The Journey The Malevolent Curse

Chapter XXIV: Reunited

"So, Bryan and Kyara will team up and go west. Hugo and Bella team up and go east, while the two of us," Dad pointed to him and Mom, "Go straight through the castle toward the north."

"Sounds good," I said as we walked up toward the castle. It was a pretty long walk. We had already walked half a mile, but we were almost there.

Bryan looked at me and nodded. "We got this," he held his hand out in a fist for me to pound. I did so.

It was dark out. The full moon was our only source of light. Our eyes had adjusted quite well. Before we had left the house, we made sure that Liam and Luke were okay to stay behind.

Luke and Liam were probably talking right now, worried about us, but trying not to be. Mom was going to stay back with them, but if we had three groups, we'd cover more ground, and be quicker to find the phone.

It felt odd carrying a knife in my hand. I surely didn't plan to use it on someone, unless it was self-defense. Everyone had a small knife in his or her hands, just to play it safe. It made us all feel a little more protected.

We made it to the door, finally, and Hugo unlocked it to pull it open. We entered and looked around. There were two statues of knights on either side of the door, and there were three corridors, one to the right, one straight ahead, and one to the left. Perfect for three groups. There were also several torches that lined the walls.

"Alright. Let's do this," I said as Bryan and I started for the left corridor.

"Wait." Dad stopped us. "We need to meet back here at the chime of the bell, to make sure we are all okay. If we find the phone within that time, good job. If not, then we go for another thirty minutes. And so on. Got it?"

"Sounds good," Bella said.

"Everyone take a torch, too," Dad said. We did as he commanded.

"All right. Be careful." Mom said after we had all grabbed a torch, and we all shared hugs with one another. After everyone gave each other a hug, we were off.

Bryan and I started speed walking through the left corridor. It came to a dead end after about a hundred yards and cut to the left. We followed it. We had, so far, seen no doors, but Bryan said that every door we see, we needed to check out.

Another fifty yards later, we came to another left turn, and right as we turned, we found a door.

"Come on." Bryan said, and we entered it. Thankfully it was unlocked.

The room was about the size of our house back at home-the downstairs part of it. There was a huge table in the center of the room with stacks of books on it, and rows of books outlined the walls.

"This must be the library."

"You think?" I said, a little sarcastically.

"Let's look around. Just to make sure the phone isn't in here."

I nodded and went to my right. I was in awe of the number of books that this place held. I was also in awe of the idea that there were these many books in this era. I picked one up but couldn't read it. It was in a very confusing font and language. I put it back and started looking across the shelves.

"Hey Bryan? How long do you think we've been looking? We need to make sure we're back when the bell chimes."

"We're about ten minutes in, I think."

"Okay." I started walking through the aisles faster.

After a few more minutes, I met up with Bryan at the other end of the library. He had found nothing, same as me. We exited the library and started going through the hallway again. It had been a little more than ten minutes and we hadn't found a single thing.