Goosebumps: The Surprise On The 13th Floor was a special Goosebumps short story published within the pages of Disney Adventures in 1997.
In their November 1996 issue, Disney Adventures announced a contest with R. L. Stine featuring a short story beginning. Readers would create their own endings picking up where Stine left off, and the winning ending was combined with the beginning for a full story in the March 1997 issue.
Cheryl Hotchkiss's ending was chosen to complete the story and it was released with illustrations from Michael Graeney.
The story focuses on Jack and his friend Lindsay visiting his uncle's magic shop. However, the elevator takes them past the 12th floor to a supposedly nonexistent 13th floor. Stine's section ends just as Jack and Lindsay exit the elevator, with Hotchkiss's ending features the kids encountering creepy doppelgangers accidentally created by Jack's uncle. The mirror versions of Jack and Lindsay explain the 13th floor was created to give them anything they want, so they invite the originals to stay. Jack and Lindsay don't realize their copies want to switch places with them permanently.
"The Surprise On The 13th Floor" includes examples of:
- Cruel Twist Ending: Jack realizes too late the Lindsay in the elevator is the copy.
- Evil Twin: The antagonists are living reflections of Jack and Lindsay who want to take their place in the outside world.
- Gilded Cage: The 13th Floor. It grants a person anything they can imagine, but because it's so easy it makes life dull and meaningless.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Jack's uncle created the duplicates of the kids while trying to perform a complex magic trick using mirrors.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The 13th Floor can give a person whatever they can imagine, but only the individual person sees what they most desire so the 13th Floor functions differently for everyone.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The Lindsay copy gives away her identity, so there's nothing stopping Jack from getting his uncle to rescue the real Lindsay.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: The duplicates are given anything they can imagine in the 13th Floor, which they quickly grew bored of because getting everything you want means there's no mystery or thrill of living.
