Mysterious Castle

By Guru Saranya

There was an old saying "Believe nothing you hear, only half of what you see and everything you feel".

But tonight, believe it or not, everything they heard and saw felt real and breathing. The night was full of terrors and the forest was full of mysteries. Even the sound of their breathing left a deep impression of horror in their hearts.

They were four when they started this mysterious trip to the abandoned town. Tara was one of the successful press reporters in the city and was very excited when she got the opportunity to uncover the mysteries of the abandoned city called Horror Brooke. Being the team leader, she herself selected the best of her friends and great reporters to accompany her on this mission.

Now, as the night descended, she lost her best friend Arun to the unknown forest. She didn't know how he disappeared in the dark. All she knows is that she needed to get her remaining friends to safety.

Every step they take, takes them one step closer to the biggest horror of the night. But there was no way they could have known it. It's like the entire universe was trying to warn them.

Leaves were rustling under their feet, wind was whistling through the gaps of the branches of the trees, owls were staring right through their souls, birds were chirping restlessly and wolves were howling at their foolishness.

After a terrifying and frightening run from the broken-down car through the dark forest, at last they found themselves at the gate of an abandoned castle.

Ronit was sure that they would be safe once they were inside the castle. "What are you guys waiting for? Let's go inside before any of us disappear again."

Being a superstitious girl who believes in all the things supernatural, Tara was doubtful. "No Ronit. Going into an abandoned castle without knowing what is inside, is a risky move. I think we should wait outside in the lawn and hope Arun finds us."

"Come on Tara, have you not heard the echoes in the forest? We are lucky that we got out of it fine and didn’t vanish like Arun. I know that you sense something supernatural. I also feel that something’s wrong with all these animals screaming. But I strongly feel that we will be safe once we are inside the castle. Don't argue now.”

He started climbing the stairs of the entrance without even hearing what the two girls were about to say. Tara had to give up and follow him into the castle with Sona.

The doors were gigantic, rusty and full of dust, but they were open, like they had been waiting for them to come in. Tara found it suspicious but didn't say anything. She didn't want to alarm her friends.

They entered the big empty hall, which is similar to an enormous ball room. The building seemed to be many centuries old, with the entire floor filled with multiple small windows or holes for the moonlight to shine through. Within no time, they found out that the castle was enormously spread into the plot with three stories and countless rooms, full of useless furniture and belongings. They brought food and supplies with them for three days, but the bag containing those things had been lost in the forest while they were running for their lives. Arun, disappearing mysteriously and some strange and terrifying sounds created chaos and fear among them.

"Ok. It is extremely chilly in here. Now that we know we are safe here, we can start a fire on the fireplace there and wait for the night to be over."

"Ronit, I genuinely don't feel fine here. We don't know what the hell is in the remaining countless rooms in the upper floors. We just checked the ground floor. I have a feeling that anyone can sneak onto us in this darkness and we wouldn’t even know. We should wait in the lawn and keep an eye on all the directions. At least we have proper moonlight out there."

"What if an animal or something comes from any direction Tara?" Sona interfered, "I think Ronit is right. We don’t have any supplies and we don’t even have anything to protect ourselves. That means we have nowhere else to go. It's usual for you to fear the unknown. So just trust us on this."

Ronit said "Anyways, you are not the only one to be afraid here. We all are. Let's just stick together and be safe for the night and worry about tomorrow later."

"Fine.” Tara relents reluctantly.  

“Good. Let's find some supplies then." Saying this, Ronit entered the room on the left and Tara and Sona entered the one on the right. This was also a big dark one with a lot of useless furniture. Hoping to find a matchbox or a lighter, Tara started searching the drawers of the tables.

Suddenly she felt the presence of something strong and powerful in the room with her. Her blood froze, flesh crawled and felt someone's breath on the back of her neck. She was terrified and slowly turned back and saw that there was nobody there.

She made herself believe that the enormous and empty castle, dark and mysterious night, unnerving and scaring sounds must have made her imagine. She resumed her search for the matchbox and she suddenly heard a spine-chilling scream from Ronit.

Tara and Sona were alarmed and followed the scream into another room on the same floor and found Ronit standing and staring deeply into the void on the ground.

"What happened? Are you ok? Why were you screaming?"

Ronit said, "I didn't see the void here on the ground, despite having some moon light coming from the windows and was about to slip into it."

"What is this void in the middle of the room?” Tara wondered. “It is so dark below. See, there is a staircase leading down. I can't even see the bottom."

"I don't know but I think we need to check it out. It might lead us into a basement and there might be some supplies like the matchbox, blankets or anything useful for us to spend the night. In mansions like these, people used to treat basements like pantries and store rooms and used to keep many supplies. It’s worth the try."

Tara exhales and whispers. "You will not listen to me if I say otherwise. So, let's go check it out together."

"That's my girl. Let's go." Ronit felt relieved that he didn't have to argue again and started climbing down.

"You two will get me killed for sure." Having no choice, Tara started descending the steps reluctantly after them.

The staircase was very long and descending into the darkness further and farther. Tara had already started regretting her decision to come here. Her heartbeat was rising and feeling the presence of something dark and unknown. After a minute descent, they touched the ground and the earth shook like they were stepping onto the body of a beast. Tara was startled and frightened to death but still moved forward. The fact that she couldn't see any open windows or holes on the walls and yet they could see everything faintly didn't sit right with her either. 

They found themselves in a vast room, full of some furniture which looks like a set of wardrobes covered with dusty blankets. The wardrobes are in a series like they are in a library. Except they didn't know what those wardrobes carry instead of books.

"I wonder what’s up with all these wardrobes. Did they make them here? Is this a factory?” Sona murmured with panting breath.

“Whatever it is, let's split up and search. Meet me here in 5 minutes." Ronit disappeared into the darkness, declaring. Sona was also scared but she is a practical girl with no active imaginations. So, she left after giving a look that says it's alright.

Tara inhaled deeply and started searching. There were wardrobes everywhere covered with blankets. They were so big that she couldn't move them or remove the blankets.

After going deep into the room, she noticed a row of uncovered wardrobes a few feet away, facing the opposite direction from all the other wardrobes.

She decided to proceed and find out what was in them and suddenly she saw something move from the corner of her eye. She swiftly turned towards it and saw that the curtain of one of the windows was moving. She could swear that she saw someone behind those freaking curtains staring at her. She could no longer remain calm and started running. Something struck her leg and she fell hard and when she looked behind, she realized that it was indeed a hand that struck her. She screamed her lungs out, getting up clumsily and started running towards the uncovered row. She could never have known that she was running straight towards her death.

She was behind the uncovered row of wardrobes now, containing God knows what. She couldn't go to her friends, now that she was being followed by something, but she could hide in one of these wardrobes. 

She hurried to the other side where those wardrobes were facing and ran as fast as she could towards one of them, to open its doors and hide inside. As soon as she touched its handle, she realized that the mysterious lurking shadow, from which she had been running all night, was staring right at her with red, bloodshot and deathly eyes.

In the blink of an eye, she was attacked by something unbelievable which she could otherwise have been controlled. Realising that, she took her last breath with a smile on her lips.

Finding Tara lifeless in the middle of wardrobes, Sona and Ronit were shocked and panicked. They didn't stop running until they were out of the castle and into the woods. When they reached the car, they found Arun waiting, confused and impatient, with a mechanic from a nearby village. They couldn't even feel relieved when they saw him and without saying a word, they got into the repaired car and drove far and far away from this abandoned and frightening town Horror Brooke forever.

Back at the castle, the curtains were still moving but from the winds coming from a hidden hole above and behind those curtains, some eyes were indeed staring but from an oil painting and the hand that stuck Tara lied there being separated from a toy and the reason for Tara's death was standing at her dead body, still staring into the blank and waiting for its next prey to come. We may know it by the name

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"MIRROR" 

By Guru Saranya