chapter 53

In Which We Get to the Bottom of It All

Your floor, sir.” A long, dark tunnel, lit only by the dim light of flickering candles, stretched out before him. It was kinda creepy, kinda dark, and kinda scary.

“Um … where are we?” Jackson asked. He cleared his throat, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt. “In the elevator, sir.”

“No, I mean—ahem! — which floor?”

“The bottom, sir.”

“Why are we at the bottom? Is this the way home?” Jackson couldn’t see anything down the hallway. Did he really have to go this way to go home? Couldn’t there be a more cheerful, happier tunnel with lots of light and maybe a cotton candy machine to satisfy a sweet tooth?

“You need to finish your adventure, do you not? You cannot go home until you have finished what you have come to do.” Sir Shaw raised a fluffy white eyebrow.

“But I never came to do anything! I got blown up into the tree by accident by some freak storm!” Jackson protested.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Am I sure about what?”

“That you are not meant to do something here? That maybe that ‘freak storm,’ as you put it, was maybe not an accident?” Sir Shaw peered into Jackson’s face.

“I …” But Jackson had nothing to say.

“Things are seldom what they seem,” Sir Shaw said.

Jackson looked back at the dark hallway. He took a deep breath.

“You can do it,” Sir Shaw whispered. “Have some faith in yourself.”

Jackson looked back at Sir Shaw and then nodded sharply. He stepped out of the elevator.

With a whir and a churn, the elevator door closed behind him.