The residence was high, with not many doors.
Farhan saw some of the windows open on the second floor, indicating that someone did live there after all.
With their cell phones dead, he had no idea how much time they had left before dawn.
Before them were two important tasks: find Professor Sean and make a call to Zani and Rexi.
As he began to explore, however, he realized that someone had locked the majority of the entrances from the outer side.
Just when he had started to ponder if they will have to shout to the windows above them to get someone to notice, he finally found an accessible entrance, on the rear side, locked from inside.
Farhan Rushed to it, followed by Amelia, who stuck to him like a magnet.
She was honestly, not feeling quite well.
In the grim darkness, inside such a gigantic and mysterious castle, coupled with the peculiar events that took place with them in this venture, they all left a very bad taste in her mind.
Above all, as the night skimmed deeper into her darkness, she was feeling afraid.
Perhaps Farhan's ability to tackle the situation in such a mature manner was what kept her feeling somewhat stable.
Farhan knocked on the door. Once. Then twice. There was no reply.
People must be sleeping now, soft knocks won't be making any cuts, he thinks.
He knocks again, this time notably louder louder.
"Is anyone there?"
"Is anyone there in this house??" he repeats his calls, shouting his throat out at the open windows above their heads.
Still, there is no reply, every bit of life inside this castle seems to have gone missing or completely unresponsive, and this night seems to amplify its frightening solace.
Farhan slowly turned his head towards Amelia and shrugged. They both look at each other, confused as to what should be their next move.
They can't possibly keep standing here till dawn, that too at this time of the night.
The incident regarding the mist, also made Farhan fear the unforeseen dangers this place could have at every corner.
Heck, even their cell phone battery was gone case.
To their left at some distance was the Art Gallery compound above which lay the Moosham artifacts and relics museum.
It was a very large complex indeed, as visible from the windows, made up of spiral staircases rising across floors to the very top.
The exteriors were, however, very lackluster and seemed to be not in prime maintenance.
Here too, to their disappointment, a large lock hung on the doors of the complex.
"You see, the passage that joins the two buildings, Amelia?" Farhan asked, pointing to the small stone-walled passage that joined the residential quarters to the art gallery and the museum.
Amelia nodded in response.
"I think I have an idea. How about I hold you up on my shoulders, to the carnish, and from there with a foot on the passage parapet can you propel yourself up to the second-floor window?"
"Well, there is no harm in trying, after all, no one is coming to open the door," said Amelia, knocking on the door one last time, hoping to hear a voice from inside. But again, there is no reply.
Farhan moves below the Carnish. Amelia, with one of her hands gripped on a protruding beam and one step on Farhan's shoulder propelled herself towards the parapet.
Once her grip was tight, she got hold of the window railing and managed to get on the carnish.
"Now peek inside and see if you find someone out there," Farhan shouted towards her from the ground below.
Amelia peeked inside, her gaze now quite accustomed to the darkness of the night.
A low-powered dim fluorescence bulb was burning in one corner of the room just like they had seen in the guardroom.
She looks around. She notices the room has a small extension to its far left corner, which is completely dark, making it nearly invisible where it leads.
But why does she feel there is a shadowy outline inside that small extension as if someone is watching from their nest, camouflaging themself in the veil of darkness?
And that is when she notices it, a person, no, not a person, a person cannot be that skinny, as if made of bones standing in that narrow extension, the only thing visible of them is their eyes, burning like a coal mine up in flames, towards her.
Amelia's eyes widen, they keep widening as the mortal fear grips her. Her left hand holding the railing grips it even tighter in her grasp.
And then, like a sudden storm, the smile hits her. That smile, inhuman, evil, devious, monstrous. Those teeth glinting like the fangs of a venomous serpent which was waiting for its prey in the shadows grinning with bloodlust. Amelia's feet begin tumbling, trembling on the carnish.
It has choked her voice out of her brain; she mumbles like a deaf in fear.
Farhan's eyes catch this. He immediately jumps towards the parapet, half scratching his arms on the rough stone wall, which he somehow manages to hold on to with both hands.
He then uses his muscular forearms to pull himself over and run straight for Amelia. By the time he reaches behind her, she is nearly still in fear, her index finger trembling towards that corner of the room.
But then, Farhan watches it closely and finds nothing.
He shakes up Amelia by her shoulders. " What was it??"
"Tell me what was it, tell me Amelia, tell me" Farhan's voice was shaky, yet giving her confidence to spell out what she had just seen.
Farhan knew for a fact Amelia was not someone to get scared so easily, and it must have been horrifying enough to leave her in such a condition.
"She was a monster," Amelia mutters with difficulty, leaning herself on Farhan's hands, her lips dry and flaked.
☯︎
Zani got into action fast. After all, he did not have much time to lose. He knew what he wanted; he knew that sign; he felt so.
With two bright flashlights, Zani nearly dragged her to the Forests behind the castle.
"What the hell do you want from here Zani??
Where are you taking us??" Rexi asked, half panting as they ran across the fencing over the grass towards the small hilly forests still about a hundred yards away from them.
Zani only spoke one thing. 'Vervain Leaves". Vervain leaves are perhaps one of the most commonly found leaves across forest lands in Europe with lobed and toothed leaves and silky flowers to them, quite easy to spot in the wild for someone familiar with it.
With the trimmed grass all around the Lodging, the only place he could have found it was these small hill forests just behind. He knew.
The forest at night seemed like the lair of gigantic monsters, with the large tall trunks of trees, like huge mysterious beams rising into the star-filled sky.
"Wait wasn't there much fog just a few hours ago?" Rexi mumbles
"Hey, Zani! Wonder where the fog went? She asks running along with him as he searches for the leaves.
Zani hears it but skims past the question, he has a pressing issue at hand, and nothing seems to be quite alright at this place.
And he soon found them. They both plucked and collected handfuls and poured them into the small leather bag he always carried along with him.
He then came back, to the site where Mr. Reimer lay, and started asking for a mortar and pestle, which was quickly found in the kitchen of the lodging house.
He quickly crushed the leaves-- mixed them with water from Rexi's bottle and started applying them on the mark over the arm of Mr. Reimer.
Five minutes pass. Ten minutes pass.
The clock seems to be ticking slowly, as if counting seconds for something to happen as the tension builds up in Zani's eyes.
And then, like a jerk of electrocution, Mr. Reimer's hand suddenly trembles in the grass.
At first, very few notice the motion, and then it jerks up again, with more force like life returning to a rust-clogged machine after eons.
Everyone gasps.
In five more minutes of applying the remedy, he opens his eyes, his gaze blurry, hazy.
The entire village, elated beyond measure, picks both Zani and him in their arms and jubilantly celebrates near the lodging.
Zani smiles. He has succeeded in saving his life; he knew, perhaps, what force had caused that terrible fate to occur.
But who laid the man there in the lodging backyard like that? Why would they do so?
And that is when Zani had a thought.
Mr. Reimer did get his senses back, but why does he still seem so cold and pale?
There was not much sign of blood flow in his body even though he got back to his senses.
He had been pondering over this irregularity when Rexi poked at his shirt.
"What do you think happened to him, and how did the Vervain leaves manage work on that devious mark? It seems to have completely vanished now?"
"Dark Magic Rexi, Dark magic indeed.
I should have known from that mist that hung around this place.
We need to be very, very careful indeed.
This is the place we don't want to step our foot wrong, and then we shall be in a web of unforeseen dangers." Zani looked Rexi right in the eyes as he said.
Rexi shivered from within, she very well knew Zani meant every word of it just by that look in his eyes.
"Are you scared for Amelia and Farhan?" Rexi asked, her eyes scared beyond doubt from what she had just heard.
"Not yet, but they did go towards the castle.
I think everything starts there, right in that castle itself, however, I may be wrong." Zani seemed to be flashing a lot of thoughts in his mind, one after the other.
Both looked at each other as they stood and bid the village party farewell on their way back to their villages.