Ch. 34

Ch. 34

Just past the mountains was the castle. It was ancient, and some might say it was beautiful. The castle of the Vampiranese was dark, forever frozen in the stillness of the Middle Ages, when it was created. The brick walls were barren and cold, except for torches in the shape of a skull. The windows were tall, with black bars on them. It was in the shape of a circle; a giant dome. It the center, was a tower.

The tower was tall and slim, with a chamber on the top. Inside that chamber, something was glowing. There were bridges leading to it from all around the castle, and they could just barely see two figures standing in the shadows, laughing.

“That’s them. It has to be. They’re the only ones here now. Everyone else is dead,” said Bodoleck solemnly.

“What happened to all of them?” Anna asked cautiously.

Bodoleck replied, “The King and Queen killed them.” Anna didn’t ask any questions after that.

In a few minutes, they came to the gate of the castle. Giant white ravens were the guards. Rosemary hit them with her dagger, and they fell to the ground without knowing what had even happened.

Bodoleck pushed the door, and it creaked open slowly. They walked in, silently, cautiously, suspiciously. So far, it was way too easy.

Once they were all inside, Bodoleck warned, “We must be careful. There will be traps all over the pla-”

But he never got to finish what he was saying. Like he said, there was a trap. Sarah and Leginivo, who were in the back of the group, fell through a door in the ground. It was almost like the floor was there one second, gone the next, and back again. Their screams echoed throughout the hall.

“Sarah! Leginivo!” Rosemary gasped. She ran to where they were just a moment before.

Then they heard him. Lord Batwings. “Don’t worry, my dear darling granddaughter. Your friends will not be harmed. We won’t hurt such young people. We’ll wait a few years to do that. No, we just captured them so they won’t be in the way. We’re waiting for you!”

“Where are you?!” Rosemary asked, more enraged than she had ever been in her life.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! You’ll have to find that out yourself, won’t you?” Miss Darkness said.

Rosemary broke a nearby window. It fell to the ground as a million little shards.

Michael hesitantly stepped forward and put his hand on Rosemary’s shoulder and said, “I think they’ll be fine. Your grandparents did us a favor, without even realizing it. They would have been in the way. Veripema, if she’s here, would have hurt them. Think about it. They’re better off down there than they are up here.”

This made Rosemary calm down. She nodded her head, and kept walking. The reset of them followed her. They were had run down about a hundred dark hallways before Bodoleck stopped them.

“Wait. We should mark that we’ve been here before. So we don’t get lost. I read about doing that in a book,” he said.

Susan laughed and asked, “Which book?”

He smiled. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, if you really want to know. When Tom and Becky were lost in McDougal’s Cave, that’s what they did so they wouldn’t run into Injun Joe again.”

“Can we all just focus and not play Name that Book?!” Rosemary asked.

“We’re sorry, Rose. We just want to lighten the situation a bit,” said Medeleck.

Mason, who had said nothing this entire trip, said, “I agree with Rosemary. We should get out of here as fast as possible. And who knows. We might be in here for days. So we should keep moving.”

“Thank you, Mason,” said Rosemary. She stormed on, with the others following her as quiet as mice, not wanting to annoy her any more.

Too bad that around the next corner was something very annoying to Rosemary.

“Hello, Rosemary. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Guard the humans! It’s Veripema!” Rosemary yelled.

And it was. Out of the darkness emerged Veripema, with an evil smile on her face. She had an arrow ready, and was waiting for Rosemary to attack first. Rosemary, already angry enough, took out her dagger and made the first attack, something she had promised never to do.

As Veripema came out of the shadows, the rest of them went into the shadows. Bodoleck, Medeleck, and Susan blocked Anna, Michael and Mason from seeing what was going on in fear of their lives.

And the battle started.