His eyes occasionally fell on the mess under him with little interest! The thick layer of stone and dust fragments scattered across the room was nothing now!
With a sudden heave he incredibly wrenched the boulder out and dropped it over to his side, where it bounced off the bed onto the floor, where a loud bang instantly came from the floorboards, which even collapsed in with the weight.
In the large black gap left in the wall, where the stone block had blocked, there was nothing visible and he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. But it stayed dim and showed him nothing!
Pendleton handed him one of the most powerful lights that they had brought to the castle, and which was another reason why they were there as the lights that they had used in the tunnels had been weak and showed nothing because of their limited range.
He turned on his light and confirmed that it was the tunnel and he poked his head in and crawled into the hole towards it.
Once further in, with his arms out in front, he pulled himself into the tunnel, with his head facing downwards, and he shone the powerful light down the tunnel. Where he saw the tunnel going deep down below, and as his sight adjusted to it he saw nothing and started to wonder if it was a large chimney.
Yet it seemed too large to be a chimney and there was no trace of soot or anything that would surely be there, even if they had it cleaned. Although there was the chance that nobody had really used it and that any marks were hidden below. But again it was not in the right position to be one! And he was sure that there were no fireplaces below to be connected to a chimney!
He saw its true size the more he looked and that it went further down to the bottom of the castle. His breathing echoed into it, and its coldness made clouds of steam pour out of his mouth into it.
Suddenly sounds started emerging below and he wondered if he had activated it! They started sounding mind-bending and started screaming through the shaft until they had a fury that stunned him, with some sounding like screams and others like wailing spirits.
Clouds of powdered dirt and stone fell about at different points around boulders far below as though the tunnel were being shaken by an earthquake. Dust swirled through his beam of light as he wondered where the treasure would be buried away!
He imagined Pendleton and the other two treasure hunters there years before, during the Second World War, hanging on their ropes, just over the disturbance, which he tried to locate and realized he could find something there by watching what was happening below carefully, which he had not been able to do when he had been in the other tunnel on the steps, surrounded in darkness, and he realized that he had actually avoided being killed there after all, and wondered if he was going to be killed later instead and was unsure what was worse.
He groaned and grabbed hold of part of a castle boulder he was resting over, with his head and arms sticking over into the tunnel, glimpsing parts of the shaft below, and he wondered what William Randall, his great ancestor, builder of the castle, had done and built there? They had clearly gone to great lengths to build something! At times it had felt like the whole castle was something else – created for some function that he could not even imagine – which went beyond his understanding.
Yet going by the stories something happened that had killed them all! So if it was true then what happened then and how did it end up in the tunnel and in the other tunnel, and was it there in other dimensions, and what was there below? Why had it not moved away into the other dimensions? What was keeping it there? Surely there had to be something there that they were missing? Perhaps it was disguised as something or had been hidden? Such advanced technology could achieve virtually anything and it could be something that he had not even considered possible?
He had always wanted to explore and discover something new of value and greatness in science, and perhaps even be remembered in history!
What interested and alarmed them was why it was hidden in such a place and created such occurrences! What was it they were dealing with anyway? Why was it in such a far out place?
Something of unfathomable unidentifiable supernatural nature sounded as though it were under him trapped in some form of magnetic or energy field, trapped and trying to free itself from something, ultimately escaping to another location of liberty, and he tried imagining some form of spirit trapped there every night for hundreds of years.
“Have you found if it’s down there?” Pendleton shouted in, in an alarmed state, with a combination of annoyance and confusion, and Bryson realized that he had been trying to get his attention, and he gave him the impression that he might be on the edge of considering doing something extreme, beyond the normal.
“It’s that disturbance below! I need more time here to examine the tunnel and see if I can discover something!”
Bryson again started to realize the implications of the find and that they might have to check what was there someday, and he better start finding information about it.
Pendleton shouted loudly, “Good idea!”
Bryson was confused at what they would do if he found the treasure there below? How would they go about getting it? What was there could be guarding the treasure, and why nobody had got it? William Randall could have left it there to guard his treasure while he was away? Yet if that were the case how would he have gotten the treasure himself and how did he put the thing and the treasure below?
Bryson felt that he had finally found something that might even be above his understanding and he wondered if he was going pay for his encountering the thing below?
It amazed Bryson, from what Pendleton had told him, was that they had been trying to get the treasure there in the middle of the night, in what had been a haunted castle buried away in a wood. Yet he believed that they were good – as they had traced the treasure there and found the location – and had survived getting through the wood.
He imagined them shifting into the shaft and making their way down, with their ancient lights.
Bryson looked up and saw ventilation shafts entering the tunnel and realized that they must run through most of the building.
“What else could it be?” Pendleton asked, trying to get some information on the tunnel, and Bryson ignored him.
The height of the castle was incredible, especially with it having been built when it had, as well as the length being so massive with rooms and corridors going out everywhere – and he could hardly believe that they had built it and he wondered if it was built by something else – and he remembered that he had not thought such a construction had been possible at that date. It was also unbelievable that somebody had managed to ship the construction over to there when it had happened, in such large sections and fit them together.
How could people spend so much on such things at the date it was built? It was a disgrace and offense that such a work of art and construction should end up derelict out in such a desolate wood? He really wished to solve the mysteries there and put them out in the open for everyone to see.
He gasped as he recalled the legends and what had already happened there and wondered if this could be his final encounter!
For a moment he considered if it had actually come from Transylvania and had vampires or something – and that was what they were missing! At times he had thought it had similarities to castles over there!
“You could send down a camera with a light attached down?” Pendleton announced, to his surprise, and wondered why the scientists had not done it and recalled that he had heard some of them mention exploring the tunnel with equipment, and remembered that their stuff had vanished.
Sounds were now screaming up at him and he realized how loud they had become, as if a gateway into hell were there, with him balanced over it.
He jerked when he heard some sort of almost human scream as though from out of in a distant strange place, and he searched below where the bottom of the castle was and saw blackness, like it were really located out in space.
Some of blocks of stone about him resembled small
er versions of stones in Egyptian pyramids and he even wondered if they were the same and there for some reason. They were strange things to use to build with as their weight was immense and they could easily have decreased their size and made them easier to shift about and work with, but they were hard to penetrate and were needed in a good castle.
He realized some sounds were now not emerging from far below him but were coming from somewhere just below him, and then he thought he heard one emerge next to him and he listened intensely with confusion.
Sounds manifested everywhere as though they were invisible unidentifiable things surrounding there, and strange glowing and swirling forces seemed to form in the blackness below, and he saw something that looked like a transparent rectangle black shape.
As he tried to see what was going on about him he noticed that light across his front was moving upwards and he fixed his eyes onto a strange orb of light floating upwards.
With a loud thud he banged his shoulder against the side of him and clouds of gray dust flew about almost blinding him, going into his face and lungs, and he rushed back into the room.
Chapter 15
The Mist
Early the next morning Bryson awoke in the deep silence of his room and opened his eyes to see that it was starting to get light, and realized something was somehow different and instead of seeing peaceful surroundings of his darkened room he slowly focused upon a faint mist about him and he instantly started searching for signs of a fire.
Yet there was nothing there to burn as the castle was virtually entirely made of thick stone and was as non-flammable as it could be! So he considered what could be burning!
Could smoke reach there from the lounge, dinning room, or kitchen? Perhaps one of the chimneys caught fire with all the rubbish stuck up in them, from years of being there, with small trees and vegetation covering the outer walls and roof? A hole in a chimney from it crumbling away could let smoke in!
Yet there was no sign of the scent of smoke or anything, and he sat upright in bed and watched a dark shadow from the mist creep over the walls, while cold swirling currents of mist shifted about in a hovering shape, and a wild beast’s blood-chilling screech came from a distant place, hidden out in the landscape, and he considered what it was.
When his eyes adapted and his vision grew in strength he saw a cloud drifting about over the floor that was moving around as though there were no gravity and he considered if it was real or something else. He proved that it was not made of smoke and only looked like it – and was really something else that was unidentifiable that was very faint that he could hardly see – and he looked about to find its source and where it was being generated, but never saw anything and he checked if it was a mirage, and some form of light illusion and reflection off something, and he checked all possible sources. Yet there was nothing visible to him that could produce it and it hung in the air over the middle of the room and swirled about, and seemed to be actually doing something. He was unable to explain its presence, and he stayed where he was, and started to grasp it could be one of the supernatural disturbances there, like the mist in the wood, and he realized that it could be dangerous.
When it thickened he started shifting and grabbed his clothes, without entering the central region, and he moved right up to it and watched it forming a turbulent cloud formation, with it forming shapes in itself, like something was forming itself into a life form, and, even after seeing all the things on the previous day in the tunnel, he still tried to prove that it was something else and he started thinking of other things that it could be.
It was forming itself into something that was unidentifiable and he knew Merton and Mortimer would love to see it and started to work out a route to the door without entering it and realized that he would have to go through one of its edges.
He strained himself and prepared himself to handle what could happen if it reacted and did anything. Though he could not really see it doing much as it was only in a mist formation!
Then within it he spotted what looked like a head and he sat dazed trying to figure out what it would form into, confused at what would happen when it did! What if it formed some form of dangerous life form or something else?
The color of the head region was white, with a far more dense shade than it had been minutes before, and it clearly was now forming at an accelerated rate, and he decided to go and get the others and rushed to the door and out into the corridor and looked out for others but never saw any of them about.
When he knocked on Merton and Mortimer’s doors he wondered if he had imagined what it was and he informed them of what had happened and they both dressed quickly and rushed over with him to his room.
They stood dazed examining it at the doorway, searching it for clues to its identity, trying to see what it could do.
“What the hell is that?” Mitchell said, announcing his arrival from behind them, from the side of the doorway. “Is it dangerous?”
“We don’t know yet?” Mortimer replied first, examining it more than the others. “What I want to know is why it’s in your room and why we have not seen this anywhere else?
“What did you do yesterday? Did you go out into the wood or something? I noticed you were away for a long time ...”
Bryson considered what to say and whether to tell him, ignore him, or tell him something else.
“We went to find the other tunnel where Pendleton entered ...”
“Was that over there where the police banned us from going?”
“Yes! And we found it! Pendleton recalled where it was – as he now has an interest in the treasure ...”
“That could have been dangerous!”
“Did you find anything?” Mitchell said, startled at the mention of someone making a major move to find the treasure without him knowing of it. “What was there?”
“We only found another tunnel like the other one under the library!”
“Where is it then?”
“I’ll have to show you!”
“Alright! Show it to us later!”
“I think it is transferring itself here!” Mortimer announced, staring at the formation forming in the center of the area in front of the bed.
“What will we do with it?” Bryson muttered, wondering if it had a means of understanding them.
“Wait here!” Mitchell replied, and he rushed off to get his men at their rooms.
“It is becoming more powerful!” Merton stated, staring at its large head shape that kept reforming into something, which it was clearly putting most of its time and energy into.
Bryson spotted that it had transformed into normal matter in places and that yellow slime dripped from its head into the carpet, and a slight human/animal odor scented the air.
The thing seemed to sense something somewhere, perhaps danger, and increased how fast it was building itself, and Bryson wondered why it had chosen his room – which the others thought was connected to his visit to the tunnel – and he wondered why something wanted to visit him and he realized that it could have easily formed itself somewhere nearby!
The main questions had to be was it dangerous and what did it want to do there?
Mitchell arrived with his men and their weapons, and moved Bryson and the two scientists out of the way, and stood at the doorway aiming their guns at it, waiting for the opportunity to fire at it.
Bryson wondered if they could kill it in its original state as the bullets surely would have gone straight through it, and now it could keep repairing the damage.
“What are we going to do with it?” Merton suddenly announced emotionally, realizing something about it, deliberately grasping Mitchell’s attention.
“What we need to do now is decide what to do with it if it does not attack us?” Mortimer continued, wondering what Merton had noticed, and he studied it in detail.
Bryson looked at where Merton was staring, at its head region, and he suddenly noticed that it was taking the shape of a human head, and realized that they c
ould be in trouble if they destroyed it in the form of a human.
Chapter 16
The New Species of Human
Once it had completely formed into a human the men dropped their guns down and stared at it with their mouth open, and they acknowledged that they had to have witnessed a miracle.
Surprisingly Bryson had to be the most startled and if not certainly the most confused as it was identical to him, and he realized he was now going to meet himself.
The men seemed happier that they were not now in any apparent danger, and they could destroy it or take it prisoner.
Bryson started to wonder if it had any of his memories and wondered how much of a danger it was to him? Was it intelligent? What did it want? Why had it deliberately done it in front of him, and when he awoke?
Did it have a mission? Was it connected to the thing or was it the thing itself that he had encountered in the tunnel the day before? And was it the same thing that had done the killings there?
They all seemed confused and wishing for answers, and a few of the police, some of Mitchell’s men knew, had passed there and had tried to explain what had been happening, and now never understood why there was another Bryson about.
They watched it put on some clothes one of Mitchell’s men got for it and stand next to them at the doorway, and Bryson realized that not only had it put on clothes that it had done it in the same way that he normally did, and he gasped at the thing knowing all his thoughts and memories and he tried to work out how dangerous it could be.
Yet the supernatural thing could have read and got his make up from the first seconds that he entered the supernatural vortex, and perhaps even before then when he had arrived at the castle.
What was the answer to this problem? None of them knew what they were dealing with! Was it more than one thing? Were the rest things that it had picked up through the vortex? And what was it up to? Was it part of the thing in the tunnel that he had visited the day before?
The Thing from Beyond Reality Page 10