Page 26 of Darkening Truth
It’s really fucking strange.
I know for a fact that I have never been here before, and although I have been in castles before, most supernatural realms are full of them, actually, the Earth Realm seems to have a few too, if I recall correctly. Hell, I lived in the cells under my father's one.
Despite that, I haven’t been in any that look like this, and even if I had, this feeling goes beyond just recognising it, it’s more than that, and I can’t for the life of me put my finger on why.
The familiarity hits an all-time high as we enter a smaller room that appears to be some kind of office.
“Ouch,” I say without meaning to as my hand lifts to my head. Trying to rub away the sudden pain there.
Zev appears in front of me immediately, “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I don’t know, I just got a sudden pain in my head as I looked around this room,” I reply honestly.
He frowns, “Maybe we should get out of here? It might be your magic trying to protect you from something.”
“Yeah, maybe. But this room is clearly an office of some kind. If we’re going to get answers anywhere, then they’re going to be in here. I don’t want to leave when we’ve got a chance to find out what happened here,” I reply. For some reason, it’s becoming increasingly important that I know what happened.
I think it’s probably because so many lives were lost, and there was so much suffering here. Plus, there’s the mystery side of everything. Nothing about this adds up, and I think if it were as simple and straightforward as it being an invasion and the aftermath of that, then I may not be as interested as I am now.
Don’t get me wrong, I would want to know what happened, but not as intensely as I currently do. At least I don’t think I would.
Zev studies me closely and opens his mouth to most likely insist that we leave anyway when the ghost kid pops up in front of us again, and makes me jump.
“Sorry, miss, I didn’t mean to make you jump,” the kid immediately apologises. “Please hurry though, they’ve been trapped for long enough.”
I nod, “Of course. Lead the way, but remember we can’t move through things like you can, and you need to go a little bit slower, or we can’t follow you.”
The kid nods, “Yes, miss, I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. Let’s go,” I reply.
He takes off, and Zev and I once again share a look.
“He’s not a memory then, he’s an actual ghost,” Zev says as we rush through the maze of hallways after him.
“But he’s coherent, and he’s obviously been here for a really long time. He’s not tried to hurt us,” I point out.
“Why would I hurt you?” He asks, glancing over his shoulder before he quickly turns back around and carries on running.
I again share a look with Zev. None of this makes sense, but I guess we just go with it for now and see what happens. The problem is, if he does suddenly decide to go all vengeful and face chompy, I don’t know how to fight him. He’s already dead, and he’s not supposed to exist, so I have no idea what I’m supposed to do or even what he’s capable of.
We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it and hope that it doesn’t actually become an issue.
As we follow him through the winding hallways, deeper and deeper into the castle, the lights flare to life, thanks to the magic of the castle and illuminate our way.
It’s not until he leads us through the servant’s quarters and down a set of wide stone steps that I start to get nervous.
Dungeons tend to be down in the bowels of castles, and I have a rather heavy dislike for them, for obvious reasons.
“Are you okay?” Zev asks me as we round a corner, and I’m faced with a line of barred cells, and I freeze.
The corridor of cells is long, and piles of bones sit in the cells closest to us, clearly having been abandoned and left to their fates when the castle was attacked. Water drips from somewhere, and the place is dark, only lit occasionally by the wall sconces that the castle has lit for us.
“Farren,” Zev asks gently but firmly, trying to get me to focus on him and not on our surroundings.
The kid has stopped and is looking back at us, his expression pleading with a slight hint of desperation. I know that it’s important that I see what he wants to show me, that’s the whole point of this dream after all.
I don’t think that he’s leading us into a trap, I mean, what would be the point? This is a dream. As far as I’m aware, it is possible to get trapped in a dream, but it is incredibly rare. Plus, I don’t get a bad feeling off him, despite the fact that he shouldn’t be possible.
