CARRIE

Chapter Forty

I continued reading the books. In all the books I read, there was no mention of this castle. Only a limited number of members knew about the place, which means whoever the silhouette man was, he was a pretty important member of the society. It was getting late again when I noticed someone approaching the gate, it was the same person from yesterday. “Look Look, it's the same person” I pointed to the gate. This time, we saw him properly. He was a man in his thirties with a flat cap on and a black coat, he looked around and crouched. He went in through the same hole. Barry turned to us, “It's up to you guys to decide this time. Should we go, or should we stay and find out when he comes back out?”. “We stay, we’re here already. Can't miss this now” I adjusted in my seat and fixed my eyes on the gate. Several minutes passed, he still hadn't come back out but we were determined to find out more about him so we stayed, looking at the gate.

At exactly 8:45 PM, we saw him come out from the hole. Leah was the first to notice, “That's hi-” Before she could complete her sentence, another man came out from the hole after the man with the cap. “There’s two now” Barry shouted, then controlled himself almost immediately. “How is that possible? One went in and two came out.” He said, his voice was much lower this time. The two men walked away from the gate quickly and disappeared into the night. For several minutes, we just sat there in silence. We didn't utter a word until Leah finally spoke, “I mean, how is that possible though? There are two people now?” She said. I thought long and hard about it, “Maybe there's another way into the castle that we don't know about? I mean, that's the only explanation. The only one I could think of” I explained. That had to be it, it was the only reasonable explanation.

“Sitting here in silence won't solve anything, let's just go home,” Barry said as he started the car and drove us back home.

“So what's the plan now?” I asked Barry in the Car. “ We lay low for now. Give it a few days to come up with a plan to get into the house. We have to be extremely careful. Especially now that there are two people” He explained as we pulled into the driveway. We were just getting down from the Car when she ran outside. “Where have you guys been, I called all your phones.”. We forgot to turn off silent mode. Leah suggested we put our phones on silent mode when the two men came out of the building. “Sorry Mom” I apologized, and Barry explained how our day went to her. Barry went upstairs immediately, he said he was too tired to even eat anything. I couldn't blame him, he's been under the most pressure in the past days, and he still managed to make sure everyone was okay. Thank God we took snacks along to the stakeout, that's why I allowed him go to bed without eating dinner. Besides, I and Leah weren't exactly hungry too, thanks to the snacks and burger. We decided to stay a while with my Mom instead of going to bed immediately too. We got her up to speed about what happened today. “I found out about the whole rebirth and reincarnation thing today” I, Leah and my Mom sat down in the kitchen to talk. Leah’s eyes widened, “When? In the Car right?” She asked. “Yeah, in the car”. “They're both very old spells and the requirements are very similar. They both need personal information and belongings to work. They also need a sacrifice. I think that's why the Leader and Uncle Perry were working together.” I explained. “I don't think anyone has ever performed a rebirth ritual and a demon possession spell has only been done successfully once. A lot of people have tried, but they all failed to complete it. They either died before they could summon the demon, or the demon killed them after refusing the ‘contract’. I guess that's like a pact between the demon and the person that cast it.” They listened attentively as I explained. “Where is the person that completed the spell now?” my Mom asked. “Well, he died. It lasted a month, then the demon tore his body and then took on his form for a year. For a year, the demon lived the man’s life. It was discovered a year later by the man’s family and it killed every last one of them. It was messy”. They were terrified after I explained everything to them, I probably scarred them for life. “Okay, so to be clear, those spells are what Perry said he discovered right?” my Mom asked. I shook my head, “Uncle Perry discovered the entire journal that contains those spells. There are lots of other spells in that journal. No one knows where it is except Uncle Perry and he's dead now.” I didn't tell her Dad was probably their sacrifice, it was late and I didn't want her to get worked up or sad about it.

“You girls just be careful. This is dealing with the supernatural now, you have to be cautious” She worked most of the day, but she always made sure to create time to give us great advice. I loved that and appreciated that every day.

“I have to get up early tomorrow and you girls need a good night’s sleep. So up to bed now” I and Leah went to our room and She went to hers. I was still feeling uneasy about the castle but I brushed it aside and got ready for bed. I don't have to worry about that tomorrow, I'll just do what I usually do tomorrow. Go out with Leah, and buy our ice cream.

******

I woke up the next day feeling very light and relieved. I turned to look at Leah, she was still fast asleep. I lay down on the bed for a while, preparing myself mentally for the day. I always do this. A few minutes later, I rolled over to the side of the bed and got up. I had enough time to get ready today, it's not like I was going anywhere. I used my face cleanser, eye mask and got ready to shower. I came out of the shower and Leah was already awake. “Morning Sleepy head” I teased her as I dried my body and got dressed. “Hey, what's up?” She smiled.

“I'm heading downstairs. You look like you're still sleepy so I'll leave you to that, I'll be downstairs” I gave her a quick hug and went downstairs. My Mom had already left for work, and Barry was downstairs. He was dressed up and in the kitchen finishing up his cereal. “Going somewhere?” I asked as I entered the kitchen. “Yeah I want to run some errands then I'll go see Jenny later” He finished up his cereal and cleaned up his bowl. He looked eager to finish his meal and leave the house, it had been a while since he saw Jenny so I'm not surprised. I'm happy he found someone, he needs it.

“Okay, be safe” I called out to him as he rushed out. I sat down in the kitchen and looked around. I'll just wait for Leah to come downstairs and then eat, not like I was hungry now anyway. I walked into the living room and turned on the Tv. “Argh, there's nothing to watch on here” I groaned in frustration. I was still scrolling through the movie list when I felt something on my neck, it was cold. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, I turned around, but nobody was there. I got up and looked around. I checked the kitchen too, but there was nothing there.

I sighed and went back into the living room to sit down. I was about to sit down when I heard a faint whistling sound, I looked around. “Hello, is anyone there?” I couldn't pinpoint the direction it was coming from. “Leah if that's you, it's not funny” I opened the door and checked outside. I thought it was Leah playing pranks on me, but I didn't hear the door to my room open since. I didn't hear the sound again so I just ignored it and continued searching for a movie to watch. I just played a cartoon, I didn't even feel like watching Tv anymore. I remembered what happened days ago, we all tried to move past it and act like it didn't happen. I thought, maybe something similar was happening again. But that was during the night, and it was a loud screech. This was a faint whistling sound, but that didn't make it any less creepy though. I was starting to get uneasy, as the thoughts were going through my head, I heard my room door open. Finally. I was seconds away from running upstairs to my room. Leah came down the stairs and I got up immediately. “Hey was that you earlier?” I asked. She looked confused, “Me? I don't know what you're talking about. What happened?” She asked and I just shrugged. “Never mind,” I thought about it again. Why keep anything from anyone now, what if it happened to her this time. I quickly dragged back her arm, “Um I mean, a few minutes ago I felt something on my neck. Like a cold breeze, I turned around and nothing was there”. She looked at me, “A cold breeze?” She looked like she was doubting. “Just listen! After everything that has happened the last few days you start doubting now? I felt something on my neck. I got up to check it but nothing was there. I was about to sit down when I heard a faint whistling sound. I checked everywhere to even try to know where it was coming from but I couldn't figure it out, it was like it was coming from everywhere. I opened the door and checked outside, it was the same thing. It was when you opened the door to come downstairs that it finally stopped” I lashed at her and she apologized. “Okay I'm sorry. We'll listen for it again, and we will check everywhere in the house if we hear it. If we have to check the neighbor’s house we will too, okay?” She held my hand and I thanked her. “Are you hungry? Can we have breakfast now, because I'm starving” She dragged me to the kitchen. I was starting to get hungry too so I just went along to make breakfast. “What should we make?” I asked her as we entered the kitchen. She held her chin for a moment, “How about pancakes? With eggs and sausages on the side”. I loved that, it made my mouth water just thinking about it. “Yes, that's nice,” I said as we brought out the eggs and sausages. I made the eggs and sausages, and she made the pancakes. After we served the food, I took some syrup and drizzled it on my pancakes, “want some?” I looked at her. “You know I do” She laughed and I drizzled some syrup on her pancakes too.

After breakfast, we talked about a lot of stuff. Minutes into the conversation, she looked at me with serious eyes. “When do you think we'll go back into the castle?”. I shook my head, “No. Nope, no talking about demons or rituals or ancient castles. Forget about that society. Today is a normal day, we only talk about the normal things we talk about. Movies, food, books.. Boys” I winked at her and continued, “We don't need any of that stuff now. We’ll go to our normal restaurant later in the afternoon and have our favorite food. Also, do a little bit of trolling the customers and passers-by as we enjoy our meal”. She laughed and I laughed too. We cleaned up the dishes and went back to the living room to put a movie on and continue our conversation.

Hours later, we decided to take a walk and then go to our favorite restaurant. “Beautiful day isn't it?” Leah asked. I smiled, “Yeah it really is. We haven't been able to enjoy it much these past few days because of the craziness and the rituals. It's good that we can just enjoy it today, be normal and stuff.”. We walked to the restaurant.

We entered the restaurant, they weren't much people in there. We sat down and ordered our food. We always sat down by the window so we could see the people passing and the people coming in. “Hmm I missed this right here,” I said as they brought our food and I took a bite. “Will you do the honors?” I asked Leah as a couple of carnival folks entered. We both laughed.

We stayed for a few more minutes, just to soak in and enjoy the view.

We left the restaurant and headed back home in the evening. I felt happy, feels like I haven’t been here in forever. Lately, it’s just been flash drives, keys to storage rooms and rituals. I felt very happy with myself for planning this. I didn’t know Leah felt the same way too, until she stopped and looked at me. “Hey Carrie, thank you for doing this today. I know how the past couple of days have been for you, so for you to do this. It means a lot.” I smiled at her, can’t believe she was thanking me. I should be the one doing the thanking. “Come on. I should be thanking you. I also want to apologize to you. You came back home and you were thrown in the middle of this whole mess. You didn’t have to help, but you did anyway. You’ve been there for me every step and I appreciate it, more than you could know.” I hugged her tight. Passers-by looked at us funny and we couldn’t help but laugh. They wouldn’t understand why we were emotional.

We got home and Barry was back from his outing. “Hey Where have you guys been? I checked around. How are you doing?” He asked as he entered the living room with a bottle of water in his hand. “We had a girls day out, anything wrong with that?” I and Leah looked at him and smiled. He laughed, “Hey now, I never said anything was wrong. I was just worried that’s all. Relax”. I laughed, nothing beats teasing him. Absolutely nothing.

“So how did your day go? And your date with Jenny?” I asked as we sat down. The minute he heard Jenny he started smiling. It’s been a while since I saw him blush. “You’re blushing” I teased. He tried to frown but it was no use, he couldn’t stop smiling. “No I’m not blushing, come on. Well, my day was very good, thank you.”. I smiled at him, “Okay, but how was your date? How did that go?” I asked. He groaned, “ It was fine Carrie.What do you want me to say, I missed her a lot. We had fun, we talked about a bunch of stuff. It was very very good”. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear, that he was having fun, because God knows he deserves it. “Yes that is exactly what I wanted to know. It’s nice to see you had fun and you enjoyed yourself, that’s what I want”. We smiled at each other.

I remembered what Leah asked about earlier, about the Castle. “Oh by the way, I don’t mean to be a mood killer but how about the castle, when are we going?” I asked. I looked over at Leah, she looked relieved. She must have been waiting for me to ask that question for a while. “Yeah that’s true, should we go tomorrow? And get it over with” He asked. He was right, we had to go soon. “What do you think Leah?” I looked at Leah. She was the one that reminded me, I was fine with whatever she was decided on. She looked surprised that I asked her, “Oh Me? Y-Yeah we can go tomorrow. The earlier the better” She stammered. “Tomorrow it is then” Barry said as he sat back in the couch.

********

The next morning, we got up early to make sure we were well prepared to enter the castle. We didn’t want to leave anything behind. We planned to go in by noon. Before we left the house, we went over everythng again. The time the man with the cap came in, and when the other man came out with him. We chose to go there by noon because by that time, people would be at work. Anyone at home wouldn’t be paying attention to whatever was going on, the castle was abandoned anyway so people hardly looked at it. I packed the flashlights just as we were about leaving the house.

We drove down to the castle. We got there earlier than planned. “This is it. Are you guys ready?” Barry asked as he grabbed a camera from his bag. We got down from the car and crossed to the castle. “Try not to look too suspicious” He laughed as we stood in front of the huge gate. Everything looked bigger up close, even the hole. “You guys go first, I’ll keep watch” Barry said and I and Leah entered through the hole. He entered shortly after.

We were now inside the compound and even the castle was bigger. There were two old rusty cars parked,the windows looked discolored. We climbed up the stairs to the front door, it was locked. I guess I expected that, I mean what sort of person would sneak into a place and just use the front door to get in. He had to have entered throughy another way. Barry tapped my shoulder, “Let’s check around, there must be a window or something we can get in the house through”. We walked back down the stairs all the way to the side of the house. There were litters on the floor. At first I thought they were just dumped from outside but looking at the walls of this place, the people that built it definitely did not want it to be seen from the outside. Drink cans, chocolate wrappers and other snacks littered the floor. I was still looking at the wrappers when Barry stopped, “We can get in through this window here.”. There was an open window. I looked around, all the windows were closed apart from this one. That means this is probably what they use to get in too. Barry stuck his head in first before climbing all the way in. He looked back outside, “You guys can climb in now”, he held the window up as me and Leah entered the house through the window. I handed the flashlights to Leah before I climbed in last. We were in a room in the house, it was a bit dark. Not too dusty which was expected because that was where they entered and exited the building through. Leah brought out the flashlights and handed one each to me and Barry. We entered the next room and it led to a stair that ran all th way up. It was huge. Barry was at the front and was about to go up the stairs when he said, “We should split up and check around, then meet back here.” I dragged him back by his arm. “Split up? In a place we don’t know, a house this big. I mean, we don’t even know how many rooms are in this house or what’s in them; I say we stick together. Check out the rooms, work our way up from here or check upstairs first then search here last”. I can’t believe he thought splitting up was the best plan. Even in movies it was a bad idea. We still have no idea where the man with the man wearing a cap comes from. We can’t afford to be separated rigtht now. “Or what do you think Leah?” I asked. “Carrie is right, splitting up doesn’t seem like such a good idea. We don’t know what’s in the house, or waiting for us. I’ll rather us check together than get separated in a place we’ve never been before”. She couldn’t have said it better. Barry looked at both of us and sighed,”Okay, so where should we start from? Up or Down?”. Up looked like the best place to start from, if we finished searching upstairs on time, we’d have enough time to check out the back too as we came downstairs.

The stairs creaked as we went upstairs. There were three rooms on each side, to the left and to the right. “Let’s go left first” I suggested. The first two rooms on the left were empty. I didn’t feel the need to search the last room, but we found a book on the table beside the bed. It had a star on it like the other books in the library. All the rooms were too organized for rooms that were abandoned years ago. Two people can’t stay in six rooms at the same time. Barry opened the book but it was empty. Another empty book, I looked at him. “Should we take it and maybe try the candle thing we did for the leader’s journal?” I asked him, “Also, am I the only that finds how the rooms are very organized weird. No one finds that weird?” I added. “I don’t think we should. I mean, I’m curious to find out what’s in the book but if the rooms are this organized and this is the only book here, wouldn’t they notice it’s gone?” He asked. He was right, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. “Let’s check the other wing first” He said as we left the room.

Two out of three of the rooms on that wing were empty and dusty. Was this a pattern? I asked myself as we entered the last room. The room was dark. Barry turned on the lights but they didn’t come on, “Looks like we have to use our flashlights” He said as he looked around. I held up my flashlight and checked the room for clues, or books. Anything out of the ordinary at all. There was nothing in the room except a big wardrobe pushed to the wall.

We stood confused as Barry checked the large wardrobe. He checked the drawers, the back, everythhing. There was nothing in the room, I was about giving up when I saw Barry tapping the walls of the wardrobe, “What are you doing?” I asked him, but he didn’t espond. He just kept taapping, so I left him to it and stayed quiet. After a while, he looked at me. I was confused for a moment then I heard the wardrobe creak. It moved to the side and a doorway emerged. We all looked at each other in shock, How and where did that come from. Was it even safe or smart to go in there. I was thinking about a lot of things when Barry’s voice interrupted, “Hey! What are you guys doing over there, let’s go” He shouted and we followed him immediately.

The stairs in the doorway led downstairs. It was dark but we had our flashlights. “Be careful” I told Barry as we descended the stairs slowly. We reached the foot of the stairs, and it was a whole other room. I looked around, it was much smaller than the other rooms we entered but unlike them, it wasn’t empty. There was a big stone slab in the middle of the room. I moved closer to it, it had a star carving on it and some inscriptions. I ran my fingers along the inscriptions. “What does it say?” Barry asked. I looked at him, I couldn’t even speak spanish if I was threatened, how would I know whatever this is. “I don’t know, I don’t speak whatever language this is” I dusted my hands and continued looking at other things in the room. I heard him take some pictures, must have been of the stone slab. There were different things in the room. Lots of books, some containers with liquids in them. “What do you think those are?” I asked Leah as I pointed to the glass jars. We moved closer and looked at the label on them, Holy Water. Holy water? In a place like this. There was an iron table in a corner of the room. It had hammers, saws, a wrench and some pliers. It also had the same inscriptions on the stone slab.

In another corner, there was big concrete box. Barry took pictures of it and called me and Leah over. This one had inscriptions as well. They have to mean something. Everything that had an inscription looked weird, they were connected. We have to decode the inscriptions on them. “Let’s try to get it open” Barry said as he grabbed a wrench from the iron table with tools on top. I went over to help him when I saw how he was struggling to get it open. We both held on to the wrench and lifted, it was extremely heavy. I strained and we pulled with all our strength. It finally gave way and it lifted. We pushed the lid off and a strong wind came with it. It swirled around me and I couldn’t move, it got in my nose and mouth. I couldn’t breathe. Barry’s scream was the last thing I heard as everywhere and everything went black.

I woke up with a light head and Barry screaming in my face. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, so I put my hand on his face. My hearing returned shortly. “Hey Are you okay?” He asked. He had a worried look on his face, so I held his hand. “I’m good. Are you okay? What happened?” I asked him . “Nothing, I was just worried about you. We’re leaving now” He put my arm around his neck and I shoved him away. “I’m fine Barry, I can walk”. I said I could walk, but the truth was I was having a hard time doing that. He had to help me climb out the window. We crawled out of the hole back outside. For a few seconds I couldn’t stand up, Leah noticed and rushed to my side to help me up. “Thank You” I muttered to her as we got back to the car. “Sit at the back with me” Leah put me in first then entered after. Barry looked back at me, he must have noticed I couldn’t walk properly, “Hey are you guys okay?”.”Yea…” My voice trailed off, It was like all my energy left my body as I tried to speak. “Yeah, we’re fine, let’s just get out of here” Leah covered up and Barry drove off.