THE CASTLE

The Castle is one of those places that everybody seems to avoid, for no particular reason really, just the fear of an isolated ruined castle sitting in the middle of a bone dry moat that is in a state of disrepair. The fact that it looks as if it would topple over with just the weight of a feather leaning against it probably doesn’t help the matter. I am the National Trusts Health and Safety Officer, which, in conclusion, means a lot less than it sounds. I am just simply the person that wanders round old historical buildings to see whether they would fall down or not if a couple of members of public had to pay to go and look at them.

On my visit there I had quite an unusual experience. An extremely unusual experience...

I climbed the steps to the draw bridge, well what once was a draw bridge and entered into the great hall of the castle. The old castle was cold and the icy air from outside was coming in through all the broken windows and doors. This room was very unsafe as the floor boards were creaking and cracking and were easy to trip over so I wrote down in my notebook...

"The great hall- creaky floorboards, not safe to walk on, needs major repair. Broken windows and the draw bridge is not really there."

Whistles and creaks were plentiful, for a moment I thought the castle was whispering and sighing or saying something but then... how could it? That was just not normal, not that the castle was normal, actually it was far from it. So I carried on clip board in hand, walking along my path. I noticed something, not that it was anything to do with health and safety but I think it made me feel safer to write everything strange down, like someone was with me I supposed.

"There are no shadows."

Panic set in but I carried on, forcing myself to walk.

I decided next that I would go to the dungeons. I had no idea what I would find down there. What I had seen terrified me but it had not prepared me for this. The door to the dungeon creaked open, as the chains on the other side swung and bashed against the door. Murky shapes flicked about... All the shadows were being kept in this room and I had let them out! One after the other they fled and I followed the trend and fled too...