THE CASTLE

CHAPTER TWELVE - DOWN THE DUNGEONS

DEVANAND

"This place should be demolished or banned." Sandy replied after I told her what happened with me since our arrival well except the talk about grey world and society. I am not that dumb. "Wait you said you found a journal right." Sandy said as if had suddenly remembered something important and sprinted to her room. I heard few sounds of things hitting the floor and she came out after four minutes with a piece of paper clenched in her hands.

"Do you remember that I roamed the lower corridors the day I came to castle in hope to find a network connection. At that time I found this letter hung on the lightbulb. At first I was confused that why will it will be there. But as you know curiosity killed the cat. I plucked it from there and read it. At that time I thought it was a joke but now I think it is relevant."

I took the yellowed paper from her hands noticing the slight tremble in her hands. I opened the letter. In the scratchy handwriting with black pen it was written. Just by one look one can say that the person had wrote it in great hurry. The writing is almost like a scribble. The writting was covered in thick botches of ink.

" I...... Robert I am sorry...... I should have never killed her...... Oh God. I think .... I can see her rushing behind me.... Her black eyes are everywhere...... I should have never hurt Ophola.... If you got this letter... Then please don't go down the dungeons or .... Summer Villa..... "

I reread the letter just to be sure. No wonder Robert Susan died. He must have been killed by the evil spirit residing in the castle. "Oh no. My uncle is in dungeons." I remembered as I got up and rushed in the direction of the archive room hoping that Uncle Raghav is still there not in some dungeons searching for something unknown.

Sandy followed on my heels. Transversing through the corridors ignoring the guest who have us odd looks. The which on first visit felt colourful and full of splendor now appeared in there true form. Behind them hundreds of years of history is hidden. Each and every brick of them is red with blood. Even tearing down the building to ground will not help.

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Strange humid entered my nose as I opened the small door leading the a balcony of the ballroom. The entire place was covered in darkness as if the lightings I saw last time was a mirage.

Tak. Tak. Tak.

Our footsteps echoed as we moved towards the stairs leading us to the ground floor. Dust stucked to soles of my shoes. "We shouldn't be here without adult supervision." I heard Sandy mumble as I stepped further in.

Leave. Away. Go far.

A foreign voice echoed in my head as a hot humid hair scurried past us in the icy cold weather. I still walked in the direction I felt like going like a forgein hands guiding me to a unopened mystery. A embrace colder than the white bizzard raging outside. It took over my body like a mother's embrace.

One step, two step, ten step. It's voice spoke to me telling it's deepest secret as I stood infront of a old wall with traces of red over it while it was paint or blood unknown. I had no sense neither of the time nor of the touch. The only thing I felt all over was the cold embrace. Somehow the door rumbled and a endless abyss opened.

The same abyss in which it vanished when I first came here. I stepped into the darkness holding the hands of the same it. It was a staircase. Spiral stairs which spiraled down into an unknown dark tunnel. It was as if they vanished into just nothingness. I don't know how.....

But the whispers began to speak. A cacophony of voices, myriad of screams and the cruel laughter. I walked down the stairs holding the hands of the cold embrace letting it lead me into its nothingness.

WAKE UP

Amist the cacophony drowning me a clear voice resounded. As if a hand reaching out to a person drowning down in the ocean. I woke up. The haze covering over me lifted. I was in the dungeons. The same one I saw in my dreams. Even after years they are same.

Then it came all crashing down. The chill that went straight to my heart the cold embrace that felt like mother. The blackened rudraksha beads unflured from there location around my wrist as my lips began to chant the holy mantras I learnt from my birth. The chill began to slowly dissipate.

I began to walk back trying to remember the direction I came from vigilantly glancing around. All the whispers had vanished like they never existed before. It was a ghostly experience.

Tip..
Tip....
Tip.......
Tip..........

Somewhere the water dripped down the ceilings as my vision turned gray. It was as if the place changed. It was the room I saw. Ophola's room. The same one I saw in my dreams.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Unlike the one before it was warm. Like a pyre fire. Warm and hot. I looked behing to find Ophola looking at me. I tried to break away in fear but I got stucked. As if my body is not mine to operate.

As if I am just a passenger in my own body while my body's functions are in other's hand. Unable to even lift my finger I watched as Alex mixed a white powder in Ophola's medicine before giving it to her. His eyes seamed to be covered in a thin white gaze. As the night approached a thin black mass began to materialized from the foot of her bed.

It was the same as one I saw earlier at the summer villa. It tried to whisk away but stopped immediately. I saw a faint semi solid chain connecting it to Ophola binding both of them together. It glared at her with full malice.

Time passed like a breeze and I saw as Ophola began to grow a lot sick day by day until the day came when she got buried alive in the coffin. The coffin got placed in the muddy cell. And both of them Robert and Alex left. Leaving Ophola and the black mass alone.

I used everything I had in me in trying to myself away but I stayed rooted to my place with Ophola's hand over my shoulder. The time passed. The torches exhausted their fire, the dungeons grew colder and colder. The black mass sat in a corner.

Then it came. Ophola died and the chain broke. The first person it killed was Alex and then the groundskeeper. And then it hunted down Robert and hung him upside down. With each crime it began to solidify. In the same shape as I saw in the ball room and summer villa but before it can I saw Ophola.

No it was not her but her soul. They both collided and vanished. I looked back at Ophola and asked in a trembling voice. "You are trying to tell me that you are trying to save the Castle ?" The soul nodded as the warmth began to fade as well as the shadow of Ophola.

The chill returned but as if I am enlightened it didn't dared to touch me. But still my mind felt as if it had been covered by stoned weighing tonns. The rest was a daze the only thing i remember was a rough hand touching my face as I collapsed.