Castle on the Edge

by Douglas Strang

  Then with aggressive force but gentle passion, I took Mary in my arms and embraced her tightly. Our lips moved into a head-on crash to ecstasy. Then she sweetly murmured the words, “I love you too, Alex, with all my heart.”

  For one short moment my mind was teleported to another dimension, a sphere of love, security and peace…Mary’s Castle. I wanted to stay there forever.

  Then, Mister Dudley came out into the hall carrying his big flashlight, immediately followed by Mrs. Dudley.

  “Don’t worry, Doctor Ramsey and Miss Holden, I’ll go up there with you. I’ve got my big torch here,” Mister Dudley said with an air of authority fueled by the whiskey-laden punch he had been consuming up to that point.

  “Never you mind throwing your weight around, Shamus Dudley,” snapped back Mrs. Dudley, “you shine that torch for Doctor Ramsey and Miss Holden; they’ll both be needing their hands free for latching on to Mister Strutmire if he’s not in a mood for cooperating.”

  Mrs. Dudley returned to the rec. room and then Mister Dudley, Mary and I marched down the long hall past the out-of-commission elevator to the south-west stairwell. The bright beam of Mister Dudley’s lamp guided us up the stairs to the third floor. When we got there, I remembered about the fountain. Then I asked Mister Dudley why he’d turned it off when he had instructions to leave it on because of tonight’s Halloween party. He said he’d never touched it and that it was on before the lights went out. I couldn’t worry about that now so we proceeded down the corridor to the door of Mister Strutmire’s room. I knocked on the door; there was no answer. I knocked again, still no answer. I tried to open the door; it was locked, of course. Mary and I looked at each other, not saying anything; we didn’t have to…our thoughts were speaking loudly enough. Then all of sudden, in the quiet darkness, on the other side of the door, we heard it, all three of us. The thumping, dragging sound, the sound that Doctor Lederer and Mary had heard earlier; but it was the first time I had heard it and it was coming from Mister Strutmire’s room. Boom, swish, boom, swish, boom, swish. Then it stopped.

  “No time to find any key, we’ve got to get into that room now. Help me break down the door, Dudley.” I yelled.

  Mary took hold of the big light and shone it on the door; then Dudley and I started slamming our bodies in unison against it with all our might. We were like one great wrecking ball pounding the wall of a condemned building. Then after the nineteenth or so blow, the two hinges snapped, one after the other, and the solid oak door collapsed by literally falling into the room onto the floor. Mary then stepped under the archway and commenced waving the flashlight around Mister Strutmire’s room, while Mister Dudley and I were catching our breath.

  “Mister Strutmire, Mister Strutmire,” Mary called out, “where are you?”

  Then Mister Dudley took the big light and entered Mister Strutmire’s chamber. He positioned himself in the middle of the room in such a way as to give off the fullest possible range of light so Mary and I could look around. I called out to Mister Strutmire, no answer. We looked in the bathroom, checked the bathtub behind the door, and pulled open the curtain to the shower stall; he wasn’t in there. Then as Mister Dudley continued to shine the light, Mary was looking through all the drawers of the dresser and nightstand. I looked into the closet. In both instances we found nothing out of the ordinary. Mister Strutmire’s suits and robe were hanging neatly in the closet and his pajamas and undergarments were meticulously folded in the draws. His three pairs of shoes and one pair of slippers were situated under the bed in a perfect straight line. Everything was as it should be…but Mister Strutmire wasn’t in his room. Where was Mister Strutmire, and who, or what, was making that thumping, dragging sound from a couple of moments ago prior to our entry…and where did it go?

  As we were about to leave, Mary said, “Alex, wait. What about the balcony?”

  “Balcony? What balcony?” I responded, taken aback with surprise.

  “There’s a door that opens on to a balcony behind that tapestry…the one on the left side of the bed; you can’t see it from the adjacent window, even in the daytime, because there’s a stone pillar that blocks it.”

  “I never knew there was an outside balcony connected to this room, Mary.”

  “I don’t think it’s been used for years…at least as long as I’ve been here. I only know about it because six months ago or so while I was checking Mister Lynch’s chart you remember Mister Lynch, Alex, he had this room at the time. Well, I dropped my pen and it rolled under the tapestry and when I went to retrieve it, I pulled back the tapestry and eyeballed a paneled door. I opened it as it was unlocked, and discovered the balcony. I thought it was only the wall before that.”

  “Well let’s open the door and look out there now,” I said, “that would explain how our noise maker got away.”

  “Be careful, Alex, it might be dangerous.”

  Then Mister Dudley said assuredly, “Don’t you worry, Miss Holden. Here, you hold the torch and Doctor Ramsey and I will handle whoever might be out there.”

  “Yes, Mary, you just hold the light on the door.” Then I turned to Mister Dudley and said in a low voice, “I’m going to open the door. This might get physical so stay right behind me and ready to back me up, if necessary.”

  “Right, Doctor Ramsey.”

  Mary positioned herself and focused the light on the tapestry then I pulled it back. Sure enough, there it was, a gray camouflaged panel door that perfectly blended in with the surrounding paneled wall; it had no visible frame. The only thing that distinguished it from the other panels was on the middle edge, it had a small flat, matching narrow bar. It discreetly slid out from its tailored aperture and reached over the divide, thus fitting in to the matched slit of the adjacent panel. The position of the opening was on the right side. Many doors open from a left-side facing. Either way it could be easily overlooked by most people. It didn’t get past Mary’s sharp eye...those beautiful green eyes.

  I took a deep breath and said, “All right, Mister Dudley.” Then slid the bar back and pulled the door open into the room; that’s when I could see the two small hinges spaced about five feet apart embedded at the left side. There was complete blackness out there. I heard a light wind whistle through the nearby pine trees as well as the rustling of their branches and the roaring of the sea that lay below the great cliff to the west. Mister Dudley took the flashlight from Mary. I told her to stay inside. Then I led the way out with Mister Dudley right behind me, guiding with the light.

  “Glory be, Doctor Ramsey.” Dudley said in amazement as he darted the light around, “In my seven years here as groundskeeper, I never noticed this perch; I guess I just never looked up.”

  It was a Spanish-styled balcony, about twelve feet long and four feet wide. It was completely devoid of any items, such as potted plants for aesthetics, and there was nobody on it. It had a black wrought-iron barrier that was showing a lot of rust all the way around. The wood-board floor appeared to have a lot of dry rot. As Mister Dudley and I stepped out and commenced walking on it, most of the floorboards squeaked and a couple even buckled; then the rail started to undulate. That was followed by the sounds of scraping metal.

  Mary frantically yelled out, “Oh please, come in before it crashes.”

  “Let’s get off this now before the whole thing collapses, Dudley.”

  “I’m right behind you, Doctor.”

  Mister Dudley and I jumped back inside. It seemed like five minutes before the reverberation of the shaking and scraping diminished into silence.

  I took hold of my composure and said, “That was a close one, eh, Dudley?”

  “You’re telling me, Doctor Ramsey.”

  “Oh, Alex, I didn’t know it was so unstable. You see, that time when I opened the door, I only looked out there; I didn’t actually step on it. I’m so sorry. That goes for you too, Mister Dudley; If I had only known how…”

  “It’s not your fault, Mary, you weren’t aware of its condition; how could you be?”
I said reassuringly.

  Then Mister Dudley added, “Never you mind, Miss Holden; the important thing is we’re all okay.”

  Then a thought occurred to me. Before I opened the door, the connecting latch bar was in place; which meant the door was locked from the inside. I had to slide it open, which meant whoever was in this room making the thump and drag sound, couldn’t have exited out onto the balcony because there would have been no way to slide it back in place from the outside, unless there was an accomplice in the room. However, nobody was in here when we broke in, not to mention the fact, we certainly would have felt the shaking of the feeble floorboards and heard the clanging and scraping of the rickety rail, if someone were moving around out there on the balcony. Even if our Houdini could have done it without making a sound, how would he have gotten off the balcony since there was nothing within reach, between it and a hard concrete landing three stories below?

  Nevertheless, someone was in this room prior to our entry, we all heard the noise.

  Then Mary said, “There’s nothing more we can do here. I think we should go back to the recreation room with the others and stay together in there.”

  “You’re right, Mary,” I agreed. “Let’s go.”

  The consuming blackness with its deafening silence, somehow seemed even more pronounced as Mary, Mister Dudley and I left Mister Strutmire’s room. We were making our way to the stairwell at the end of the hall and about half way there, Mary whispered to me, “Wait.”

  “What is it, Mary?”

  “There’s something here, Alex, something’s here, on this floor, watching us. I can feel a presence.”

  Then Dudley said, “Oh, look, look down there, right by the stairwell, can you see them, Doctor Ramsey? I don’t even need my torch on them. But look. Eyes, two cold black eyeballs, with their whites, glowing in the dark. Devil’s eyes, they are.”

  Then Mister Dudley dropped the flashlight and made the sign of the cross. He started to shake ferociously, so I picked up the light and shone it at the stairwell, there was nothing there.

  Mary looked at me intensely and said in a soft hypnotic tone, “We’re being swallowed up, Alex, slowly but surely, swallowed up…in the darkness.”

  I felt as though the floor were dropping under my feet. This can’t be really happening. It’s all a bad dream, I thought to myself. “Mary, tell me it’s all a dream.”

  “It’s not a dream, Alex; it’s a nightmare, a collective nightmare.”

  “We had better get back to the rec. room, Mary. Come on.” “Dudley…Dudley? Dudley? Where’s Mister Dudley?”

  “I don’t know, Alex. He must have wondered off while we were talking.”

  “That’s absurd; he’s got to be around here. Dudley? Dudley? Dudley? “ “For God’s sake, man, where are you?” I continued to frantically call for Mister Dudley, but it was all in vain. The python of darkness had apparently swallowed him up too. Then I started to feel my own consciousness draining out of my body, like water being pulled down a hole to the bowels of the earth. I was at a point where I could hardly move. It was an effort to take a step. Then I started to quiver. The shaking became more pronounced and then uncontrollable. Then I buckled. I dropped the flashlight, and Mary took control and had me sit on the floor. She sat with me and pulled a sedative out of her pocket and said, “Here, take this, Alex, you’ll have to swallow it without water though; but it will calm you down.” I did manage to ingest the tablet and then she said, “We’ll just sit here for a while until it takes effect; it should be about ten minutes.”

  I was already starting to relax now, but it wasn’t the pill; it was Mary. Here I was with Mary, all alone with my Mary, the two of us, sitting together on the floor like two starfish at the bottom of a black ocean, being circled by an unseen shark, but I didn’t care. We made love.

  The Blackout

  I must have fallen asleep for a couple of minutes. The last thing I remember is sitting here on the floor with Mary. When I came to, the sequence of events prior to my nap hit me like a ton of bricks. Mary, Mister Dudley and I had left Strutmire’s room, we were walking down the hall toward the stairwell and about half way there, Mister Dudley said something about seeing a pair of glowing eyes, started to panic and dropped the flashlight. I picked up the light, pointed it at the stairwell and there was nothing there. While Mary and I were talking, Mister Dudley had disappeared. I’d started to panic. Mary took control and sat me down on the floor. She sat with me and gave me a sedative, we were all alone together.

  We embraced one another tenderly. I was lost in abandon.

  Ecstasy. That’s all I remember—until I woke up.

  I hope Mary forgives me for my uncontrolled passion. “Mary, we had better go down to the rec. room now…Mary? Mary? Mary? Where are you Mary?” Oh my God. Where’s Mary? I’m all alone. It can’t be. Where can she be?

  My thoughts were spinning round like plane propellers. She can’t have disappeared, like the others…oh no, not my Mary. She’s got to be here. We were together, and then she must have gone down to the rec. room while I was in the arms of Morpheus.

  Then I came to a realization. It hit me like a meteorite. I shouted out with zest and self-rationalized reassurance, “Yes, that’s it. Of course. She went down stairs while I was sleeping...of course.”

  I must get down there now. Mary will be there, I’m sure of it. Where’s the flashlight? It was right here on the floor. It must be here, I saw it. It was lit when Mary and I were… that’s it, she took it with her…while I was unconscious…to see her way down to the rec. room. How stupid of me not to realize that before. You’re getting yourself all in a dither for nothing, Ramsey. I’ll go down there right now and Mary will be there, as well as everybody else…all the staff, all the patients, all the guests, everybody.

  Yes, everybody will be there. Doctor Calloway will be there; Doctor Lederer will be there; Harper will be there; the watchman will be there; Mister Dudley will be there; old Mister Strutmire will be there; and yes, even the spook-patient will be there too.

  They’ll all be there, enjoying themselves at the Halloween Party. And I’ll join them too. We’ll all enjoy the joke, the big spoof they played on me. That’s it. And it all started last night when Doctor Calloway wasn’t there to receive Doctor Lederer and me. Doctor Lederer was in on it too because it all started when he came to the Castle last night. Mrs. Dudley played along, even my double-crossing Mary, and all the staff, and all the patients, and all the guests. That’s right, it’s a silly Halloween prank—people disappearing; yes, that’s what it is, a game on everyone’s part to play on one Alex Ramsey. They don’t realize that I caught on though; that’s right, I’m on to them now. I know what I’ll do, I’ll play along with them. I’ll go down there in a pretend panic and then they will say, “Surprise. The joke’s on you. Happy Halloween.”

  The Tomb

  My eyes penetrated the darkness, seeing nothing. It was so thick I could cut it with a knife. I couldn’t even see my hands in front of me. Even though I knew the layout of the Castle and that I was on the third floor, and I knew where I was positioned there. I was, nevertheless, completely disoriented and when I started to walk, my sense of direction was completely stymied; no doubt the effect of the sedative Mary had given me was the cause of my confusion. I didn’t know where to begin a calculated move.

  I was sealed in. I could not get the limbs of my body to coordinate with my thoughts. It was like one of those dreams, Mary talked about before, when you want to move and you can’t, no matter how hard you try. But this was no dream; it was real, it was real. I felt as though I were in the deepest, darkest tomb in the world, so scrunched in that I could barely move a muscle.

  How am I going to get to the stairwell? How am I going to walk down the stairs? How am I going to take the right direction to get to the recreation room where surely everybody is? I thought I should scream at the top of my lungs. Since the silence was so overwhelming, no doubt they would all hear me, or some would hear, or
someone…maybe? However, not likely, because all their talking and laughing would be a sound-proof barrier, one my loudest shouts wouldn’t be able to penetrate.

  If that were the case, I would be able to hear them myself, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t hear a thing, not a thing. Nonetheless, I knew they were all down there. They had to be. Where else could they be? Yes, everyone in the Castle is down there in the recreation room, including my Mary, everyone. Except me.

  I’m the only one that’s not there. I’m here, all by myself, all alone by myself. I’m the missing one now. They must be missing me. Why aren’t they looking for me? Why should I go to them? They should come to me. Oh yes, the escapade, the silly Halloween caper they’re all playing on me; I forgot about that. Naturally those pranksters are deliberately being quiet so I won’t hear anything. That explains the profound silence. That’s why I can’t hear anything at all. I mean, if they were all talking and laughing, like people do at parties, my ears would be able to catch the waves of joyous voices as they filled up the stairwell to the third floor.

  I’m going to get the last laugh, yes siree, they’ll see, yes I will. Because I’m from Oklahoma doesn’t mean I’m a country-bumpkin rube. I’m a highly educated psychiatrist. I know how the human mind works. I was educated at Zurich. I’ll get them all though…yes I will. I know what I’ll do. I’m going to sneak down those stairs, ever so quietly. Then I’ll tiptoe down the hall to the recreation room door. I won’t go in. I’ll just stand behind it and wait. That’s right, I’ll just wait. I won’t go in. I’ll just wait outside…in the dark stillness. They’ll wonder why I didn’t go in there…so they could all scare me. They don’t understand that I figured out their cute little scheme…they don’t even suspect it. Yes, their little game will backfire because I’m going to boomerang it back on them. I’ll wait as long as it takes, until they open the door…to come looking for me, of course. I’ll wait until the cows come home, if I have to. Then I’ll get them.

  Then I wondered how I was going to get myself down there in all the darkness without bumping in to things, they’d hear me for sure. I didn’t want them to hear me at all. I realized that I still had my small medical flashlight in my pocket. I pulled it out, turned it on only to notice that the light had grown quite dim due to the weakening battery. However, it should still be enough, I thought, to guide me down the stairwell to the first floor and direct me through the hall and right to the door of the rec. room. No doubt they’re all in there and the door would be closed, so no one would see me approaching with my small light.