Chapter One
One of the village men stepped outside of his house, he cautiously walked towards the stranger. The newcomer looked up and saw the man approaching him and turned towards him. This action made the villager freeze unsure of how the man would react to being confronted. The villager started walking again.
He stopped at a fair distance, he held out his hand to the stranger and spoke the words “Good afternoon, welcome to the village of Marokale, I am Jonah we would like to know what made you come to our village”. The stranger replied with “I am sorry sir, but I do not know the reason for my visit, I know not how I came to be within your community. My name is Nicholai.” “Well Nicholai there is an inn with a room for you, I will walk you over. Maybe after some food and a night of rest your reasons for this trip will reignite within your mind.”
Nicholai was thankful for the friendly nature of Jonah, after following behind him for a couple of minutes he wandered through the door of the inn, it was coming up for the sun to start setting, he needed to have a rest to get warm and think of why he was here. When he walked up to the reception desk he asked for a room, when the lady behind the desk said “Hello, I am Charlotte, welcome to my inn.” Nicholai went into his pocket, he couldn't feel his wallet. His pocket was empty! So he tried all the other ones on his person, it was nowhere to be found, the only thing he found was his torch, what an odd object to have. In a panic he said “I will be right back. I seem to have misplaced my wallet, it has everything I need in it.” With that statement he turned and walked back out of the inn.
Back outside he ran to the gates as fast as he could whilst looking around the floor to see if he could spot it on his way. “Nicholai! Nicholai!” Shouted a voice behind him. It was Jonah running behind him. “I cannot stop Jonah, I seem to have misplaced my wallet, I cannot pay for the inn until I find it.” “Nicholai, it is far too dark for you to go exploring and searching for a wallet, you will not see it.” “But I will have nowhere to stay if I do not find it to pay.” “You pay as you leave not when you arrive, so if you ask for the room for a few days that will give us time to go and search as I will help you.” “That's very kind of you Jonah, but I cannot ask you to do that, are you not needed to work or help at home?”
Nicholai and Jonah walked back to the inn. “Charlotte, this is Nicholai, he needs to stay for a few days, he's okay to pay on leaving isn't he?” “Yes, that's perfectly fine, I did try to tell him before but he was gone by the time I said it's.” “Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that, I'm not used to paying on leaving, most ask for it upfront.” “Well, we work differently around here, it is pay when you are leaving in every inn around here, even the other towns and villages.”
With that Nicholai was given his room number and key and he went up. When he got into his room he slumped onto the bed staring out of the window trying to piece things together, how did he get here? What he brought with him and where is it all? He snapped back to reality, there was no recollection within his mind of when he last slept. He had to also find a café or something as his stomach was rumbling rather loudly, he thought to himself when was the last time I ate or drank, it was a mystery, along with everything else.
He wandered out of his room, to his left was an external wall with a window. He went to look out of it. There was a billboard on the side of a building, this is the first one he had seen so far, it was for the films that were in the movies. They were ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘The Haunting’. ‘Hmm, when I've found my wallet I might go and see one of those’ he thought to himself.
He turned around and walked down the hall through the big wooden door, he was back at reception, “Charlotte, I'm just going to head out and have a look around to see if I can find my wallet, I'm getting rather peckish so need to find somewhere for food.” “There is a lovely tea room not far from here, just follow the signs for the cinema. It's just after that.” explained Charlotte. “Thank you, I shall see you later.” Nicholai walked up to the gates, looking around to make sure Jonah hadn't noticed what he was doing. He walked through the gates, closed his eyes and tried to picture the route he took to get here, he was drawing a blank. He was glad he had a torch in his pocket, It would come in handy with the search.
He walked straight ahead when he left Marokale in hopes he would recognise something. He looked to his left, shone his torch and noticed something glistening in the light, he ran towards it. Bending down he shrieked with excitement, it was a bag of his, he opened it eagerly. Inside he saw his wallet, a business card and his glasses. He examined the business card, he shot up to his feet, he had a breakthrough, a memory came back to him. A reason he was here.
He ran back to the inn as fast as he could, he asked Charlotte “Excuse me, I’m so sorry for the flying by and urgency, but could you point me in the direction of Jonah's please? I've had a break through and I need to inform him of it.” “Yeah sure, his house from here is, out the door turn left, go past three right turns and turn down the fourth one. Then you need to go to the first left and his house is the only red one on the street.” “Thank you so much.”
Nicholai left the inn and made his way to Jonah's. He ran as fast as he could all the way there, he was excited to update Jonah. When he got there he knocked on the door, as it opened he fell in and asked if Jonah was in. “It is Jonah, What's wrong Nicholai, you seem out of breath?” “I have news, I found my bag about ten minutes outside of the gates. This was possible as I found my torch in my pocket whilst at the inn.” “Oh, it must be important if you ran here, but the darkness wasn't the only reason I said not to go. It's dangerous outside the gates at night.”
Nicholai stood up and took deep, slow breaths to calm his breathing down. When he was finally breathing normally again he looked at Jonah and said “I found this business card with my belongings, it's for someone called Bernard Johnson, a real estate agent.” “Oh, what does this mean Nicholai?” “I was here to view a property but as I got closer to it my car seemed to start playing up and stalling, it was so weird. The building is a castle, it seems to be in the middle of these places.”
Jonah looked worried, the fear on his face was obvious. “Jonah, what’s wrong?” asked Nicholai. “It's that building you cannot go there, it is not safe at all.” Nicholai placed his hand on Jonah’s shoulder, looking at him “W, what do you mean it is not safe?” “Well it is believed that there is an evil entity within the crumbling walls. Nobody knows what it is as anybody that has entered the building has never emerged again. There has been a high-pitched scream coming from within the walls though.”
Jonah walked away, looking at the floor shaking his head softly, “Say you won’t go there please?” “But it is my job, I need to go to evaluate it for repairs or demolition.” “No, you must not go near it, you will never return. You will die. Is your job really worth your life?” “Okay, I will not go there.” With this the two men said their goodbyes and Nicholai turned towards the gate and left.
Nicholai went back to the inn for the night. He had forgotten about his hunger due the excitement of finding a clue to why he was here but also the shock of the news about the property he was supposed to visit. When he got back to the inn Charlotte was behind the desk. “Did you find Jonah’s house?” “Yes I did thank you for the directions Charlotte, I’m exhausted right now could we catch up tomorrow please? Just need to go to bed right now”.
Once he was in his room Nicholai just stood still staring at the wall wondering what was going on. This bridge seemed important in fixing some of the problems he was facing. He could find some information as to why he is here. Why he left home to make this journey?. He lay down now staring at the ceiling, debating if he should go there even though he was told not to and the worry people had of him going there. He drifted off into a deep slumber.
He woke up suddenly, sitting up instantly. His heart racing, his palms sweaty and his breathing weird. He looked out of the window and it was still pitch black outside, ‘what time is it?’ he thought to himself. He opened his room door and looked down the corridor. There was a clock on the wall, he wandered towards it and when he got closer it was 3:33am. He went back to his room and lay down, his eyes heavy.
The next morning the sun shone through the tiniest gap in the curtains upon Nicholai’s face waking him suddenly. He sat up abruptly blinking quickly trying to gain focus in his eyes. After a few blinks he could see clearly, he peered out of the window and wondered where he was, he had no recollection of the night before. He walked out of the inn and turned left, he got to the middle of the village.
In the middle of the village was Nicholai pacing frantically muttering to himself, it was unrecognisable what he was saying, the villagers looked upon him confused and worried wondering if there was any way they could help. A small child walked towards him; the child’s body language came across as shy as she approached him.
She gently pulled at his coat looking up at him. Nicholai looked down and said, “Yes little girl, may I help you?” she replied quietly “Are you okay you seem upset and lost.” His answer was “I’m unsure of where I am, have you seen my car, I have lost it somewhere around here.” The little girl replied, “There are no new cars around here, you sir, are the only new things to come into our village in many years.” With that she skipped away.
In a bid to find his missing vehicle Nicholai headed to the streets where he bumped into Jonah. “Well good morning to you Nicholai, how did you find your night at the inn?” “Sorry to ask this but how is it you know of my name?” Nicholai replied, puzzled. “You told me a few days ago when you first came here, are you okay?” to which Nicholai said, “I am afraid I do not know anything of this to which you speak of.” Jonah looked puzzled but replied with “Hmm, well if you need any help I will be just over there in the house on the corner “. With the end of his sentence, he turned and slowly walked away briefly turning a couple of times still with a puzzled look thinking to himself what has happened to Nicholai he only seems to remember his name.
He just stood there trying to piece together what had happened, what his last memories of his life are. There was someone singing in the distance, he couldn’t quite make out what it was but it sounded like a Christmas song. He got a flashback of his childhood, opening presents on Christmas day. The tree stood in the centre of the room, gifts scattered around. He seemed to be floating in front of his younger self watching as he was jumping in excitement at all the gifts with his name on.
He just floated above everything, everyone. His parents and sisters were there. His younger self was jumping around excited, his parents were trying to calm him down. There was a tap on his shoulder. “Nicholai, are you okay? You've been staring into space for a while now.” Questioned Jonah. Nicholai stayed in staring but replied with a shallow quiet voice, ‘yes, I think I am. This is weird. I can see myself as a child.’ Jonah looked at Nicholai in a puzzled way. “What do you mean?” He asked.
“It’s like I’m watching my childhood as a spirit. I’m floating above everything, my siblings are also here” Nicholai explained. “Nicholai, I’m worried about you, this isn’t normal.” With this Nicholai blinked and shook his head. “I have never experienced that before, it was so weird. Seeing a Christmas from my childhood like it was actually happening. It was like a good memory flashing before my eyes.”
Jonah just looked at Nicholai unsure what to say. Nicholai just looked down at the floor, “Jonah, can we please not mention this to anyone until I have figured out what caused it to happen please?”
“But, you may need to talk to someone about it, a therapist maybe? They will be able to help you.” Jonah explained. “But, I need to figure this out first, find out what caused it to happen. I will sort this out when I get back to my family.”
“But Nicholai, this is important, there could be something wrong causing it.” Nicholai turned and walked away. Jonah started walking after him but Nicholai started running and turned a corner. By the time Jonah got round the corner Nicholai was gone. He walked around for a while looking but Nicholai was nowhere to be found.
There was a voice behind him. “JONAH!” The voice shouted. He jumped and turned around, it was Charlotte from the inn. “Jonah. It’s Nicholai, he’s packing all his stuff. Jonah ran to the inn.
As Jonah was arriving at the hotel he seen Nicholai walking out the door. “Nicholai, where are you going?” Jonah enquired out of breath. "I do not know, I feel I have been here in this town too long now.” He replied. But it has not been that long, you only arrived yesterday.” “Are you sure? It feels much longer.” Yes, it was yesterday when you turned up in our town.”
Nicholai looked confused, he swore he had been here for about a week. That’s how it felt anyway. He started walking back towards the inn. Jonah followed him, “please do not follow me.” Nicholai said gently. “I am just going back to my room at the inn. I need some time alone to think about this and some sleep.”
He got back to the inn, “Hi Charlotte, sorry for earlier. Is the room I was in still empty?” “Of course it is, people hardly ever visit. I usually only get people from the other towns around here.” She replied. “Okay, thank-you, I will just head straight up. It has been a long day and I'm very tired.” With this Nicholai headed back up to the room he had used before. When he stepped in it was all reset and cleaned.
Nicholai lay on the bed, still fully clothed. He was just looking at the ceiling fan, watching it go round. He woke up lying on his back facing the ceiling, he sat up and shuffled to the end of the bed. Shaking his body to try to wake himself up. This did not work so he stood up and looked out the window. Nicholai’s stomach grumbled, startling him. ‘Oh, I should go get some food.’ he thought to himself. He got dressed and headed out of the inn.
He wandered around looking for somewhere to eat, he walked up a slight hill and at the top was the smallest little café he had ever seen. The externals were painted with green thorns wrapped around roses which were crossed over, these were also in the shape of a heart around the words ‘welcome all’ the sign that was passed said ‘the tiny tea-room up yonder.’
Guessing this was it, Nicholai entered and went up to the service station and asked, “Are you still serving food by any chance.” The cashier looked at him in an unusual way. Nicholai wondered what was going on, all he did was ask a simple question, did this person speak another language?
Were they deaf and unable to read his lips? He asked again but slowly just in case there was a misunderstanding the first time he asked. This time the cashier shouted for someone named Dashiéll, through the door came a tall blonde man, he stood in the doorway to the staff area and said, “Yes what is it you were asking my sister?” Nicholai replied, “I was just enquiring if you are still serving food to the public.” “Yes sir, was there anything in particular you were after?”
“Just something simple and cheap as I have left my wallet in my car, I only have a little money and my card on me and appear to have misplaced the car, I have looked all over the village and have not spotted it anywhere. The gentleman replied, “If you sit at a table and have a look through the menu the prices are next to the items.”
Nicholai sat at a table looking through a menu pondering what he shall have when he got a flashback, he remembered passing a bridge. Unsure of where it was, he sat staring into space deep in thought trying to figure out where it was.
The bridge looked to be quite old and rustic. There were some cracks on the steps and small stones missing from the sides. He snapped back from the memory and described the bridge to Dashiéll and asked if he knew of it. Dashiéll seemed to tense up when the bridge was described and said, “You need to try to stay away from that bridge, no good comes from that or the castle it is near. Nobody ever goes out that way.”
Nicholai became more curious as to why he got this reaction. This seems to be a theme with everyone, warning him away from this castle. It seemed strange he wanted to ask more questions, but Dashiéll had already gone off to another table.
Looking down at the menu he noticed it was written in another language, he had no idea what the language was or what the currency was. He pondered for a while until an older looking woman came to his table, “Welcome in sir, could I take your order?” asked the lady. “I'm afraid I do not know what this menu says, it is a foreign language that I have never seen before. Do you have any printed in English?”
The lady looked puzzled because she had never been asked this before. “You must not be a local of any of these villages, we all know this language, it is Coptic it has been used here since the very first settlers. The currency is Ducat.” “No, I have never heard of any of those before I'm afraid.” replied Nicholai. The lady brought over a menu in English and said, “Sorry about the dust sir, it’s just we do not get many out-of-town visitors.”
Nicholai looked at the English menu and sighed unsure if he even had enough on him to be able to buy anything due to the wrong currency. “Excuse me.” said Nicholai to a worker walking past “Is there any way I could get my money exchanged for your currency anywhere?” “I think there is a shop in the town on the other side of the castle. When you get there, you will need to ask a local to point you in the right direction.” “Okay thank you. Sorry I didn’t catch your name.” “Yes, sorry it is Paulette. Oh, and when you come back, we are Marokale Village.”
Nicholai stood up and walked towards the door, “Stop!” he heard someone shout behind him, it was Dashiéll. “Nicholai you must promise not to go to that bridge.” Nicholai admitted “I’m sorry but I have to go to the bridge, I need to see if my car is there, I need that and my other belongings.” “It will be a grave mistake if you go there, please listen to this warning.” But Nicholai just turned his back and walked out As he walked down the path away from the café he stopped and looked back, everyone had come to the door and was watching him with worried looks on their faces. He just shook his head, looked to the floor, turned around and carried on walking wondering why they were acting like this, how bad could a bridge and building possibly be? It is just a bridge that is in need of repair, I'm sure of it.
As he got closer to the bridge there were noises that were unrecognisable, he looked around frantically trying to figure out where they were coming from. He wanted to figure out what was making them. He caught a shadow through the corner of his right eye, he jumped and hid behind a tree. He stayed there for a bit when he saw it had gone, he was thinking that maybe he had imagined the shadow because of the noises. Then he saw something run past so he took a deep breath and followed it, it led him to his car.
He stopped behind a broken wall, crouched down so he would not be seen by whatever he had followed, once it had gone, he got up and walked to his car. Everything looked different, the seats were repositioned, the roof was down, it was never down! He rushed to look in all the places he knew his stuff was, the stuff in the glove compartment was gone, did this mean everything else in other hidden places would still be there? He searched frantically and found nothing was there, he sighed in disbelief.
Now he had his car he needed to find the rest of his belongings that he had left in the boot. He decided to drive it back to the village, the car would not start, but nobody would come to fix it because of where it was. The whole village was terrified of it.
But there are other places Nicholai thought to himself, so he decided to go to the nearest place to see if anyone would think differently to him going to the bridge and the castle.
After leaving Marokale Nicholai turned right, he was heading to Old Lucia to explore there. He was walking along a rubble and dirt path, he had a forest on either side of him, quite a few different trees. Birch, oak, mahogany and so many more. He had never seen so many different types of trees in one place before.
He stopped to take in the scene around him, he looked a little into the trees and spotted a bench. He went towards it planning to sit within the trees. “DO NOT SIT ON THAT BENCH” shouted a voice, Nicholai jumped and turned his head looking everywhere around him he could not see anyone, where had it come from.
He stepped towards the bench and again the voice shouted “DO NOT SIT ON THAT BENCH”. He stepped back onto the path confused as he could hear the voice but not see the person who it belonged to. He turned and walked away from the bench and the voice said “You need to turn around, you are going the wrong way”. He spun 180 degrees on his heels and started walking. “Oh no don’t go that way either” Was this voice messing with him? Why does it keep saying he’s going the wrong way?
There was one more path, it was behind the bench he was unsure where it led, he felt lost unsure which of the two directions on the path he was currently on he needed to take. The path behind the bench Nicholai knew he didn't need that one but he was thinking it was the path to the place where he had been told not to go. Nicholai ignored it and carried on walking. The voice trailing behind was saying “Stop! That's the wrong way, the wrong way!” on repeat.
Nicholai ran as fast as he could, trying to get away from the voice and see where he arrived, Marokale or whichever place was next on his path, any of them is better than hearing this voice. It was monotone and seemed angry and controlling. So Harsh to the ears and very loud. But even with all this it sounded very feminine.
Up ahead was a town, he carried on running even though he had a stitch and could barely breathe, the voice had stopped a little while back but he didn't dare to stop as he got closer he saw a broken sign, with random letters missing. He had made it, he was worried about his walk back that way to go back to his inn and catch up with Jonah.
He stopped as he got to the gates. Leaning on his knees trying to calm his breathing down, get rid of this stitch, he was still wondering what that voice was. Looking around him, wondering what was going on all he could see was broken buildings, was this one deserted?