Diana sighed at the thought of another school trip with the unruly boys and girls of the Payne Academy, a private school that always reminded her of St Triennials. On this particular school journey, she and Mr. Chambers were in “charge” of the worst group of the lot, the 16-18 year old kids. The previous ones had been disasters and, as usual, ended up in severe pain and humiliation for her. She hoped that for once this latest school journey to Spain would be less of an ordeal than the ones before had been but as usual, she was dead wrong about that!
As she stepped off the tour coach Tracey looked at the massive building in front of them with its stone walls, iron gates and barred metal windows. What the hell IS this place?
Mr. Chambers led the group inside the place. With the signs all being in Spanish on the outside of the building Tracey didn’t know what it all meant but when she got in she saw that there were a few signs in English. A young, dark-haired and typically Spanish looking girl stepped forward.
“Senior Chambers? I am Maria Ramirez, Senior Gonzales’ assistant. We have been expecting you. Senior Gonzales is happy to meet up with you again.”
The 13 students all milled around looking a bit bored. Tracey was at the rear of the group and Mr. Chambers at the front. Then he called her forward.
“The curator of this museum is a good friend of mine,” he told her. “I’d like to wait here until he arrives. Please go and sign us all in.”
Diana walked across to the counter and Maria produced a form for her to sign. It was all in Spanish so she didn’t understand a word of it but the girl assured her with a smile that it was only a formality. Signing it, Tracey rejoined the rest of the party. Then a dark-haired, dark-skinned man of medium height and build came out to greet them.
“Ah, Senior Chambers, it is a pleasure to see you again!” the man said. “I believe we last met in Nuremberg.”
“Hola, Senior Gonzales. Yes, that was our last meeting.”
Then the Spaniard turned to the group and smiled.
“Pleased to be welcome to our little Museum of Torture,” he said.
At once Diana’s heart froze in fear at the title of the place. Her nervousness got even worse when she saw him staring straight at her and smiling.
“So hola, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Museum of the Inquisition, I am sure that many of you have heard of the countless cruelties committed during that dark period in our history. And why you may ask do we have a museum dedicated to such atrocities? Because we do not wish people to forget the horrific past. That is why we have created this museum to remind people of how things once wore in my country.”
In spite of the heat of the day, Diana shivered with fear. God, in a place like this so many things could go wrong! And I can really feel the sense of evil in this museum.
“Please to follow,” said Mr. Gonzales, “We will begin with a short film describing the history of the Spanish Inquisition.”
Diana gazed at Mr. Chambers and whispered softly in his ear.
“Do I have to go and watch this stuff? Do I even have to go on the tour of this place? It’s horrible!”
Mr Chambers looked at her and laughed.
“Diana, what’s wrong with you? This is a museum! And Senior Gonzales is a very good friend of mine. Do you really want our students to think you’re some sort of a hysterical wimp? Now pull yourself together and get on with the tour!”
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