The Deadliest Haunted Castle (5 page)

The roof was at a height of a hundred feet,
and he caught glimpses of where things had once been and he
listened to the surreal echoes of the archaeologists giving their
explanations.

He shifted slowly into the fringes of where
their lights beamed, as he rested from the journey there and long
day, and at his front an object came into sight and he felt its
roughness with his fingertips through thick webs and dirt,
obscuring a proper view of it, and he placed his hands over it and
its shape and hideous outline became clear, and he stepped back
jerking his hand away, and saw that it was an open-mouthed skeleton
with a rusted knife embedded in its chest.

The others soon came over and they crowded
around it.

“
How recent do you think this
happened?
”
Mitchell asked, examining it up close.

“
A very long time ago
...
”
one of
the archaeologists confirmed first, who had been first to examine
it.

Their voices were changed and more
professional, and made surreal echoes about them. Some
archaeologist gave silent explanations to what might have happened,
but only gave imprecise replies, especially after all the
occurrences that had happened.

With a little amusement Bryson watched
Mitchell
’
s
figure hanging over it trying to grasp information about the
person, and he searched the clothing of the man, but nothing was
there except he spotted some pieces of rope where he had been tied
up.

“
This place has definitely been used
for devil worship or witchcraft, or similar?
”
Mitchell asked firmly,
unsure what else could have happened.

“
I would say so!
”
the archaeologists
replied.

“
Someone gave a human sacrifice here,
a long time ago, then!
”
he stated to one of his men, who wrote it
down.

They all moved back or away from it,
and the archaeologists got to work on checking it in detail
–
with gasps and
surprises when they revealed its hideous agonized face more from
webs and dirt
–
where the person had hideously died with his mouth open in
pain, and had remained that way.

They continued brushing away thick webs and
dirt, obscuring a proper view of it, while crumbling bits of gray
rot fell off.

Bryson
’
s mind slowly grasped its hideous
outline, and he stepped back wondering what the place was, and why
they were doing it there
.

The others checked everything they could
about the cavity and one of the archeologists discovered another
tunnel.

With their lights held out, they all started
entering it and continued their journey, and Bryson saw that their
lights would slowly drain of power and wondered what would
happen.

The second tunnel was thinner and had a
different look and atmosphere, and he realized their thoughts had
changed of things. They no longer really thought of the things
outside, but of the dead body that they had found cruelly
sacrificed, and he continued walking with Mortimer behind Mitchell
and Merton.

It had been a long day and he walked with
unblinking eyes, almost hypnotized by the lights shifting over the
walls, watching the ground in the glimmer searching for
obstructions.

Occasionally cobwebs crawled over his face,
and he no longer heard the murmurs of the archaeologists still
discussing their find, and what other people would think of it when
they returned.

Its creepy blackness made his heart beat
fast and made him alert, and though, at times, he expected to find
something deadly to confront them, he thought they might handle it,
even though the things outside could have killed them.

How many decades had the chamber been hidden
away there, and how long ago had the death occurred? The distant
obscurity was full of chilling silence, which made him feel
isolated.

Out in front, of the light range, he
regularly watched dim gleams from stone lighting up like from a
mysterious source, and he would confirm its type when he shifted
passed it.

After listening to more of the
archeologists
’
allegations he realized that not much had actually been found
out! Why had anyone built the tunnels? Why would devil worshippers
or whoever made the deadly sacrifices?

Alright it was hidden away with little
chance of anyone finding it, but why there and why go to such
lengths to do what they had done?

He wondered what the place would throw at
him next! All his life he had been use to solving things as they
appeared and now he was having every unsolvable mystery, perhaps on
the planet, for centuries, dumped on him without the suggesting of
a clue.

In the pale illumination the tunnel
went straight along, distinctively different from other
tunnels
–
with its sides with smooth rock that never looked man-made
and made by some means he could not quite grasp.

“
Did you come up with
anything?
”
Mortimer asked once, to his amusement, noticing that he was
frustrated with having so little to go on and finding
nothing.

Yet they seemed to have made a human
sacrifice to something, and he wondered if they were done for the
things outside, and that they could be even more deadly and
powerful than they imagined, which would explain why they built the
tunnels.

While he was wondering if they and the
tunnel were actually connected to the castle his sight fixed on a
magical glow at a point directly in front, which he realized was
not a wall, and its surface glowed like white lava in the bright
rays of the light, as though it contained energy.

“
What could that be?
”
Mitchell moaned tiredly,
leaning closer, as though he had partly fallen asleep and been
awakened when he had seen it.

Some of his men removed guns and remained
ready to fire, and some of the others thought of retreating to
where they had come.

Nobody seemed to answer Mitchell and they
remained silent, watching for signs of movement as they journeyed
on.

The pace was slow but they saw no real
danger, but they had much confusion in what was there and Bryson
continued on and on unable to see a thing, captivated in it, and
started to realize how faint the lights were becoming and that he
was half asleep, and that most of the others looked the same, and
he heard silent moans.

Jagged rocks scattered and piled over the
ground brushed under their shoes, and he wondered why and saw rocks
pile up more across his front.

Mitchell increased the power of his light by
removing the batteries and adding some new ones from his pocket,
and when it lit up they all stopped in horror, scarcely believing
their eyes.

A monster creature, with large dark red
eyes, with dimensions bigger than the tunnel was embedded in the
side of the tunnel, like it had been tunneling through there and
got trapped with its upper part embedded in the tunnel.

Its massive deadly shape glowed under their
lights when they surrounded it, with its giant head frozen in place
with its jaws wide open, and identical to a colossal killing demon
attacking.

“
There
’
s no heat from it!
”
one of the scientists
announced, holding a device at it, reassuring them that it was
dead, if it was in fact a life form at all.
“
And there
’
s no radioactivity ...! If
anyone needs that information?
”

His last statement confused Bryson and left
him wondering what he had meant.

“
Why is its surface so
smooth?
”
one of he archeologists remarked feeling it.
“
Why
it
’
s so
perfectly preserved ... All signs identify it as being here a great
deal of time!
”

A stream of light was inundating the
tunnel further along, producing a magical effect upon
Bryson
’
s
hazy sight, and he realized that they had finally reached the
end.

Chapter 7

The Demon
Creature

The morning sun stretched over the horizon
throwing its golden rays amongst the trees, stretching long shadows
everywhere, and brightly streaming its rays over Bryson and the
others as they rested sleepily around a blazing campfire in the
middle of a clearing in the snow covered wood.

What a night! He could barely feel his legs,
never mind his feet, which he watched perched on a bolder near the
fire, absorbing the heat.

The wood seemed perfect and like a winter
wonderland, without its nightly dangers, which most of the others
could not properly conclude why. Only he and the paranormal
researchers and their scientists had any real insight into why as
they had been at the last castle.

The sunlight stretched along the wood
putting life back into it, making snow specks sparkle as they
floated down from the trees.

A distant sound of scientists down in the
tunnel, to his left, broke his silence, and he acknowledged a sweet
pipe tobacco aroma lingering in the air, and he listened to their
debates over what species the creature was classed as with some
amusement, thinking of what the paranormal scientists would class
it.

He examined the giant hole in the tunnel,
where they had been able to escape from the tunnel from, where the
ground had collapsed in years before through corrosion from water
and weight, and he tried to see into the rest of the tunnel where
it had collapsed over, but he could not see any entrance in to
it.

He turned and stared into the
smoldering red ashes in the campfire and imagined images of the
creature
’
s
large red eyes, as he had seen it in the tunnel, and realized that
nobody there had seen eyes like it on any other animal. At times he
had believed all the myths of the world and their remarkable
things! Were there occult creatures buried away all over the world?
He gasped at a drawing he recalled of a dragon creature.

What the hell was this thing? Its head
resembled old draws he had seen of demons, from a collection of
ancient parchments. All demons were not the same! They had
different features and they could be far different from what they
had been drawn like and perceived. What were they anyway if they
really existed? The thing that they discovered might even
change
the
image of prehistoric animals if they released photos of it.
It could make the trip a perfect success, and all the trouble that
they had gone through worthwhile! It was a discovery of the wildest
dreams of paranormal scientists, and perhaps proper concrete
proof!

Had they actually captured one of them
things that had chased them through the wood? He was not sure if he
could believe it! The things had been invisible! He had proven
that!

Had this one become solid and burrowed
through to there, where it had been killed hitting and trapping
itself in the tunnel? He had a hard time believing they were what
they were being described as! Yet what if it was something else
that they had missed? The thing William Randall had found at the
last castle had alien origins! With its powers opening up gateways
into supernatural places.

“
We
’
ve made contact with the
outside!
”
Mitchell shrieked, holding his phone close into his ear, and
joyfully walking back and forth on a flat area of snow, and entered
a conversation with someone he knew that he was desperate to get in
touch with.

After he had finished his conversation he
hung up and put away his phone in his chest pocket.

“
Well it looks as though we may get
that thing ...
”

“
How what
’
s happening?
”
one of his men replied,
moving over to where he was.

“
There
’
s a transporter army helicopter on
the way ... I managed to get a loan of it ...
”

“
I thought we were going to continue
with this ...?
”

“
I
’
ve informed them of the situation here and
that we
’
ve
decided to stay ... But if anyone wants out they can leave
...
”

“
Why the helicopter?
”

“
To remove that thing and get it back
... For it to be investigated, of course. I want their opinion on
what it is?
”

Chapter 8

The Military
Helicopter

The helicopter emerged in the horizon and
swept in low across the trees, blowing up massive clouds of snow
with its powerful twin rotor blades, with loud deafening thuds
shattering the silence, and it hovered in slowly blowing snow and
debris about everywhere before landing on an area of flat ground,
where they had flattened.