Read 27 - A Night in Terror Tower for Free Online Page A

dark hair. She had been pushing a cart loaded with towels. She
stopped across from Eddie and me.
    “Our parents are still at a meeting,” I told her. “My brother and I—we’re
locked out.”
    She studied us for a moment. Then she stepped away from the cart and raised a
large keychain filled with keys.
    “I’m not really supposed to do this,” she said, shuffling through the
clattering keys. “But I guess it’s okay to let you kids in.”
    She put a key into the lock, turned it, and pushed open the door for us.
Eddie and I both thanked her and told her she was a lifesaver. She smiled and
moved on down the hall, pushing her towel cart.
    The room was dark. I clicked on the light as Eddie and I stepped in.
    “They’re not here,” I said softly. “No sign of them.”
    “They probably left a note,” Eddie replied. “Maybe they had to go out with
people from the meeting. Or maybe they’re down in the restaurant, waiting for
us.”
    Our room was actually a suite. A front room and two bedrooms.
    Turning on lights as I went, I made my way to the desk in the corner. A
writing pad and pen rested in the center of the desk. But the pad was blank. No
message.
    No message from Mom or Dad on the bedtable, either.
    “That’s weird,” Eddie muttered.
    I crossed the room and stepped into their bedroom. I clicked on the ceiling light and glanced around.
    The room had been made up. The bed was smooth and unwrinkled. There was no
message for us anywhere. The dressertop lay bare. No clothes tossed over a
chair. No shoes on the floor. No briefcases or notepads from their meeting.
    No sign that anyone had even been in the room.
    I turned and saw that Eddie had moved to the closet. He pushed the sliding
door open all the way.
    “Sue, look!” he shouted. “No clothes! Mom’s and Dad’s clothes—our clothes—they’re all gone!”
    A heavy feeling of dread started in my stomach and weighted down my entire
body. “What is going on here?” I cried.

 
 
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    “They wouldn’t just leave!” I exclaimed. I walked over to the closet and
checked it out for myself. I don’t know what I expected to see. It was clear
from across the room that the closet was completely empty.
    “Are you sure we’re in the right room?” Eddie asked. He pulled open the top
dresser drawer. Empty.
    “Of course this is the right room,” I replied impatiently.
    Eddie pulled out the rest of the dresser drawers. They were all empty.
    We searched every inch of the room. No sign of Mom or Dad.
    “We’d better go down to the desk,” I suggested, thinking hard. “We’ll find
out what room the meeting is being held in. Then we’ll go there and talk to Mom
and Dad.”
    “I can’t believe they’re still at the meeting,” Eddie murmured, shaking his head. “And why would they pack up and take all
our clothes to the meeting with them?”
    “I’m sure there’s a good answer,” I said. “Come on. Let’s go downstairs.”
    We made our way back down the long hall and took the elevator to the lobby.
    We found a crowd around the front desk. A large woman, dressed in a green
pantsuit, was arguing angrily about her room. “I was promised a view of the
river,” she screamed at the red-faced man behind the desk. “And I want a view of
the river!”
    “But, madam,” he replied softly, “the hotel is not located near the river. We
do not have any river views from this hotel.”
    “I must have a river view!” the woman insisted. “I have it right here in
writing!” She flashed a sheet of paper in front of the man’s face.
    The argument continued for a few minutes more. I quickly lost interest in it.
I thought about Mom and Dad. I wondered where they were. I wondered why they
hadn’t left us a note or a message.
    Eddie and I finally got up to the desk about ten minutes later. The clerk
tucked some papers into a file, then turned to us with an automatic smile. “Can
I help you?”
    “We’re trying to find our parents,”