The Deadliest Haunted Castle (13 page)

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.

He definitely did not want to confront him
in the tunnel as he could easily shoot him as there was nothing to
give him any cover, and it was better to wait until they were
outside. Even though that could mean him escaping or dragging them
through the wood in something like a gun battle!

His eyes stayed on the most distant part of
the tunnel, searching for him, waiting for him to take a shot at
them or to attempt to ambush them.

When he recognized the steps to get out the
tunnel he sprinted there, and when he approached them he considered
what to do next and realized how easily the killer could be waiting
for them to climb out of the tunnel. He knew that they were chasing
him, and had to have heard them as they had not tried to conceal
them being there, and going by the distance the police in front of
him were he considered him not far ahead.

Bryson rushed up the stairs and waited, and
the others appeared behind him with startled faces, and he realized
that at least he might have talked them out of doing something
stupid, and was amused to hear some of them wondering who the hell
he was.

“
Well, what will we do
now?
”
one
of them asked, panting slightly, looking at him as though he was
crazy.

“
We
’d
better have the police with guns here! We
don
’t
know
what this guy could do!
”

Once the police moved to his side Bryson
climbed out into an immense blizzard, with the snow blanketing his
entire surroundings, almost in complete darkness, without any
lights, shifting into deep snow, considering everything that he was
up against, attempting to observe any place he could see, and
wondered if the killer could possibly see him.

He listened through the howl of the wind and
all that he heard was the trees being blown around, and he looked
for a place to take cover and move over to, and one of the
policemen appeared at his side and shone his torch about, and
though the wood became visible, he could barely see anything
else.

“
There is part of his
footstep!
”
a policeman announced, pointing, and they realized that they
could not follow him, as there was only part of one footstep
there.

Chapter 23

The Space/Time
Gateway

Once Bryson arrived back at the top floor
that night after resting and having a meal he instantly realized
that they had found something else, and he saw Mitchell and his men
standing around a large hole in the floor in front of the
bookshelves.

“
We just dug
through,
”
Mitchell announced, in excitement, as Bryson arrived,
glaring, and Mitchell shone his light around the large hole, where
they had removed floorboards and smashed in a stone entrance
slab.

“
When did you find
it?
”
he
replied, wondering what was there, realizing it probably was what
was marked on the map, and that the bookshelves were covering it
up.

“
We found it only an hour
ago!
”
Mitchell replied.

“
How did you find
it?
”

“
Some of the men, who were still
exploring the chamber with the tomb, found the area below here was
surrounded and hidden by a thick wall ... And we found a sealed
entrance over it ...
”

“
What
’
s down there?
”
Bryson asked, trying to see
in it.

“
There
’
s stairs ... They go down below
somewhere!
”

Mitchell entered first, using his light to
see the ancient steps going straight down, and Bryson followed,
surprised that the tunnel and stairs fitted into the massive walls
in the floors below.

Bryson
watched Mitchell moving down
making
sure he never slipped, and a deep thud echoed down from behind, and
he saw that only one other man followed him, and he realized that
it was a good idea only having the three of them as the ancient
derelict castle steps might not be able to support more
weight.

The ebbing radiance of the light was not
enough to allow more than three to go safely down either, and he
tried to grasp the concept of the tunnel and he imagined the
outside of the castle, as he had seen it, and tried to recall the
place where they were on it, and where they were going. He was sure
that it might have been part of its defense against invaders!

Sounds from behind altered and echoed
down giving muddled and strange tones, and he had to strain his
eyes more and more to see what he was doing, what Mitchell was
doing, and occasionally look back at Mitchell
’
s man behind him, who was
the man that had seen the cross map on the map, which had led them
there, and he wondered why he was so keen to find what was
there.

He saw little below and that there
were no new features of anything, and that the
tunnel
’s
small shape (less than a meter all around him) vanished into
the dark.

The steps descended sharply and hazardously
and they had to climb down slowly, rather than walk down like with
normal stairs, and he had to hold himself upright and lean
backwards, and its drop seemed perpendicular at times.

Once he thought he heard distant movements
from below, surrounded by their growing surges of strange sounds,
and he was sure Mitchell reacted, just ahead of him, with the light
oscillating irregularly. Its light swayed over the stone, and the
narrow shaft seemed to vanish at a point below.

A feeble glow from something reflecting
light caught his attention and he wondered what was there to
reflect it, and he saw what looked like a crack in a wall, between
the castle stones, and when he looked down he realized Mitchell had
vanished!

At first he thought he never saw him as his
light had gone, and that he had broken it and that they would have
to return, but as he moved down an explosion of colors exploded out
from something stunning him, and he opened his eyes and studied his
surroundings and saw that he was no longer in the shaft, and as he
confusedly studied his surroundings a colossal whirlpool of
shifting outlines magically shifted about him and he realized that
he had no body or proper presence, and was some form of energy
formation.