“Only because we didn’t have the plans then,” said Stephen. “What triggers those things?”
“Hard to see,” said Jack. “We shouldn’t leave Ben alone downstairs. I’m going to go get him.”
“I’m going to keep looking up here,” said Stephen.
“Be right back.”
When Jack got back down to the white room, Ben hadn’t moved an inch.
“Hey man,” said Jack.
“What’s wrong?” asked Ben, not looking up.
“We found the trap on the other ladder,” said Jack. “Look, I think you should come along. It might be dangerous alone.”
“What makes you think it’s less dangerous for us to be together?” asked Ben.
“Because we’ll help each other out,” said Jack. “Plus we have more chance of seeing something.”
Ben didn’t answer.
“I said I was sorry we didn’t tell you about the map,” said Jack. “Sorry,” he repeated and paused. “But I think together we can figure this thing out. And I really want to figure it out.”
Jack started to walk away, back to the ladder, and then he turned around—“Can you just come with us this time and then you don’t have to come back?”
Ben looked up and studied Jack. “Okay—just this time though.”
“Cool,” said Jack. He reached out to help Ben up, but Ben got up on his own.
When they caught up with Stephen he was past the death trap and sitting on the floor. Jack’s eyes registered only black beyond Stephen.
“There’s a hole,” said Stephen.
The floor was missing just past where Stephen sat. The boys couldn’t see the bottom of the hole. It spanned about eight feet.
“Oh wait,” said Jack. “I’ve got a penny. I’m going to drop this. Ben, can you time it? Everyone be quiet and listen for it to hit.”
Jack held the penny over the hole and waited for Ben to set up the stopwatch on his watch. “On three—one, two, three!”
When Jack released the penny, Ben started his stopwatch. They barely heard the penny hit below. Ben stopped his timer right when they heard the sound.
“One point five-seven seconds,” said Ben.
Jack dug through his pack and pulled out a paper and pencil. “Let’s see, it’s one point five-seven times itself, then times thirty-two point two and divided by two.” he said.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked Stephen.
“Don’t you have physics down south?” asked Ben.
Jack looked up. “That’s weird—it’s almost forty feet deep. I would have thought the whole building was shorter than that.”
“I could have been a little slow with the timer,” said Ben. “Or maybe the foundation goes underground.”
“Well I don’t think you were late—at least not by much,” said Jack.
“Couldn’t you just lower down fishing line?” asked Stephen. “That would tell us how deep it is.”
“How are we going to measure the length of the line?” answered Jack. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with this method.”
“Well, it’s not that far across anyway,” said Stephen. Without consulting his friends, he removed his pack, swung it back and forth and then pitched it across the hole to the other side. It landed heavily and skidded to a stop. “Hold my light” said Stephen.
“You’re crazy,” said Jack.
“I long-jump father than that in gym class,” Stephen protested. He retreated fifteen feet from the edge and waved Jack and Ben away from the center. “Look out.”
Stephen started to run and then stopped himself. “Hey Ben, point your light at the edge, and Jack, you point yours at the other side.” When the lights were arranged to his satisfaction, Stephen backed up again. This time he accelerated and launched.
Jack held his breath as Stephen flew past him. Stephen landed easily on his feet on the other side.
“You in?” Jack asked Ben.
“I guess,” said Ben. “You first.”
“Hey—catch,” Jack threw his pack over the edge and Stephen caught it on the other side. He looked once more over the edge and then underhand-tossed his flashlight to Stephen also.
He backed up to about where Stephen had started and then Jack ran at the edge. He was nervous and almost didn’t jump at the right time, but he willed himself across the gap and landed on one knee.
Ben followed Jack, executing his jump impulsively with a very small running-start, but easily clearing the gap.
“That wasn’t too bad,” Stephen paused, and then joked “For us—you seemed a little challenged, Jack.”
“Shut up,” laughed Jack. “I made it, didn’t I?”
“Barely,” Ben stated.
“Let’s see where this bitch takes us,” said Stephen.
They headed down the dark passage. It still had a construction look—stud walls and plywood floor. They moved slowly and silently. There was a lot of detail to take in and they didn’t want to miss any potential clues.
Ben finally broke the silence, “Did you guys name this section yet?”
“Nope,” said Jack, “not yet.”
“What about ‘The Attic,’” Ben offered.
“Good,” said Stephen, “but we were talking — it doesn’t have a sloped ceiling, like an attic.”
“Still reminds me of an attic though,” said Jack.
“Okay, then it’s the attic,” said Stephen.
“Looks like the end of the attic is coming up,” said Jack. He shone his light to the end of the room where a wall impeded their progress. On the left side, a doorway-sized hole led to stairs going down. The stairs continued down for five steps, had a landing, and then turned right. There’s was no railing and the treads were made of the same plywood as the floor on which they stood. Above the stairs, the ceiling wasn't sloped, so it didn’t look like a normal staircase—it looked like the stairs descended impossibly deep.
“After all this—these stairs give me the creeps,” said Jack. “You ever see that movie—‘The People Under the Stairs?’”
“Yeah,” said Ben. “Where the stairs flatten out and they’re like a ramp.”
“Exactly,” said Jack. “I guess we could get back up by climbing those boards like a ladder.” Jack waved his light at the unfinished stud-wall.”
“Unless they just drop through to something,” said Ben.
“Maybe we should link arms in case we fall through,” said Jack.
“Ugh,” said Stephen. “How gay is that? Why don’t you guys hold hands and I’ll just go by myself,” he laughed.
“Yeah, whatever,” said Ben.
Stephen took the lead and headed down. He paused when he got to the landing and waited for Ben and Jack. They all three descended without incident and then Stephen started down the next section. After turning at the landing the stairs continued another fifteen steps uninterrupted. At the bottom, Stephen waited again and inspected the room.
The plywood ended at the stairs—the floor of this new room was black and white tile, like the bishop’s room, but not in a regular diagonal pattern. Ben arrived next and they cast their lights about the room. It wasn’t very big—only about ten feet square—but it was the most decorated room they had seen. With chair-rails, wainscoting, and crown-moulding, the room would have looked elegant under normal lighting. But lighting was not something they could find in the room. No switches, outlets, or fixtures were installed.
The pattern on the floor was a spiral. A line of black tiles directly in front of Stephen was followed by a line of white ones and the lines curved around the room and swirled into the center.
“Jack—what do you make of this?” asked Stephen.
Peering over Ben’s shoulder, Jack assessed the room. “I can’t see any way out.”
“Do you think there’s a booby-trap with the floor again?” asked Stephen. “it does have the same tile as the bishop’s room.”
“I don’t know,” said Jack. “We haven’t seen the same puzzle twice, but could be.”
“I’ll try it out,” said Stephen. “But keep back—I may need to get out of there in a hurry.”
Jack and Ben kept their place on the stairs in case Stephen had to flee. Stephen gingerly stepped into the room; he started by only stepping on the white tiles, but quickly decided to be bold, and stepped on a black one. When nothing happened, he decided to ignore the tiles and walked around looking at the walls.
He tapped occasionally and ran his hands over the walls and wainscoting. Giving up on the walls, he circled the room once with his light trained on the ceiling. After five minutes he hadn’t turned up a single clue. He got down on hands and knees to look at the floor.
“Nothing?” asked Jack.
“Nope,” said Stephen.
Ben and Jack looked at each other and then joined Stephen in the room. They set their lights on the floor, pointing up, and sat in a semi-circle, looking at the stairs. Jack scooted over and knocked on the wall.
“It all seems so solid, like the walls are lined with concrete,” Jack said.
“Yeah,” said Stephen. “I really think they might be.”
“Maybe there was another turn upstairs that we missed,” said Ben.
“I think the floor is supposed to mean something,” said Jack. “What does this pattern mean?”
“Looks like a spiral to me,” said Stephen. “It all comes together here in the center.” he patted the center of the floor. “In China, the spiral is supposed to represent the sun.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Ben.
“I’m just saying,” said Stephen.
“In cartoons,” Ben aped Stephen, “the spiral makes people hip-no-tized.”
Jack laughed and Stephen shot him a cold look. Still smiling, Jack said—“I read this book once where people would gain power by ‘Walking the Pattern’ which was like a spiral. At least that’s how I pictured it.”
“That actually sounds pretty stupid,” said Stephen.
“Naw,” said Jack, “it was cool. You had to be descended from the right family or it would destroy you, and it got harder as you went. But, if you finished it, you would have all kinds of powers.”
“I think I read that book,” said Ben.
“I probably loaned it to you,” said Jack. “I was really into that stuff a couple of years ago.”
“Well, this ain’t no pattern, and I don’t think you’ll get any magical powers by walking it, but knock yourself out,” said Stephen.
“Maybe this whole place is like ‘The Pattern,’” said Jack. “You know—this
whole
thing.”
“Oh god,” said Ben. “You keep trying to make this some kind of big, important adventure. Like sticking your leg in a bear trap and calling it a puzzle.”
“You just don’t get it,” said Jack. “This place is a test, and if we pass then we get the reward.”
“I don’t know where you came up with that,” said Ben.
Stephen interjected—“It doesn’t matter. Who cares if it’s a test or a trap. The thing is—it’s cool and we can beat it if we try. And it’s the most interesting thing to do.”
“Yeah,” said Jack.
“Oh wow—I just figured it out!” said Ben. He sat up straight and his face was serious. “You guys have become retarded.”
“Whatever,” sneered Jack.
“Seriously,” Ben continued, “I think it’s contagious or something, but somehow you’ve both caught ‘tardiness’ at the same time,” he laughed.
“Get real,” said Jack.
Stephen started laughing despite being the butt of the joke—“You know, he might have something. What time is it?”
Ben looked at his watch “It’s a little after noon.”
“I gotta go to the bathroom,” Stephen announced. He started giggling—“Anyone seen a men’s room around here?”
“Why don’t you take a shit in that hole we jumped over?” laughed Ben.
“That would be sick,” Jack coughed. “Can you imagine if someone was down there? That turd would be moving pretty fast.”
“I wonder if anyone’s ever died of that?” said Stephen. “Getting hit with pooh. Oh man, I seriously need to go soon.”
“We better start heading out then—I’m not standing around while you drop a deuce,” laughed Jack.