by Angela Timms
Its skull face was illuminated by the eye sockets, its hands reached out towards me and I leapt back off of the carriage. I landed on Gadget and she squealed. I luckily was able to put a hand over her mouth which was a surprisingly human thing to do considering we were spirits and could communicate without the material mouth opening and closing. With the creature having seen us and clearly following us as he was climbing down from the carriage it was obvious we had to move and move fast. We scampered into the black soggy undergrowth. As we crouched down behind a bush on the damp loamy soil it was more important to get away from that creature than to worry about the damp. The lights from the train only managed to illuminate a small area around the train itself. The green lights from the skeleton driver’s eyes moving like searchlights along the edge of the track illuminated far further and it was clear it was looking for us. Behind us the green glow from the castle threatening to silhouette us so that the creature could most likely easily see us if it looked where we were. I sniffed, Gobians, but something else. Something dead.
Gadget tugged my sleeve. “Shall we go and see if there is an answer in the castle?”
I knew the answer was obvious but I had to ask. “Why do you think that the castle is the answer?”
“Well the children talked about a haunted castle. We now have a haunted castle. I’d put the two together.” We ran like a flash to the castle and with a small amount of hesitation we scampered across the drawbridge which thankfully didn’t shut. The chains which pulled it up stood silent and very solid. The stone archway above the door was intricately carved with gargoyles and I didn’t even stop to think that they would animate as soon as we got near. It seemed so obvious that with the quality of the carving they were not carved at all. We knew we were in trouble and a host of small gargoyles attacking us was just the icing on the cake. The wood planks were covered in cobwebs as was the arch that held them. Nobody had been here for a very long time. That was good as the gargoyles were covered in cobwebs too so they too hadn’t moved for a very long time. There was a huge door knocker but we were in no hurry to knock and we knew there would be no welcome here.
The window to the right was cracked so I carefully lifted out a piece of glass big enough to let me climb in. I climbed in, followed by Gadget, very carefully as the sharp glass was all around me and glass hurts. More importantly glass tears and the last thing I needed was a big rip in this material body. Rips don’t heal for us, they have to be sewn up and they look awful.
Inside the castle the window opened into a huge open hall. A long table was set out with all manner of tasty treats. Sweets and all those sugary and fatty things that parents usually said weren’t allowed to be eaten in such great quantities or so I am led to believe from television shows. It was an obvious feast set out to tempt children. As my foot touched the floor inside the lights came on. Torches in sconses on the wall burst into flames and their light illuminated more of the immense hall, showing it in flickering detail. The lights were bright and shiny and the music spooky and happy, like it had been up at Devil’s Bridge but definitely more sinister.
Gadget looked at me and smiled. She loved treats. I looked at Gadget and shook my head. “No, nothing good can come from here. This is a haunted castle. We must not be tempted. This is a trap for children.”
I went first, Gadget close behind me and we walked past the oh so tempting table. As we walked we were both vigilant and watching out for something moving, anything moving. Taking in the room was hard, it was so big and the walls were painted with Pre Raphaelite style murals which depicted recognized fairy tales I had read. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and many others. Set into this there was a big black door at the far side of the room, behind the big chair a the head of the table. I counted the chairs, there were twenty four. I wasn’t sure if this had any significance or just that was the number of chairs decided on by the place’s owner. The door however did seem relevant as it was open a crack.
My feet took me there but I wasn’t so sure my head wanted to go. It was a moth to a flame moment, the door was open a crack so I had to find out why and what was behind it. It was a big door and heavy but with a bit of effort from both of us we pulled it open just wide enough and squeezed through.
It opened into another room. Undecorated and unadorned by anything other than coffins lined up along the floor with their tops propped up against the far wall. Each one had a body in it and as we stepped into the room they all sat up. I don’t know what I had expected but certainly not that so I backed into Gadget very quickly and nearly pushed her over. She squealed but kept her balance.
There wasn’t long to look around the room but at the back of it in front of the coffin lids there was a table and on the table there was a shovel. There wasn’t long to think but a shovel is what puts the coal into the fire for the train. The shovel was dirty and certainly didn’t fit with the room. It was a human shovel and with Frixian sight it was possible to see there was magic on it. I’d read enough stories to know that there are sometimes important items which if removed and controlled can give the spell caster power over the item and what it was used for. Coal makes the train move so the shovel was important. It was probably odd to think like that looking back but I was scared and there were only moments to react as the decomposed bodies where beginning to try to climb out of their coffins.
Gadget shoved me back into the room as she ran in too. The mostly skeletons were trying to get their balance and getting used to moving again before climbing out of their coffins so we ran. We made the most of them being slow, disorientated as they weren’t used to walking and we were fast, very fast. We ran past them and grabbed the shovel and darted back into the main hall before they were out of the coffins.
Gadget was right behind me and grabbed my arm. “We need to find the driver. A train won’t go without a driver.” Now I was really confused but for some reason something inside me agreed with her. Those bodies on the train were not that of the driver and the guard. “Is there just the driver or was there someone else like on the train? Why are you saying that as they were asleep on the train.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think that was really them and I really don’t know why I know that. I really wish I’d read more about the railway before we got on it. Where are they?”
I thought but it didn’t make sense but often in difficult situations my inside feeling was right so I wasn’t going to ignore it as Gadget was obviously thinking the same thing. “I don’t know but this is a haunted castle so wherever we go we’re not going to be alone.”
“That is what I’m worried about. At this moment us alone here with time to look for what we want would be great.” I looked about the Great Hall and I was ever conscious of the dragging and stumbling noises coming from the room we had just left. “So what do we do now?”
Gadget looked at me, bright eyed and with that look I’d seen so often before when we were on adventures. She wasn’t afraid, she was excited. “We hold onto the shovel and try to find the driver. Do you think this castle has a dungeon? If it has one, perhaps that is where they put the driver?”
I took a deep breath. Odd how I do that as I don’t have a real body and I certainly don’t have lungs but it is a habit I suppose. “Alright, well dungeons are down so we need to find steps going down or a trap door or something.”
The click, click of the skeletons in the room we had come from getting closer reminded us that we were definitely not alone. Our conversation had taken hardly more than a few heartbeats but it seemed like time was hanging pendulously over us. We both tried to close the door but it was too heavy. I took out my Frixian wand which looked like a small stick from a willow tree, said the words and magic closed the door. With another wave and a few words the door locked. “Well that dealt with them.”
Just as I finished speaking a white figure stepped through the wall. It was an old lady in what looked like a wedding dress. Her face was shriveled and dried up, her fingers gnarly and claw like as she reach
ed for us.
I ran, Gadget was close behind me and we dived under the table of treats. We soon realized our mistake as her head and arms emerged through the table. She nearly caught Gadget so we ran out from under the table and around the wall. There was a door we had missed, we opened it and darted through it without thinking about what might be on the other side.
We were met by a long corridor and a line of doors. We closed the door which was probably pointless and ran down the corridor. In the silence as we stopped there was a sound of chains being dragged over stone. Slow and sinister and definitely getting closer. Metal on stone, footsteps and somewhere far in front of us there was a scream. It rang out and echoed down the corridor.
At the end of the corridor there was a dark archway. Dark because of no light and no door. The corridor itself was lit by long wooden torches held out by sconces. The flickering light they gave off even more sinister but at least we could see and that was a bonus.
We grabbed a torch each, being very careful as fire is dangerous and I do have rather long hair and a material body. Despite this, the light which allowed us to see and the warmth from the fire was reassuring as we walked down the corridor and at the end of it the arch led to a spiral staircase going down.
Gadget grinned. “Down is good, well down is bad but we have to go down. Down there we might find the driver and anyone else important.”
Down the stairs we went. The stone stairs were very dusty and we made footprints with every step and our cloth feet made no sound of course. Down and down we went, down the spiral staircase, which spiraled down into oblivion. Down and down until it opened out into a room full of horrible things. An iron maiden was shut, our torch illuminated eyes which glared in horror. I ran over and opened it, worried it might be the driver.
Inside was a rotted corpse, its eyes still in its head glaring around in pain. Its mouth fixed in a look of horror. I quickly shut the door again as I didn’t know what to do about the body and I was worried it would climb out and chase us too.
I turned to Gadget who was standing beside the rack where a similarly rotted body was stretched to breaking point. The boy on the wrack moaned but didn’t move. Gadget looked up. “This is a nasty place.”
As she spoke the body on the rack moved, its head turned to look at her. She screamed and ran over to me, dropped her torch and it went out. She grabbed the torch off of the floor and relit it from my torch.
The rest of the room was full of torture equipment. Nasty metal things and blades covered in dried blood and gore. We looked at each other. The driver was thankfully not here.
Gadget looked so sad. “Is there anything you can do? You have magic, I do not, can you help these people and set them free?” I thought about it. “To set them free might mean that they chase us but I could try and unbind the magic that may be keeping them here. I’ll give it a try. Here, hold my torch.”
I handed the torch to Gadget and concentrated. The spell I called up ripped the magic from the unfortunate corpses and as it left the body on the wrack he gave a sigh and didn’t move anymore. I then did the same for the body in the Iron Maiden. “Ok, that seemed to work. I hope they are in a better place now.”
There was one door. We didn’t want to open it but we had to. We opened it and there were the dungeon cells.
There was a line of five barred walls and from the door we couldn’t see into them. To look into them we had to go into the room. The first was empty or we thought it was. As we walked past a little blonde girl dressed in a Victorian style appeared in the middle of the room. Her face was in her hands and her dress was covered in blood. As she looked up we tried to look away. Her face was also covered in blood. She held her hands out to us. “Please help me. I have been a prisoner here for so very long.”
Gadget turned around and ran back to the door. Hanging on a hook by the door there was a set of keys on a big metal ring. “We will need these.”
“Good thinking.” From further down the room a man’s voice called out. “Help us!” We ran to where we had heard the voice and found the driver and his guard. Their smart uniforms were covered in cobwebs. The driver had his peaked cap in his hand. His face was covered in soot and he was covered in dust and cobwebs. “Please get us out of here.”
Gadget climbed on my shoulders and we started trying out the keys we heard the sound of grating chains on the stairs. She fumbled slightly as she heard the sound of grating chains getting closer. We could hear a whoosh of wind but there was no wind, just the sound of it and somewhere a woman screamed.
Key after key didn’t fit the lock until there was one key left. The driver looked at the guard, the guard looked at the driver as Gadget put it into the lock and turned. It turned. The door opened.
The driver and his guard staggered out and I handed the guard the shovel. “I think it is time to get back to the train.” Gadget grabbed the driver and the guard’s hand. I put my hand on Gadget’s shoulder and waved my wand, silently muttering the Frixian magic words. The room went blurry and we appeared in the bushes beside the train. I fell to the floor exhausted. That was a marvelous spell but it drained all my magic. I had no more left to fight the Goblians or anything else.
The driver and guard crouched down beside us. In the darkness we couldn’t see their faces but we knew they were scared. We were scared. We were out of the castle but we still had the skeleton in the train engine to deal with.
He was still in the engine and his eyes projected their green glow along the edge of the track. He was looking for us. In the distance behind us we could hear screams of frustration and anger and they were getting closer.
We were crouched down and almost certain the creature couldn’t see us. But this was no answer. We couldn’t stay here. He was in front of us, the ghosts from the castle were fast approaching.
The driver put his hand on my shoulder. “This is my train and nobody is going to take it from me if I can do anything about it. People have worked really hard to get that train to the condition it is and I’m not letting any bloody ghost get his bony hands on it. Ok, are you ready?” The guard smiled and clutched the shovel. They looked at each other and looked very angry.
They stood up and as the skeleton turned to face them he pulled his hood back so that the full terror of his skeleton head could be seen. They were not daunted and leapt into the train, not put off by this sight and the guard hit the creature with the shovel. Pure anger and adrenaline had overcome their fear. Hours, days and probably months of work on that train came back as a memory that was stronger than the fear of what the creature might do to them.
The skeleton’s head flew from its body with what would have been a surprised look if it had had muscles and skin to express such an emotion. The driver grabbed the disorientated body and threw it from the train. He threw it out into the darkness on the other side of the train and as soon as it was disconnected from the magic projected from the castle it turned to dust and disappeared. We couldn’t see much from where we were as it was in the darkness but my Frixian sight could just about make that out happening.
Now that it was safe, Gadget and I leapt onto the train as the guard began to shovel the coal and the driver sounded the horn with a toot toot and we were off. The wheels turned and the engine pulled the carriages off down the track as the ghosts from the castle emerged from the bushes. The guard shoveled and we joined him, grabbing coal and throwing it into the fire box as the train began to rumble down the track.
The train gathered momentum and ran down the track. Rocking and rolling it rumbled through the dark countryside and towards the bright lights of Aberystwyth and safety.
As we approached the town I waved my wand and used the last of the magic I could draw up from the wand itself and Gadget and myself were clean again. I waved my wand and the guard and the driver were clean again and had forgotten their traumatic experience. I couldn’t wave my wand to get us back back in our basket in the carriage with all the sleeping people. We had to carefully climb our wa
y back down he carriages, in through the window and then back to where we had been before the people went to sleep. We got back just in the nick of time as the lights of Aberystwyth woke them up as we trundled into the town and then into the station.
Tired happy people stepped down onto the rain soaked platform and headed home to their beds. We smiled to each other as the happy faces passed us and everyone headed for the car park at the end of their great adventure.
9
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Widget & Friends (Angel, Niall, Sarah, Ian, Mike and Michelle) go to Cardiff
& the Dr Who Exhibition
Inspired by the 78 record: The Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Robert Earl It can be very lonely when you are miles from home, whoever you are and wherever home may be. It has been many hundreds of years for me now since I was last on my home planet. I still miss the violet skies and gentle breezes which smell of the Zelokis Flower. Not that I was born there but I still feel it is home as that is where my people come from.
My home is a beautiful place. The seasons are like you have on your planet although the summers are warmer and the winter is whiter. There is a mix of nature like here, mountain, vale and woodland but we live in our huge white spired towers which keep us from living in the wild places and building all over them. That keeps wild, wild and town, town.
You will probably think these towers would be difficult to build but of course it is easier for us as we have magic. With a wave of a wand, a belief and the right words those stone blocks take the form and shape that we want and block by block they build the tower. Our younglings sit and watch and the wizard sells tickets. It is great fun. Magic shapes the rock into an impenetrable coating so no rain will blow through the walls. There are no draughts there to make people cold and of course the fire imps that keep the buildings warm are happy and content. We know they are happy when they sing, either silently so we cannot hear them as their pitch is higher than we can hear if they wish it or if they think it is right for us to hear or we ask they will lower their pitch and they will sing loudly. It is amazing when they do as they have magnificent voices and can create some wonderful harmonies. The sound of the flame-song is one of the most amazing sounds I have ever heard.