Free Jimmy Stone's Ghost Town by Scott Neumyer

see David and Trex.
    "Not everything here, Jimmy, is what it
seems."
    And, having said that, Gasp waved his
ghostly, see-through hand in front of the door that we happened to
be standing in front of. He waved it back and forth three or four
times then stepped back to watch my reaction as solid brass numbers
began to reveal themselves on the front of the bright red door.
    1408.
    "This is Room 1408?" I
asked. "And we're looking for what room?"
    "David and Trex should be behind door 7,
Jimmy."
    I shook my head and nearly
collapsed on the hallway floor. I wasn't sure I had the strength to
pass another thousand rooms. I wasn't sure I had the strength to
pass another hundred rooms, much less over a thousand.
    Gasp swiped his hand in front of the solid
red door again and the brass numbers began to dissolve. Within
seconds, the door was blank again. Just a big red slab with a brass
doorknob and a peephole.
    "I can't," I said. "I just can't."
    "You can't what , Jimmy?"
    "I can't possibly make it
past another thousand rooms, Gasp. There's no way. There's just no
possible way I have the energy, strength, whatever to make it all the way to
Room 7. 1408?! We've been walking for what seems like forever already,
Gasp. FOREVER .
There's just no fricken way!"
    Gasp just looked at me. He didn't say
anything, at first, and just stood there staring at me. He smirked
just slightly as if he was waiting for me to keep going... So I
did...
    "I'm not even sure how we
got here. I have no idea where we are. Sure, you told me. We're in
Ghost Town. That's great, Gasp. That's just great. We're in Ghost
Town." I was on a roll now and I didn't intend on stopping any time
soon. I don't even think I took a breath in between sentences.
"Well that's fine. Ghost Town. What the hell is this place, Gasp? Why am I here?
How did I get here? Sure. I know. I messed with that crazy tree we
found and suddenly I'm standing in this room and you're flying
around by the window. But WHY??? Why did I end up here and why the hell did David
and Trex end up in Room 7 without me? Why--"
    Gasp was smiling now. It was almost as if he
enjoyed watching me fly off the handle and lose it for a while. I'd
been so composed and calm up until this point. I'd listened and
heard what he was saying. I'd followed his rules and trusted what
he told me to do mostly blindly, but now I was beginning to lose
it.
    "Jimmy," he said and looked me dead in the
eyes. "Relax. You're losing it a little."
    "I know I am. I just need
some answers, okay? I need to know why I'm here and what is the
purpose of all this. I need to know how the hell I'm going to make it all the
way to Room 7 to find my dog and my friend." This time, I took a
deep breath, let out a short sigh, and looked up at Gasp. "And I
need to know how to get home."
    "Easy, Jimmy," Gasp said and stepped back,
closer to the big red door. "We have all those answers for you, and
you'll get them soon. First we need to find David and Trex, and
then I can explain everything."
    "But they're over a thousand rooms
away!!"
    "Not everything," Gasp said and waved his
hand back and forth in front of the red slab of a door again, just
like he had before, "is exactly as it appears here in Ghost Town,
Jimmy. You seem to keep forgetting that."
    And within a matter of seconds, the solid
brass came into focus on the front of the large red door. The
number curving once at a sharp angle and pulling the breath right
out of me as it became completely clear in front of my shocked
face.
    7.
    We were here.
     

Chapter Eighteen
     
     
    There was a brief moment when I first found
myself in Ghost Town that I wondered what Dad might be think when
he woke up in front of the buzzing television, surrounded by empty
green bottles, and realized that he was alone in the house. No dog
barking. No closed bedroom door down the hallway. No Jimmy slaving
away at his homework or pulling together garbage bags full of
empties.
    I wondered if his mind would trip over the
situation at all