Monsters from Beyond Reality (6 page)

“
That
looks like a faded cross marking something?” the man that had asked
if it could be anything to do with the treasure asked, pointing at
a very faint cross that he had found.

Bryson was
surprised that he had not seen it, and that the others never seemed
to have noticed it.

“
Where
do you think that is?” the man finally muttered, like he knew where
it was and wanted to confirm it.

“
It’s on
the top floor and surely not far from here!” Mitchell finally
answered, seeing they were not coming out with anything. “So let’s
go and have a check ...”

After a few seconds of examining it the
others started climbing out, into the room above, and Bryson put it
away in his pocket.

The ring was valuable and could well prove
there was more, and showed they had wealth, which he had known
already by the massive castles and estates, and last treasure they
had found. Yet he could not work out why there would be two
treasures!

As he
climbed out he vaguely wondered how safe the castle structure
itself really was, and if it was safe to be in, as it had been
built by ancient craftsmen with only a basic knowledge. Who would
know if they had only designed it to last a few decades at the
most? Yet if it had stayed up the amount of time that it had it
must be strong enough not to collapse! They could have easily built
it to last! He had only seen castles with no roofs that were
crumbling away, and he had never heard of one such as it falling.
Yet he had heard of
parts
of modern
structures collapsing!

As they walked
along the corridor Bryson noticed some signs of value in paintings,
and took photos of them. There could even be a connection between
something in them and the clue!

Chapter 12

The Discovery

What Bryson was
surprised at was how easily and firmly they had identified where
the mark on the map was in the castle, and he had not even
considered that it had been when they had arrived there!

The man who
had found the mark on the map seemed to be the best at it, and they
all looked at the rooms there.

As Bryson
examined the best places to look he remembered the plan of the
castle and removed it, and he started trying to see what the mark
was at, and he suddenly noticed the man that had found the mark and
Mitchell were measuring the floor in the corridor, outside the
rooms, and he wondered what they were thinking.

The map looked
different in the light from outside at a window, and he saw things
that had not been recognizable before and it slightly surprised
him, as he had expected it to have dulled lines and blemishes,
especially because of its already bad condition and ancient
age.

Bryson glared,
partially blinded by a sudden illumination from the sun, and its
powerful glare from the snow. Then when it decreased he saw more
detail and faint lines that had faded and that had not been visible
before, and he wondered if the others had seen stuff that he had
not seen there, and why they never bothered asking to see it
again?

He studied
things on it astonished at missing them and saw where the exact
location of the small cross mark was marked at the castle, even
though it was so faint that he could easily have taken it to be a
badly drawn mark or correction rubbed away.

Yet
though he knew that it was something its size was not big – it
looked too small to be significant – and it was not just a bad
drawing as it had been
carefully
drawn there! And he considered why the person had gone to
such lengths to draw it so well into the sketch, and wondered how
the man in his tomb had died and what the person had been like, and
why he had been buried there?

Bryson stood
up and joined Mitchell and some of his men measuring the room, who
took it that he knew what they knew.

Bryson
gradually realized what he had missed and that there was a large
distance between a room wall and the wall in the room next to it,
and when he knocked the wall it did not sound as solid, and it was
not as solid as the stone walls in the other rooms.

He was sure a
small chamber existed there, and wondered why it had been hidden
away, and why they had been so secretive and had marked it on an
old map?

Nonetheless,
how could they check it? Where could the entrance to it be? It
could be sealed, but there could be a way to climb into it!

Bryson
considered it for a moment and realized that was what Mitchell was
considering, and he wondered if he would knock a hole in the wall
of the room where the map cross had been marked? Their faces still
some showed puzzlement, indicating that he had a problem and had
not realized how best to get into it.

Bryson started
tapping the room wall and listening to see how hollow it was in
different places.

Mitchell
decided to do more, suddenly looking more energetic!

“
It
would be a shame to ruin this wall,” Bryson explained, considering
the hole that they had made in the floor to enter the chamber
beneath the floor. “It could make a hell of a mess!”

The man who
had found the mark on the map suddenly used the opportunity to show
them what they were missing and went over to the corner of the room
and lifted up the edges of the wallpaper, showing them that there
was, in fact, a gap going around the entire wall, and looked like a
large crack and was deliberately concealed.

“
What do
you think it is then?” Bryson asked, confused, not fully grasping
what it was or what he was explaining it was.

“
We’ll
need to find a way to tug it out from the side at the door as the
hinges are at the other side,” he replied, and Bryson shrugged and
decided to wait for him to show him what he was talking
about.

He went to
different places of the wall examining the crack and inserted a
tool into the gap, which allowed him to grip the wall and yank it
slightly outwards, proving nothing was holding it, and Bryson
recalled an inner library that they had found at the last castle,
and realized that the wall was really a giant doorway concealing
something behind it, and he helped the man pull it out, and soon
realized that it opened out on hinges at the opposite side.

It opened out
like a giant door revealing a hidden chamber full of old books and
scrolls, and Mitchell’s men saw value in the books and the
information they could hold, and Bryson wondered why the map had it
marked on it and why someone would keep just books as a secret?

Chapter 13

The Police
Investigation

A bright large fire burning furiously in the
fireplace in the lounge enticed Bryson in and to a seat, where he
intended to rest and go through all the things that they had found
in detail, and he was sure he missing things and that he would
realize them now, while resting on his own.

Yet as soon as he sat down three of the
policemen marched in, and looked him over!

The heat from the fire made the central
policeman’s eyes bulge out as they entered further in, making their
way to the fireplace, and Bryson saw he was the policeman in charge
there.

“
So
you’re
Bryson!
”
he exclaimed, looking about him. “I’m
Lieutenant Spelman. I’m in
charge at the moment ...”

“
Have you found
anything?
”
Bryson asked, becoming interested, examining their official
clothing, wondering what they would make of the disturbances there,
and wondered if they had encountered anything or what they had
heard and thought of it.

“
Where are the others?”

“
They
’re
at the top floor
rooms,
”
he
answered authoritatively.

“
They’ll
all be back down soon?” he asked.

“
I don’t know when they’ll be down!
But I’m sure most of them will be down soon ... It’s dark now! Have
you found anything out about the death of the man in the
kitchen?”

“
Various things! But we don’t have the
killer yet!”

“
So have you found any fingerprints or
DNA?
”

“
You’re one of the scientists here!
This place is strange!”

“
Strange? Stay here long enough and
I’m sure you’ll never see anything as strange again!”

The policemen showed signs of confusion and
surprise, but Bryson was sure that they had been informed of some
of the things that had happened there or had already seen
something. He was sure someone in the ex-military men with Mitchell
had been telling them what had happened. It was also them that had
called the police in and he was sure one of them also knew
them.

In distance Bryson realized that there were
noises of trouble, and action by the police, and he realized that
something was happening, especially going by the reactions of the
police in the room, and a policeman rushed in the door.

“
We had him but he escaped!” he
hollered, breathing faster. “We know where he went and two of our
men are going after him!

“
We were investigating the castle
where his footprints were and we found him at the floor of a room.
He escaped down a tunnel there!”

They followed him out and they rushed over
to the room, and Bryson sensed that he was going to be in danger of
getting it!

At the side of the room the carpet had been
rolled over, and the person had removed a hidden entrance to a
tunnel and had escaped without covering it over, and Bryson heard
scrambling movements and panic-stricken voices deep in it, where
the police were clearly chasing the killer out towards the
wood.

It was worse than he had imagined! More
police were rushing in determined for action, and they were
contacting the rest of the police force, and he now positively knew
that they never knew of the dangers out there and that great danger
was there! And yet if he told them, warned them, he not only knew
that it would be a mistake, it could very well make things far
worse.

He just did not know what to do and was too
tired, and he hoped that Merton and Mortimer would appear and help
prevent things escalating further.

Then he realized that they might be able to
catch the man before he left the tunnel, and he thought he could
either catch him or make them go faster, and he rushed into the
tunnel with the others.

“
That guy was sneaking around up
there!
”
Bryson gasped, speaking to a policeman at his
side.

“
If he escapes we may never have a
chance to get him again.
”

“
Let’s go as fast as we
can!
”
Bryson announced, checking his watch.

He swiftly led them deeper into the tunnel,
surprising them with how fast and experienced he was in going
through tunnels.

He surely did not have that much of a head
start! If they moved fast enough they might catch him in the
wood.

He gasped at the fact that they could end up
going miles into the wood with those things there, as his
footprints were guaranteed to be there and force them into getting
him. Yet if they moved far faster than him they might capture him
first before anything happened. It had only just turned dark!

As he rushed on he studied the walls of the
tunnel amazed at the workmanship and that it had been manufactured
like the other tunnels that they found there, and he wondered if
the guy knew the people that had made it.

As he grew tired he thought the police in
the tunnel would just give up. Yet he was sure that they could
catch him! He wondered what he looked like, and what he was up to?
He also knew that the police would be using helicopters and
wondered what would happen there, and if he used a hideout?

From one of the communicators behind him he
learned that it was now snowing heavily above and over the whole
region, and he happily knew it would cover his trail in the wood,
if they could not get there before him entering deep into the wood.
They had to be as fast as they could! This could be the only chance
to get him!

As he heard the police not that far ahead of
him he realized that they had not been in a tunnel before and that
they were going slow, trying to see what was ahead, and he gasped
as he suddenly heard the police communicators stop work, from the
disturbances in the wood.

Bryson regulated his breathing, blowing out
steam through beams of torchlight, and rushed on and on, as he
searched for obstacles ahead.

He felt surprisingly awake now, with no need
to sleep, and he felt things could be successful and he intended to
increase their pace further.

So when the police ahead of him in the
tunnel appeared, now going very slowly, they allowed them to pass,
almost not believing that they could capture the killer, probably
put off by the length of the tunnel.

While they continued Bryson saw that they
were following them, at the back, and he realized that he was now
at the front and that the killer could even be nearby, and suddenly
realized why they had been so happy to allow him to pass and he
realized that he never even knew if the police directly behind even
had guns.

It was hideous! It could be anyone and the
guy could be far more different from what he accepted, especially
going by what this place had come out with so far.