The steps leading to the courtyards and main corridors of the castle were unusually cold when Amelia stepped onto them.

Being located in very interior of the castle, there was little to no sunlight here except in the rooms nested at the very top of the tower.

Zani watched the castle walls very closely as they walked upstairs.

"What are you looking for, Zani?" Amelia asked with curious eyes.

Zani shrugged his shoulders. He buried his hands in his trouser pockets and shook his head.

Amelia understood that Zani was unsure, so she tried to breathe some confidence into him.

"We're going to need every little detail to get out of this castle and survive the demoness' wrath.

She looked at Zani before continuing with her energetic rhetoric.

"Don't let the circumstances get you down, Zani, we can all get through this"

Zani nodded, absorbing the words as he gasped sporadically.

The corridor above the stairs was adorned with an ancient purple carpet.

Zani's eyes sparkled at the sight of the beautiful and large chandeliers that were hung throughout the corridor.

The rooms were not particularly well maintained, as every step Amelia took stirred up a small cloud of dust on the carpet below.

"Why is it so cold in here?" Amelia frowned and rubbed her palms over her raised arms for a few seconds

Zani fell silent again. His eyes narrowed.

It was indeed quite cold, the corridors were deserted and looked like a enormous, haunting mouth that wanted to devour everything in its path.

Amelia walked carefully across the carpet, trying to make as little noise as possible.

She was fascinated by the layout of the rooms.

She tugged at Zani's shirt and pointed to the room in front of them.

"Look at the size and intricate design of the sofa! It stretches along the walls of the room, like a huge cubicle"

Zani paused and laughed briefly before speaking

"This must be some kind of waiting room for royal guests. Look at the silver platters on the large table on the other side.

Or... maybe even an additional dining room..."

"But..."

Amelia looked at him.

"But what Zani"?

"Maybe it's just my own perception, but this room seems very clean compared to the others"

Amelia took a quick glance at the room and the chambers that surrounded it.

Zani's statement was pretty accurate. Compared to the broken cupboards and dusty, rotting furniture in the other rooms, this room seemed to have been cleaned and kept in reasonable shape.

They walked from one end of the corridor to the other, trying to find a clue as to where the castle library was located.

Large stone statues of knights in full armour stood like royal guards along the corridor, so vivid that for a moment they seemed to come alive.

"Where do you think the castle library might be?"

Zani seemed to be in a hurry to reach the library.

Amelia thought for a while. Where could the library be?

It was a big place, and if they searched room after room, it would take a long time to find it.

"The library is a big hall... so maybe it's somewhere other than these floors."

Amelia's eyes lit up with excitement because she had deciphered something complex

"Zani! The top of the tower. That must be the library." Amelia turned round in a flash and flew down the corridor to the staircase that led upwards.

Zani thought for a moment and then followed with quick steps, knowing that Amelia had probably hit the mark.

The ascent seemed to take an eternity. The grand staircase from the main living quarters took the form of a small-step spiral staircase as they climbed higher and higher.

When they reached the top floor, Amelia jumped with excitement.

The words "LIBRARY" stood out from an old, faded-coloured hanging sign above the door. The room was locked.

"We'll need a key. The door is locked".

Zani looked at the door. The large, rust-stained lock was at least decades old, if it hadn't already celebrated its silver anniversary.

Maybe he could break it open with something hard.

Zani looked around, scanning the area for something hard enough to pick the old lock apart.

Then he had an idea.

"I'll be back sometime... I think I have an idea how we can break the lock"

with these words, Zani ran down the stairs, hopping over the stairs in ones and twos.

Amelia stood there with her eyebrows raised, wondering what Zani could have found downstairs to pick the lock.

She was visibly tired from the ordeal. To comfort herself, she let her tired and aching back slump over the walls on the outer-side of the library.

The afternoon was already dawning, on what had been a long day for her.

Soon the night and darkness would take over and give the demoness free rein to ravage inside the walls of the castle.

She immediately shuddered at the thought of the demoness returning.

The chase in the museum and on the exhibition grounds was still as fresh in her memory as a deep cut.

And the mutilated bodies of the guards and castle workers...

She shook her head and tried to suppress the thoughts she was having.

At that moment, she was relieved when she heard Zani's footsteps on the stairs.

As Zani's figure became visible on the steps, a smile blossomed on her panic-stricken, dry face. But what was that in Zani's hands?

She stood up and straightened her dress as Zani approached her.

A long stone spear, very blunt and bickering off at the edges.

"Where did you find that?" Amelia asked, amazed at how Zani had managed to collect it.

"Well, you may not have noticed the statues on the lower floors"

"I did, but how did you manage to break the spear out of them?"

Zani chuckled: "Well, they are old and the stone is breaking off in many places.

On many of these statues, the spear has become detached from the part that connects it to the body"

Amelia smiled. Zani really did have an extraordinary ability to recognise small details on objects.

In the meantime, Zani took the spear and, without wasting any time, struck the lock with a loud blow.

There was a shrill sound from the rusty metal being hit, but it didn't break away.

Zani struck again. And once more.

And finally, with a dubious mixture of the sound of shattering metal and a loud crack, the lock gave way and fell to the foot of the doorway.

The two looked at each other.

"At last!" Zani breathed a sigh of relief and pushed open the library door.

☯︎

Professor Sean had been doing something very strange for some time.

He had been using the holy cross to draw certain patterns on the stony ground beneath him.

It was very cold, and the traces of the patterns were not entirely clear, but he had continued his endeavour anyway.

When he had finished the pattern, he stood up and stood there, his eyes fixed on the ground as he stroked his chin with his fingers and thought about what he was trying to do.

He looked at the pattern for a while longer, trying to adjust his eyes to which inscription was placed where and whether it was in the right order.

The professor carefully placed the holy cross somewhere within these inscriptions and sat down in front of it with bent knees.

Will it work, his anxious mind wondered.

Many thoughts passed by him by as he tried to concentrate his mind.

Will the demoness return when he places the cross on the ground?

Perhaps she was just waiting to take her chance.

The professor quickly spun round and over his shoulders.

His knees were shaky. He knew he had to pluck up courage.

He had a vague idea by now that the room he was trapped in was almost endless and that there was not just one, but several of them.

Maybe different dimensions?

He had remembered something he had learnt from his grandmother.

He had learnt this prayer a long time ago in his childhood as a method of taking his thoughts to the other side of the spectrum of life or to another dimension.

But it wasn't until much later that he learnt about the inscriptions needed to perform the prayer from an old book on pagan rituals.

His only hope at that moment was that this ritual would do something for him to be able to connect with the girl somewhere on the other side.

And so, with his eyes closed and his hands folded, Professor Sean took a long, deep breath into the cold air of the abyss.