Monday, September 10, 2012

An Ending


Our eyes fixed on the window. The figure had disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.

“Did you all see what I think I just saw?” Dylan asked

“I think so, I’m not sure” I replied “But we’d better get moving before it comes back.” We quickly entered the castle. It was dark and musty.

“Here are some flashlights.” Tarra said as she passed them around. “Let’s get going, I don’t want to be here all night.”

Just then there was another flash of lightening. Be brave I kept telling myself, just don’t think about the creepy things going on, just be brave. We trudged along through the labyrinth passages.

“How will we know when we find the room?” Dylan asked “And what room are we looking for”

“The study, it’s up stairs and it has a large rectangular window in it.” “That is once we find the stairs” I muttered to myself. We turned the last corner and practically ran into the stairs.

“Found ‘em” I said.

We ascended cautiously. There was a long hallway with several doors, all of which were closed.

“Which way should we go?” Dylan asked

Allie and I exchanged glances

“To the right?” we said in unison.

It didn’t take us long to find the study, it was the second door to the right.

We cautiously entered the room.

Something was wrong.

“There’s something wrong with this room.” I said.

The others looked around. Allie was the first to realize it.

“There’s no dust. There’s dust everywhere else, but not in this room.” She said

“And all the furniture is still in this room. The rest of the castle doesn’t have furniture. So why does this room have it?” I asked aloud.

“I think we should say the ritual, and then go exploring, or get out of here as fast as we can.” Tarra suggested.

“Okay…..Which way is east?” I asked

Tarra pulled out her phone. After a few taps on her touch screen, she showed us a compass on her phone. Pointing to the left she said “That is east."

I pulled out the family journal, and recited “The king gave us this power to help others” he turned and faced the west and continued “I say this ritual now to control my powers that I may do as he planned.” There was a moment of silence and then a flash of lightening that took up the whole sky followed by a boom that shook the very castle. Looking down at myself I saw that I was now completely glowing blue. Then just as suddenly has it had stated it was over. 

 

*****************************************

There were a few moments of silence, which I decided to break by asking the question that was foremost on my mind.

“That’s it? That’s all we had to do?”

“I guess so.” Rhys replied.

“What about that apparition? I know I wasn’t seeing things.” Dylan asked

Tarra had moved toward the fireplace, I followed. She smiled at me and then pointed to the candlestick on the fireplace mantle.

“Our parents had a set of candlesticks just like this.” She said. There were pools of tears building up in her eyes.

One of the candlesticks was moved far off center, I tried to move it back to where it belonged, but it was stuck in place.

“That’s odd” I thought out loud

“What is?” asked Rhys as he and Dylan walked over to join us.

“It’s probably nothing, but this candlestick won’t move.”

“So?” Dylan asked “It probably just stuck, it’s very old.”
“No. It’s perfectly polished, it’s been cleaned and recently, just like the rest of the room. But this stick won’t move it’s like it’s glued into place.” Looking more closely at the design, I saw a slightly deeper outline around one of the roses. I gently pressed it………there was an ominous creaking sound from behind us. We turned in unison and saw the wall behind us had open into a small room.

I flashed an adventurous smile at Rhys; his grin proved that we were thinking the same thing.

We started forward but Tarra caught my arm and held her finger up to her lips. I could hear a gentle creak in the floorboards outside in the hall way, someone was out there!

She motioned us back by the fireplace, and took a spot on the side of the doorway. We all turned out our flashlights.

The door slowly opened, and a small figured stepped into the room. Just as it did Tarra slammed the door and shown her flashlight in the persons face. We all turned on our flashlights, and were shocked to find a girl who looked to be about 12. She was tall for her age, and the way her white clothes engulfed her, she was obviously malnourished. Her brown eyes were large and full of fear, but along with the fear was a cold determination and silent confidence.

“Who are you?”  Rhys asked

She stared defiantly at us.

“We’re not going to harm you; we just want to help you.” Tarra said lowering her flashlight out of the girl’s face. Slowly reaching into her jacket pocket she pulled out a nut bar and handed it to the girl. “Here……. Take this, you look like you need it.” Tarra smiled at her.

The girl just looked at it, then slowly reached out and took it from Tarra’s hand. She quickly devoured the bar, and smiled at us.

“My name is Kathleen.” She said with a heavy Scottish accent.

“Mine is Allie” I said.

After everyone had introduced themselves, I asked Kathleen “What are you doing here? Do you live here?”

“Yes. My parents died from a virus that infected this area about six months ago. So I moved in here. I’ve been living off what I could scrounge from around the castle and surrounding farms. I found a set of lights and mirrors here that were set up to portray me on the window as a ghost”

“That’s explains what we saw at the window. Why would you be living here? Surely you must have some family somewhere? Or maybe your parents left you some money?” Tarra asked

“No. I have no one. They’re all dead, except my uncle McNeil. He wanted to put me in the orphanage, so I ran away.” She replied

We all had the same look of shock on our faces.

“Randy McNeil is your uncle?” I asked

“Yes.”

“I think we should leave…..now. And you….” Tarra said pointing at Kathleen “Kathleen should come with us.”

She recoiled and glared at us, “If I go with you how do I know you won’t just leave me at the orphanage?”

“Why would we do that? Why not just leave you here? I promise that we won’t leave you at the orphanage, but we will find you a good family to stay with. Okay?” Tarra asked

“Okay!” she smiled reluctantly

****************************************

The next few days seemed like a dream. Tarra called the police and with all the evidence against McNeil he was convicted and sentenced to prison along with all his accomplices. He was convicted for fraud, attempted kidnapping, and negligence as a guardian. The people from the lab and everyone connected with them were caught by the FBI smuggling drugs into Arizona, and an extended investigation linked them to the deaths of Alex and everyone else at the Lab.

Dylan was reunited with her grandmother in England.

“We’ll keep in touch” I promised.

“Count on it” She smiled.

It was hard to say goodbye, but I couldn’t wait to get home. Home. Where was my home? The Taylors were assigned as witness protection child parents, back in Washington DC. We landed in California and were met by Allies parents and an elderly couple.

Allie rushed out the gate and into her parents arms, where they exchanged greetings. I stood in the corner watching, when Tarra suddenly appeared beside me, and laid an arm across my shoulders.

“I’d like you to meet my foster parents.” She said motioning to the elderly couple a few yards away from us. She introduced them as the Carlisle’s.

“Rhys, I don’t know what you want to do, but I thought I’d run a few options by you. You could go back into the foster system…..” The horror on my face made her hold up her hands to stop my questions “or…………..” A sly smile crossed her mouth. “I sort of was thinking we could buy the house next door to Allie. The house is on the market, and we’d still be together!”

My answer was obvious.

**************************

 “Dear Journal ~

Six weeks had passed since we got back from Scotland, Rhys and Tarra had moved in to the house next door that her parents bought for them. I had caught up with my parents and found out that Tarra had called her parents to come and take care of my parents and the Taylors. Rhys and I started school today.”

“HA! I finished my math homework before you did” Rhys gloated

I wrinkled my nose and stuck my tongue out at him. “I can still beat you at all the other subjects, and chess.” I retorted.

“Oh is that so?! Well how about we just try that theory out”

“Best two out of three? Loser pays for Ice Cream at The Parlor?”

“Deal, I’ll set up the chess set. But I must warn you, I’ve been practicing!” He smiled wickedly, and I could help smiling. Smiling at my new best friend!

 The End

 

 

2 comments:

  1. Wow, Lydia! Nice job!! :) I don't know how I'm gonna make an ending as good as yours and Emily's. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like it, Liddie! *Great* creative twist with McNeil's niece! XD AWESOME JOB!!

    ReplyDelete