Chapter 5
I really do appreciate all the reviews I'm getting. They keep me going (which in turn keeps Castle going).

After Castle ate the few bites of the protein bar he had allocated to eat, he waited for Royce to say something. There was nothing but silence.

"You still there?" He heard nothing.

Turning on the flashlight, Royce was there, still sitting where Castle had last seen him. Again his eyes didn't react to a light coming on unexpectedly, but this time he did show surprise. "I thought you might like to get a few hours of sleep. You need rest."

"What I need is answers," Castle growled.

Royce cocked his head. "What answers?"

"How did I get here? Who is this Brown guy? Why is he so focused on me?" Castle shifted so he was facing Royce directly.

Royce shook his head, "Honestly? I have no idea."

"Then why are you here?" Castle asked, frustrated.

Royce stood up. "I told you, to help you!"

Castle glared at him and Royce crossed his arms. "You think you could have climbed up here by yourself?"

Deciding to stand up, Castle rose, but he did so slowly, letting his muscles stretch. It actually felt good. He walked around Royce, studying the room. The room had bigger rocks sticking down from the ceiling so Castle had to be careful, ducking his head around the formations above. Pointing the light around the perimeter, he saw nothing to indicate how to get out of the room. "Well, you seem to have led me up to a dead end."

"Good thing you didn't give up so easily with Kate. You've hardly looked. Look closer."

With his back to Royce, Castle gritted his teeth. "If you know, then just point it out so I can save time."

"Didn't Kate tell you? I was a teacher and you'd never learn if I did that."

Shaking his head, Castle got closer to the walls, examining each crevice he came to. "Or it could be this is what happens with hallucinations. They can't help because they aren't really here."

Royce snorted. "I've been called a lot of things in my time, but not a hallucination."

Castle didn't answer him, trying to concentrate on his task at hand.

After a few minutes Royce continued. "You tend to be someone who believes in the supernatural, aren't you? Or is that just a show to get on Kate's nerves?"

"I'm ignoring you!" Castle whispered. Castle's eyes followed the light, at the base of a corner, he saw a hole, a largish hole, about three feet by three feet. It wasn't a perfect circle, and it didn't go down but through to the other side, wherever that was.

Leaning on his hands and knees, Castle leaned into the hole with the flashlight with him. Would he fit in it? Maybe here but if it narrowed ahead, he might find himself stuck.

A white face suddenly appeared. "BOO!"

Castle jumped back and screamed. Laughter filled the chamber. Now Royce was back in the room, obviously he was having a good time. "Gotcha! Man, you're easy."

"If I'm not in hell, this must be the way." Castle mumbled.

"You know, I really thought you'd be more fun to work with, given how you can get Kate to relax."

Rubbing his face, Castle nearly laughed himself. "She hardly relaxes, even with me."

Royce was beside him now, leaning up against the adjacent wall. "I bet she hated you being around in the beginning."

"Yeah," Castle said. "But she wasn't always serious with you, was she? Some of those stories you told of her, they sounded like she didn't always take herself seriously."

Royce shrugged. "She knew how to get the job done, like when she threatened to flash that guy. Of course it was funny, especially given his reaction and it surprised the hell out of me. But it wasn't something she did very often. And as you know, she really walled up when she got involved in her mom's case."

Castle nodded. "That first time." He didn't like thinking of her back then, so young and with no idea what she was getting herself into. "It breaks my heart to think of her diving in by herself like that."

"Yeah, well, she chose to keep it to herself. I would have helped her if she let me in." Royce was staring at Castle now. "But she didn't, and I didn't push."

"You know, now in DC, when she gets home, we can't talk about her work. Which I thought it would suck and it does because I hate being kept out of any part of her life. On the other hand..."

Royce waited but Castle was deep in a memory. "Yea?" he prompted.

"Because we can't talk about the case, she opens up more. I mean some of it's little things, like what it was like with her parents when they moved to a bigger apartment when she was a little girl. Or how her mom helped her move to the dorm room that one year at Stratford."

"That's great she's talking about that kind of stuff," Royce smiled.

"I wonder if she notices how silent I get during those stories? I love to talk, that's no secret, and I have a story for everything, but when she shares something like that with me... it's overwhelming to listen to because of everything that's hitting me: surprise that she's sharing, happiness that I'm hearing this, sadness that she has such a hard time with sharing at all, guilt that I myself never experienced such heartache even though I'm older than she is." Castle could almost see Kate, sitting in their DC home with boxes around her while unpacking.

"Yeah, I know you are."

Castle glared at Royce. "Shut up. You're older than me."

Royce shook his head, "That's not what I meant. It's just interesting how much a person can go through at a young age. I've been around the block several times before I met Kate, so I know what you mean."

Castle's eyes went back to the corner. They couldn't keep chatting. "So, I have a feeling that's where I need to go."

"I'm afraid so."

Heading back to the corner, Castle kneeled down. "What if I get stuck? This is like Cumberland Caverns but worse because my life depends on it."

"Huh?" Castle glanced at Royce, hoping he'd know what he was talking about. If Royce knew about his past, it was more evidence that he was imaginary.

"So you might want to take that water bottle out. It could get in the way." Royce advised.

Castle laughed. "If the water bottle holds me up, I'm in real trouble." Am I really going to do this?

As he began to crawl he heard Royce behind him, "Don't forget to breathe, man."

"Thanks," Castle muttered. Captain Obvious.

After climbing up a wall, this was easier, at least at the beginning. The floor was not smooth and many points of rock were sticking out, poking Castle. As he had feared, the tunnel grew narrower.

Eventually he wasn't so much crawling as he was pulling himself through the tunnel, and the pointed rocks were scraping him as he went by. At least the air was cool so Castle wasn't sweating nearly as much, though the sweatpants felt heavy.

The end of the tunnel did come though, and Castle breathed a sigh of relief. Carefully he worked his way through it, making sure he had enough room to get out of the hole and stretch out. The flashlight showed him he had exited into a long narrow room, the width being five, maybe six, feet across. The flashlight seemed to illuminate farther than usual but unfortunately he now had a choice. He could either go right or left. Taking a few steps in each direction, it was almost like he was in another tunnel, just larger this time. At least he could stand up.

"Wonderful." Castle griped. It wasn't like he had a map, and if he went the wrong way, he could waste valuable hours - not to mention fall to his doom. "Assuming either direction leads anywhere anyway."

Castle waited for Royce to show up, but the spirit never came. Leaning up against the wall, Castled called out, "Royce? Mike? Where are you?"

Nothing. Oh come on! Even if Royce wasn't real, at least it had taken some of the stress off of his mind if he went the wrong way. Now when he really had no idea which way to go the spirit was gone.

"Figures." Castle said. "I didn't believe for a minute he was real anyway."

"That's not very nice." The voice came from his right. Taking the flashlight, Castle pointed it in the direction. Obviously Royce was still playing games.

"There you are, why didn't you answer?" The spirit was in shadow, even though Castle was pointing his flashlight straight at him. Castle began walking towards him. Funny, I didn't remember Royce being so tall.

However, a few steps closer and Castle saw he was wrong again. Castle's face first showed surprise at who was in front of him, but then it formed into anger.

Sensing his presence wasn't exactly wanted, the man bowed his head. He smiled sympathetically. "Hey, Castle."

Castle glared at him. "Montgomery!"

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