Meow,meow!=What about book that butler man give you? Maybe it help us. Annelie still had it with her. “It is supposed to tell all about the legends of this castle,” she told everyone. Then she opened it and folded up inside was a map showing all of the corridors and rooms under the castle, plus some in the castle itself. “Hey,” said Jennifer, “this will be a big help to us, it even shows some traps along the way. But I wonder if it shows all of the traps?” “It would be faster to split up and look around,” said Rock, “however, I think we should stay together now.”

“Yes, I agree with Rock,” said Harris, “it is safer staying together, even though we lost Kara when we were together.” “Yes,” said Jennifer, “the last person in line is always the most vulnerable.” “Then I will be last,” said Rock, “I can’t wait to meet these ghosts.” “Just be careful,” said Annelie, “your size will not help if an arrow or bullet comes your way.” “Well, they better make that first shot count then, because it is the only one they will get!”, he said loudly.

Now, armed with that map they decided to head into the corridors below the castle. They went down the stairs that they had brought Kristina and I up from below. They followed along, watching very carefully for any traps. Muffin was in the lead, but not by much, just enough to stop everyone if she spotted a trap. Meow,meow!=Here trap, not sure what. It looked like a large smooth, flat stone. Rock had an iron bar he had found and he pushed on the stone, but nothing happened.

Meow,meow.=Maybe it other end need push and she quickly ran across. Just as she got to the other side two large steel blades came out of the walls, one on each side, quickly slashing across the corridor and then back into the wall again. “It must be the other end that sets it off,” said Jennifer. Rock took something out of his backpack and tossed it onto the other end of the rock. The blades came out again and as they returned Rock put his iron bar in place on one side so the blade could not go back into the wall. That also stopped the blade on the other side.

“Go across now,” Rock told everyone and they all ran quickly across to the other end safely. Then he tied a rope onto the bar before crossing himself. Then he pulled the bar loose with the rope. He did not want to lose that bar, it might come in handy again. Jenny looked at Muffin, “you are supposed to ask first before doing something so dangerous.” Meow,meow.=Me know, but need to find human Kara fast, she might be hurt. Jennifer looked, Muffin did have a point.

So onward they went walking for hours through those corridors and checking every room. Finally they found the room where that man and woman had been hiding. The man was dead, the woman was gone. Rock checked him for ID and gave his wallet to Annelie, who said she would check it later. They did not find anything else useful in that room so carried on their search. Finally they came to a door which was not locked, right at the end of a corridor.

Jennifer opened it quickly but began to fall! Fortunately Rock was right there and caught her, bringing her back to safety. Rock aimed his large flashlight into a hole in the floor just inside the door. There was a woman at the bottom, obviously dead. “Maybe she worked with that guy we found back there,” said Rock, “she didn’t know about this trap anyway.” “Hmm, the trap does not show on our map, but it does show the corridor keeps going, with 2 side corridors also,” said Annelie, “do we keep going or go back?”

“Well, we haven’t found Kara yet,” said Candace, “so I vote we keep going.” Everyone agreed, so Rock ripped the door off it’s hinges and laid it down over the hole. “Just fits nicely,” he said and he walked across. Actually, it barely fit, but because the hole was round, the corners of the door just touched on each side of the hole. Everyone made it across and on they went.

Angel was starting to have trouble breathing, being in these underground corridors so long was starting to give her a panic attack. “Angel is having problems,” said Harris. Annelie got out some oxygen to give her and she settled down again. Muffin stayed with her after that, purring quietly. As they came to the first side corridor Muffin’s ears went up. Meow,meow!=Me hear groan, this way. And she points down the corridor, but then, a loud roaring…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.