotel the past couple of nights. The pole did descend all the way to the basement, but Jack knew even more about it.
Jack continued on to the long jump, and Stephen followed. They made it across the gap with practiced ease. Walking down the stairs to the spiral room, Stephen commented — “I forgot how long it takes to go this way.”
“Yeah,” agreed Jack.
The boys didn’t communicate much through the next few obstacles. Stephen needed help scaling the ledge in the wide passage, but it was easy for Jack to jump up and then give him a hand. When they arrived at the door that progressed to the smaller vents, Jack led the way to remind Stephen the way to the pole.
“Okay — I’ll see you at the bottom,” said Jack, grabbing the pole. “it’s like thirty feet down, so you’ve got a ways to go. I’ll shine a light for you so you can see when bottom is coming.”
“Cool,” said Stephen from behind Jack.
Jack kept his flashlight out and tucked it under his arm. He had studied the trap at the bottom of the pole, and was pretty sure he could avoid sliding all the way down. If Jack's plan worked, he could capture Stephen without harming him. If it went wrong, he would certainly lose Stephen’s trust.
Either way, Jack had the advantage because he knew the way out. He swung his legs over the edge and started a very controlled slide down. When the room opened up, Jack gripped the pole to stop his descent. He pushed off so he could extend his left leg backwards. He felt the ledge and shoved with his arms, away from the pole. He stood on a small ledge built out from the wall. Jack jumped to the floor and leaned over to the pole so he could look up to Stephen.
“Okay,” Jack yelled, “come on down.”
Stephen slid down fairly quickly. Jack pointed his light upwards as a beacon to Stephen. As soon as he saw Stephen’s feet come into the room, Jack shut off his light, leaving Stephen in the dark.
“Hey!” yelled Stephen. Jack didn’t want Stephen to see the wire-mesh cage below him.
“Keep going,” said Jack. “Just my batteries.” Jack heard Stephen touch down on the floor and then heard the clank of a cage closing around his friend.
“What the fuck?” asked Stephen. Jack flicked on the room lights with a switch next to a door. The bright lights made both boys squint. The lights revealed the steel cage around Stephen, which had sprung up to pin him in the corner of the room.
Jack reached for the gas mask hanging from a hook on the wall.
Just before he donned the mask, Jack said “Sorry buddy, but I need a gift.”
Jack pulled the mask over his face and Stephen’s protests were briefly silenced by the noise of pulling the straps past his ears. Breathing through the mask, Jack reached over and flicked the other switch on the wall. The first switch was marked with a little picture of a light bulb, but this one showed a small cloud. Throwing this second switch caused white gas to emerge from small holes in the walls around Stephen. Ninety-nine percent sure that the gas wouldn’t harm Stephen, Jack watched with excitement and curiosity as the gas reached his friend and Stephen began to pass out.
“I can’t believe you. Why are you doing this?” slurred Stephen.