When All Things Go Wrong

by RockerTom

An action story, getting lost in a house, and then things go wrong

'When All Things Go Wrong'

It was when I woke up in hospital that I had realised what I had done the night before, also, how lucky I was to be alive, it was still in my mind and it was to be for a while.

It all started when me, and my friend, Bill, were exploring the countryside as we did every school holiday. We decided to play football and then it hit my foot at a hard angle to volley, I sent it flying way up in the sky and then it vanished into the darkened blue sky. It descended like an anvil falling, piercing the atmosphere and straight on target through a bush and out of sight, a bush however I had never noticed before...in fact, a whole patch of land undiscovered by me or Bill.

I decided to be the one who went to get it as I kicked it and then I delved into the bush like an explorer in a jungle, using my arms as a machete to slice through the twigs, things were sticking into my eyes so I closed them and felt for the ball, I suddenly banged my head on something hard and it re-bounded me backwards onto my back. I opened my eyes and there it was, in front of me, stood there, I had come across a huge wall covered in dirt and it was obviously old as it was crumbling in my hands as I read it like brail on a piece of paper. It was beginning to darken even more, just turning 10 we decided to go back to my house and go to bed. That night all I thought about was that wall for some reason, as it spread through my mind like a plague of memories. Confused why I was still thinking about this wall, and most of all, what was behind it, I fell asleep into a deep trance.

I awoke in the morning feeling exactly normal but something was wrong, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, I had this strange feeling about me. I hit myself on the head to try and get this wall out of my head, it was only a heap of rocks, what's so special about it, and it was starting to seem silly that I was so fussed about this heap of brick. It annoyed me but I didn't know why. I got dressed, showered and went downstairs.

As soon as my foot hit the ground and routed itself there the doorbell rang, I knew it was Bill because it always is at 12:00 on the dot. I opened the door to find, nothing, I was a little confused until I heard a near silent giggle, hearing this I jumped out and scared Bill. He fell on the floor, rubbing the dirt off his trousers he stood up and said to me, "Where we doing today then?" I instantly replied, "I would like to see what is beyond that wall."

We set off with nothing more than our coats and watches. All the way there we didn't say a single word to each other; the wall seemed to have invaded our minds and totally cut off our other functions. So we kept walking. Then we got to the bush, we both helped in creating a pathway through the forestation. We came across our football but it didn't matter to us anymore we were on a discovery mission now.

We got to this, giant of a wall and looked up. It seemed to go on for miles but of course it didn't, it was our imaginations playing with us. I searched the face for a foothold but when I found one it crumbled and left me back to stage one again, so I tried again and the same thing happened, "It's no use Tom, it'll be too hard for you to climb". I agreed and then we had a think of a plan of attack.

Me watching lots of action movies and all, my head filled instantly with ideas of how secret agents, commandos and even superheroes could have scaled this wall but my best idea was to get Bill to lift me over then just before I jumped down I would grab onto Bill's arm and pull him over cleanly with no injuries. So we did it and surprisingly it worked perfectly apart from a few grazes on my arm but I thought to myself, "No plan is perfect, is it."

When we dropped to a rough landing we landed with a crunch and ended up in a file on the ground. We both looked down and wiped our eyes clear of all the dust that had sprung up, our vision was then filled by hundreds of bones in a river like puddle of blood. It was just like in a horror film and then we saw the cherry on top; through the thick cloud of darkness we saw it, the temple of evil. It looked like the place where the devil would live as it had evil written all over, as it had goblin and gremlin statues all over with piercing eyes staring at us, it seemed. Then at the top of the spires was a circle of bats gliding round in a circle as they were looking for prey or something, they never seemed to dip or go any higher, just at a constant altitude.

We picked ourselves up and slowly walked onwards, past the rotting skulls on pikes, past the fountains of blood and up to the big rusting Iron Gate. This however was not locked which we thought was weird, but who would want to go into a place like this, like they were waiting for someone, waiting, planning...for us. The gate opened with a good push, it creaked, we ignored this though and we walked on. As we walked through this long corridor, I wondered how a simple wall could separate the flowers and animals of the countryside from this version of hell. It was beyond my imagination for sure and that is rare to happen. We entered and it was pitch black, I couldn't see anything so I thought of looking for a light. We scanned the walls for a switch of some sort but none could be found.

The end of the corridor ended in pure darkness. Even though there wasn't anything there I wouldn't dare put my arm through into where I couldn't see. "Ahhh, I wondered what this button did", Bill cleverly said and a beam of light shone out of his watch and lit up the whole room. I wish he didn't actually because in front of us was a room covered in mirrors. It wouldn't usually be that freaky but there was hardly a small collection here, there were over 40. The whole room was like a puddle reflecting every droplet of sweat from our faces. Then there was only one option to take, the door to our right. It was practically a case of the good rout which was the door to the right which actually had some light from a faint candle, or the door to the left which was darker than darkness itself and had bloody footprints. We slowly walked over to these and took a closer look. I ran it through my fingers and it flowed like a river flooding through my hands, then my heart almost stopped and I was paralyzed for a minute or two. "What's wrong?" Bill, carefully asked

"The blood...it's...it's...warm" I shakily spat these words out. I knew that blood went cold shortly after leaving the body so this is what scared me; it meant...this blood belonged to someone who was here just before us.

We both knew that the atmosphere had just darkened as our morale just dropped like a one legged man doing the oaky cokey. We both checked our arms and legs and noticed that neither of us were bleeding that much, so, it couldn't have been us. We felt a shudder run down our spine and with that, we set off. "Bill, I've decided that I don't like it here" I said giggling slightly, trying to add a sense of humour to our dark adventure. It was no good whatever I said could not have demolished the sight of horror everywhere we looked it reminded us of bad memories and that was hurtful for us both, but we just powered on through the hallway to the right. We walked along and we looked at the floor and it was a pathway made of stones crushed into the floor, they crumbled as we walked on them, but made no sound. Then, at that moment Bill's watch flickered to a finish, the light had gone, a sense of panic aroused as we plunged into darkness once again We had to rely on the candles in the room now but they were very dim. Suddenly we heard a noise behind us... we sharply turned around and, nothing, this was starting to get creepy. We heard it again now in front of us, we stood still with our backs touching; we had a 360 degree view of our surroundings. We heard a creaking sound but not of wood, this time it sounded like metal, like a lever being pulled, we stood there, we were prepared for anything, everything, then we heard chains move, and then something fall. Our hearts pounded like nothing before and then an array of snuffs fell on all of the candles in the room. Poof. They had all been extinguished by a pull of a lever, and so had our hopes or seeing. We were really stuck now, we were in pitch black, I called Bill, "Are you there," there was no reply. Then I heard a quiet murmur of "Yes," but it was shakily portrayed and I knew that he would be terrified as he doesn't like anything remotely scary to suddenly happen but, this was real, not a movie, real.

I reached out and felt for his arm, I tugged him towards me, reassuring him that it was me. Then we knew that we were safe together, I felt a breeze come through a hole in the wall and it went right on my neck, it was freezing, but then something happened, it suddenly heated up and there was now a spurt of hot air being blown onto my neck. It was like, someone was breathing right onto me, I turned around very slowly and feared for the worst.

Nothing, but it wasn't that there was nothing there it was that I couldn't see past my nose. The hot air started again and this time it was on my face, it moved along my face and onto Bill this time, I knew this as a soft cry flew out of his mouth. "Tom...th...ther...there's someone here, apart from us, I can feel it," Bill cried, and I then softly replied, "I know, just move slowly along the wall and we should be able to feel ourselves out" we did this, it was a horrifying task to uncover.

The wall changed textures all the time, from slimy liquids to bones found in the stones themselves, we didn't know what to expect next. Then, a door handle, we heard footsteps coming towards us and then metal boot footsteps. This only made us tug harder at the handle as we didn't know how long we had before this thing was in reach of us.

The door flew open as I kicked it, then we rushed inside and closed it behind us. We rested and leant against the side of the door, the sounds went, disappeared, we were safe... but for how long?

We tried Bill's watch again, but nothing, it was out cold, no use to us again. We looked in front of us and this room was different, it was empty, totally empty, no furniture, no decoration nothing. There was however, as we looked closer a beam of light coming through a crack in the wall, we followed it very carefully and slowly, to not lose sight of this, it lead to a trapdoor. "I'm sure when I looked on the floor there wasn't a door there before?" Bill confusingly said. I didn't know if this was his imagination or what but we had to take it. It was our only way out, only way to live. It was a matter of minutes I guessed until the thing we encountered in the corridor returned. The trapdoor was old and rotting, it had a large chain attached to it and I tugged at this and easily opened it. This opened to show a hollow tunnel going straight down, I couldn't see the bottom but there was a ladder on the side, I presumed to be leading all the way down. This was a strange tunnel as it sort of illuminated not enough to light it up, but just enough to show the outline of the old ladder's workmanship. "It must be lit by the beam of light then," Bill helpfully pointed to the light, I agreed with him and we decided to start going down.

He went first as I was to check that it was clear as we descended into darkness. Bill, whilst shaking moved over to position over the ladder, faced me and smiled, he started to climb down and the ladder pulled off the wall slightly but only enough to scare him. He shouted to me, I'm not doing this! Then as soon as this sound hit me, so did another. I heard fast footsteps outside the door, it was that thing but this time it was faster, much master. "GO!!!We won't have much time, it's going to find a way in sooner or later," I screamed to Bill because I knew that it was his fault that it heard us. Bill started to speed up going down, he disappeared into the tunnel and then it was my turn. If Bill could get down, I could as I was in better shape than him and weighed less. I turned around and started my descent ever so slowly but then once I had the rhythm I sped up. I heard the door crash down, it sent an earthquake like movement through the room and this shook the ladder, then the tunnel suddenly darkened. I knew that the thing had stood in front of the light because; it clearly outlined the figures body. The thing then moved to the right and the light seemed to shine straight through it, I knew it couldn't be possible but that's what I saw.

I looked down to see if Bill was in sight but he wasn't so I looked back up and, nothing then I heard a clutter and then I concentrated on the top of the tunnel, something had fallen down it, my eyes opened and then I quickly shoved myself against the ladder even more and prayed that this thing falling didn't hit me. I turned around and noticed a dagger fall straight past my nose; it skimmed my forehead and kept falling. I was lucky this time but then, "Bill!" I screamed down the tunnel only to hear, "Wh..." then a thud at the bottom of the tunnel, I feared the worse. I steadily but quickly carried on down the tunnel, a tear fell from my eye as I remembered whilst climbing down all the fun times I had experienced with Bill, I had known him since I was 7 and we have always been best of friends. It was my idea to come into this house and I had got my friend killed. I got angry with myself even more as it took longer and longer to reach the bottom, he couldn't have survived this could he?

I tried to think positively but it was not good, I knew that he wouldn't have but I kept fighting it. Now water was streaming down my face as I realised that I was alone, but also that I had lost my greatest friend in the world, I had lost everything.

I eventually reached the bottom of the pit, I didn't reach the floor though I stayed on the ladder and felt around on the floor with my right foot. This was strange, there was nothing there... "Bill?" I shouted in hope. "Bill are you there?" I got no answer and then I noticed that his watch was on the floor next to me, it was cracked on the face and then I noticed that there was a large amount of blood on the wrist strap, Bill never went anywhere without his watch, it was his Dad's watch, from the last time they saw each other, he wouldn't have left it even if it was in this state. I knew him too well to just get rid of this fact in my mind. I scooped up his watch and placed it in my top right chest pocket; I always put my valuable things in there because I could keep my eye on them easily.

I then seemed just to get rid of the trauma of Bill being hurt and missing and I looked around where I was now stood. It was a sewer type tunnel, it had nothing in the bottom, it was clean except for...the blood spurt on the wall, it was like someone had tried to grab onto it and hold on for dear life, it was right under where I found the watch. I carried on walking round this tunnel and it seemed to go on forever until I turned round a corner and quickly jumped back as I saw a shadow projected onto the side of the tunnel; it was a skeleton type figure, leaning over a table. He then produced a large sword but it wasn't a normal type it was all jagged and spiked. It looked like it could do some serious damage to someone's internal organs.

Another collection of figures appeared now and moved in through a doorway, it looked like one of those rituals from the movies was going to happen, I was right too. This was starting to get pretty weird for me. I peered round the corner; just enough to see, anymore and I could have been seen. These figures were... I rubbed my eyes to check that I wasn't imagining things, no I wasn't. These figures looked like humans but they should have been dead, their skeletons were showing, they had blood all over them and then had no organs inside, they looked menacing. I really didn't want them to see me now for sure; I wouldn't know what to do.

Then I saw Bill, four of these skeletons carried him, he didn't seem to be moving, they laid him down on the table and then he awoke. He screamed out loud, I covered my eyes because I couldn't watch I knew what they was going to do and there wasn't anything I could do to stop it. Another flood of tears fell down my face as this would have been the last of our memories and it would end here. The main guy clearly stood out as he looked even more evil and he has a purple cape hanging from his shoulder bones. He pulled out the sword and stood over Bill; the other skeletons held Bill down and made sure that his heart stayed in the same place. The sword was held high and directly facing Bill's chest. I had to do something I couldn't let Bill die just like this, I slowly moved sideways and I almost gave my cover up when I scuffed past a metal tube part. It just laid there and I thought that the only thing I could do was to create a distraction.

I aimed for the doorway behind them and then I threw it, it was a perfect shot, it flew right over their heads and out through the door. They didn't notice until it clattered against the stone floor. They all slowly walked out and all left Bill, one skeleton however got a dagger and stuck it straight through Bill's hand, he cried out in pain but they didn't care. He was stuck there. All of the skeletons left the cold room and seemed to take their time so I took my chance and ran out of cover. This caused Bill to smile a tiny bit, I tilted the knife side to side and this caused him to squirm in pain again, I knew that this was going to be painful for him. Without thinking I did one quick hard motion and pulled the dagger out of his palm. I put my hand over his mouth so that he didn't give our cover up again and get us caught this time for sure. I dragged him into the tunnel again and we moved past the end of the ladder and into the shadows.

"I thought you were dead!" I whispered happily into his ear and he simply replied, "So did I really" laughing softly and then he coughed. "Did the dagger hit you whilst you were on the ladder?" I asked, he slowly used all of his energy to unravel his knee. There was a huge gash that was leaking blood quickly and so was his hand. I instantly tore off both of my sleeves from my guns n' roses shirt. I quickly wrapped one sleeve round his palm and tied it tightly, and the other around his knee. "Lucky I had long sleeves on today eh?" I remarked,

"Ye, thanks Tom but most of all, I'm surprised you sacrificed your favourite shirt for my needs," we both laughed at this. I looked back at his wounds, the make shift bandage had soaked up a lot of blood and was not really helping that much.

"Can you walk at all?" I asked, "No, not really I think I've broken my leg or sprained it or something" Bill said out of breath. Looking again at his leg I could easily see that it was broken.

We sat there again and then I heard the things come back into the room. I signalled Bill to be quiet and he did. I slowly crawled up to the point in the tunnel where I could see them. They were in panic and were searching the room, searching everything and all they found was the dagger with a patch of Bills flesh on the ground. Amazingly there was no trail of blood leading to us which I thought was a lucky thing. Then an amazing cry came from the skeleton group, it was sort of a high pitched scream and it hurt our ears. Then they all ran out of the room.

I pointed down the tunnel and signalled for us to go there; we couldn't have gone anywhere else because it would be too dangerous. We started to crawl down the tunnel and Bill used his unharmed leg to push himself along, although he was slow we were getting somewhere. We crawled through blood, water and bones in this tunnel it was like a sewer but without the sewage thank god.

We came to an entrance, there was a rusting wire mesh, I peered through this as if I was a pet in a pet shop. This room was different to the rest it was the same old style but it wasn't exactly spooky, it was clean of blood traces, the skeletons definitely had not been in here.

I looked around and there were lots of crates, these crates were very old and had sawdust in them because one had a hole in it and was leaking. The crates were brown and had cobwebs all over them, Bill wouldn't go near them as he was scared of spiders but I was not afraid. I forced the crate but it just wouldn't open. I thought of ideas and then I saw a small blacksmith's hammer and it was very small and looked weak but it would do the job. Exciting to see what was in the box I hacked at the lock, because they were so old the lock wasn't exactly the most secure, it sprung off and then I was in. I hauled the box cover over and, nothing just saw dust. I stuck my hand in and then quickly pulled it out, my finger was bleeding, there was something sharp inside it, I tipped the crate over with Bill's help whilst he was lying on the floor. We were in luck four long swords fell out and skimmed across the stone floor.

"Cool!" were the only words that Bill thought of, he liked weapons, a lot. I picked one up and it was quite heavy, it was engraved in some language that I couldn't read but it looked quite old but beautiful. It had a snake head on the handle and was in mint condition, "These haven't been used in a while" I said to Bill. I swung it around as I knew how to handle a sword as I trained with one when I was younger. I looked at Bill and with a smile I said, "Now it's time to get out of here!" I would have to find a way of getting Bill to walk however because he couldn't just crawl all the way, I would need him to help me fight.

In the corner of the room was some more wire mesh and I picked up a roll and thought hard. I decided to make a kind of splint for Bill's leg. It would consist of some wood and wrapping the wire around his leg to hold it in position. I decided to use the wood from the crate. I chopped it in half and put one half on one side of his leg and the other piece on the other. "Hold this, I'm getting you out of stuck, and walking again," I said this with confidence as I knew what I was doing. I carefully and tightly wrapped the wire round his leg and then wound it round at the end into a spiral. It held, but it wouldn't do for long. "Can you walk now?" Bill tried it out and walked a few steps he looked fine but he still limped slightly. I handed him a sword and he struggled to hold it, but it had to do.

It was obvious that he had never held a sword before so I told him a tip, "Remember Bill...aim small, miss small" he understood and this meant that if he tried to hit their head he would probably miss so he should aim for larger areas. "Now we're going to have to be careful, only attack them when they are in small numbers and keep with me!" Bill nodded to save his energy of speaking.

I looked through the key hole of the door and there was nothing so I slowly opened the door, it creaked but not too much to create enough sound to alert any of the skeletons. I went first and Bill followed close by. I didn't know where the exit would be but I knew that we were sitting ducks if we just remained here; they had to eventually find us. When we left the little room we came to a corridor with a turn to the left, I quickly ran up to the corner and hugged the wall, peeking round I saw that there was a skeleton guarding a big wooden door and it must have something important behind it.

I told Bill that I was going to attack him whilst Bill kept a look out for me. I raised my sword and walked around the corner slowly, my adrenaline rush was amazing, I felt invincible right now. The skeleton noticed me and ran towards me, it stopped in front of me and we stared at each other, his fiery eyes clearly showed me that he hated me, I used this to my advantage as he would probably just attack with a slow, powerful blow, so I waited for an opening. He took a swing at me and I instantly parried his shot by blocking and pushing his sword back, then I twirled to gain momentum and swung low then up, I hit his legs and he went flying over my shoulder. Then I stood over him and plunged my sword into his stomach. He stopped moving and his eyes went white, I removed my sword and it was done. This made me feel more confident in fighting because they were only skeletons they weren't that smart.

I noticed that when I attacked his legs they crumbled, I suppose this is because they are open from flesh and are pretty old; it lay there with a brown powder of bone at the bottom. "Bill! Come on," I called. Then Bill came limping but walking all the same, he must have not seen me fighting because when he came round the corner his face lit up like a child's. He was walking better now so that was good. His hand was still bleeding though; I could see this as his sword handle was covered in blood. "Is your hand ok mate? It looks bad"

"Well, it's stinging but I think I'll be ok, let's just get out of here...fast!"

"Agreed"

I walked up to the big wooded door; it was all creaky and mouldy. I tried to open it but it was locked,"Dam!" we need a key. I walked around and looked for a key on the guard but there was none, then I noticed his small dagger which was curved like the moon and had a gold handle engraved with the words, 'Moonwraith', I didn't know if this was his name or a word but I grabbed it. It was in a little shoulder strap; I swung it over my head and put it in place.

I noticed that the key hole was roughly the same size as the blade. I used to play quite a lot of videogames about assassins and such so I thought that with this being an old lock, maybe I could break it open, seemed like a good plan to me. I shoved the blade into the lock as far as I could and I heard the mechanisms bend and buckle under the force, I then twisted the dagger a little back and forth and then I heard it...a clunk, the door was open. It opened by itself and hit the wall and came to a stop.

A grey bat flew down the rugged staircase and swooped at me, I dodged it and Bill just stood there and let it hit him. "Shall we?" I cleverly said to Bill,

"Ye, ye, ok then clever clogs"

The stairs spiralled up clockwise, they looked fabulous but enough of that, we had to get out of here. The stairway was dark and misty, I was wondering what was up the top but most of all I was aware that there was no handrail so if I fell that would be it, and I knew that sometimes false steps are placed to trick attackers. "Bill take it steady," he didn't answer he was mesmerised with the danger and was taking it slow.

I saw the moon above me in the sky and knew that this was nearing the end, but where would I come up I wonder? I reached the top and there was a little room that I was in, half of the roof was not present so I could see the moon, but that was about it. I pushed the door and it swung pretty easily around the corner, I was on top of the house. I whispered, "Bill come on, look where it leads"

"I'm coming, nearly there"

By this time he had just started the final ten steps.

We got to the top and sat there quietly, catching our breath, Bill re-tied the wire round his leg as it was starting to loosen and he didn't want to fall now, now that we were so near to the end... he was hoping.

After we were rested it was time to have a look outside the door fully, we were on top of the house and it was like a castle from up here. It was so far up, the circle or bats were nowhere to be seen though, this was strange, like they'd been called back. We both walked out, the view was incredible, even if it was dark. There was something wrong though and I couldn't think what, until Bill helped me, "So, where are all the guards?"

Yes, he had said it now. I was worrying, just thinking if this was part of one of their plans. I walked around until I found a walled area. I was just about to say something to Bill, when I turned around and all of a sudden I looked on top of the little house, there was a black cape, just sat there. Then it opened, the red eyes, menacing, I felt them pierce my skin, I felt weird, not totally human. This caped figure stood up and jumped high into the air, his cape covered the moon and blocked the light for a bit, and then he landed. With a thud, the floor cracked and made me fall over on my back, squirming on the floor I got up again, my blood was rushing all through my body and he could sense it, I could see it in his eyes.

He stared deep into my eyes again, waiting for me to do something. I drew my sword and I was ready, determined, focussed. I held it high in the air to signify that I was ready for anything, the blood stained sword glinted in the moonlight. Then I remembered that the skeleton which was about to kill Bill in the little room ...was now in front of me, I could tell by his cape and his structure. He drew his sword and it was the same shape as before, deadly and ready for blood. He also held it in the light but it didn't change its colour it remained the same shade of black. He ripped his cape off and threw it behind him, it flapped through the air, this revealed his boned exterior. His face started to change, he looked angry and then it began, he charged with the anger of a lion in his eyes.

He charged like a rhino, straight into me. He shoved me out of sight along the walls and I skidded straight into the wall, I smashed into it like a sledge hammer, the wall started to come apart. I couldn't take too many of these or I would be finished, I had to come up with a plan, something, anything and quick! I signalled Bill to come forward with his sword. He may have feared us more if there were two of us, this didn't do much; we just gave him another target. He noticed and then picked up Bill in his claws and threw him onto the roof of the little house, the roof then collapsed and Bill came falling through onto the top of the stairs. This smashed the splint on his leg, he couldn't walk properly now, he knew he was in danger he wriggled under cover of rubble then he's priority was me.

Bill just laid there whilst I was picking myself up from the floor, but then he saw something glistening in the light, a metal pole, propping up the absent roofing. He grabbed this and picked himself up with the strength of his arms, he only had one try, what was he about to do? He pulled at the pole and it came away in his arms, then he leant against the wall and waited for his chance to help me.

I then, was ready to fight again, I went on the aggressive and started flailing my sword everywhere to try and make him back up, it worked to some extent. He backed up to the wall then he jumped, pushed off the wall and leaped at me, like an Olympic swimmer, pushing all of the bricks out of place. He pushed me so I flew over the side of the roofing, I was dangling over the edge, I was in trouble now and I knew it, I held my sword landscape and he struck down. It was now a battle of strength and he had the advantage. He shoved me even more and my sword fell down, and out of my fingers, buckling and falling down the side of the house. It stuck in the ground and then stood still. I looked to my left and I saw some rock crumbling with his weight.

This gave me a flashback to when I was fighting the other guard. His bones crumbled when I hit them...I had an idea and I think Bill did too; we seemed to be on the same wavelength. Bill was still stood there and was no more than one metre away. He extended his arm fully and held the pole behind his head, he looked at me and I nodded. Bill swung with all his strength and hit the skeleton in the back, his spinal cord crumbled into a mess on the floor; Bill screamed with pain and fell forward onto his knees as he fell, the skeleton just gasped and fell forwards unconscious, he took large breaths and I knew this was my chance. I rolled sideways and dodged his carcass as it fell. It hit the edge of the wall and he fell over like I had done before, without thinking I stuck my leg up and kicked him off, I put all of my weight into it. He fell like a ton of bricks and crashed into the floor, with a crunch echoing through the mist.

I didn't see him land as it was too dark but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a pile of white powder on the floor. Now we had to get down, we couldn't go back down the stairs as when the roof fell it crushed them. We had to think of a new way. The mouldy bricks didn't exactly clearly show a way down, "I suppose we could climb down?" I said

"No, way not with my leg, I have only got my arms to help me and I'm not that strong"

I thought hard and couldn't think of anything, I looked over the side and saw a set of huge flags going from top to bottom of this castle of a house. I had it, "Right what we're going to do is; I'll stick my dagger into the flag and then I will just glide down, the sword will slow my fall enough for me to land and you can just hold onto my leg or something, ok?"

"Well I don't see another option so ok the, we'll do that"

I knew that the bricks were weak so I pushed a whole lot of with my foot on the top so I could actually get above the flag. "Now, Bill come over here," Bill started to crawl and limp towards me and I helped him. I placed him sitting on the edge and him holding onto a sturdy rock.

Then I put the dagger in my mouth and climbed over the side,

"When I say now, you hold onto my foot or shoulder"

"Ok, I will"

I shouted the word and as soon as Bill held onto my shoulder his weight pulled me over the side I quickly stuck the knife into the material. The knife pierced easy and I heard it hit the stone behind and scrape all the way down. We were still falling pretty quickly so I wrapped my leg around the side to try and slow us down. About half way we were still falling but not so fast, it had worked. "In no matter of time we'll be at the bottom" I said pretty pleased with myself. Bill didn't say a word as he was scared to death of heights and the dark so this gloomy fall wasn't very good for him.

Suddenly, we hit the ground, Bill first and then I landed on him. He was ok but his leg was still in pain. I picked myself up and then I said to him, now for the wall. I looked up and there was a huge gap already in it. I was confused, "Was that there when we came?"

"Nope, don't think so anyway"

I walked over to the wall that had caused all of this. I observed it and I noticed that it was covered in white and brown dust; I chuckled to myself and walked back to Bill. His bleeding had stopped now so I knew he was going to be ok. I put his arm over mine and led him to the gap. When I got there my face changed in extremes from being very happy to the complete opposite, I had just seen what was beyond the wall...something much worse, the thing that would make sure that I would wake up in hospital, I felt sick, I knew what was going to happen.

By Tom Morley