The Deadliest Haunted Castle (11 page)

The mess was shocking! Webs and fungus had
shrouded everything and an ancient bed was left rotted away within
the room, with small amounts of ancient furniture around the edges
of the large room, and Bryson attempted to age it all but never
succeeded.

“
The owner liked a large
bed,
”
Merton muttered, humorously, examining its remains, watching
a dust cloud from their entrance float in beams of light, from
streaks of sunlight from the window where Mitchell started opening
the curtains, trying not to destroy the rotted remains of them, and
looking out at the wood from there with some
fascination!

They then crept around the room watching his
fascination of the wood, and his drawing all the areas of interest
in a vague map, and listening to their creaks and cracks from the
floorboards.

Bryson
’s
attention fell on the bed again
trying to imagine what age it was, and he realized it was early
twenty-century technology.

When he moved back he saw the humorous side
of what they were doing. The place interested him and he liked such
places and their history, imagining all the past events and people
who had been there, and all the many hours and days and thoughts
that they had, and he wondered what the future would hold for it
and fantasized being in a time machine shooting through the depths
of time. What would the future be? And what would the outcome of
their investigations there be? What would the future be now that
the murder and all the police were there? Was this the end of the
desolation of it? Or could the place become so deadly that they
would have to isolate it from humanity?

He saw a small drawer under the legs of the
remains of a wardrobe in the corner of the room and saw it had not
been seen, and investigated it with interest, while he considered
the room from different perspectives. He wondered if the people had
just slowly left there or had been forced out by the occurrences
there, or had they died there?

The stiff drawer revealed it was full
of old clothes and he looked through and man
’
s clothes considering what
he had been like.

Mitchell never investigated anything any
further and assumed that they had found what they were going to,
while Merton copied Bryson and still searched unusual places and
objects that he came to, and looked under a small gap below the
bed.

“
This place is
gruesome!
”
Bryson muttered.
“
This place must have been the biggest castle
in the world when it was built! And it could have had one of the
richest people too! It must have been the most magnificence
building to live in at one time, with luxury beyond other
people
’
s
wildest dreams! And look at what it ended up like! One of the worst
deadliest places on the planet!
”

He wondered if something might occur to
mankind in hundreds of years with the world turning desolate like
the castle! Could this be really what happens to the whole of
civilization one day? Will the remains of the human race end up
living in the remains of everything, treating it as desolate
gruesome remains of an ancient race obsessed with size and power,
building immense structures for unknown strange reasons?

“
An incredible place with an even more
incredible history!
”
he remarked, flicking webs away from
him.

“
Do you think that we made a mistake
being here?
”
Merton asked, seeing his change of feelings.
“
This place is
cursed with deaths ... And not just one or two people at a time
...!
”

“
A ruthlessly place with many lost
secrets that does not like people staying in its locality for too
long ...
”

“
Let
’s
check somewhere
else!
”

As they left they were amazed at how far the
others were going to search the place, and even Mitchell gave a
surprised look at what some of his men were doing and that they
were frantically yanking up floorboards all over the place, as well
as in specific places.

When they walked further up Mitchell was
even more surprised and stood with his mouth open, and one of his
men whispered something in his ear and he realized something and
nodded back in agreement, making Bryson wonder what they had
realized and had turned frantic over.

“
A
good
way!
”
Merton revealed.
“
We can get this place searched
properly if they all carry on like this.
”

When they moved along the corridor Bryson
realized that it was a good idea and slowly started copying and
helping them.

Though
Mitchell allowed it he never joined in and remained ready to go to
anywhere anything was occurring though.

Bryson wandered around just to see what he
randomly found, and stopped at paintings and antiques wondering
what they were worth. The owners were immensely wealthy and could
easily have left something that could have vastly increased in
value, and he studied a painting and wondered what it was
worth.

He quickly phoned an old friend to see if he
would value them and was surprised that he had heard about the
castle and occurrences there and that it was all over the media,
and he was comforted to know that they never knew the location as
the police did not want to give away the location, and Bryson knew
that they knew there was danger there and that people would be in
danger.

His next surprise was that he was more
interested than he had thought in checking the value the things
there for him and Bryson sent photos of paintings and antiques when
came to them, and left him to check them.

While he searched a repetitive forceful
hammering appeared in the distance and occasionally interrupted him
enough to stop and listen and wonder why someone was so determined
to break through something.

He realized how much he liked and missed
treasure hunting and quest for the discovery of the paranormal
cause and the solutions, and realized why he was there more than
ever. The quest, the exhilaration, and the thrill of the chase made
gave him immense excitement and adrenalin rushes! He was sure there
was stuff all over the place after seeing the reactions and things
there!

While he considered the
castle
’
s
interior from various perspectives the sounds in the background
escalated into a furious rummaging and banging, which made everyone
about him stand alert and listen. What was happening? What had they
missed by not checking there? The people behind the sounds sounded
as if they had really found something and were trying breakthrough
to something to get it.

Bryson stood next to Merton and watched a
room far along the corridor where there was a cloud of dust was
coming out, and heavy thuds were accelerating louder, almost
climaxing and the people were about to uncover something and they
marched quickly there, and the others around them joined them.

“
What the hell have they found
there!
”
one
of Mitchell
’
s men finally moaned out loud, glaring
ahead.

Bryson followed behind him and watched
the room
–
where the cloud of dust increased and moved along towards
them, and they heard and felt shudders going through the walls and
sounds of boulders crashing across the floor.

Their looks changed from bewildered glances
to observing everything as they approached it, and they looked in
the doorway and saw chunks of rock and pieces of plaster scattered
everywhere across the room and Mitchell and his men crowded around
an area of the floor where there was a large black hole, which they
had smashed the floor away to reveal.

They had discovered something concealed
below the stone floor beneath the wooden planks. Perhaps after they
had discovered that the ground under the floorboards had given a
hollow tone, but when he questioned Mitchell he told them that when
they had lifted the floorboards there that they found that the
stone floor had a hole in it, where it had caved in, and that they
had seen a chamber below.

Bryson measured the floor with amazement and
realized that he had not even considered it, even after being in
the last castle. It was phenomenal how thick the floor between the
top floor and the lower floor was and he had not noticed it, and it
even looked large enough to conceal something, and he recalled what
William Randall, the builder of the castles, was like and had done
in the other castle.

Yet why had he gone to such lengths to
conceal this one? Was there any connection between it and the
disturbances that had occurred at the place?

Mitchell
’
s men viciously smashed heavy
hammers against the thick stone and chunks of it crumbled away and
crashed down beneath the floor, while the others got ready to climb
down.

Chapter 18

The Hidden
Chamber

A deep thud echoed down when Bryson jumped
down into the chamber below, through the hole, landing on all the
debris that they had smashed in, and he watched Mitchell and his
men looking around with a single torch and Bryson looked up and out
the hole at the faces of the others glaring down, interested but
remaining there until more lights arrived.

It was hard to figure out why it was so
valuable to them and why it was even anything, although in the last
castle it had been, and he started looking for proof that it was
more than part of the structure of the castle.

The ebbing radiance of the torch clearly was
not enough to allow more of them to see properly at any proper
distance and they moved gradually while checking everything, and
Bryson followed scarcely grasping the concept of why such things
had been built, and recalled in the last castle they had been used
as hiding places and escape routes from being attacked and overcome
by enemies.

He had only one fact to prove and that
because it was in the castle it might have been part of its defense
against invaders! So he searched everywhere for clues that people
had been supposed to stay in it and all he saw were chimneys and
supporting walls as his eyes slowly adjusted to the vague
light.

The height of it was low and they were
crouched over to avoid hitting their heads against the above floor
and they crept through the dirt and building debris, while sounds
took strange tones, and he strained his eyes more trying to see
further in, but there were no features of anything.

After a great deal of time they
wandered around and the new lights arrived and surprised them as
they were able to see away into distant regions all around them,
and one of Mitchell
’
s men suddenly shouted and they all followed
his gaze
to a strange
shape away in the distance, and one of the men shone his light
directly on it and revealed a large square object.

While they
shifted there it became clear the place had not been used as a
hiding place, unless it could have been going to be one or the
builder had put it in to convert into it if they had needed it.

They approached the object slowly and Bryson
wondered where they were under, at the above floor, and tried to
grasp what would be there. Was it hidden away or was it part of the
structure of the castle? His examinations of it at a close range
gave him little to go on other than it was made of gray stone and
square, but when they finally approached the thing it became clear
it was the square end of a tomb, and if they had seen it from a
front angle they might have recognized it.

They examined
small writing on the side of it but the stone had deteriorated and
it was too dirty and dark and none of them could identify any of
it.

Bryson took
out a piece of paper and drew a vague plan of where they had
traveled giving the exact angle and distance that they had walked
from the entrance hole for him later to find where the tomb was
actually under, and he realized there had to have been an entrance
nearby as someone would not have taken such a bulky heavy object
across any great distance. They were practical people, which he had
proven in the last castle as well.

He searched
around looking for it above and found a large slab entrance hidden
in dirt on the above floor in front of the tomb.

“
What’s
that?” Mitchell asked, hardly seeing him, too busy trying to find
clues on the object.

“
I
worked out that they had to have had a nearby entrance to get that
down here ...” he replied, shoving the thin slab up and sideways,
out of the way, and examined the floorboards over it and found that
they were not nailed down there, but fixed together, and he
carefully removed them and pushed the carpet over it up, ripping
the areas of it up where it was nailed down.

Sunlight from
outside beamed down through the above room through the entrance,
lighting everything around them, and Mitchell’s men congratulated
it and some of them left through the hole, and Bryson climbed out
to see where it was and was surprised that it was over the central
region, where it had been in the last castle.

He searched
about for anything else but only found that it was faraway in the
opposite direction than they had been searching in, and he climbed
down to the tomb when they started to lift the lid off. Then he
wondered who was buried there and why they had been placed there?
And he gasped when he recalled all the disturbances and deaths that
had occurred there?