Green castle

CHAPTER ONE

I'm running on a relatively new path. Usually i take my time on this path because it hasn't been here for years and years, its not compacted yet. Today however is very different because I'm being chased by the king's knights. The loose dirt doesn't let my boots find any purchase so I'm often falling and madly stumbling to get back up. Each time I trip the knights on their horses get a little bit closer. The blood pounding in my ears is deafening. My breaths come out of my mouth ragged and tortured. I'm so close to the forests that I know I can make it. Just a few more seconds.

I sense the horses approaching so i try to go even faster. My boot slips on the sand but this time i cant stop myself. My breath catches in my throat and my heart stops for just a moment. As i fall its as if time is frozen and everyone is stuck in this moment. Then when i make contact with the ground it starts again, just in time for me to face my brutal reality. In mere seconds the knights are upon me and I'm surrounded. I don't have a hope in my heart to get out of this alive. I'm caught. I have to face the consequences of publically challenging king Issac's rightfulness of authority.

I had been silly to ever believe i could speak out against the king and live t tell the tale.

The knights gruffly grab me and bind my hands behind my back. Then I'm tossed up onto one of the horses. I hang my head in shame and let my fiery hair cloak my face. I'm hidden behind my hair to all the townsfolk who are looking, but i can see them through the slight gaps in my hair. I can see all of the upset glances and stunned expressions that they know its me.

One of the more rebellious youngsters shouts out to me, " come on Marry! Dong hang your head in defeat, your much better than that."

I raise my head and try to give them a reassuring smile. But they all know the punishment for treasonous acts. Execution. I figure i may have a day or so on the dungeon before my trial, overseen by king Issac himself, will be held. I heard bout the last one and that person didn't even get a last day. They were just beheaded on the spot.

Thinking of my immediate demise sparks up a fire in me i thought i had put out. Its the same dangerous spark that made me speak out against the king in the first place. I turn to the nearest knight and spit on him.

"You slaves of the king are all the same! You are mindless babies who need to be ordered around!" I sneer.

My heart starts to pound loud again. Too loud... I hope they cant hear it.

"You inferior whitch! You will pay for that." the night said. Then in a flash he struck the side of my face so hard my vision started to turn black a the edges.

I welcomed sleep as retreat from reality. Before i passed out i heard a few gasps and my own strangled cry.

CHAPTER TWO

When i wake up, I'm laying on a cold floor. I'm in a small,dark,room... the dungeons.

My cell is cold and that does nothing to ease the throbbing in my head. Tenderly I pick up my hand and reluctantly stroke the side of my face. The pain is immediate and overpowering. I cry out and my vision starts t haze over. No! I cant pass out, I simply cannot give them the satisfaction of finding me withered up on the dirty floor. Clenching my teeth i start to count to 100. By the time I'm done the pain is bare able again.

Ok, its time to get my bearings in order. I probably have untill tomorrow because the king has been away on royal bushiness. He is scheduled t get back sometime this week and with my luck it will be soon. I'm hurt pretty bad, but only my face. The rest of me is just fine. Escape may be an option if i have the chance. I don't remember how to work my way through the castle because it's so large, and i have only been in here twice. The first time was when my brother died at war, and the king called me to get a letter he left. This is the other, and i was asleep when they brought me in.

When i came for the letter i barely got to see the ball room. Then i had been whisked away, a five year old girl with tears in her eyes. The king never gave me a second glance. I wonder if he will remember me, i certainly will remember him. I push the thought of my brother Peter away. I don't want to think about him, i have other things i have to focus on.

I carefully stand up, as to not make any noise and then creep over to the door. There is a small opening in which meals or messages are given. I stand on my tiptoes and peer out. Nobody, not a soul in sight. I let out my breath, i didn't even know i had been holding it. Then i test the door, its strong of course, too strong for me to break through. I slump up against the door and slide down the wall untill i'm sitting in a crouched position. I have to get out of here, I hate small spaces. I can already feel the walls giving in and tumbleing down on me. My heartbeat picks up again. Of course the castle is built better than to collapse. It's been here for generations, and it hasn't collapsed yet. Me being in the dungeon isn't going to change that.

I cant think straight, so i rock myself back and forth and try to calm down. The darkness didn't seem so dark before, but now its swallowing me whole. I cant see a thing, but i remember being able to make out slight details before. I'm going crazy, i must be going crazy. It's probably the curse.

The curse of the dungeon is just a mothers tale that they tell their children so they don't misbehave... but what if it's real? Suddenly the lights flickeron from out my door and i see that a candle has been lit. There wasn't a candle there before.

Slowly i back away. I keep backing away for a long time. With every step i take the more the light grows untill i can see the whole room. This room is much larger than i originally thought. Actually, its now about ten time larger than it was. I turn around and i don't see the wall to the side i had been backing into. I let out apiercing scream and fall to my kneees.First the lights, then the growing room, maybe there room really had been shrinking before... There is only one way to find out. I crawl to the center of the room and there i see it. The carved out E from the story.

I'm in a haunted cell.

I hear laughing behind me so i turn around, "Who is there?" I say. My voice sounds ragged and way too quiet. I swallow and then end up hacking. I stop my self and then shout out, "leave me alone!"

More laughing, its horrible sound floats in the air around me. A slight breeze comes and drifts acrost me. My legs start to shake violently and and i cant even tell one heartbeat from another. "What do you want?" I scream, "what do you want from me?"

"You will finnish what i started." An evil voice whispers right into my ear.

I could almost feel the old whitch's hand on my shoulder.

The shocking truth is so unbelievable that i start to faint. But before I do, I feel the old Whitches hand caressing my cheek, and the cuts and bruises healing. Although the thing that pushes me under is the burning sensation of an E, right over top of my eyebrow.

Then the lights all go out at once and the door bursts open.