Strange Visitors

"We're almost there."

Lena groaned at the sound of her mother's voice breaking into her restless nap. Pushing up on the seat, she sat up straighter and looked out the window. They were passing through a small neighborhood with cookie cutter houses. All of them painted light tan or white colors with soft blue or green roofs. Very boring in her opinion. "Great. I've always wanted to live in a box of cookie cutters. Doesn't anyone around here have any individuality and know how to use paint properly?"

"Well, you have plenty of individuality," Mom said.

"That's right, Little Artist," Dad said. "You're going to love it here."

"Yeah, right," Lena said. Her hand went to the top of her dog's head when the animal laid his head on her lap. "I loved the place we use to live. You know, home?"

"Honey, you know we've talked about this for several years," Dad said. "You knew there was a high possibility that we were going to inherent this castle."

"That didn't mean you had to uproot me in the middle of my sophomore year," Lena growl. Slumping down in her seat, she rolled down the window, blocking out her mother's sigh.

"We really are sorry, Lena," Mom said. "You'll make new friends. You've always been good with people."

"So excited," Lena said, slumping in her seat. "Make new friends only to be separated from them in two and a half years. Why bother?"

"Well, you love castles," Mom said.

"Living in a castle doesn't replace living and breathing friends," Lena said.

"Then you can invite your new friends over once we're settled," Dad said.

"You two are ridiculously optimistic," Lena said, resting her head on the side of their truck. The passing world blurred in her eyes. She didn't care about any of it. "I don't want any new friends. I want my old friends."

"This move is a good opportunity for all of us," Mom said.

"What opportunities?! Even if there was some, none of that means anything if you don't have friends to share it with!" Lena said. "I want my friends back! I want my room back! I want my life back!" She pulled out her cell phone to check her messages, ignoring what her parents said after that, something about living in a bigger town would open plenty of opportunities for her artwork or something like that. She focused on her phone, unsure why she checked the devise in the first place. Her friends would have been in P.E. right now. And they were scheduled to play dodge ball today. It was fairly rare for their class to play dodge ball. They always got too competitive when they played it. And her best friend, Melfina, was one of their best players. She knew without a doubt that Melfina would nail several of their classmates, mostly the guys, right on the nose. And she would miss all their whiney because a girl whooped them.

"Lena, give this a chance," Dad said. "You're going to love this place."

"Yeah, right," Lena mumbled, wondering if her friends were missing her as much as she was missing them. She shoved her phone back into her pocket and turned her attention back out the window. The cookie cutter houses tapered of to a wooded path. It winded around like a river before finally revealing the castle they were aiming for. Her heart leaped a bit. She did love castles. She drew them all the time. And when she wrote stories they always had a castle in them. This one was different from ones she normally wrote about. Her castles always had smooth crystal like texture. This one was more medieval. Built with stone and wood, and oddly looked in good condition despite the vines growing all over it, the shaggy looking yard over run by weeds, and the fact this thing had been standing for a couple of thousands of years or so.

"We're here!" Dad sang as he pulled the truck to a stop.

"Yippee." Lena rolled her eyes. Reluctantly, she pressed the release button on her seatbelt. It clicked. Slowly she allowed the strap to slide over her chest then her shoulder before reaching for the handle. She paused when her fingers touched the cool silver bar that would lead to her new life. If she opened the door it meant that her old life, her real life was over. She dropped her hand down to the seat, wondering how long she could delay the inevitable.

"Get out of the trunk, Lena." Mom tapped on the window as she passed it to go to the moving van.

Apparently, not along at all as her dog whined, that whine that let her know he had to pee and was itching to sniff the new area. "Et tu, Max?"

Grabbing the handle, she pushed the door open slowly, wishing a strong wind would blow it shut, keeping her locked inside forever. Her dog jumped over her lap and to the closes patch of grass to do his business. She closed the door after practically spilling herself out of the seat. Her eyes ran over the shaggy ground. It was going to take at least a week to get the yard to at least look presentable. Her mom and dad would handle that. They were use to working on appearances for houses like this, it was their job, expect this one is a castle not a house. "Calling this place home is not going to happen. I hate it."

"So you are the one who have inherited this castle," a voice said.

"Huh?" Lena turned her eyes to the voice. Standing to her left was an old woman wearing a plain purple dress, a white shawl, and her grey hair pulled up into a bun. "Where…where did you come from?"

"It's nice to meet you." The woman smiled, pulling her wrinkles up towards her sparkling grey eyes. "My name is Haley Zoe." She pointed her cane towards an opening in the trees at the front of the castle just off to the right a bit. "I live just down the forest path there."

"Uh, hi," Lena said. "I'm Lena Stone. My parents are behind the moving van at the moment if you want to meet them."

"That's all right," Haley said. "I'm sure I'll meet them soon enough. So did I guess correctly? You and your family inherited this place?"

"My parents did," Lena said. "I, of course, got dragged along."

"You don't sound very pleased to be here," Haley said.

"Really?" Lena's eyebrows rose. "And I was trying so hard to hide it."

Haley chuckled. "Ah, to be young and sarcastic. Have you thought that maybe this is where you were meant to be?"

"I've heard similar things like that plenty of times from my parents since they told me we were moving here," Lena said with a deep frown. "It doesn't change the fact they ripped me away from my home and the middle of my sophomore year to dump me in this place for two and a half years before going off to college."

"Oh, you're going to college?" Haley asked.

"Maybe." Lena shrugged. "I never really put much thought into it. Not much interests me."

"Oh, that's a shame," Haley said. "The world is full of wonderful surprises and adventures. You really should take it by the horns and go right after it."

"Adventures?" Lena blinked. "You're kidding right? I was having an adventure with my friends back home. And now I'm stuck here with nothing but my sketchbook and my dog as my only friends."

"Oh so you can draw," Haley said.

"Yeah." Lena shrugged. "Just a hobby. I have no interest in making it a career or anything."

"Too bad," Haley said. "I hear you can make quite a lot of money in the art industry."

"Maybe if you get a job making costumes for a famous movie actor or something," Lena said. "Other than that, you can't make much. The place you live has a huge impact on that as well."

"And how did you make it back home?" Haley asked. "Did you ever sell any of your artwork?"

"A few pieces," Lena said.

"Perhaps you'll have better luck here," Haley offered.

"You can't be serious," Lena said.

"Sometimes you can be looking at a good thing and not even noticed," Haley said. Her eyes dropped down to Max as the dog finally noticed the old woman. "You're such a cutie." Max licked her outstretched hand. "And really friendly too. He's a golden retriever, correct?"

Lena lifted an eyebrow at the old woman. "He is. And again I say, you can't be serious."

"Give this place a chance," Haley said. "I'm sure you'll find a wonderful adventure here that will change your life forever. Take a chance and explore this castle. You may find it holds many forgotten secrets of the past. Once that will ultimately change your future."

"Okay," Lena drawled. She couldn't help but wonder what loony bin this lady escaped from and if the woman was dangerous or not.

"Lena!" Dad called. "Come help move things into the house."

"It's a castle, not a house." Lena looked towards the moving van with a sigh on her lips before turning back to the old woman. The woman was gone. She looked around. No one outside of her family and the movers were on the grounds. "What the heck? Where did she go? She got super speed or something?"

"Lena!" Dad called.

"I'm coming!" Lena turned and walked over to the moving van. "You could at least let me pick out a room first."

"You can do that once everything is inside," Dad said. He grabbed a couple boxes and headed towards the castle. "The movers need to get going soon. They have a long drive home."

"This is their job," Lena grumbled to herself as she picked up a box. She turned and followed her dad's footsteps, which was easy since the grass was high. His boots pushed down the grass.

"We're going to have to mow the grass," Dad said just before he disappeared into the castle.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious." She paused to look up at the castle. The main woodened doors had already been pushed open. It was set right in the middle of two columns. Her eyes went on up to the windows. There were several of them. It made her wonder which room she would be staying in. Would it be one on a regular floor or on that was in one of the towers? Then she wondered if this place had bedrooms in the towers. For all she knew the rooms in the towers weren't bedrooms. She recalled some castles had prisons in the towers instead of down in the basement. Only time would tell. At the very least she was getting to choose her own room. She wanted one that was far, far away from her parents. Her parents ripped her away from her friends and home, she wanted to rip herself away from them.

"Stupid castle," Lena grumbled. She forced herself forward, angrily stomping on small yellow flowers as she went. Both her parents were gifted with green thumbs. But she couldn't keep a plastic plant alive. "There! Fix those!"

She entered into what she believed was the foyer. It was a large, square room covered in dirt, dust, a couple narrow rectangular table, old framed yet faded paintings, and now boxes decorated the walls. It was going to take days to get this entire place clean. There were several doors which led to who knows where. All she could see was a couple staircases through three of the doors scattered on the back wall. It made her wonder if they all led to the second floor and connected there or if the staircases led to single rooms or something else. A secret escape maybe?

"Just set the box anywhere," Dad said. "We'll move them into correct rooms when the workers are gone."

"But it's their job to move this stuff where it belongs," Lena protested. "Not ours."

"We don't need them," Dad said. "We're not lazy. We can move this stuff to the correct rooms on our own."

"Tell me that again when one of us falls down a set of stairs and breaks every bone in our body," Lena said.

Dad laughed. "That won't happen. We'll make small trips."

"How can you make small trips with a bed?" Lena asked.

"It'll be fine," Dad said before heading back outside.

Lena sighed.

"Better get back to work," Mom said as she dropped of two boxed and headed back outside.

Lean groaned and forced her way back outside to gather up more boxes. One by one, minute by minute, they moved in everything they had with them, which wasn't really a whole lot. Lena ran her eyes over their possessions. Mostly all they had was clothes, a few keepsakes, their beds, her art supplies, cleaning supplies, and their kitchen supplies. Her dad wasn't one for having a lot despite having quite a bit of money from inheritance and their yard work business they owned. Her dad would always tell her that worldly possessions meant nothing since you can't take them with you when you die. She couldn't argue with that. Still, it would have been nice to have a few knickknacks lying around.

"At least tell me we're not going to clean this entire place today," Lena said.

"Of course not," Dad said, filtering through the boxes in his typical manor of trying to organize them. She could tell from his annoyed expression that the movers didn't do as he asked. He liked order. Anything out of place always bugged him. "We'll take a room or two, maybe three or four, each day and clean them until they're spotless."

"And keep cleaning them even though we're not going to use them," Lena said.

"Of course," Dad said, moving a box labeled 'kitchen' to the kitchen pile. "No one wants to live in a dump."

"No one wants to waste time cleaning unused rooms," Lena said.

"Lena, enough," Dad said in his warning tone. "We've put up enough of your gloominess now."

"That's not my fault!" Lena snapped. "You didn't even ask if I want to be moved here! You just did it!"

"That is enough, young lady!" Dad bellowed back. "If you-"

"That's enough," Mom butted in. "You two are always at odds. Lena, why don't you go ahead and pick out a room?"

"Fine." Lena spun on her heels and headed for the closet staircase. "Come on, Max."

Max barked and followed after her.

Walking up the stairs she's heard her parents talking.

"You let her sass way too much," Dad said.

"Honey, you have to admit that she does have a point," Mom said. "We did just up and moved her here."

"I know," Dad said. "But this is our home now. She has to get use to that."

"She might not," Mom said. "After all she's spent her whole life with her friends and we ripped her away from that."

Lena ignored them after that. It didn't matter what they said now. Their home was already sold. Even if they went back at this point, they couldn't go home. She sighed. There was no way she was going to call this place her home not matter if they were stuck here or not. She turned her eyes to Max. Her dog, she currently envied, had no clue what was going on as he bounced around the stairs, sniffing about each one as they went. "I hope that's not mice you're smelling. If it is, I'm getting an army of cats. I hate mice."

Reaching the top of the stairs, Max looked back at her and barked.

"I hope that means you'll kill all the mice," Lena said. She drug over fingers over his golden fur as she walked by him. She paused to look at the hall the stairs led her too. It appeared to be a wing all of its own since the hall had ends on each side. And there was eight doors along the stonewalls. "Might as well see if I like a room enough to pick one. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a room that I can easily escape from."

Max barked.

"Oh, right," Lena said. "We're not on the first floor. I wouldn't be able to carry you down. Well, then maybe I'll get lucky and we'll be on the opposite sides of the castle from mom and dad. That way we can easily sneak out."

Max whined.

"Don't give me that attitude," Lena said, walking to the closest door. "If you understood what was going on here then you'd be on my side. Or you had better be on my side." She bent down when he walked over to her. "If you're not, I'll turn you into a fluffy blanket."

Max licked her nose.

"You had better be agreeing with me." Lena stood back up. "Anyway, let's see what this room holds." She opened the door to darkness and dust that tickled her nose. No windows were inside of it, she had to flick on the light switch. In fact nothing was inside of it. Not even broken wood. "Looks like this might have been a storage room or something."

She closed the door and moved on to the rest of the rooms. Four more looked like storages rooms as well while the rest appeared to be rooms and one a bathroom. It was at that moment she noticed the modern updates that had been done to the castle. In her anger of having to move here, she never thought about not having electricity, but someone had put it in at some point. Still, she didn't like this place. It wasn't until the last room she went into did she feel that it was right. Walking into the room she found a broken old wooden bed frame in the corner of the room just as she walked into it. And the only window in the room was directly across from the door. And there was plenty of wall space to hang up her drawings. She glanced down at Max who was sniffing the room. "Don't tell dad I said this, but this room has potential. There's plenty of space for my bed and my drawing table at the other end of the room." She sighed. "Might as well get to moving my stuff up here to my new prison." She drug her shoe over the floor, making a line in the dust. "But first I need to clean this place."

Heading back out the door and down the stairs, she found her mom digging through a box of cleaning supplies. The woman lifted up upon hearing her enter into the room. "Did you find yourself a room?"

"I guess," Lena said. "I just need to sweep it out before moving my stuff in there."

"Good thing we have enough brooms," Mom said.

"Yeah." Lena rolled her eyes. She grabbed one of the brooms her mom had leaning up against the box.

"Would you like a bag to put the dirt in?" Mom asked.

"No," Lena said. "I'll just sweep it out into the hall. Then once I get the other rooms swept out I'll sweep it down the stairs then take care of it."

"All right then," Mom said. "We'll be around if you need us. Your dad is currently sweeping out our room."

"Where are you staying?" Lena asked.

"We found a room downstairs. So we're going to be staying down here," Mom said.

"Oh." Lena turned and wondered up back the stairs with the cleaning supplies in hand. "Well, I'm going to get plenty of exercise walking up and down these stairs at least."

Making it back to her room she found Max was still sniffing every corner of the room. "I really need to figure out away to have you help me clean. Maybe I can tie a duster to your tail. You wag it a lot. Maybe dust mops on your paws? Though you'll probably just think they're toys and play with them." She sighed when Max didn't react to her at all. "All well. Might as well get to cleaning this room. This might take a while."

Placing the broom down on the floor, she started sweeping. The bristle brushed over the floor, filling the room with its noise. It kicked up the dirt. She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. "Nice."

She walked over to the window. With one finger, she easily flipped the hook latch and pushed opened the window. The rusted hinges squeaked. "That's going to get annoying." She leaned in closer to the hinges to find them just barely hanging onto the wall. "Dang. These are going to need to be replaced soon. At least no one can climb up here without a cherry picker. I don't have to worry about people coming in my window."

Lena looked out the window. A light breeze blew in, bring the fresh smell of the trees, freshly cut grass, and several flowers. She looked out over the tops of the trees. There was a large field beyond them. For some reason, it made her wonder what this place and these fields were used as before. Max's sharp bark pulled her attention back into the room. He was sitting near the door, tilting his head and wagging his tail.

"Okay," she said. "I guess I got lost in thought there." She turned to him and planted her free hand on her hips. "But don't think that means I'm starting to like it here. I was just curious as to what this place was used for. That's all. There's been no mention of royalty in our family. So maybe this isn't a castle at all. Maybe it's just a fancy house."

Max whined and tilted his head to the other side.

"Oh, just shut up," Lena said. Placing her broom back to the floor, she started sweeping again. A little while later she had a nice pile of dirt near the door. She started to sweep it out into the hall but paused when she remembered the closet. She walked over to it and opened up the door. Inside she found a chest that looked to be in good shape. "That's odd. This place is practically stripped of everything. Why would a chest be in here?"

She propped her broom up on the wall just inside the closet door and knelt down in front of the chest. She brushed her hand over the brass lock on the front. "I wonder if this lock still works."

She tried to pull the lock up, but it didn't work. She then glanced around the closet to see if a key could possibly be lying around. "I don't see any key anywhere."

She stood up, running her hands over the walls for a possible hidden cupboard or a loose brick. A stone shifted under her touch and clanked against its neighboring brick. She pulled the loose brick out. Inside of the small dark place were an old fashion skeleton key as well as a couple spider webs and one very ugly black spider. She cringed when the spider scurried along its web, right in the middle of the opening. Stepping away from it, she grabbed the broom and swept the thing away. "Stupid spiders."

Lena reached in and pulled the key out. She kneaded her eyebrows to find what appeared to be the shapes of wings overlapping on the key. "I wonder what that symbol means."

Bringing the key to the lock, she inserted it. A strange, slightly ominous, feeling washed over her when the lock clicked. She paused, uncertain to whether or not she should actually open this thing. She did. Flipping the lock upwards, she pushed open the lid. She exhaled with relief when nothing happen and only some strange holster looking contraption was laying inside of it. "I feel so silly now." She pulled the contraption out and looked it over. "But what the heck is this thing?"

She turned it over and over in her hands. It was rather heavy, with multiple slits where a gun hostler would hold guns, there were several worn straps around it, and some kind of mechanism that she didn't recognize. "I wish Tommy was here. He loves things like this. Perhaps he could tell me what it is." Turning it over again, the light caught on a red gem on one of the straps, beaming light back in her eyes. She blinked then turned it away from the light. "What's this?"

She reached for the red gem. She barely felt its smooth surface before a swirling red gust of wind erupted from it. The wind swirled around her. She dropped the contraption and stumbled out of the closet. The red wind followed her. Max, finally noticing it, barked wildly as he bounced around on his paws. Suddenly, the red wind swirled into a single spot over the contraption before a flash of light revealed a small fox. And if she remembered her science book correctly, it looked very similar to a fennec fox with its small head and large ears, but it's fur was white with a small tint of red at the points of its ears, paws, and tail.

It looked right at her and blinked curiously with its mysterious navy colored eyes. For a split second, she thought the animal was trying to pass a secret to her. But she didn't get to question it as the fox flared up with the red wind. The contraption lifted into the air. The red wind winked out and in its place now stood a young man with black hair. He now wore the contraption around his hips and chest and the slits in it were full of something she hoped wasn't deadly. He looked at her. She screamed, startled, and stumbled backwards onto the floor.

Max barked, but didn't advance on the stranger.

"Who did…how did…" Lena stumbled to find her words, but she was unable to form complete, coherent sentences.

He narrowed his eyes. Grabbing something from the contraption he wore, he clicked something into place then held out a sword to her. "Who are you?! How did you get into my room?!"

"Y-your room?" Lena blinked. No one was living here. How could he say this was his room?

"Hey, Lena," Mom called from the stairway.

Lena's heart leaped into her throat. All she needed was for one or both of her parents to find a boy in her room, despite this not being her room. One thing her parents were adamant about on was not allowing boys into her room. And that came from a schoolmate having gotten pregnant one night when the girl's parents were out of town.

Jumping up, Lena dashed for the door and shut it before her mom could look inside. There was no way she could explain a boy literally popping into her room out of thin air, or red air in her case. She pressed her back against it, her heart pounded in her head and her heart, blocking out Max's barking.

"Lena?" Mom knocked on the door.

"W-what?" Lena asked. She wondered if her voice was as shaky as it sounded to her.

"What in the world is Max barking at in there?" Mom asked.

"Uh, a mouse ran across the floor!" Lena lied.

"Oh, okay then."

"Was there something you wanted?" Lena asked. "I'm kind of busy in here."

"Your father and I are heading into town to get some groceries now that the fridge is up and running," Mom said. "Would you like to come?"

"No," Lena said, trying to calm her voice, her heart, and her breathing. "I'm staying here."

"Well, all right then. If you really don't want to come I won't make you. But you should do some exploring before you start school next week," Mom said. "Is there anything you need?"

"No, I'm fine," Lena said. "Actually, the hinges and screws on the window are going to need replaced soon. They're really rusty."

"All right then," Mom said walking away from the door. "We'll pick some up while we're out. Be back in three hours."

"Okay!" Lena listened for her mother's footsteps to fade away before turning her eyes back to the black haired man standing in the room with her. She blinked, wondering when he had stepped out of the closet. He was staring at her with one eyebrow lifted before his eyes dropped down to the dog. Max was still barking at the stranger, but still had made no move to attack. She exhaled, glad that Max wasn't the type of dog to automatically jump at someone. Of course, Max was still a puppy. He had yet to turn a year old. Most likely he viewed this stranger as a potential new friend rather than a threat. She herself wasn't sure if this man was a threat or not. The weapons he clearly healed was pointing to a threat. Perhaps she should have let her mom in. She had done a really stupid thing by shutting the door and almost trapping herself inside with this stranger.

She was about to open the door and run out to yell for her parents, but the sound of the truck starting shortened that option. Her parents were gone and she was now alone inside of this room with a total stranger who was wielding swords. She swallowed. Would Max try and protect her if this guy attacked? Dogs typically protected their pack when they were in danger. So he should, shouldn't he? He was still a puppy. No, he wouldn't attack. She wouldn't let him. This man would clearly hurt her dog if he did. She wouldn't allow it. She would die protecting her dog. She just hoped it didn't really come to that.