He liked the room around him and how well preserved it was after such a length of time, and how well it had been made, especially for the era it had been from.
Merton was in the room next to his on the left and Mortimer’s room was next to that, and Mitchell was in the room next to Bryson on the other side, where he was next to his men.
They were all sleeping in rooms at the front of the left side of the second floor, with the stairs in the center of the castle.
Bryson noted the air was just cold and with no scent, and that it was cool and calm in the room, and he spotted that there was a really thick blanket of snow covering the wood outside. He remembered earlier and being in a huddled posture with his blankets tightly wrapped about him, with him reacting to the cold.
For a moment he recalled an earlier dream and that he had thought he had died and gone to some form of afterlife, and tried to recall everything he could about it. The dreams that he had at Grovnor Castle had given him vision of other places, and what could be hidden away, and he had visualized the places the creatures sounds there were coming from and had some insight into them and their environment.
The sky outside was dark even though it was snowing, and it was normally light where he lived with the streetlights and light being reflected from the snow illuminating it, and he realized how far they were from the outside world and this place this time had no roads or connections to anything. Their communications had gone when the dark winter night began.
It was so peculiar that he liked it more than he should have! His normal life and things he encountered were too repetitive and he relished finding abnormal things to do and explore, especially when they had new outcomes and findings.
He switched off his light and went over to the window and stared out into the darkness and ancient wood with a shiver running through him, from the cold, thoughts of the cold, and deadly things that they had encountered there.
It was like another world to him and they were put there to explore it, and it was like a world without a proper sun and thousands of light years of empty space between it and the stars.
The world below was a decomposing landscape shrouded in snow with weak energy.
An array of door knocks made the door shift about, reminding him of the age of the place, and he wondered again why it had such advanced objects and structure for that age, and he realized again that the people who had reconstructed it had done it up and that he was experiencing 1880 technology.
He slowly marched over and yanked open the thick wooden door, which had been clearly expertly crafted by hand, and he watched Merton and Mortimer standing glaring at him from the darkness outside, suggesting something was along the corridor. Bryson nodded and closed the door behind him and followed them along the outer corridor.
He still wondered why they liked being up in the middle of the night so much, and why he never had properly seen them tired in the middle of the night. Surely they never had that many things to do at night?
As he considered how sleepy he was and what they were up to, and then thought of other situations that they had done and of them awaking him in the middle of the night, and as he recalled situations he gasped as he suddenly realized that he could hear sounds emerging from somewhere further ahead, and he gasped even more when the sounds seemed to magnify and turn to being blared out.
It then mildly amused him as he recalled a similar situation, and he also realized that the sounds reminded him of his dream, but he could not notice any connection and why it did.
“What hell happened?” Mitchell moaned, rushing up the corridor, after being awakened by something and seeing them rushing towards something.
He slapped his face trying to awaken himself further, vaguely looking like he had a slight hangover, and he recalled him taking alcohol from the helicopter.
As they approached a region of the corridor that they heard the sounds at their loudest the disturbance seemed as if it had different states to it and regularly altered, and Bryson imagined it as a warp through in space and time causing many different things to occur and create sporadic sounds about the castle, and in his dream he wondered if he had seen inside the warp itself (and the castle lay somewhere beyond it, being one of the locations connected to it throughout space and time).
Yet even if it was a warp he still never knew what it was or what was happening, what created it, and why the things in the wood were there! Did the things, whatever they were, become part of the disturbance while near it, when it automatically opened?
Three scientists rushed up to Merton and Mortimer and they began discussing the occurrences and situation, and the three scientists rushed back to get equipment and more of the scientists.
Merton and Mortimer stood listening to the sounds trying to establish things and where they were mainly emerging.
Some sounds came screaming at them with fury and sometimes as though things were trapped in some form of field.
The scientists rushed back and forward setting up their new equipment, connecting the equipment along that region of the corridor.
“What do think?” Merton carefully asked him, leaving Bryson with little to say.
He gave Bryson the impression that they might be going to do something or come to a conclusion.
Mortimer also gave him the impression, which would normally have confirmed it, but things were different there and they were not fully themselves!
Bryson started to realize the implications of things and that they might have to check what was there and things of great danger!
Mortimer quickly told the other scientists: “Investigate all these walls, floor and roof ...”
Bryson suddenly felt deep tiredness and wished that he had stayed in bed, and was asleep.
Why were they not tired like him? What had they been doing when they heard the sounds?
In the darkness at the end of the corridor two figures came rushing towards them from the stairs – resembling a sort of dream view to Bryson in his sleepy state – and the figures turned out to be two of Mitchell’s men, who were on guard below, and they whispered things in Mitchell’s ear.
Mitchell’s face turned frantic, and he was desperate to do something, and he rushed away with the two men to where the men had been, and to the stairs.
“What are they up to?” Merton muttered, staring, bewildered.
“This place is a hell of a place!” Bryson mumbled.
Bryson watched drifting currents of snowflakes blow about a room window, and he realized that he really felt like going to bed. It had been a long day and the next day could even be longer, and he watched Mortimer rush away after them to the stairs, and he wondered what he was missing. Even though he had done what he felt like doing – rush away – but in the opposite direction – to his bed, and without saying anything.
Why were they not all tired like him? And he recalled all the things he had been doing and all the late nights before he had arrived there.
He watched them rush into the darkness at the stairs and realized that they might have to stay up for a long time, to obtain the conclusion to what was occurring, and he realized he had better follow to get it over with.
Merton shrugged and followed him, and they eventually started chasing after them.
In the sounds behind him he heard a rhythmical tapping, slowly increasing in volume, making him slow to listen, and he realized that it was footsteps rushing towards him from behind, and from behind him two more of Mitchell’s men came running along, while they were fixing gun holsters on their waists.
Bryson saw Mitchell going down the stairs with his gun in his hand. They seemed to have adjusted their lights dimmer, to make them darker and not open targets.
The situation looked bad! If someone did not die it would be surprising!
Bryson and Merton rushed to them and crept down the stairs – which creaked loudly when they made rapid movements.
At the bottom of the stairs he watched their dark figures creep around from room to
room looking for something, occasionally giving a significant gasp, which most of them had given since they had arrived at the castle.
They eventually approached Mortimer trying to get information.
“Let’s look in the kitchen!” Mitchell warned, creeping away.
His men followed him. And one of them switched on a light and they rushed into the kitchen, holding out their guns, ready to shoot at anything that appeared.
Bryson felt awake again, but tired and he avoided staggering.
“I saw someone down here with a gun,” one of Mitchell’s men muttered to them, moving along with them.
How had he seen anyone down here he wondered? It had been so dark without the lights that it was virtually in complete darkness, and when he questioned him further he told them that all they had seen had been a dark figure with a gun.
When Mitchell entered the kitchen they heard him gasp loudly, grasping Bryson’s attention as he had definitely found something, and they rushed in after him.
When they reached the kitchen it was virtually in darkness and Bryson turned his head about to search in every direction and to where he saw gusts of snow blowing rhythmical against a window, and through the window he saw the haunting dark shapes of the trees of the wood shifting in the wind, almost hidden in the dark about the castle.
The brightness beamed down from the kitchen lights lighting everything about them, when someone finally turned them on, and they entered further and glared over at an area of the floor, to their side, where Mitchell was kneeling next to a dead body.
Chapter 15
Mind-Bending Dreams
Lights flew around everywhere like electric forms of insects stopping Bryson from seeing anything else in his surreal dream, with him mildly viewing it while he happily slept, floating freely.
Deep in dark regions he caught sight of things shifting about with no form to what they were or doing, like energy floating wildly around in a void surrounding him, and to his fascination he heard sounds of thoughts like whispers from out in hidden places or invisible zones, and they taunted him.
Energies of the universe shone and moved, which normally would have been invisible, and he saw mist formations that were really energy formations and he realized that he was seeing something as it really was, which was powerful and intelligent, which never really made sense when thought about, but which did as a fantasy.
It resembled floating in a cold dark cloudless night sky with no ground below, under a bright moon, and a lunar colored radiance emerged everywhere.
Golden places appeared around the strange energy lights that twinkled brighter through thick areas of the energy mist and a bright light appeared deep in the mist, and he realized the depth of it was really immense and that he was further off than he thought. It was tremendous and like looking into the depths of deep space.
He felt the presence of something mysterious and alive, which existed all around him and which he could not account for, and again he looked out at the lights and wondered what it all was, and studied it. Even though he never recognized anything it had a familiar look, which he determinedly tried to grasp.
He was suddenly awakened by a loud knock that rattled his room door up and down and he saw by the morning light that it was later than he had intended to sleep and he rolled sideways and checked his clock and realized that it was even later.
He automatically listened to the voice of Mortimer asking him where he was, and he told him he was getting dressed.
Even though it was winter and the border of window was shrouded with vines and other vegetation it was bright with the sun and light blue sky and the snow covering the entire landscape, and he quickly put on his clothes and opened the door and saw Merton and Mitchell, who both studied him curiously.
“You wanted us to contact you if anything happened,” Merton stated, excitedly. “Well, something has! You’d better get down to the lounge if you do not want to miss the action!”
“What action?” he answered, shifting out of the door and studying the corridor, watching some of the new scientists that they had brought in, who were checking areas of the corridor.
“One of our men just found a few faint footprints of the killer at another window further along from the kitchen!”
“Is that everything ...?” Bryson asked firmly. “And your theories are?”
“He killed one of my men – who must have discovered him doing something ... And he got out the door, escaped into the wood ... And must have returned later ...”
“He wouldn’t have dared go deep into the wood!”
“And we should have predicted his movements ...”
“You found the remains of his footprints after the heavy snow fall, with the prints at the window that he entered, where they avoided being fully covered over ...”
“Perfectly correct! We are having a discussion on it in the lounge and wanted you there!”
“But this means the killer is in the castle and that he can’t escape!”
Both Merton and Mitchell nodded in agreement!
Chapter 16
The First Death
All the main people in the castle were there, sitting silently in the large lounge, where everything seemed to have massive proportions for some reason.
They all sat still in various large seats at various angles, in seats found in the surrounding rooms, in front of what must be the largest fireplace Bryson had ever seen, with the logs blazing away with a high temperature from all the logs someone had piled into it, surely to fit it in there without making it too small.
Mitchell resumed his pacing across their path, leaving a faint trail over the late nineteenth century carpet there, which the whole castle had as well as main other modifications that allowed people to live there, which had been added later on – including electrical lighting, kitchens, toilets, proper beds ...
They had found a generator that powered everything, when they had tried to connect the generator that the helicopter had brought in. Yet even with all the later technology the castle remained the same, lost in time and trapped in a warp in time.
Mitchell’s expressions barely ever altered but now showed there was trouble ahead, and some of the time he was in deep thought not quite mentally there.
Bryson wondered if any of them had been confronted with such crimes before, and why they had?
In fact, after a careful examination of all the people there he realized that he and the two psychic researchers must have the most experience, especially from the murders at the last castle! And he realized why they had wanted him there and Merton had taken Mitchell up to get him, and he realized that he could have a lot of problems ahead of him!
They were not experienced enough to conduct an investigation, and the last time it was the police that had been doing things and he had helped.
He was sure that Mitchell had some facts about the killing that he was not revealing, and he tried to think of what he would not say and what he would do! Yet there was little to go at the moment and he left it for later.
There were many hidden facts to it and he would wait until they surfaced, and stopped troubling himself.
The others were mainly discussing the death but knew little, going by what they said. They were waiting for something to occur and come to some conclusion – perhaps even waiting for an argument to occur. Then perhaps they might get some information to enlighten them about it.
Bryson gave occasional shudders from the cold that came through the opened door. His lungs felt as if they had sandpaper grated over them from breathing in the cold in his room.
Merton and Mortimer sat at his sides, silenced by the whole event, glimpsing the window as if they were waiting for something and did not want to say anything.
Mitchell turned and coughed into a handkerchief.
“I don’t understand,” Merton argued, “why someone would want to kill the guy? What did he not want us to find out by being caught in the kitchen ...?”
“You could be
right!” Mitchell replied. “Why did he not want to be caught so much?”
“How did a stranger know about this place? Who do you think he was?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll have to make sure it doesn’t happen again! Now knowing this place ... I could imagine him easily as a lunatic ...”
“Are the cops coming then?” Bryson asked, seeing the meeting there was to get everyone informed on what was happening.
“They’ll be arriving later today by helicopter!” Mitchell answered, showing the situation was nothing to do with him.
“It’s going to be really tricky explaining the place and the situation to them ...?”
The police obviously might not accept the full account and of what had happened to them in the wood, and it clearly involved a horrendous crime ...
Mitchell turned his face away from the fireplace and its yellow radiance flickered over his back, and Bryson watched gray wisps of smoke rising up the chimney.
“Anyway, I wanted to ask you all ... Did anyone see anyone near this place?” Mitchell spoke, standing, and watching nobody move in the room, and they all nodded that they never one by one.
If it had been one of them and not a stranger then the person must have been missing when it took place and he wondered about the people that he had not seen, and from what Mortimer told them they had checked up on them and that there was at least ten people there that never came in contact with anyone when it took place, and had been sleeping, and Bryson realized that they had made a mistake by not checking them at their rooms to see if anyone had been missing, and he also realized that they never thought it was them and that they would not have gone to such lengths to carry anything out.
Bryson realized the infernal place now had a killer, who had a motive to kill for, and they and all the evidence had shown that the person could not be in the wood and was hidden away somewhere in the colossal castle, and that they would have to sleep there with him lurking in shadows.
The Lost Treasure Map Deluxe Book Collection (2017 Edition) Page 88