CHAPTER 10: CAPTURED

Once Peter was free, he began to narrate his long sad story to Sam and his relatives. It was then that Sam believed his story. Peter then told Sam about the evil night when the planets made a circle around Jupiter.

"Once the evil night comes, darkness grows stronger and so will the power of the evil ones. Tarantella plans to sacrifice your family members and use them for rituals. Once the Dark Lord accepts them, he will give her the power to rule the world" Peter explained.

"When is this evil night?" Sam asked.

"In two days' time. Tarantella will start praying at 3:00am since it is by that time that the forces of evil are strongest. She will continue to chant until 12:00pm, by then everything will be ready. At 3:00pm, she will defy the Son Of God and it will be at that time that we will have to strike because she will grow weak by then since it was at that time that the Son Of God, Jesus Christ conquered and defied death. If we fail, we the Andersons will perish along with the world but if we win, the world will be saved and peace will be restored" Peter Anderson explained.

Sam could never have imagined the day that Carlane became his relative and began to speak like a true Christian. George, John, Lucy and Nancy were all as surprised as Sam was.

"How can we believe that you are really Peter and not Carlane?" John asked.

Peter then reached into his robe and pulled out a Rosary.

"Now do you believe me?" he asked.

"Sure" they all answered.

"Yeah because no one from the Darkside no matter how powerful can wear a crucifix of his own free will or even bear to look at it" George said.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's end this together" Peter said. "I believe that Tarantella is currently in the Dark Lord's Castle because the demons that attacked you were created by both of them" Peter said.

"This means the Dark Lord and Tarantella plan to fight against us together on the evil night" Sam said.

"Take this Sam" said Peter as he handed the crucifix to Sam. "You will need it".

"Thanks" Sam said and wore it around his neck.

"Let's go" said George.

"Uh George?" asked John. "Do you know where the Dark Lord's Castle is?"

"Not exactly" said George.

"Have you considered how large this realm might be?" John asked.

"Sam, what do you think?" George asked.

"Well, I don't know" Sam answered.

"Peter?" Sam asked hopefully.

Peter shook his head sadly.

"This is just great. We end up in this godforsaken realm trying to rescue our parents. We nearly get squashed by tons of bones, roasted by fire, burnt by lava, bitten by a Tarantula all because some crazy witch is obsessed with the idea of revenge and we don't know the path that leads us to rescuing our parents? This is just too great" George said in dismay.

"Hey, wait a minute. I think there might be a way we can find out the path to the Dark Lord's Castle" Lucy said.

"How?" they all asked.

"I will show you" Lucy said and began to concentrate.

As before, her eyes began to glow however she didn't stop there. She concentrated till her eyes became as white as snow but they were still glowing. Suddenly, beams of light emitted from her eyes flew in all directions.

"Look" Lucy said and pointed South-East.

They all looked and saw that the beams of Light moved in all directions except the South-East direction.

"This indicates that it is in this direction that the darkness is strongest" Lucy said.

"How do we know for sure?" George asked doubtfully.

"Tarantella's Castle is towards the South isn't it?" Nancy asked.

"It is" George replied.

"You remember that time when you boys rescued us when the glass wall disappeared momentarily and John said it was Tarantella" Lucy asked.

"John, which direction did Tarantella move towards" Nancy asked.

"East!" John answered.

"This confirms it" Lucy said.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Sam said. "Let's go!"

And so they began to fly towards the Dark Lord's Castle. Fortunately for them, no demons came against them. In fact, it seemed as though they were the only ones in that world. When they finally reached the Dark Lord's Castle, they saw two Griffins standing guard outside the main gate. They managed to sneak in unnoticed and gazed at the castle which was really huge. There were many towers but one of them seemed to be far taller than the rest. The Anderson children noticed that there were some barred windows which seemed to be level with the ground and guessed that those were the dungeons.

"Whoaa, this place is spooky" John said.

The Castle looked completely old and somehow bore an evil presence. As Sam and the others stood there watching the castle, they heard a low groan. Sam recognized it to be his mother's voice.

"Ssshh" he motioned for silence. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what?" they chorused in a whisper.

The groan sounded again but a little louder this time. Sam looked at the others quizzically.

"Yeah" George answered. "It sounds like…" but he didn't get the chance to finish that sentence for he saw a look of terror in Sam's eyes.

"Mom" Sam completed his sentence.

"We've got to rescue her" Lucy said.

"No, it may be a trap" Sam said.

"But you can't expect us to leave her here" Lucy continued.

"Okay, we must find a way to get her out of there" Sam said.

"Let me tell you what I think we have to do. I most certainly think that the dungeon must be below the Castle so let's sneak in, find the stairs that lead to the dungeon and free Mom but I'm warning you, keep alert!" Sam commanded.

"Sure" John replied.

With these words, the heroic children snuck into the castle. Luckily for them, there were no guards. They managed to sneak past the main gate which was open. Just before they entered the Castle, Sam stopped them.

"Wait" he called.

"How can we know that this isn't a trap?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"I mean this is too easy. No one is trying to stop us you know? Besides, why would they leave the main gate open and unguarded?" Sam said.

"Hmm, I see what you mean Sam" John said.

"Well what do you propose we do?" George asked.

"I don't know" Sam said.

"Then we don't have much of a choice do we?" George said.

So they moved around the Castle trying to find some stairs leading to the dungeons below. They explored corridor after corridor, dark halls. They then realized how large the Castle was. It seemed that the Halls continued forever. It was then that they found the stairs. They followed the stairs down to the dungeon. It was quite uncomfortable as the stairs had no staircases.

"I hate these stairs" George muttered.

John suddenly jumped aside and began to glide downwards.

"Who needs the stairs when we can fly to the bottom? They got his cue and all jumped except for Peter Anderson.

He chanted until a broom suddenly appeared. He then jumped unto it and followed the children as they flew downstairs having fun as they flew about the stairs and sometimes just dived straight towards the lowest floor. Suddenly, they heard the cry once again and froze in midair.

"Sshh" Sam beckoned to them. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Yeah" John replied.

Then they heard the cry again quite clearly. It seemed to be coming from a door beside the stairs. George opened it quietly. They found out that it led to a corridor which was very quiet and very long. Once again, Sam had the strange feeling. He felt as if his stomach was somersaulting. He warned them once again to be careful. The castle was so quiet that they didn't know whether to shout, laugh or run away. Indeed it was very spooky. Sam, John, George, Lucy and Nancy felt that they were being watched.

They walked on and on and it really scared them to hear their own footsteps. Then they heard a whooshing sound. Petrified with horror, they turned around to see the person who was following them but all they saw was the long corridor behind them. They continued to walk on unaware of the great danger that lay ahead. They heard the cry once again, it seemed to be getting closer each second.

The children found a pair of winding stairs which led further down the Castle. The children thought they heard the cries coming from there so they descended the stairs which kept winding so much the children felt like puking. They began to think that the stairs would never end and finally the stairs ended at a barred gate. John, who knew very well how to pick locks managed to open the gate with Nancy's hair barrette. In the dungeon, the children saw a few skeletons which sent shivers down their spines but to their utter dismay there was no one in the dungeon. The children heard the cry which seemed now to echo in the cell and slowly but clearly, the cry turned into an evil high pitched cackle which the children could now clearly make out to be the voice of Tarantella. Another cackle followed Tarantella's. It seemed to be that of a male and it was so deep it nearly deafened the children to hear it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Tarantella appeared with the Lord Of Darkness and two wolf-like creatures. The mere sight of the Lord Of Darkness sent chills and goosebumps up and down the young teens' bodies. They also felt a feeling of ultimate dread and their hairs stood on edge. The children were so shocked they stood still like statues. Their hands felt numb and their knees were knocking. They could feel their teeth chattering. Before they could move, all of them except for Sam were tied up. The wolf-like creatures were about to tie Sam up but immediately they touched him, they felt ten thousand volts of electricity coursing through their bodies throwing them down to the ground. The next thing Sam felt were the cries of his relatives piercing through his soul and a sharp blow to his head, then deep darkness.