Chapter 10
The next couple days passed uneventfully. Royden’s parents didn’t notice anything strange about their son. Alice healed all the scrapes and bruises away, making it look as though Royden sat around peacefully that day. He didn’t have any intention to tell them anything. He just wanted to pass the days and tell Mr. Bringum on Monday that he was ready to leave. He didn’t care about the memories. They kept him up at night. All he could think about was how Jim looked right before being torn away from this world. It haunted his every move, and he was ready to be rid of it all.
On Friday Mrs. Doble had the day off. She suggested that Royden help her find Mr. Doble an Easter present, but he didn’t want to.
“Oh, come on, you’ve been sitting here all week, don’t you want to go out and have some fun?” His mother asked.
“Not really.” Royden said, laying on the couch. “You go have fun and tell me all about it.”
“What’s wrong, honey? Is it that you haven’t made any friends yet?”
“Uhh,” Royden sat up, “no, that’s not it at all. I just don’t feel all that great.”
“Well what will make you feel better?”
“You not asking me questions.”
“Why don’t you go outside for some fresh air?”
“I’ll open a window.”
“Royden, go outside and have fun.” Mrs. Doble said forcefully.
Royden stood up slowly. “I’ll go outside, but I can promise I won’t have any fun.”
“As your mother I command you to have fun.”
“Oh my!” Royden said loudly. “I’m bound to have fun now.”
He went out to the hall and slammed the door shut. He slapped the down button for the elevator. It came after what felt like twenty minutes and Royden sauntered inside. He didn’t feel like hitting any buttons. He chose instead to stand there and wait for someone else to hit a button somewhere. Maybe he’d wander around that floor some.
After a minute the elevator began to move up. Royden leaned against the back wall and watched a light illuminate the numbers above the door. 6 . . . . 7 . . . . 8. It would be funny if it went to the penthouse. Royden wasn’t allowed there because it required a key. 9 . . . 10 . . . 11. It was getting closer, though it would probably stop on the seventeenth floor. 12. The light vanished and the elevator came to a stop. Royden watched curiously, waiting for the light to find the fourteen. It didn’t.
“Oh, great.” Royden groaned. “Stuck.” He looked around for a call button. There wasn’t one.
He lay his head back on the wall and continued to stare at the numbers above the door, wishing the elevator to start moving again.
The light flashed on between the twelve and fourteen and a thirteen appeared. Royden snapped his head forward and stared. The Discovery Apartments didn’t have a thirteenth floor. There must have been some mistake.
The doors opened with a creak. Instead of the yellow walls Royden was familiar with the doors opened into complete darkness. He inched forward with the slightest notion of fear.
“You just gonna stand there?” A voice said. It was the same voice Royden had heard twice already in the elevators.
He turned toward the sound and jumped back against the wall. A little old man stood in the elevator with him. He wore a brown suit and a paperboy hat Royden saw in an old movie once.
“Where did you come from?” Royden said exasperatedly.
“Been here the whole time, sonny.”
“You weren’t here a minute ago.”
“Sure I was, you just couldn’t see me.” The man said happily.
“Why can I see you now?”
“Because we’re on the thirteenth floor.” The old man said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“This building doesn’t have a thirteenth floor.” Royden announced bravely.
“Open your eyes sonny. That’s like saying there’s no such thing as an elevator while riding in one. My goodness do they not teach young people these days. If you can’t trust your eyes then what can you trust?” The man nodded fervently and stepped out into the darkness and disappeared.
Royden went up to the edge of the darkness and cautiously leaned out the door. The darkness disappeared. In its place was a hallway with white walls and a fresh red carpet. He stepped out into the hall, wringing his hands nervously. This floor didn’t have any doors.
“Mr. Ghost Man.” Royden called softly. “Where did you go?”
The old man appeared through the wall in front of him. “What did you call me, sonny? Can’t I have a moment of peace?”
“Sorry.” Royden said, squinting at the man. His eyes had a hard time relaying what he was looking at to his brain. “I just, what are you?”
“Oh you want a word? I don’t like ghost and I don’t like spirit. I prefer either Mr. Parrow or sir. Is that too hard?”
“No sir.”
“That’s better.”
“Sorry about him.” Another voice said. Royden flipped around. A woman walked toward them. She had long brown hair and wore a white dress with frills around the collar. “He’s grumpy.” She said.
“I am not grumpy.” Mr. Parrow insisted indignantly.
“My name is Flora Roberts.” The woman said. “But please just call me Flora.”
“Yes ma’am.” Royden said.
“Ah, it’s great to have you here finally, Royden Doble.” She opened her arms wide in welcome. “The day you moved in I knew you needed to come see us. I told Parrow here to drop hints, though I don’t think he did a very good job.”
“I did as well as I could.” Mr. Parrow declared. “It’s not my fault the boy’s dense.”
“Parrow! He’s right here.” Flora said aghast.
Mr. Parrow swelled up. “It’s better that he hears it. Do you want me to say it behind his back? Fine. Sonny turn around.” Royden shrugged and turned away. “That boy is dense. He never takes the hints I give him. Alright son, turn around.” Royden did as he was told. “Was that better, Roberts?”
Flora rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind him, Royden. He’s one of those people who actually wanted oblivion.”
“I’m tired of living.” Mr. Parrow leaned in close to Royden. “And trust me, this really isn’t that different.”
“Anyway,” Flora said loudly, “I wanted you here to ask you a very important question.”
“Don’t do it.” Mr. Parrow yelled.
“You need to leave.” Flora demanded.
“Oh, fine.” Mr. Parrow vanished through the wall. “Don’t do it sonny.” He shouted from somewhere.
“Alright, let’s walk. I need to ask you something.”
Flora Roberts walked with an elegance unmatched by anybody living. She almost glided across the floor, her white dress flowing behind her.
“You’re the first human to appear on the thirteenth floor.” She said calmly as they walked. “It’s been a long time coming now. We’ve requested a human to move in for some time.”
“Why?” Royden found that suspicious.
“It’s very simple. It’s very hard for us to leave the building. It’s hard for us here too, when we leave the thirteenth floor we can’t be seen. But outside is even worse. After a few feet away from the building we suddenly arrive back here. You see we haven’t moved on yet. We can either stay here or move on, and most of us don’t know how. So we figure, until we do move on, we need someone who can come and go. We tried a Morrid and even a Yeomingle on the ninth floor, but a human is always the best. They don’t look strange outside because this is their world.”
“That makes sense.”
“I have to admit though I was worried when you moved in. We don’t just need any human, we need the right one. We needed someone who was brave and nice and smart. We all saw what you’ve been up to. You fit the bill perfectly. After you helped that alien we thought you might be it. When you saved those
other humans from that monster we were sure of it. You are a top notch human.”
“Um, thanks.” That was quite possibly the strangest yet nicest compliment Royden ever received. “What do you want me to do?”
Flora stopped at the end of the hall. “Ah, here we are.”
They stood in front of a white wall. Royden looked around for some type of entranceway but couldn’t find any.
Flora took Royden’s hand. A sudden extreme chill shot through his body. He tensed up as Flora pulled him through the wall. He gasped and shut his eyes tight.
“I guess I should have warned you.” Flora chuckled. “We’re here.”
Royden opened his eyes. They stood in an old dusty ballroom. A chandelier hung limply from the ceiling.
“Where are we?”
“This is an old dance hall. It was going to be demolished so we brought it here.” Flora explained.
It seemed very unlikely that a group of ghosts could move an old dance hall anywhere. It seemed downright impossible for them to move it to a floor of an old apartment building that shouldn’t exist. Royden tried to be alright with it all, after all he had seem many strange things recently, and this shouldn’t have even been in the top five.
Flora guided the boy to the other side of the dance hall. His steps echoed softly. His footprints could clearly be seen in the dust. Halfway across the floor Flora stopped.
“Check this out.” She raised her right arm above her head and a large metal bowl rose up out of the floor. It hung from two wood pillars. It looked like something someone might have made lye in sometime in the 19th century. A strange thick liquid swirled around, filling the whole bowl. “Royden Doble.” Flora said loudly and clearly. The liquid churned and a picture appeared. It showed two people looking down. It took several seconds for Royden to figure out he was looking down on himself. He quickly looked up. Only the old worn chandelier could be seen.
“How the—what?”
“That’s how we watched you.” Flora said, staring at the picture. “We use this to keep up with what our families are doing.”
“It can see anything?”
“Pretty much.”
“Wow.”
“It sure is something. This one just came out. Before we had to watch everything from a tiny mirror. That was awful.”
“So—wait. What did you want to ask me?”
Flora continued to stare into the bowl. “Like I said it’s hard for us to come and go.” She frowned severely. “Something’s been happening. Someone’s been coming and going at night. We’ve tried to follow them, but we can’t leave. It’s been worrying us. What if they’re a human who found out about the building? What if they mean us harm?”
“They can’t harm you though, because, you know.”
“What about everyone else? We need to keep this place a secret.”
“If you’re so worried about keeping secrets then why did they let my family in?”
“Mr. Bringum wanted to try bringing a human family in on a trial basis.”
“Alright, so what did you want me to do?”
“I want you to follow this person.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“If any of the ghosts around the building see them then I’ll come and tell you. Will you do it?”
Royden didn’t feel this was something they needed to worry about, but he supposed it was better to be safe than sorry. “I guess.”
“Good. Once we find out who this is we can tell Mr. Bringum and he can deal with it from there.”
Flora waved her hand down and the bowl went back through the floor.
“Are you two the only ghosts in the building?” Royden asked. He figured there would be a bunch, but hadn’t seen anyone else yet.
“Oh no, there are a lot of us. Here, let’s go meet some.”
Before Royden could respond Flora grabbed his hand and they dropped through the floor. The boy tensed again as the chill shot through his body. It was a rather uncomfortable experience.
They arrived in another large room. This one had tables and booths set all around. Almost every table was occupied with three or four people, all presumably ghosts. Large windows looked out into blackness. There was a counter with what looked like an old menu board above it.
“Is this an old fast food place?” Royden asked, looking around.
“Yes.” Flora said simply.
Most of the people at the tables were old, but a group in the corner didn’t look much older than Royden. Flora escorted him around the former restaurant. They passed several tables with old men talking about some war. Looking at how differently they were dressed it looked as though they were all talking about different wars. Flora stopped near a table with little Mr. Parrow.
“Parrow, he agreed.” Flora said.
“What did I tell you, sonny?” Mr. Parrow said sharply. “I told you to say no, this isn’t the place for the living. And this job definitely isn’t the job for a little boy fresh out of day care.”
“I’m in middle school.” Royden said indignantly.
“Whatever sonny, I just don’t want you getting hurt out there.”
“He’ll be fine.” Flora said. “We need to find out who this person is.”
An old man leaned across the table. “So as I was saying, when I was with General Washington—”
“Oh shut up Littleberry, you didn’t fight a day in your life.” Mr. Parrow snarled. He turned back to Royden. “If you’re sure you want to get involved then I won’t stop you. But be careful. I don’t want you to end up in the historical fiction club here.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Let’s go Royden. Your parents are probably worried.” Flora said, taking his hand again.
They appeared back at the elevator on the thirteenth floor.
“So was that the twelfth floor?” Royden asked, remembering how they had to go through the floor.
“No, the thirteenth floor is a location rather than a place. We have as much room as we need.”
“Oh.” He said quietly.
The elevator doors opened and Royden got in. The entryway once again became dark. Flora popped her head into the elevator.
“If you ever get overwhelmed by this don’t be afraid to say so. We’ll end this right away.”
“Alright.” Royden said.
“See you when we get a lead.” She disappeared back into the darkness.
The doors closed and Royden hit the button for his floor.