Haunting The Castle

A Haunted Soul  Episode 3

The ghost took his first steps into the castle and immediately felt a sense of revulsion. Even though this had been his beloved home, he had the strong feeling that he didn't belong here now. That didn't matter right now because he was in search of the passageway to the next life, which he seemed to have somehow missed. Now he was stuck here in what he considered to be an inbetween limbo.

He was assuming that the way to Heaven must be around here somewhere, so he had to begin searching. He knew that being a ghost who only existed at night was not a good way to spend the afterlife. And he thought that inside his home was the place he should begin his search. But the castle now seemed to be dark and uninviting.

As he moved on through the large dark halls, he found himself at the place where it had happened. He remembered that he had just returned from a fishing trip and had been walking contentedly to his rooms when he saw the first strange man walking toward him. That's when he knew it was all over.

A second man quickly joined the first. And when he was grabbed from behind by a third person, the first two quickly converged on him. It was only a matter of seconds before he felt the knife slide into his belly. He wondered how he could have let his guard down like this; how he could have been so foolish. And now he was dead.

The ghost hated remembering that last part of his life. Oh, he had always fully expected to be assassinated, most likely by a family member seeking their fortune. That's what happened to many castle lords. But he had never liked laying too many restrictions on his family, so he had no idea what trickery they might be up to. It really wasn't his murder that he had a problem with. It was the treacherous way they did it. They did not follow proper protocol! Anyone in his position would understand that. It made him so angry!

He was now at the door to his rooms. He had already learned that he could pass right through doors or anything else that could open and close, so he stepped right through. Here he discovered that his rooms were already being emptied of their contents! He wondered why so soon.This just wasn't proper! There was supposed to be a bit longer period of mourning for a castle lord before changes were made. The culprit was being really vicious about all of it.

Finding nothing else of interest, and no heavenly passageway, the ghost quickly left his rooms to go search other parts of the castle. He thought maybe he would go to the other side of the castle where the quarters of his family members were. He would most likely visit his cousin's quarters first. He knew him the best out of all of his family. He wished sometimes that he had gotten to know some of them better, but this just wasn't done. A lord had much more important things to do.

When he got to his cousin's rooms, he found him and his small family all fast asleep. The ghost tried his best to make his presence known to them, but he found that it just wasn't possible. None could see or hear him, and he could not interact with any object that a living person could move. The ghost found the same results in the rooms of all of his family members. He was beginning to wish there might be someone to talk to in this place that he was quickly beginning to hate.

After visiting some of his advisers and then some of his closer servants, he discovered that it was the same with all of them too. He could not communicate with any of them, no matter what he tried. There was absolutely nothing he could do. All the while he felt this terrible aversion to the inside of the castle. At first he had thought it was the place of his murder that he disliked so much, but it was the whole castle. He wanted out of here, and he wanted it the longer he was here.

Discovering not even the smallest clue to the next life, or maybe even the end of his last, he decided that he could take it no longer, and he left the castle. He exited through the front door and went back out to the boulder that he seemed to have now adopted as his waiting place. There was nothing in there for him. The past really didn't matter anyway. He just wanted to move on to the next life. He felt he deserved to move on, so he wondered why he was still here!

He was now coming to the conclusion that something had gone terribly wrong. He thought he should have moved on to Heaven that first night of his death, but instead he was left stranded out on this rock in the middle of the night. Why him? He wondered if he had done something wrong in his life. If he had done something so horrible, wouldn't he have gone to Hell?

The ghost sat there on that very spot until both he and another night faded away with the dawn once again.

A Lost Soul

A Haunted Soul  Episode 2

So here I am once again, waiting to go to Heaven. How did it come to this? I waited patiently the night before, and nothing came as the night slowly passed. I just knew after finding myself out here last night that it would surely come quickly.

How could a person such as me who lived what I thought was a good and decent life not be quickly transported to the next life? Last night nothing had come for me though. No shining doorway. No celestial stairway. No beloved ancestors to guide the way. Nothing. And now I sit here on the second night of my death, confused but still waiting.

Hmm, maybe I'm in the wrong place. Am I supposed to go somewhere else? I stayed out here in front of the castle, sitting on this boulder. I thought this was where I should be because it was the place I appeared when I awoke to this limbo existence after I was murdered. I assumed I should stay right where I was. After all, I didn't want to miss the big event.

But maybe I should be somewhere else. I hope I'm not too late. Surely the way to Heaven will appear for me again if I missed it. It surely would have waited if I weren't there to meet it anyway. Ha! That must be it! So I'll search for the right place to be since I so obviously must not be there now. That must be the answer.

I really am not sure where I should begin my search. Would the passageway to Heaven be out here in the night? Or maybe it will be inside the castle itself. This is a mystery I'll have to ponder for a few minutes. Where will I search? Are there any clues? I don't know of any.

An odd thought has occurred to me. No, it couldn't be! Maybe I was somehow forgotten. Maybe Heaven won't be coming. What will happen to me?

Waiting For Heaven

A Haunted Soul  Episode 1

I was murdered last night. Does it really matter how, or even why? The only thing that interests me at all right now is that I'll be going to Heaven soon. There will be a shimmering doorway, or perhaps a stairway into the sky. Maybe one of my old loved ones or an angel will come for me. However it is, it's going to be wonderful. It should happen any time now.

You know, death wasn't necessarily like I expected it to be. What I mean is, I didn't really know what to expect. After they killed me I found myself sitting here on this big stone outside the front of the castle. I have a sense of the passage of some hours, but I don't know how I got here. Should I?

The only thing that bothers me is how it was done. Oh, I fully expected that someone wanted to assassinate me. It's standard procedure in families of my stature. But they did it all wrong. You have to pay attention to protocol. There are ways of doing these things that show respect to your victim, and then there was the way they did it to me. Anyone can understand.

I do have to say that they completely caught me off guard. I had just gotten back from a fishing trip, which was one of my favorite activities by the way, and I was heading to my rooms to get a good night sleep. From around a corner in the hallway stepped a man I had never seen before. I could tell right then by the look in his eyes exactly what he was up to. As a matter of fact, I chuckled at my own foolishness for letting my guard down.

As the man sauntered toward me I prepared for a fight, but I had no chance because he was soon joined by a few of of his friends. One of them caught me from behind, and it was all too soon over with. I really should have known better than to let this happen, but how did I know they would play it so dirty? It was just not right!

But that's all over with now. That life is all in the past for me. I'll soon be in Heaven, and everything will be more wonderful than I could have ever hoped for in my previous life. I'm just sitting here on this boulder in the middle of the night waiting for it to happen. It should be coming along any time now. Any time.

The Ghostly Figure

So there I was in the middle of a good night sleep when I had this nightmare. For me it was almost a standard bad dream where I was being chased by a supernatural creature of some kind. The creature this time happened to be a classic ghost. You know, the kind that looks like a guy wearing a white sheet.

I remember running and running to get away. But no matter how fast I went, the ghost was at least as fast as I was! The dream seemed to go on for ages. It's rough when you are so afraid and you just can't seem to get away from that fear. But in the end the dream finally faded, and I was back in normal sleep.

But soon after, I was dreaming again. I dreamed I was lying in my own bed asleep. I dreamed that I awoke and opened my eyes to see a terrifying figure hovering over me. The figure was about seven feet tall, much too thin to be human, and was wearing a long white sheet! The ghost was back! It terrified me so much that I instantly and finally awoke from my sleep.

Now I was really awake, lying there and a little bit afraid to open my eyes. I told myself that it had all been nothing but a bad dream, but I knew that it had seemed so real. The only thing to do was open my eyes to reassure myself that there was no ghost there.

I opened my eyes, and the ghost was still there! It was less that a second when the ghost swooped down towards me! I closed my eyes tightly and my hands reflexively flew up in front of me for protection! But nothing came.

I laid there in that exact position for what seemed like hours. My heart was pounding in my chest so hard that I thought I was going to die! I could actually feel the strong, solid beating with my hands! Ba bump, ba bump, ba bump! I was too afraid to look once more.

I let the time pass some more until my heart slowed enough to where I thought the ghost might not give me a heart attack. finally, I opened my eyes once more. The ghost was gone. It was as if it were never there at all.

I quickly got out of bed and checked the entire room for anything out of the ordinary, but found nothing at all, except my own terrified reflection in the mirror. I never saw the ghost again after that, but I have always wondered if that last part was real or just a very real dream. I guess I'll never know.

Mr. Sunshine's Dilemma

The odd little man was seeing the strange images again. He had told them when he was in the mental institution that he no longer saw them, but that was a lie so they would let him out. He thought about it now that he was free, and realized his statement was actually partially true. At the time, he didn't see the little oddities as much as he used to because he had learned to ignore them, but now they were back stronger than ever.

Just a little while ago as he had looked up at a painting on the wall of his small apartment, it began to do some very strange and disturbing things. It was the image of a woman. He began to notice that it was moving; swaying gently from side to side. The colors began to swirl and get darker. The woman looked down at him and began to speak. "Come a little closer, Mr. Sunshine," she said in a teasing, but almost seductive manner as her clothing and skin began to melt away. Mr. Sunshine was the name the workers in the mental institution had begun calling him to make fun of him.

He watched in a silent demented interest as each layer oozed from the woman until she was only a skeleton, still beckoning to him. Any fear he might have didn't last long because he knew it was just an illusion that his fractured mind had created. This was how it happened on almost every occasion; inanimate objects giving him a horror show. He was mostly used to it after all this time. He knew that he wasn't really quite sane. But knowing was enough for him to want to be free of institutional confinement. He could function just fine in society as long as he ignored these horrible visions. And he couldn't let anyone else know what he saw.

But now there was a new problem. He was watching the news on television when an urgent report came in. It was straight out of a horror movie. The anchorman claimed the dead were walking and eating human flesh! They even showed footage! This wasn't the kind of craziness that had happened to him before, so he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. His insanity had always been very consistent. It was always the inanimate! This new event was very different. Was this real?

So he decided to change the channels and find out if there was more. Sure enough, on the next channel they were showing shambling zombies chasing screaming people, and the news person was on the verge of panic. She said the zombies were overrunning the city! The woman continued on, saying everyone should take cover in their homes.

His twisted mind didn't know what to make of this new development. He wondered if this was just a new aspect of his insanity or if it was the outside world that was going crazy. He wasn't sure at all if this was something he should ignore, or if he should prepare to defend himself. If it was real he would have to protect himself from flesh eating zombies. But what to do if it was only his own warped imagination?

He thought about the rifle he had secretly bought a few days ago, and he wondered what he should do. What should he do!!!