Blog #10

While there had been times in Vinny's life when he was unsure of himself and maybe a little lost as to what he was supposed to be doing in life, he had never felt pure doubt like this before. Vinny had spent the last few weeks of his life devoting himself to finding a girl that he loved and cared for, but now that he had possibly found her he had doubt. Whats wrong with me? First I have this weird dream where I'm on a cruise and then I wake up here, I don't understand, thought Vinny. He cautiously approached the chest. He could hear something still moving around inside. It had to be Laney! When he got up close to the chest he saw how big the lock on the chest really was. How will I be able to get her out? Vinny looked around the room for something to break the lock with, but the best object available for the job was a rotted out two by four... not very useful. Vinny stuffed his hands in his pockets in frustration and felt a hard cold object. A key. And then for the second time the doubt hit him, and it was an evil feeling, because Vinny doubted whether or not he wanted to open the chest or not!

Vacation

Vinny took his first step up the ladder towards the hatch and everything went blank. When Vinny woke up he was on a cruise boat at sea... Vinny was disoriented and confused. He wandered down the immense deck watching the many overweight tourist lounge around like big greased up sun burned whales. As Vinny walked he tried to remember how he gotten on this boat, where he had just been, and he tried to figure out where he was going. I must of had a crazy time last night, Vinny thought, and he went and jumped in the pool. After his swim Vinny found his room key in his pocket and headed to his room, room 512. Everything felt familiar here. Vinny showered and left to go eat dinner. He was seated at a round table with people that he had never met before, yet seemed overly familiar. There was a short stocky man that said he was a policeman back on the mainland, there was an elderly Hispanic woman, a normal looking middle aged man, and finally next to him there was a very pretty young girl, maybe 6 or 7 years old. Everyone at the table had a great time, the dinner was as pleasant as Vinny had ever been to, and when it came to an end he was giving hugs, exchanging contacts, and saying heartfelt goodbyes. Vinny got back to his room and was overcome by fatigue. So Vinny got ready for bed and laid down....

When Vinny woke up he was in a dark room, and in the corner of that room there was a large chest with a big lock on keeping it closed. Vinny wouldn't have noticed the chest except for the fact that it moved!

Christmas Blog

It was December 22, and Vinny was not in the Christmas Spirit. It seemed like every jolly tune on the radio reminded him of what Laney was missing out on. No, this time of year was a time of sadness and letdown. Vinny went out to the store to buy presents for the rest of the orphans. He was on the toy isle looking at some stuffed animals when he heard a loud commotion on the other side of the isle. Someone yelled "Stop!"  and then suddenly the isle was coming down on Vinny! The Isle hit him and knocked him to his feet. It took Vinny several minutes to collect himself and figure out what had happened. The first thought Vinny had was, "I'm alive!" If it had been any other shelf but the light stuffed animal shelf he would of for sure been dead right now. Several nearby customers ran over and helped Vinny out of the shelf and asked him if he was ok. He replied yes and left the store. On the way out, Vinny saw that the man who had knocked the shelf down had been arrested and was handcuffed off to the side. Vinny walked up to him and told him, "What if I had been a child?" The man cackled wildly, but gave no real reply. Crazy drunk, thought Vinny. Vinny walked down the street to the next store to bu his presents. Christmas was living up to the year's reputation.

Vinny saw the man that had left the card and he chased him. It was as if the were playing an immense game of tag all over the Castle Apartment district, with Vinny chasing relentlessly but never catching up. Eventually the chase led back the the Castle Apartments. The man was racing up the stairs, and Vinny was finally beginning to draw closer. When Vinny was just about to grab the man's collar, the man pulled open the 13th floor doorway, slipped through, and closed it. When Vinny pulled to open the door, he felt the resistance of the lock, and Vinny woke up. Vinny looked at the clock, it was 6:30 which was fairly late. Vinny got up and made himself a cup of coffee, and stepped into the hallway to check for mail. What he saw when he opened the door made him drop the mug in his hand. There standing face to face with him was the man!

Vinny swung but hit nothing. So he swung again with the same result. This time Vinny knew he should have hit him, something was different about this man. "Who are you? What are you?" shouted Vinny. " "I'm a friend, and I've come to help you" said the man. By now Vinny had collected himself, but he still had a question, "Where is Laney?" The man replied, "My daughters on the 13th floor... Find her!" As soon as the man said this everything went black and Vinny collapsed in the hall.

When Vinny woke up, he was in his bed again. But he knew this last experience wasn't a dream because he was fully dressed including his coffee covered shoes. Vinny was still unsure about Laney's father, was he real, was he a ghost? But Vinny didn't linger on the thought because he had more pressing matters to attend to. Vinny was going to look for the 13th floor.

First he went to the elevator, but there was no button to press that would take him to 13, so he got off and went to the stairs. Starting on his floor five, Vinny headed up the stairs checking each floor looking for some kind of fluke. He got to the very top of the stair well and it just stopped at floor 12 as anyone would expect, there was no floor 13. Disappointed and kind of embarrassed that he had gone looking for a floor that he knew didn't exist, Vinny turned around and began to walk back down. Suddenly, Vinny heard a slam! He whipped back around and right next where the 12 floor sign was on the wall, a wooden step ladder had fallen and crashed on the floor. Vinny looked at it and then looked  up... there was a hatch...