So, long time no see.. I'm terribly sorry for not showing my face around here for the last couple of months (Besides reading other stories) I've been feeling quite down for a long time already, but I'm planning to get better and I'm already on my way to it fortunely! :) Enjoy chapter 3!
PS! Maybe some of you might think Astrid is a little OOC in here, but I just tried to let her act like any normal person would in a situation like I just wrote in this chapter since there's quite some creepy and scary stuff happening..
PPS! Any tips are very much welcome! English is my second language and I still need to learn a lot, so any help is more than welcome. (Any Beta Reader who's interested in helping me with this story, hit me up!!)
Astrid opened her eyes, fuck. Just the right moment, she thought sarcastically.
She stepped out of the tub, reaching for her towel, and realized she didn't bring any clothing. Astrid facepalmed mentally, and wrapped the towel around herself and grabbed the keys she luckily brought with her.
With a creak she opened the door, inspecting her surroundings with observant eyes, for what? She didn't know.
She had to get to the electrical cabinet to restore the power again, and cringed. The cabinet was all the way down.
Phone in her hand, she quickly put on the flashlight and with light steps, made way to the basement floor. Astrid clinged onto her towel and made sure where she walked.
When she arrived at the hall, she gave a quick look around. The castle in complete darkness definitely gave her the creeps she decided as she gazed at the statues around her, and the hallway before her that seemed endless.
To enter the underground vaults you had to follow said hallway, and enter a room where a staircase would lead you downstairs.
When exploring this was one of the rare places she hadn't been, since it gave a really shitty vibe for some reason. As if she wasn't supposed to go there.
Astrid walked and now stood before the big wooden doors that seperated the known of the unknown.
She took the second largest key, knowing this one was supposed to be the one for the cellars. She put her hands against the big doors and casually leaned against it as she fumbled with the keys and phone in her hand.
The door moved and with it, so did she. What the.. The door opened? How could that be? It was locked, how could it be open?
Taking her chances, she hesitantly stepped into the room, which consisted of furniture which dated from a time probably older than her grandparents. White sheets were dropped over most of it, and she could see spiderwebs dotting most part of the dark walls. All in all, this place looked abondoned, as if nobody has stepped into here for a long time.
Astrid moved further in the room, and she could never miss the door on the other side. She stepped over and slowly opened it, and peered inside. This was another level of surprise, when she saw a massive room, with a spiral stairway that lead you down, but as she shone down, Astrid saw nothing but complete darkness. The only sounds she heard was the dripping of water from the damp walls.
In all honesty, she really didn't want to go down there. And as she looked down into the unknown, she wondered why anyone would ever place the electronic cabinet there.
And right now, she really wished she had brought more than just her towel, cause this place definitely gave her the chills. And at this right moment, she remembered how the sales-person had quickly gone over the room.
" And in that room over there " Said the woman, with a pointed finger towards the big wooden doors.
" Is where you have to go to the electronic cabinet, just enter the room and go downstairs, but luckily it's rare for you to go down there. " Astrid raised an eyebrow at the women and gave another look to the doors.
Why didn't the woman show a room as important as this to her? Probably because it was cold and kind of creepy, she now realized as she took another step down the stairs.
Swallowing the nervousness she felt while watching into this nothingness, Astrid stepped down the first few steps.
She instantly felt her feet get wet, as it only got more damp the deeper she got. And also colder, the towel that she desperately tried to keep around her body, didn't help the waves of cold roaming around her.
It also didn't really help that it felt creepy as heck down here, and she could see close to nothing. After a few minutes of walking down the spiraling stairs, she finally reached the bottom, and she wondered how long it had taken her, surely a few minutes.. It felt very long, at least.
Her feet stepped onto the stone floor, right into a puddle of what she assumed, was water. She made a sound of disgust and quickly stepped away.
Finally, Astrid looked throughout the space, which was quite big and hollow, big and hollow places were a common thing in this castle, it seemed.
Luckily, she found what looked like the electronic cabinet. Sighing in relief, she came closer to inspect the object.
She narrowed her eyes to look at the handle, which was turned.. down? A sudden wave of uneasiness and paranoias settled deep into her stomach at the sight.
What the hell? This place only seemed to get weirder and weirder, and she couldn't help but feel completely freaked out. She was the only one in this castle, so how could it be pulled down?
No, this was the last drop, handprints, things crashing down the ground with no explainable reasons, these memories all came back to her with the sight of this handle.
This place.. It was, haunted? And it was definitely messing with her. She had to get upstairs again, as fast as she could!
Quickly, she reached for the handle and turned it up again with all her might, of course, the electricity didn't work in this room, so she was still in complete darkness, apart from her flashlight.
Astrid moved to the stairs and stepped onto them, already a few steps up before she heard the most dreaded sound one could possibly hear in an situation like this; A voice, with no source, and not yours; The only person in this whole castle. Astrid's stomach turned around and she froze, her eyes widened, and time seemed to stand still for a moment.
Then her flight reflex kicked in, ande didn't know how fast she could run away from the source of it. Between the flight or fight, she had no other choice to flight, who the hell would choose to fight what in the freaking hell that would be? Certainly not her, she was smarter to not take that risk, and scared, for sure.
A breathy voice was heard again, moaning and creeping up the stairs, luckily, a distance behind her.
" No no no no no " She mumbled in a broken voice as tears of fear prickled in the corner of her eyes.
Putting her foot on another step, it weakened and she lost her balance. She landed on the steps, her head onto the edge and she cried out in pain, blood already seeping out the fresh wound.
Her phone fell out of her hand, Astrid's eyes widened as it neared the edge- " NO! " She cried out as her phone fell over, downstairs and disappeared from her sight.
Again, she was reminded why she had ran and another sound shook her to her bones. Astrid gathered all her strength and sped off again, her towel almost falling off, but that wasn't the most important thing on her mind at the moment. Tears fell from her eyes as she stumbled, not seeing where she was going.
Then, she saw a faint light, she was almost there! Astrid's feet took her even faster as she gasped for fresh air, as the atmosphere in the staircase was damp and almost stifling.
Astrid finished the last step and tumbled onto the ground, her foot being in a more worse condition she originally thought. She groaned and grabbed it, as she desperately tried to shuffle away from the stairs. Her eyes searched for the door, it was open, completely open!
Astrid took her chances and stood up, limping to the door and throwing it closed behind her, locking in the thing that was chasing her.
Astrid walked away, as far as you could call it walking, from the door, not wanting to be anywhere near it. Now that she was kind of safe, she could finally process what happened. But she couldn't, that couldn't have been real.
She clasped her hands over her head and trembled as she just walked into a random direction, her path took her to the hall, where she could still hear the rain and the thunder.
Astrid looked at the windows, rain seeping down the windows, as new tears seeped down her cheeks, and thunder clashing, as her heart beated loudly in her chest. The thunder and rain mirrored her and her emotions.
She tremblingly sagged down onto the floor with ragged breaths and closed her eyes, consciousness releasing her and sight fading.. Before feeling a warmth around her and the floor disappearing beneath her.