Page 26 of Castle

A gut-wrenching scream pierced through the room as he threw the train across the room and he began rocking back and forth, and continued doing it. I repeatedly asked him to calm down, but he turned more upset. A maid scurried into the room, followed by two other male servants, and one of them was holding a syringe in his hand.

My question had probably triggered something inside him.

“Hold him down.” The man said to the other.

I watched as they injected him with the fluid. I moved away from the bed when Castle caught the corner of my dress. His brown eyes stayed on me, already losing the spark. I cried when I exited his room.

An hour later, he was sleeping, and the maid said he won’t wake up until morning. What was disturbing was how the house staff acted casual, like this was a routine and something that they witnessed every day.

I’d made up my mind. If I was escaping from this house, I would take Castle with me and think of the consequences later. He was suffering in his own home and I won’t let that happen.

On the other side of the mansion, I’d seen a set of steps leading down to a tunnel. It would be scary for me to go through it alone, but it’s not like I had any choice. I needed to see where the tunnel led and if there was a way through it, then I could find another opportunity to leave.

It took me several minutes to locate the tunnel and, as expected, it was pitch black inside. In other situations, I would have skipped walking through it, but claustrophobia and ghosts were the least of my concerns.

There was no greater monster than man.

I switched on the flashlight and took slow steps ahead; the ground was muddy and watery, and my shoes were getting caked in the dirt, but I continued to walk forward. Large pipes covered the tunnel’s ceiling, and I followed the same route. I thought the pipes had to go somewhere and wherever that it led had to be the way out.

This was a pure gamble again. I knew the risk that I was taking. I could live and get tortured or get killed in the future. And I refused to go down like Barbara did.

I came to a stop when the tunnel split in two different directions. I went with my gut and took the straight road. At this point, I’d spent fifteen minutes walking, and the tunnel seemed to be never-ending. If I found nothing after five more minutes, I would go back through the way I came from. The tracker was blinking a yellow signal; it was usually bright green.

I saw a door ahead, a tiny gray door that had a bolt. I slid the bolt aside and the space inside grew narrower.

Stepping in, I saw a staircase leading into nothingness.

I tried to calm my breathing and wondered if finding out what was down there would be worth it. If there was a way out from this dungeon, maybe I could try. There was no way the tracker could show my location as the blinking light was completely gone.

I descended the stairs, my heart in my throat, and expected to see a pile of bodies like the ones you see in movies. But if there were dead bodies down there, wouldn’t there be a powerful stench?

As I stepped further down, I heard whispers and some voices echoing, so I stopped short and hid against the nearest wall.

When I took a peek, I saw four people dressed in dark cloaks huddled close. The small dank place was illuminated by candles and it’s when they moved in a circle that I noticed they were standing on a pentagram, chanting something. There was a picture of the diagram but I couldn’t see it.

Was this family involved in a cult?

Or was it someone else?

Two more people joined the ritual.

In the center was the head of a dead animal. One figure stood tall among them while the others continued to chant words and kneeled before the figure, who wore a hooded cloak and an animal mask with horns. I couldn’t tell the person’s gender, it could be a man, or even a woman and I noticed a person holding a round bowl filled with some liquid, wearing a ring on their index finger adorned with black crystal-like gemstone and a chain with a locket.

They passed the bowl filled around the circle; each member took sips from it.

This felt so unreal, like I’d walked into a twisted episode ofThe Twilight Zone.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and couldn’t move an inch.

I needed to get out of here.

As I turned to leave, I tripped on the first step, my shoe making a rustling sound.

The chanting stopped, and a voice boomed, “Who’s there?”

I didn’t stop as I climbed the stairs two at a time and when I reached the top; I shut the door and made a mad dash for the path without even bothering to turn on the phone’s flashlight.

As I was running, someone said, “Found you!”

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