“Alright everyone, gather around please. Gather around,” Mr. Leslie, the tour guide said.
Everyone gathered in a group in front of Mr. Leslie. Smiles and nervous laughter were exchanged between the group, Maria was among them. She was just as giddy. She deserved this fun vacation time before going back to New York and having a very rough schedule.
“This spot right here is our meeting place. The bus will remain open for anyone who gets too scared and wants to come back out to the bus and rest. The porta-potties will remain open, and we do have cell phone service out here. Each of you have my number. If you need to contact me, you can call or text me. But you can find me right here with the driver. Sometimes I will take a peek inside the castle, but I have seen it all before. So most of the time I hang out here or in the bus having a cigarette and maybe some whisky, good old Scottish whisky that is, to keep warm. This tour is scheduled to take up the entire night. The castle is ours until sunrise, which means we will not be leaving until sunrise. Please watch your step when you are walking around, remember to use the flashlights we have given you with the red filter. The red allows your eyes to stay adjusted to the darkness and doesn't ruin it for anyone else. Now does anyone have any questions before you start?”
“What if we get lost in there and can't find our way out?” one of the guest asked.
“I can assure you that will not happen. You will be able to find your way out and you are on an island so you can’t get lost on the land. But if you absolutely can't find your way out or have a panic attack, simply call me on my cell phone and I will come find you. You can activate a ringing sound on your cell phone so I can find you,” Mr. Leslie said. “Any other questions?”
There was complete silence.
“Good. Follow me and we will get started,” Mr. Leslie said turning on his flashlight. It glowed red, as did all the other flashlights when they were turned on.
Jennifer Brentwood looked at Maria and smiled. “Let's do this.”
Maria was very happy that she had made some friends and she joined the two couples as they followed Mr. Leslie to the massive wooden front doors. He and the driver pushed the heavy doors open. It creaked loudly giving the entire experience a creepier vibe to it.
“This is the entry hall of the castle. As you can see, the walls are very high, and there is a galley up at the top of the stairs that looks down over all of this. There would have been armor and tapestries hanging from the stone in order to greet guests and show just how mighty the Lairds of this Castle were. But you are not here for a history lesson, you are here to see some ghosts. I wish you the best of luck, the castle is yours,” Mr. Leslie said stepping aside. “Go hunt some ghosts.”
Groups of people cheered loudly and very excitedly. Everyone dispersed into different sections, some went upstairs, some went down the hall straight ahead, and others down the left or right hallway. Maria and her new friends stood together.
“What do you think, detective?”
“Me? Well, I guess I would want to go straight ahead down the hallway,” she said. “Check out this first level and see where it leads.”
“Good, let's go,” Mr. Gianni said.
The group walked together with nothing but their red filtered flashlights to lead them. It was getting darker outside, but it was completely dark inside the castle because no light filtered in through the very small windows. Castles tended to have very high stone walls with small windows because it was a better defense against invading armies.
Maria felt a chill run up her back as they walked deeper into the castle. The ocean breeze wafted through the corridors creating eerie howling sounds.
Her friends were laughing and very giddy as they looked around. Maria used her GoPro to capture as much footage of the high walls and dark hallway ahead of them. Maybe she would catch something that they couldn't see but would show up on the video. She set the camera to night vision and the screen turned green.
They continued to walk and be giddy, scaring each other in good play, until they came upon another area of the corridor where there were tall wooden doors on either side of the hallway.
“Maybe we should see what’s behind one of these,” Maria said.
“Yes, let's open all of them and see what our options are,” Mr. Gianni said.
They all agreed and started to open some of the doors with anxiousness.
“This one is a room.” They turned to the next door. “This one is a room as well, perhaps a bedroom at some point. It’s empty, though.”
Maria opened the door she chose and lit the area in front of her. It wasn't a room. She pointed the camera at it.
“This one is a doorway to stairs. It’s a spiral stone staircase and it goes… downward,” Maria said.
Her new friends came to her side and each of them pointed their flashlights in. “Oh that is very scary.”
“Spooky!”
“If there are ghosts in this castle, I bet they would be down there. Who's going first?” Jennifer said.
There was silence as they all looked at each other. Then they erupted into laughter as they realized just how scared they were.
“Detective, maybe you go first. You’re the one with the camera,” Mrs. Gianni said.
Maria took a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll go. But you must be directly behind me.”
They all agreed, and Maria took a step forward onto the landing before stepping onto the first step leading down. Because it was a spiral staircase she couldn't see around the bend, not without going further and further. It definitely was the scary experience that she had been hoping for.
She cautiously took more steps, continuing to keep her eyes on the green screen of the night vision GoPro camera.
“What do you think is down here?” she said.
But there was no answer.
She turned around to see that there was no one behind her. “Guys? I thought you were coming down?” she said.
“Tell us what you see first! Then we will come!” Jennifer shouted to her.
“Oh come on!” Maria said. “You’re really abandoning me down here! It’s really creepy!”
“Just tell us what you see!” Mr. Gianni shouted. “My wife is tying her boot!”
“Pfft… sure,” Maria said to herself, knowing they were making excuses. She couldn't believe it. She thought that everyone on the ghost tour was looking to be scared, but apparently not.
She stood up straight. “Fine! I’m still on the stairs. It keeps going and going! I’m going to go down a little further!” she shouted and then continued to follow the stairs all the way down.
They seemed to go on forever. Then at the bottom of the stairs it ended into a small corridor about three feet long. “This is creepy. What am I doing?” she said as she continued to walk. She could feel a draft coming from the dark end of the corridor. Then it opened up into a large cavernous room.
She could only see what was lit directly in front of her with the red light. She grabbed her GoPro and aimed it, then looked at the screen. Because it was in night vision she could see better, and what she saw ahead of her was amazing. She was in the castle catacombs.
Maria grew both fascinated and scared at the same time as a chill ran over her body. But she wasn’t going to wait to see any more of it on her own. She turned around and ran back up the stairs, using her police boot camp skills to move very fast.
“Guys! Come down hurry! You won’t believe this!” she said.
“What is it? We’re coming. It’s so dark!” Jennifer shouted.
Maria remembered they only had the red flashlights and not the help of night vision to guide them safely down the stairs.
She found her friends in the middle of the stairwell, slowly making their way down.
“You guys are not going to believe what’s down there. It’s the catacombs,” she said.
“No?” Mrs. Gianni said.
“It's true. Look I can show you,” she said turning her GoPro and rewinding the footage to show them. Ev
eryone was excited and in disbelief.
“Catacombs. That’s where they bury the dead. Do you think it’s been cleared out?” Mr. Brentwood asked.
“I don’t know. Only one way to find out,” Mrs. Gianni said.
“Okay, I want to see. Let's go,” Jennifer said.
Maria grew excited and then began to record again on her GoPro as the group followed her back down the spiral stairs into the catacombs.
“This is beautiful, and very creepy,” Mr. Gianni said.
The group spread out in the room, looking about with their red flashlights. The tall shelves crept up the walls where bodies would have been buried. There were a few stone sarcophagus with heavy lids in the middle of the room.
“Think there’s anyone in there?” Jennifer asked.
“Probably not. This whole place was probably burned long and ago, and archaeologist have probably saved the rest for some museum somewhere,” Maria said. Then she continued walking along the outer edges of the vast room. She came across an indention in the wall. She stepped into it and turned the corner, looking through her night vision.
At the end was another wooden door.
“You guys. Come look at this. There’s another door here!” Maria said.
Everyone came to her side and looked at the door.
“Where do you think it goes?” Mr. Brentwood asked.
“Probably to another burial. I think it’s just another one of these catacombs, but with a door, like in a mausoleum. Somebody important, is buried behind there, maybe a Laird or a princess,” Maria said.
Maria put her hand on the iron latch.
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Jennifer said.
“It’s alright. It’s probably locked,” Maria said.
She tugged on it, and the door opened. A gust of wind hit everybody. It made the rest of the group step back, but Maria did not.
“That was very strange,” Jennifer said.
“Just a draft,” Maria said. “Let's go in.”
“No, I think it's too creepy. I'll stay here,” Mrs. Gianni said.
The rest of the group agreed, “Yeah I’m not going in.”
“Oh come on. I can't believe you guys are on a ghost tour and you're acting chicken,” Maria said. “If it wasn’t safe the tour guide would have locked it. This is all part of it. We’re meant to explore all these crooks and crannies.”
“Well you go in if you're so brave,” Jennifer said.
“Fine. I will. Wait here, and don't leave me,” she said.
Maria walked through the door into the dark.
The red light in front of her barely lit anything, so she looked through her GoPro night vision screen. She could see that it was a large empty room, there was nothing inside. She walked to the middle, turning in a circle.
Then she noticed something all the way across the room, another door, but this one was very small, the kind that would be used for storage. It was only about three feet off the ground, as though made for a child.
She thought maybe there could be all kinds of cool artifacts that had not been discovered yet at the castle. She walked over to it. There was an iron bar across the door, resting on two stands on either side of it.
She grabbed the iron bar. It was warm to the touch, which she thought was odd. Then she lifted the bar easily. “Oh, I thought you would be heavy,” she said to herself.
The bar came off easily. She placed it on the ground with a loud clang. She looked behind her to see if her friends had joined her, but they had not.
Maria opened the small door, but it was dark on the other side. She lit the doorway with her red light but couldn’t see anything. She got on her hands and knees to peer in but couldn’t see anything at all. It was as though there was a black piece of paper sealing the door, but when she reached out she could feel nothing.
“Well, you're on your own, Maria. Now I’m way too curious to not go through this door. Is this some sort of game set up like an escape room and I found the end of the game?”
Maria crawled on her hands and knees through the doorway, and into the brightly lit room. “What? This is very weird,” she said. On the other side of the door was an exact replica of the room that she had previously been in, but it was brightly lit with torches leaning out from the gray stone walls.
“Maybe there’s a feast waiting for us on the other end and all the other guests that have made it this far are there,” she said thinking out loud as to why this room would be lit in such a festive way.
Sounds began to echo from somewhere unknown, loud voices like there was a party going on, but it seemed distant and far away with string music playing. Those sounds only confirmed her theory that they had been set up on this ghost hunt and it was actually an escape room with a puzzle to solve. There were usually parties at the end of those and since they were staying the whole night, it made sense that there would be a feast set up somewhere on the castle grounds. There was probably catering too. She took a few more steps toward the sounds.
Then a gust of wind slammed the door shut.
“What? No,” Maria said. She turned around to go back through the small doorway that was now closed.
Chapter 3
“No, no, no. Please don’t be locked,” Maria said getting on her hands and knees to pull on the small door. She pushed, she pulled, nothing was working.
“Guys! Help me please! The door is stuck! Hello! Anyone! Jennifer! Mrs. Gianni! You guys help me I'm down here! I'm through the door!” Maria screamed this over and over while also rattling the door. She knew that eventually they would come to look for her and she wanted to make as much noise as possible. That way they knew that she was behind the door.
But after several minutes, she couldn't hear anything at all in the way of people coming to look for her. She sat down on the floor by the door, putting her ear against it. She couldn't hear anything from the other side. She pounded her fists on the door over and over. Then she waited for a reply knock. Nothing.
Then she remembered that the tour guide, Mr. Leslie, had said that they should call him if anyone should call him if they got lost or text him and they would come find you. She pulled out her phone from her jeans.
“Oh no, no signal,” she said.
Maria stood up and started to walk around the room, trying to get reception. But she knew that she had taken the stairs very far down, they were underneath the castle in the catacombs. She wouldn't be able to get any reception unless she found a way to go back up to the main level.
Maria looked around the room, at one end there was an open corridor where the sounds of the music were coming from in the distance, but she couldn't see where it led to as she stood in the entryway. It just seemed to go on for a long time, with torches lit all the way along it.
“This must be leading to something. It must be a party of sorts. I can hear noises and music. I think this has been an elaborate escape room type of tour without us even realizing it. I’ve heard of them. Why else would all these torches be lit? This area of the castle is obviously in better shape than the ruins, so of course they would have it here,” Maria said, but also to the GoPro camera because she was still filming.
“I can't believe it. I feel like I’m in one of those ghosts reality shows and it's so stupid,” she said holding up the camera to face her, filming herself. “Well, let me try the small door one more time. I don't want to walk away from it in case they open it. But what if it's stuck and they can't get it open, it's better that I try to find the stairs back up and use my phone,” Maria said into the camera. Then she walked back to the small door and began to rattle, tug, and push on it trying to open it while she screamed for her friends over and over. After a few moments she realized, she needed to find out where the corridor led to. If she couldn't find the stairs she could always retrace her steps back to this room with the door.
“Well, here goes nothing,” she said into the camera. Then she strapped it back on again in order to film the direction she walked. She didn't need to ha
ve night vision on any longer because she could see fine with all the torches lining the corridor. The smell of smoke and oil was very thick.
“This is a fire hazard,” she said looking at all the torches.
Maria walked down the corridor, slowly. As she walked, she called out to her friends, hoping that somebody would hear her and come find her. “Jennifer? Mr. Leslie? Anyone!”
She held up her phone looking at the bars, there was absolutely zero reception.
“Stairs! Yes!” Maria said as she came to the end of the corridor where a spiral stone staircase was located. She quickly ran to them and started to sprint up, just wanting this nightmare to be over. She felt silly because she had asked for this. She had spent money in order for something like this to happen to her, and now that it was, she didn't like it at all.
“What?” she said as she got to the top of the stairs. “What is that smell? Ugh.”
She covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She pulled her sweater up to cover her mouth.
She thought the top of the stairs would open up into the castle ruins or lead her to the tour party. But instead it was just dark, and there were more torches lit hanging from the walls. But it wasn't on the main level of the castle, she was still deep in the belly of it. Working in the New York Police Department, she knew a jail cell when she saw one.
There were rows and rows of bars, with men on the floor sitting behind them coughing and destitute. This was definitely a jail cell.
“What is this?” She immediately ran to the bars.
“What is going on here?” Maria said to a prisoner behind the bars.
The man just looked at her, he smiled with a toothless smile. His red long hair and red beard were gross. But he didn't say anything in return. In fact he kind of scared her a little and she took a step backwards.
“Okay! You can all come out now! I give up! I don't want to take part in whatever reenactment you have going on here!” Maria shouted wanting to call off whatever weird thing she had signed up for.
Love A Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (A Highlander Across Time Book 1) Page 2