A TRIP TO A HAUNTED CASTLE

OUR FIRST DAY AT THE CASTLE

The rest of the trip with Charlie and Teressa was filled with full of laughter and fun. We finally reached our destination at evening. Honestly, the castle was not as bad as I first thought. It is a medieval castle, but it has been remodeled. Our room is in the west wing of the castle, on the first floor. I am sharing a room with Teressa, because she is afraid of being alone in a huge room. The room is big and adequately lit, even with a king sized bed and a spacious closet. We also have a small table in our room for reading purposes. We also have an attached bathroom too, which is also quite spacious and equipped with all modern facilities. The shower has a glass wall and door around it. There is a door which leads us to an equally long balcony too. All of our rooms are on the first floor, and most of them can be shared between two or more people.

We met with all the servants working in the castle too. Apart from the driver John, there is the fifty-year-old cook Sophia. Alfreda, Sebastian, and Mindy are the cleaning crew. The castle is huge, so I can understand how much work they have to do. One odd thing I noticed that none of them lives in the castle. All of them wanted to leave the castle before 7 o'clock. When I asked them about it, they told me that the castle becomes haunted after 8 pm. We laughed at their ridiculousness. Charlie left us to settle in our room, as we are the first to reach the castle. He said he would call us downstairs when others will reach here.

The minute he left closing the door, Teressa and I squealed, an jumped on the sofa bed. We started bouncing on the bed and fighting with pillows with each other. After doing so for quite some time, Teressa said in an excited voice, " Charlie has turned into a handsome hunk, ha? Who would have thought about it? I did not recognize him at first, you know? With all those strong biceps and all."

"Someone has a crush on Charlie", I commented in a high-pitched voice to annoy her.

Teressa, "I don't have a crush on him, shut up. And keep your voice down, you i***t", punching me in the ribs.

"Ow, that hurts, you stupid prick,"

"Good, then shut up," she glared at me. She is blushing furiously; her cheeks are red like a tomato.

However, I continued in a singsong voice, " Teressa has a crush on Charlie. She likes Charlie. I wonder what he has to say about it. Let's find out." I added, quickly running towards the door. Just as I opened the door, I found Mindy standing at the door. She is about to knock our door, her hand is raised. She lowered it and asked, " Can I come in? I have something to say."

"Yeah, sure", I said stepping aside. She entered our room and I closed the door. I turned around to take a good look at her. She is an average-looking girl with average height. She is nervous about something, as she is fidgeting with her fingers. I asked there, "You wanted to say something. What is it?"

She said, " Yeah, others have reached here. They are in the hall downstairs. Master Charlie sent me to fetch you guys downstairs." She said those words with her mouth, but the look in her eyes are saying something else. Before I can decipher the look, it was gone. I mentally shrugged it, thinking that maybe I am tired and seeing things. We thanked her and she left the room. We got downstairs. We are welcomed by a shrill animated voice, " Hi guys, long time no see. It's good to see you guys."

Next, we found ourselves in a bear hug by none other than Natalie Brown. She was the head cheerleader of our school, she is a nice girl. She was dating Brandon at that time, which is why I couldn't say anything to him about my feelings. Then they broke up, but remained good friends. After her enthusiastic greeting, we greeted the others. I came to know about their current life and profession. Brandon is working as a content writer at some company. Natalie is a dance teacher at a school, Peter is a basketball player. No surprise there. Sheila has her own bakery in New York, she also was a cheerleader in school. She was quite bitchy to those who dared to mess with us.

Miles is a criminal lawyer, which surprised us the most. He used to hate studying the most, among all of us. Regan, a tomboyish girl, sporting a mohawk and rose tattoos across her arm is working as a secretary of the CEO of a tech company. Christopher is working in the same company as an HR. Neil is working in a fashion magazine as a chief editor and Nitin is an architect. We get to talking among ourselves.

Charlie announced that dinner will be served soon. However, as the maids have already left, we have to help ourselves with the serving. We decided that after dinner we will play Truth & Dare till we are tired. We will explore the surroundings in the morning and see if there is anything worth sightseeing. All in all, I am liking the place now. I am looking forward to Truth & Dare. Let's spill some beans (Cue to the evil laugh in the background).