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Wrong Floor
Exposition: Alex was in the elevator going to the basement when the elevator stopped at the wrong floor. He heard voices from the last door in the hall. It was playing his favorite movie. In a trance, he knocked on the stranger's door, hoping that he would be able to watch the movie. The door opened to reveal a woman. Behind her was a TV playing his movie. On the table was pumpkin pie and oatmeal cookies. As soon as he walked in, the TV and food faded. The woman grabbed and shoved him inside. -
Meeting a Friend
Rising Action: Alex woke up to find a orange cat with black stripes sitting on the top bunk. He tried the door again and walked into the living room of the apartment, where the furniture was really old and there were display cases of all scary objects. The cat hissed at him whenever he tried to touch something. Later, a girl, named Yasmin, emerged from the closet door Alex thought was empty. She told him to not try anything funny. Alex also learned that the cat could turn itself invisible. -
Library
Rising Action: Yasmin took Alex into a giant room filled with scary stories. She told him there is no chance of escape and he would be here every day to write stories for Natacha. Yasmin left, but Alex couldn't come up with any story ideas. Soon he went to his bedroom and pulled out a story to read to Natacha. The witch came home, ate a delicious dinner, and sat in her chair to listen. A glass box came down around her and blue mistt started to fill it. He read her his story and went to bed. -
Bunkbeds
Rising Action: Alex woke up on the bottom bunk in a tiny room. He walked over to the door and tested the knob to see it wasn't locked, turning the knob he walked into the room that was an exact copy of the other one. He even tripped over his backpack again. He picked up his backpack, the twin moving the same as the first. Soon the witch, Natacha came back. Alex asked her if she wanted to hear a story. Natacha listened and decided to keep him. -
Unicorns
Rising Action: Alex woke up and looked through some of the books on the shelf. One of the books he picked had writing in it. The writing told the story of a girl who got trapped here too. She loved unicorns. Yasmin told him that she smelled the food that her grandma used to make that lured her in. Later, Natacha set up her misting room and Alex read her a story from her nightbook. She explained to him that the magic that held the apartment together needed a story to keep it from cracking. -
Parasites
Rising Action: Alex found more entries for Unicorn Girl in some books that told him that she tried to escape. Yasmin ran up into the library and told Alex that she needed help. He walked down into where she worked and helped her remove parasites from a plant. Alex dropped one and it started to multiply all over the house. While they were killing everything, Natacha came home and made every parasite vanish. She tried to use magic on Yasmin but Alex stepped in the way and saved her. -
Yasmin's Story
Rising Action: Before going to bed, Alex checked his backpack and found all of his nighbooks ripped to shreds. Now he only had a couple of stories left. Yasmin gave him stuff that made the pain go away from the scratches. He gave some to Lenore the cat too. Yasmin told him that she used to live here with three other kids. She took him to a glass cabinet and showed him what became of her friends. Alex examined the other children and didn't see Unicorn Girl, which means she must have escaped. -
The Plan
Rising Action: Alex found more entries. One of the entries told them how to make a sleeping potion. They were talking about how to escape when Lenore yowled. Natacha was home and asked the cat what they were doing all day. The cat lied to protect them. Alex finished the story and read it to Natacha. She got mad when Alex said the wrong ingredient and accidentally told he what really does take away the smell of a potion, the last thing they needed for the plan. -
Escape?
Rising Action: The next morning, Alex and Yasmin made the sleeping oil. He read his last story to Natacha and wrote a new one for the night. While Alex was reading his story, Natacha fell asleep. Yasmin grabbed the keys while Alex grabbed the cat hiding underneath the chair. They grabbed their backpack and turned the bonekey in the door. It opened to revel a forest. Behind the trees, a herd of undead unicorns ran towards them. The unicorns stopped just short of the path, unable to come close. -
Real Truth
Climax: Climbing the path, they reached a candy house, like from Hansel and Gretel. Without realizing it, they ate part of the house, falling asleep. Alex woke and saw Natacha. Natacha told him how she got captured, wrote in the storybooks and how the witch ate children for their youth. The old witch, Aunt Gris, layed in a coffin, sleeping. Natacha explained that the crystals, which lined the coffin, gave her power. The earthquakes were Aunt Gris. Stories were the only thing to keep her asleep. -
Story
Falling Action: Natacha tells Alex that he has to tell Aunt Gris a story if he wants Aunt Gris to stay asleep. Alex refused and Natacha threatened to kill his friends. Alex started to tell Aunt Gris the story of how he wanted to get down to the basement in the 1st place. He started as a scary story of how he was different and he wanted to fit in. The story turned and told of how he made friends after getting captured. Aunt Gris woke from her coffin and chased after the children into the woods. -
Escape
Resolution: Alex and Yasmin ran to the apartment, Lenore blew open the wall and made a barrier so they had more time to escape. They got in the elevator and went down to the basement. Aunt Gris followed them. Alex started to read beginnings of stories. The old witch followed he backward wanting the rest. He threw the book into the fire, Aunt Gris following it in. She burned. All of the children that had been captured we free. Alex and Yasmin became best friends and shared custody of Lenore.
