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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.
