chapter 2

If Princess had thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, the movement of the feets were more than

enough to bring her to reality.

Right on the beige wall opposite her, stood a huge oil painting of a young lady in flimsy clothing.

Shadows of different weird creatures continued to walk around the painting. She looked closely and

noticed they seemed to be walking through the painting and moving on to the wall before finally

vanishing.

"Ahhh…" she screamed and jumped out of bed. The shadows in the painting resembled huge dogs.

Some resembled m humans and some, she couldn't even explain. As she ran to the door and opened it,

she met Jack and Rose at her door. The two almost knocked each other off.

Staring at her scared expression, she wrapped her hands across her chest trying to stabilize her

emotions. "What are you two doing here in the model of the night?"

"Wolves." Rose cried and pointed to her room.

"Bats. Hundreds of them." Jack adds his finger pointing towards his room.

Princess wiped the sweat off her forehead and pointed to the painting on the wall. "Weird creatures…"

she stared at the painting expecting to see the things that had been moving but saw nothing. The feets

that had been sounding from the ceiling had also stopped.

"Why? Did you also see and hear something strange Prof?"

She glanced at Jack who was asking and then at Rose. "I…I heard some sounds and on that painting…"

there was no way for her to describe it.

"There were feet stomping all over the ceiling." Rose finally said and Princess snapped her fingers at her.

"Exactly. I heard that woo and weird shadows were on that painting in my room."

"I think this place is haunted." Jack comments rubbing off the goosebumps on his arm. "I have a really

bad feeling about this."

"Is everything fine?" Came the voice of Nikiloa who suddenly appeared next to them. "I was gardening

and noticed the hallway light was on. I came to check if everything was fine." He hurriedly explained

seeing that were giving him a skeptical look.

"Mr Da Bronse, be honest with us. There is something shady going on in his castle isn't there?" Rose

boldly asked and Princess opened her mouth in surprise. "Is the castle haunted with wolves or bats or

weird creatures that walk on paintings?"

"Hun?" He seemed genuinely confused.

"And what are those weird footsteps coming from upstairs?" Jack asked, still rubbing his arms.

Nikolia raised his head to stare at the ceiling. A look of realization hit him and he quickly walked to a

table in the hallway. Using the phone he called someone. "Madam Maria, can you tell the workers to

stop walking around the wooden room? They can leave sister's room for tomorrow. The guests are

trying to sleep."

Princess glanced at Jack and scratched the back of her head as she heard him talk. "We…we didn't…"

"I am sorry for the inconvenience. They are clearing the rooms since I will be leaving the house." He

then turned to Rose. "It is an old house. Chances are my great great grandfather's ghost might be

loitering around." Rose looks scared and he quickly clears. "I am joking by the way. Is that all?"

"I…um…" she points into her room. "I saw some weird shadow passing through my painting."

He leaned forward to stare into her room and then at the painting. "I am sorry. That would be my

fault. I was gardening the trees and the shadows must have created a mess." He glanced at Jack and

Rose. "Perhaps it scared you two as well."

Now that he had cleared it all, they suddenly felt like they were being too hyper about things.

"I am sorry for the inconvenience." Princess apologized but Rose still looked pouty.

"Gardening in the middle of the night? Mr De Bronse, do you not sleep?"

"I am a nocturnal animal." He responded.

"Hun?" Jack raised his brow.

"I mean aren't all humans higher animals? I just like to stay up late at night. I will go to bed soon.

Goodnight then."

After he left, they all stared at each other before retiring to their rooms. Maybe their mindset about the

family being involved in supernatural things was making them overthink things.

The following morning, after a quiet breakfast, Princess was shown to the library while Jack and Rose

were given books containing some of the family leader's journals to occupy themselves with.

"The library is quite old and every book in it is as precious as a life." He joked. "Don't be so serious, I

am trying to lighten the mood after last night." He walked towards a huge cabinet and opened it after

entering a series of codes.

"The safe looks old, how long has it been there?" Princess asked, putting things in her notepad as she

looked around the library.

"For as long as I can remember. I met it here when I was born. My grandfather met it here. Same for my

great grandfather."

She chuckled and walked towards the shelf but kept her hands to herself. "That makes it sound like it

has been here before the invention of safe technology."

He dragged out a huge book and placed it on the table for her. Dusting his hands he told her. "You can

as well say that. There it is. The De Bronse family history you all are so curious about."

Princess walked to the table and trailed her hands across the edges. The tip of her fingers had gathered

dust and she turned to the man. "Does it not get read?"

"I don't think my generation or the one before have really read it. After all, the family history is passed

down into our blood and body instead of the book."

Thinking he was referring to spoken words, she nodded her head like she understood him. Taking a

seat at the table, she studied the cover. It was a unique one and she can't seem to make out the type of

paper used.

"Two hours." Nikolia said before the library all to her.

As he shut the door, Princess looked around again, goosebumps starting to rise in her hands as she felt

like she was being watched by eyes she couldn't see.

She opens the ancient book and reads the words written on the first page.

"If you are reading this book, you are either a Da Bronse family member or Nikolia have finally fulfilled

his duty and is ready to come over."

The man had indeed said it was his duty to allow them to have the family history but she never took it

seriously.

"If you are a non member reading this, I fear that you might never be able to be the same person you are

after you leave this castle. That is, if you leave your curiosity aside and leave this castle which I doubt

would be possible as no one ever really leaves the castle. Becoming part of the castle is an honor anyone

should be glad to have. Be it functioning as a painting or as a hallway. By the way, the book cover was

made out of hardened De Bronse members heart. Original fleshy heart."

Princess blinked once, then twice again before she jumped from her seat and took a step back in fear.

Her back hit the shelf behind and she heard a clicking sound. Her Hand to her chest, she glanced at the

book cover. She had felt the cover material was weird but never thought it would be made of human

heart. The words written in the book were strange and she couldn't seem to understand it but it wasn't

her job. Her job was to rewrite the history of the De Brons3 family

The book she had brought to rewrite the history in, now laid on the floor next to her. As she bent to

pick the book, she noticed a small drawer extending from the bottom of the shelf. It had not been there

before. She was sure of that.

She remembered how she had hit the shelf and heard the clicking sound.

Could it be that she had mistakenly revealed the hidden drawer?

Staring at it, she saw a weird looking box wrapped in leather carefully sitting in the drawer. Taking it,

she removed the leather that was wrapped around it and opened the small box. Inside sat a weird

looking key with a crest imprinted on it.

The crest looked like a wolf howling at the moon and tiny words were inscribed next to it. She could

only feel the words with her hand but couldn't read it with her eyes.

Princes picked the paper that laid in the box next to it.

'To unraveling ancient secrets Princess.'

Shocked by the words written in it, she looked around the library to be sure it wasn't Nikolia playing a

trick on her. But they weren't close enough to trick each other like this. Thinking the best would be to

return it, her curiosity got the better of her and she threw the key in her pocket and folded the paper

along with it.

Sitting at the table, she began to document the De Bronse family history.

Whatever door that key would open, something told Princess it would be an entirely different world.

Something she had never seen before.

As she read through the first page of the huge history book, she felt an overwhelming feeling of

tiredness start to wash through her whole body. She had barely written a whole page in her book before

falling asleep with her head resting on the ancient history book.

In her sleep, Princess saw a weird world filled with humans that seemed normal but upon closer looks

weren't humans.