Red haired girl

Chapter 11

The horses came to a stop at the edge of the forest. Another grassland stretched out a mile before them.

“Wow,” Will and Bryan said in unison. Behind the grassland, stood a castle. Or actually the ruins of a castle. Even though there wasn’t much left of it, it was impressive. It was enormous. It stretched out hundreds of meters to both sides. A giant pair of doors blocked the main entrance, but most of the walls were tore down, exposing several holes that made it possible to get inside. There used to be two huge towers at the front of the castle, but one was completely destroyed and the second reached only to the first floor. It stood majestic on a small hill, surrounded by the grasslands.

            The boys looked at each other.

“Do you think we have to go there?” Will asked. Bryan shrugged, then pointed at something behind Will.

“Look.” Will turned around in the saddle and saw a note pinched to a tree. He reached out and grabbed it.

“‘Your assignment is almost finished by now. The last step on the way is to go inside the castle.’ Well, I think that answers our question,” Will said.

“Let’s go!” Bryan tried to make his horse go forward, but it wouldn’t take another step. Will tried as well, but his horse was even more stubborn and went backwards.

“Oh, come on!” Will exclaimed and Bryan laughed. At last they decided to leave the horses and walk for themselves. As if to tease them, the horses followed them. But when the boys tried to ride them again, they refused to take another step. Again.

            Grumpily and with the horses behind them, they went to the castle. Will slowed down and looked up when they reached it. The stone of which the castle was made, was grey, but only because of dust. Will wiped some of it away and a bright white stone appeared. The castle must have looked very beautiful in its glory days. After a little hesitation, Will followed Bryan through one of the holes. They came in at the other side of the pair of doors. It was a small room, its only use was probably to keep the cold outside during winter. Another pair of doors was on the other side of the room. One of them was broken in half. Will walked over to it and pushed it slowly open.

            He froze in his steps, shocked. He looked into what used to be the ballroom, but it wasn’t a pretty sight: the pillars, used to hold up the ceiling, were broken down, which had caused most of the ceiling to come down as well, crushing the marble floor. Pieces of a giant chandelier were shattered throughout the entire space. The stairs, standing on the opposite of the room, leading to the first floor, were destroyed. Only a very skilled climber could reach the first floor without hurting himself. To both sides of those stairs, were two other stairs spiralling down, but those were in no better condition: pieces of the ceiling had struck and rolled down them, so that it was almost impossible to recognise them as stairs. But that was not all: demolished furniture was smashed through the entire space; fragments of vases and painting and who knows what more, were to find everywhere. The worst of all was the smell. The smell of destruction, slaughter and the smell of blood. Blood stained about everything and Will quickly turned around, feeling nauseous.

“What happened here?!” he muttered softly. Bryan sent him a worried glance.

“Will, what’s wrong? What’s in there?” he asked nervously. Will just shook his head. He had even seen something what look like a skeleton, crushed underneath one of the pillars. Will wouldn’t answer any of Bryan’s questions, so after a little hesitation, he looked for himself.

            Will longed to get back outside, but whatever the assignment was here, they hadn’t fore filled it yet, so he couldn’t leave. Bryan returned and took a deep breathe.

“I think we should go in there,” he said. Will eyes widened.

“Are you nuts?!” he exclaimed. He was about to continue his rage, but Bryan interrupted him.

“Maybe I am! But Whatever we’re supposed to do, it’s not in this closet-like room here. I don’t know what Owen is trying to teach us within this castle, but if it has something to do with bravery, then I won’t be surprised. So grab yourself together and come on!” he yelled. Open mouthed and astonished, Will looked at him. Even Bryan looked a little surprised after his own speech. Will obeyed and unwillingly left the relative safety of the small hall.

            Shoulder to shoulder, the boys crossed the ballroom. Will discovered more skeletons, but tried to ignore them. Goosebumps found their way across his entire body and he felt the hairs in his neck rise. He felt like he was being watched and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. They stopped in front of the stairs.

“Where do you think we have to go?” Bryan asked. Now that they were actually inside the ballroom, he had lost his courage. Will looked at all three of the stairs and shrugged. None of them looked very attractive, with all the holes and rocks on them. The boys didn’t have to choose for themselves: from downstairs sounded a loud scream. Will froze. He knew the man who had screamed that scream. It was sir Peter, his father’s best friend. Without thinking of any possible consequences, he stormed down the stairs. He vaguely noticed Bryan yelling at him, but he ignored it. If sir Peter was there, than his father would probably be there as well.

            He came around the corner and faced a hall, smaller than the ballroom, but still very large. The round walls were grey, as was the floor. Will came to a halt a few meters away from the stairs. A hole in the ceiling let a small ray of sunlight fall into the room, giving it a mysterious look. A few seconds later, Bryan came to stand next to him.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” he hissed. “Have you lost your mind?” A creepy chuckle echoed through the hall and some sort of gate came down behind them, blocking the way out. Will turned around and saw it was made out of metal bars, crossing each other horizontally and vertically, creating squares.

“What the…?” Bryan muttered. Slowly, they walked to the middle of the room, out of the shadows. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound. That was even more startling than the chuckling.

            Suddenly, a giant boulder came down from out of nowhere, almost crushing them. The boys jumped away from it and screamed. Boulders started to rain down through the whole room and Will ran around like crazy, trying not to get hit. He heard Bryan call him and looked over to where the sound had come from. Bryan pointed at an opening in the wall, which hadn’t been there before, on the other side of the room. Bryan was already running towards it, dodging the boulders falling down on his path. Will headed for the opening as well; he didn’t trust it, but everything was better than being crushed.

            Bryan reached the opening and stepped inside. He turned around and gestured for Will to hurry. Will increased his speed some more. Then suddenly, the wall came down from out of the ceiling, blocking the opening. A second later, it opened again. Will froze in his steps: Bryan was gone. The small room was empty. Will didn’t move anymore. He was about to give up. He didn’t know what happened to Bryan, nor did he know what was the purpose of all this. It had been strange that they had to travel so far from home, but now he came to think of it, the last couple of exercises had been really different from the first ones. Less cryptic. Will doubted this was all part of an assignment. He closed his eyes and just stood there, in the middle of the room. The boulder-rain stopped as suddenly as it started. Faint screams sounded and Will opened his eyes again.

            Dust floated through the air and there were boulders everywhere. Will’s heart pounded like crazy. Tears formed in his eyes from the shock. He stumbled backwards towards the gate and the stairs, his eyes still on the opening which had swallowed his friend. Yes, Will thought. He is my friend now. He laughed bitterly. It was all so ironically: everything had been all right before this training, when Bryan had seemed to hate him and now, when they were something like friends, this happened. It was just not fair. Will squeezed his way through the bars of the gate and ran for the exit. He couldn’t help Bryan right now; he had to get help and make a plan. He heard the sound of footsteps closing in behind him and he desperately increased his speed. The daylight came closer and closer, but then Will felt something against his head. He tried to get further, but it didn’t work. With surprise, he noticed he laid on the ground. He tried to get up, which made him feel dizzy and caused his vision to get blurry. He saw something red in the end of his vision and then everything became black.