The sun just peaked above the horizon when Royden got back in his own bed. A couple hours later his parents woke him up.
“Come on, Royden, you don’t want to sleep in all day.” His father said.
Royden sauntered to the table and poured himself some cereal. It felt weird to be back doing normal things.
Mr. Doble put down the paper he was reading. “More people missing.” He said. “All nearby, this one is only a few blocks from here. I thought it was bad when people fell in a coma, but missing completely. . .”
“Let’s hope they figure out what’s going on then.” Mrs. Doble said from near the front door where she put on a sweater. “Surely they’ll find them. I’ll see you two later.” She left for work.
“Yeah maybe.” Mr. Doble mused. “Be careful out there today, Roys.”
“Sure thing.” Royden said through a mouthful of corn flakes.
“I better be going now too. Stay close by alright.”
Royden nodded. After his dad left he sat on the couch and watched television. Nothing was ever on during the day. He worried about going out just in case that black suit appeared again. He believed Millie that the building was the safest place for him, but it still unnerved him.
Sometime in the late morning he remembered that he promised to look out for that intruder before everything happened. He decided to go see the ghosts on the thirteenth floor in case they learned anything new, and to apologize for the night before.
Royden got in the elevator and attempted to figure out how to get the thing to go up to the missing floor. He pushed the area between the buttons for twelve and fourteen, and even jumped up trying to hit the numbers above the door. Finally he asked nicely.
“So you want to come back do you?” The voice of Mr. Parrow jeered from the corner.
“Hey, I’m sorry about last night. I got involved in some stuff.”
“Oh yes, little sonny is too big a star now to help the dead. I see how it is.”
“That’s not it at all. I didn’t mean to be taken on a crazy chase through dimensions.”
“Ooh, he’s going to exotic places now too.”
“Can we please just go up to the thirteenth floor? I want to see Flora.”
The elevator began to move up.
“You know we can find someone else to help if you have so much to do now.”
“I want to help.” Royden lied. “I really do.”
“Hmm, well we’ll see what Flora wants to do with you. You are still the only person we can count on for this.”
They arrived at the thirteenth floor and the doors once again opened into darkness. Royden stepped through the blackness into the hallway with no doors. Mr. Parrow followed him out looking rather sour.
“Come on, she’s in the tank.”
“The where?” Royden asked.
“The water tank for the hotel. She was a swimmer when she was alive. It’s the closest thing to swimming for her now.” Mr. Parrow came in close. “That’s how she died you know. Drowning.”
Royden wondered why anybody would spend time in water after dying in it.
Mr. Parrow told Royden to wait and walked through the wall. A few minutes later he came back with Flora.
“I’m sorry about last night.” Royden said quickly as soon as they appeared. “I got carried away, it won’t happen again.” Royden knew he couldn’t make that promise, but it sounded right nonetheless.
“It’s alright. The intruder is sure to be back tonight. We just have to find out what they’re after.” Flora said, running her hands through her hair as if trying to get water out. “Tonight we’ll get you up before they show up. That way you’ll be in position when they arrive. The strange thing is that we never catch the person coming in, only leaving.”
Mr. Parrow nodded gravely. “It might be one of our own.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Flora scoffed, “nobody here would ever harm the Discovery. They would be thrown back to their own dimension faster than death itself.”
“Well it was just an idea.” Mr. Parrow retorted indignantly. “Don’t be so sore.”
Flora ignored him. “Royden, I want you to take a nap today so you will be ready.”
“That won’t be a problem; I barely got any sleep last night.”
They made up a plan for Mr. Parrow to wake Royden shortly after midnight. Flora promised to wait at the building’s basement door in case the intruder slips past and she catches which way they go.
Royden went back down to his apartment a few minutes later and took a nap. He woke up sometime in the late afternoon. Mrs. Doble arrived home a few minutes later and told Royden all about her day. He didn’t pay any attention and didn’t even bother to grunt or nod.
Mrs. Doble ordered Chinese and picked it up in the lobby a while later. They sat quietly at the table and ate waiting for Mr. Doble. Royden went to bed shortly after his father made it home.
Right on time Royden jumped up in bed, once again looking around to find out where the voice was coming from before realizing what was going on.
“Come on get out of bed quick.” Mr. Parrow said.
“Alright.” Royden sighed groggily.
He grabbed the robe again and tied it tight. It officially became his adventure robe.
Royden snuck out of the apartment quietly and ran down the stairs. He came to the basement door and opened it cautiously, looking out.
“They’re not here yet.” Flora whispered in his ear.
Royden shivered. It felt weird having a disembodied voice whispering to him. “So what now?”
“We wait.” Said Mr. Parrow from near Royden’s knee. He must have sat down.
Royden closed the door and hid behind a vending machine nearby. His ears picked up every little sound. With every creak and moan from the old building he jumped. Every sound could be the intruder.
“Don’t be so jumpy, sonny, it’ll come soon enough.” Mr. Parrow advised.
“Easy for you to say, you can’t be killed.”
“Watch it.” Said Mr. Parrow threateningly. “I don’t take too nice to that kind of talk.”
“Oh, quiet down.” Flora warned. “He’s right.”
“I don’t care, I won’t be talked to like that.”
“Shut up, Parrow, we might miss something.” Flora whispered.
Mr. Parrow grumbled something incoherently.
Royden jumped again, though this time he clearly heard footsteps approaching. He pulled himself back behind the vending machine as far as he could go and poked his eyes around the corner. The steps grew closer very fast. Royden had no time to get mentally ready before something ran around the corner and out the basement door. Royden dropped to the floor. It was the black suit. It got in again.
“Well come on then.” Mr. Parrow yelled. “Go after them.”
“Was that it?” Royden asked sheepishly.
“That’s the intruder, yes.” Flora said urgently.
“Why didn’t you tell me they wore a black suit?”
“What difference does that make?” Flora asked.
“That thing almost killed me last night.” Royden explained pressingly, “This changes everything.”
“No it doesn’t,” Mr. Parrow shouted, “now go.”
Royden stood up and went out the door. He didn’t understand what was going on. How could the black suit—the same person that chased them through dimensions the night before—possibly be the intruder?
The boy ran up to the road and looked around. He saw the black suit run up the street to his right. He followed at a safe distance. The intruder ran across the street and into a neighborhood.
Royden got across the street right as the intruder ran down the steps of a house and up to the next one. The black suit tried a window, it didn’t open. It looked up—its horrible glowing red eyes scanning the upstairs windows. One was open. The intruder jumped right up t
o the window and inside the house silently. Royden suddenly wished that his parents gave him a cell phone instead of the robe last Christmas. He desperately wanted to call the police, or at least tell Mr. Bringum.
A muffled shout rang out through the silent night and then became silent. Royden stood rooted to the spot. He wanted to try to help but at the same time he wanted to run back to the building. If only Flora and Mr. Parrow could leave the Discovery and give him advice.
Another shout tore through the air. Royden began to sweat profusely. He inched closer to the house. A shaky hand grabbed the side of the house as he attempted to figure out what to do. Suddenly the black suit flew out of the window, rolled across the grass, and ran away so fast that Royden’s eyes had a hard time catching up with it. It vanished out of the neighborhood with extreme speed.
Royden figured it finished whatever it needed to do for the night. He dropped to his knees and fought back a sudden urge to vomit. For some reason that was scarier than anything he had been through so far. Perhaps it was the setting. For the first time he had to confront danger in what he perceived to be a very real environment. The dangers presented themselves to him as much more real this time. Before there always seemed to be a part of him that knew what happened couldn’t be real. Now—sitting in someone’s yard in his own dimension—in a very real human neighborhood, he struggled to even stand up.
After a few minutes he composed himself enough to get off the ground and go up to the front door of the house. He wavered for a moment and then knocked. If anyone answered he would tell them that he saw something strange leave the house and ask if anything happened.
Nobody answered. He tried the front door, locked. He looked around for some way to get in. He needed to know what that black suit did in there. He feared the worst.
Royden took the trash can from the side of the house and set it beneath the open window. He climbed on the trash can and jumped up into the window. He pulled himself into the room and looked around. A body lay in the bed. Royden slowly went up to it. It didn’t have any signs of being hurt. He could hear breathing. They looked to be asleep. How could they sleep after something like that?
The boy tried to wake the person, a middle aged woman. They didn’t wake. Something his father said rang through his mind. The newspaper said that people had vanished nearby. But this person was still here. They must have been in a coma. Why would the black suit, an interdimensional traveler, put people into a coma?
Royden heard a siren far away. A neighbor probably called the police. He took one last look at the person. They were gone. There one moment gone the next. Where did they go? Could the people in a coma and the missing people be the same? Was it connected? He quickly climbed out the window, jumped down to the trash can, and took off.
He made it back to the Discovery right as the emergency vehicles raced down the nearby road.
“Well?” Flora’s voice asked as he made it through the basement door.
“The suit is the one putting people in a coma.” Said Royden breathlessly. “And then they disappeared. I don’t get it.”
“What?” Mr. Parrow said in disbelief. “You mean the recent reports from the paper?”
“Yes.” Royden said, surprised that Mr. Parrow read the paper.
“Then why would they sneak in here every night?” Flora asked.
The basement door swung open. Royden launched himself behind the vending machine and looked out. The tanned man from the fifth floor came in and walked toward the elevator. Royden noticed his bald head and clamped his hand over his mouth. That’s the same bald head he saw after tearing the black suit’s helmet off the night before. He was certain of it.
The elevator doors closed and Royden dropped his hand.
“What is it?” Flora asked.
“That’s the man in the black suit.” Said Royden critically.
“What, no it isn’t, that’s Mr. Hofrora. He lives here in the building. Same floor as you. He goes for long walks in the middle of the night all the time.”
“Have you ever seen him leave the building?” Royden asked.
Mr. Parrow scoffed. “I don’t pay any attention to when he leaves, and why would he leave the building wearing a black suit and come back without it on?”
“I don’t know but it makes sense. If you never see the intruder come in and you never see Mr. Hofrora leave then it has to be him.”
“It is a little odd.” Flora admitted. “But again he lives here. There’s no way he would go out putting people in a coma and then make them disappear.”
Royden sprinted over to the stairs and ran up. If he hurried he might catch him before he got back in his apartment. Royden barreled out onto the fifth floor right as Mr. Hofrora opened his door.
“Mr. Hofrora!” Royden said a little too loudly.
The man jumped in shock and looked scathingly at Royden. “What do you want?” He said with an accent Royden didn’t recognize.
“I need to talk to you for a minute.”
“Maybe some other time. I’m very tired.”
“Why do you wear the black suit?” Royden called out bravely.
Mr. Hofrora glared at Royden. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I saw you last night.” Royden walked toward him.
The man shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean.” He repeated.
“I clearly saw you last night. Remember fighting me and Millie?”
Mr. Hofrora went into his apartment and slammed the door.