Welcome to Castle Doom

What an appropriate name for such a creepy place, Alicia shuddered.

It was a cold Winter Evening .The snow blew in through an open window, giving the room a dark and cold atmosphere. Alicia shivered and pulled the horrid hotel bedcovers up to her chin. She was on a school trip with her form, and was staying at Castle Doom. The rest of her dormitory were asleep, leaving only Alicia to wonder about the bumps, and creaks. She couldn’t sleep in this cold room. She would either have to close the window, or freeze. She decided on closing the window. When she got there she peered out the frosted glass, and gasped as she saw a man in robes gliding through the snow. It wasn’t an ordinary man; it was a silver man, a silver priest by the looks of him.

She toyed with the cross necklace her friend had bought her that afternoon. It was their last night at the castle, and they had gone for a shopping trip to see the landmarks that surrounded the castle. The castle itself was beautiful. Big, gothic carvings surrounded the wall, and the ceilings were really high. The stone was a beautiful, old brown, and in the right light, it looked stunning. It was the... atmosphere that unnerved Alicia.
“At least Ill get to sleep in my own bed again, tomorrow.” She thought, as she drifted into an uneventful sleep.

A bump woke her from her sleep. It was coming from the bathroom. Alicia’s eyes darted around the room, praying one of her friends was at the toilets. They weren’t. No one was. They were all blissfully unaware of the events unfolding. First the priest gliding across the courtyard, now a bump. She hated bumps. Even at home in her blissfully warm and soft bed, she was afraid of bumps,and bangs. There was another loud clang. Alicia wanted to ignore it, but found herself drawn to the wonders –or horrors- of the noise.

The bathroom was down a flight of stairs. All the dormitories were on a single stairway, all of them were somehow joined to the bathroom.

As she went down the flight of old, creaky stairs, she swore she saw the body of a boy, but when she looked again, it was gone. She also heard wailing. She was sure this was a hoax. The staff had told them all about ‘Marian’ the girl who lost her lover. Yeah right. “Oh on cold winter nights, like the one she was killed on, you can hear her wailing.” Of course. She REALLY believed them. Not.

She entered the silent bathroom, and saw a shadow. A very large shadow. A horrifically gigantic shadow, behind the shower curtain. As she reached out her trembling hand, and pulled back the blue shower curtain, she gasped.

It was a hideous beast, made of skin and bones. It was covered in calluses, and its horribly spiky teeth stuck out at odd ends. It turned, and Alicia saw that its eyes were as black as coal, with red swirls, as red as the devil, twisting and turning in its eyes. It lunged at her, and in a desperate bid to escape she ran for the door. It was locked tight.

She screamed and threw the cross at the beast, and closed her eyes, hoping that death would be quick and painful. When it didn’t come, she opened her eyes, and gasped.

There was a tiny puppy in front of her. It couldn’t be more than a few months old. It was a collie, Alicia decided. A border collie. At least, it was fluffy, and black and white. It cocked its head to one side and looked up at her with big brown eyes, almost telling her to take it home with her. She decided she would. Her parents had been searching for a dog, to clear Alicia's depression problems.

She picked up the dog; Alicia had now appropriately named it Mystery, and carried it to her dormitory, where she slept deeply for the rest of the night.

When morning came, Alicia woke early, in order to hide Mystery. She smiled as it was hidden; it looked comfy enough lying in her bag. She would have to leave some clothes behind, in order for the bag to accommodate him, but she didn’t mind. They were all torn from the activities anyway.

The children ate breakfast and reluctantly climbed on the coach. Five minutes they had been travelling, when Mrs Pritt, their teacher, realised she had left her bag. They drove back to where the hotel should have been, but it was gone.

Alicia gasped and felt for her bag. Mystery was gone too.

Mary-sue, one of her classmates let out a horrified groan. In the middle of the road, was the hideously deformed Mystery, that Alicia had first seen, skin, bones, and lumps, hung from a wall where the hotel should have been, with blood writing by the body on the wall.

"Welcome to Castle Doom."