27 - A Night in Terror Tower by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead)

the heavy hood. Then he turned away from us and
glided silently after the others, the hem of his robe sweeping along the bare
floor.
    “What did he mean?” Eddie demanded when the hooded man had vanished around a
corner. “Why did he try to frighten us?”
    I shook my head. “It had to be some kind of a joke,” I replied. “They’re
probably on their way to a party or something.”
    Eddie frowned thoughtfully. “They were creepy, Sue. They didn’t look like
they were in a party mood to me.”
    I sighed. “Let’s find the elevator and get up to the room. I don’t like this
old part of the hotel. It’s just too dark and scary.”
    “Hey, I’m the one who gets scared,” Eddie said, following me down the hall. “You’re supposed to be the brave one—remember?”
    We wandered down one long, candlelit hallway after another, feeling more and
more lost. We couldn’t find an elevator or stairs or any kind of exit.
    “Are we going to walk forever?” Eddie whined. “There has to be a way
out of here—doesn’t there?”
    “Let’s go back,” I suggested. “The taxi driver is probably gone by now. Let’s
go back the way we came, and go out through the restaurant.”
    Eddie pushed his dark hair back off his forehead. “Good idea,” he muttered.
    We turned and started the long walk back. It was easy to keep in the right
direction. We followed the hallways and made left turns instead of rights.
    We walked quickly without speaking.
    As we walked, I tried to remember our last name. Tried to remember Mom and
Dad. Tried to picture their faces.
    Tried to remember something about them.
    Losing your memory is so terrifying. Much more frightening than being chased
by someone.
    That’s because the problem is inside you. Inside your own mind.
    You can’t run away from it. You can’t hide from it. And you can’t solve it.
    You just feel so helpless.
    My only hope was that Mom and Dad would be waiting in the room. And that they
could explain to Eddie and me what had happened to our memories.
    “Oh, no!” Eddie cried, startling me from my thoughts.
    We had reached the end of the final hallway. The hotel restaurant should be
on the other side of the curtained glass door.
    But there was no door.
    No door back to the restaurant. No door at all.
    Eddie and I were staring at a solid wall.

 
 
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    “No!” Eddie wailed. “Let us out! Let us out of here!” He pounded furiously on
the wall with his fist.
    I tugged him away. “This must be the wrong hallway,” I told him. “We made a
wrong turn.”
    “No!” he protested. “It’s the right hallway! I know it is!”
    “Then where is the restaurant?” I replied. “They didn’t seal it up while we
were walking the halls just now.”
    He stared up at me, his chin trembling, his dark eyes frightened. “Can’t we
go outside and walk around to the front?” he asked wearily.
    “We could,” I replied thoughtfully. “If we could find a door that led to the
outside. But so far—”
    I stopped when I heard voices.
    I turned and saw a narrow hallway leading off to our right. The voices seemed
to be floating through this hall I hadn’t noticed before. Voices and laughter.
    “That must be the restaurant down there,” I told Eddie. “See? We just had one
more turn to make. We’ll be out of here in a few seconds.”
    His face brightened a little.
    The voices and laughter grew louder as we made our way down the narrow
corridor. Bright yellow light shone out from an open doorway at the end.
    As we stepped into the doorway, we both cried out in surprise.
    This was not the hotel restaurant we had our tea in.
    I grabbed Eddie’s arm as I stared in shock around the enormous room. Two
blazing fireplaces provided the only light. People in strange costumes sat on
low benches around long, wooden tables.
    A whole deer or an elk was turning on a spit, roasting over a fire in the
center of the floor.
    The tables were piled high with food—meats, whole