The faded moonlight was filtering through the window blinds in Sarza's bedroom.
Her face stained with fear.
It has been nearly two whole days, there has been no sign of her daughter.

Even the local police have failed to find any trace of her.

Poor girl! she ponders, already suffering for many months now from various ailments, she laments her sudden disappearance.
She had only started thinking of how the ailments started when she heard something break shatter to pieces, in the other end of the corridor.

A cloud of sudden fear flashed before Sarza's eyes.
All things considered, she was alone in this part of the castle.
It was late into the night and Ruth stayed in the quarters attached to the prison chambers below in the dungeon.

She gets up from the bed, and slowly, one step at a time goes near the door.
On reaching she flicks the switch and turns on the dim fluorescent yellow lights.
Standing near the door, Sarza peeks from her room entrance trying to see around the corner where the passage from her room meets the hallway.

Unable to get a clear view she approaches the hallway with cautious steps.
Every second began to seem like an eternity to her, walking alone in these empty corridors.
As she reaches the corner at the end of the passage, she recovers some lost courage as her eyes get accustomed to the dim lighting all around.

And it is then, to her shock, she notices the glass of the window on the other end of the passage broken.
So this is the sound that came to her ears?
Why would the window glass shatter like that? Or did someone break it?

She hardens her jawline and with quick strides moves near the window, her hands holding up the gown she had been wearing.
Upon reaching, she scans the surroundings with her eyes.

Shattered glass lay on the floor, splintered pieces strewn around having got flunged in the distance.
She shifted her gaze towards the window.
A large gaping hole in the window glass, circled by cracks all around it.
Sarza gasps.
What could have made such a hole as it came through the window?

Sarza moves closer to the window, carefully side-stepping the broken glass that lay around it.
On reaching the window she turns the flashlight of her cell phone on and directs it towards the castle grounds and nearby fields hoping to find someone.
But alas! Not a soul seemed to be present.

Just as she turns around, clueless and puzzled at what seemed to have happened to the window and, as to who may have done it, she notices something on the floor right where she had been standing just a few minutes ago.

A stone, quite large, about the size of the fist of a man, lay with what seemed to be a short yet strong rope tied to it.

Sarza's eyes narrowed in puzzlement, not only she did not expect such a childish act of someone throwing a stone at the windows of the castle, but even more so at this time of the night.

It was then, as she looked at the end of the rope that her blood went cold.
Tied to the rope was a human finger smeared with blood. Ornameting the blood-smeared finger was a ring.
The ring of her daughter Margaret!!

Miss Sarza tumbled back in horror with trembling fingers.
"Oh lord Jesus, what the actual fuck!!" She blurted out with a shriek of absolute fear and then fell unconscious over on the pillar behind her.

☯︎

The lodging place was spacy, with large rooms of wooden interiors. There were two floors above the ground floor.

Seen from above it would have appeared to be shaped as a "U" with a long joint balcony for all the rooms which also served as a corridor and entrance to the staircase.

Professor Sean had his room on the second floor while the students got all their rooms on the first floor of the lodging house.

The Moosham castle was around a fifteen-minute walk from the lodging towards the North while the township was somewhat more towards the west.

One could view the splendid and spectacular densely forested Alpine highlands towards the east and to the southern side of the compound.
To be honest, these dense forests did make up much for the very mysterious and scary feeling once dusk fell in Moosham.
It has always been very clearly visible to a long distance in summer, however this year, the unexplainable fog in the area made vision somewhat distorted.

The students were all standing in front of the door of Professor Sean's room, mumbling about themselves regarding what could be the potential findings, the professor was so very eager to share with them.
Everyone seemed to be quite excited, yet somewhat uneasy having heard the developments.
Just then, with a clutch sound, the door opened and Professor Sean was standing there with a warm smile on his face.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to my room, we may have a lot on our plate to talk about today"

"Yes professor, I think all of us are ready to help you out in any way possible"

"Come in, come in. I want to show you all something."
He pulled out a heap of papers containing photographs, notes and sketches.

"These are from my explorations of a tunnel in the older part of the castle which mostly lies abandoned.
As you can see, many of these walls have markings which seem very strange to me.

It is said, this tunnel was used by Archbishop Raitenau to hide, on his flight to Carnithia.
However, not long after he left Moosham, his nephew, captured and imprisoned him for life.

Later this tunnel was often by a count named Toni, who is rumoured to to have incited practices of heavy dark magic in the rooms that this tunnel leads to."

"What is far more strange though" the professor continued.

"Some of these markings seem very new,  and most horribly, painted using blood"

Everyone gasped.

As if to throw the question out which was the first to come into everyone's mind Rexi blurted out with fear

"Human's Blood professor??"

Apparently not, I had sent the samples for testing at the local laboratory, and they told me, those were markings of sheep's blood.

Everyone relaxed their breaths, but the tense atmosphere remained.
Human's blood or otherwise, it was blood markings they were talking about, that too seemingly fresh ones.

He pointed to detailed drawings of ornate carvings and lined passages. "You may all have a look at those strange symbols I found etched in several places." Strange lined patterns caught their eyes.

Zani pondered over them closely. "Professor, these resemble designs from old grimoires of pagan magic from the era when superstitions ran high. However, I am not sure which procedures they form a part of."

"Quite right..Zani..quite right you are," Professor Sean remarked, excitement filled in his eyes.

"Now, to identify just that we come to the manuscript collection I asked Amelia to bring from the University library.

But, before that, I must tell you about the person who I saw that day on the castle grounds wearing black robes..."

Just as everyone's eyes narrowed and Professor Sean was going to continue his cell phone rang.

Miss Ruth. He answers the call.

"Hm, yes Miss Ruth, Professor Graham speaking"

After a few minutes of listening the professor's eyes shot up in shock.

"Lord Jesus! This seems to be straight out of a horror movie!!"

"Yeah...yeah Miss Ruth, I shall be on my way in a minute" Saying this he cuts the call.

"Well students, looks like there has been quite a mishap at the castle tonight with Miss Sarza, I shall be on my way.

I shall directly meet you all there tomorrow morning, make sure to have a good rest at night"

Saying this, Professor Sean raced downstairs.

Farhan watched from the balcony as Professor Sean nearly ran out of the lodge exit, towards the castle.

He addressed his friends.

"Look, something very serious seems to have happened at the castle tonight, there is no point in sitting here and wasting time as events unfold right before our eyes.
Also...letting the professor go all alone into what seems to be a hot mess does not seem to be a good idea."

"Yes, you are right, we should be on our way as well" Amelia joined in.

"But we do not know about the location of anything inside the castle!" Rexi seemed worried.

Well then, I suggest, I and Amelia try to venture out into the castle tonight and try to find out what is so very wrong there after all.

Rexi and Zani, you two stay here, if you don't receive any call from me that we are safe and doing alright, you two can set off for the castle in that case.

Rexi reluctantly nods her head, Zani even though silent, does not seem too pleased with the idea either, but agrees nonetheless.

A few minutes later with two high-powered flashlights and the Glock 19 carefully concealed in the gap between her T-shirt and jeans, Amelia and Farhan set off towards the castle.

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