Castle of the Damned | ✔

Chapter 30: Prisoners

I suspect he and Thomas might be one and the same.

Erin's brain short-circuited a little.

She'd played with the thought herself, had considered the possibility. Because Thomas had killed the slow worm, so concluding he'd killed more animals than just that one wasn't too far-fetched. But she'd only considered it because she couldn't not do so and she'd rationalised her old friend's actions soon after.

A slow worm wasn't comparable to livestock, was it? And Thomas and his castle had rendered her paranoid, so paranoid Erin feared she'd started connecting dots that weren't even part of the same picture.

But if Dess, a complete outsider, had also concluded Thomas may be killing animals, Erin could only believe something was deeply, deeply wrong.

"You're joking," was the first thing she said, initial denial kicking in. Suspecting a childhood friend of grave crimes was one thing, but hearing someone else do the same was a different beast entirely.

Dess shook her head. "I'm not telling you this because it's such a fun subject to discuss. I'm telling you because... Well, if Thomas really is the killer, he may have something to hide regarding Jason's disappearance. And I can't let you go back to the castle without at least informing you of how dangerous that man might be."

"Explain it to me," Erin said, light-headed. "Why you think Thomas would be killing animals and why he'd attack you. And what would he have done to Jason?"

"I didn't say anything before," Dess elaborated with a sigh, "because I couldn't prove my suspicions. I still can't, but they've only gotten stronger after what you just told me about Jason disappearing on you. What I know is that Thomas visited the bakery often when he just moved here and he was a very different person then than he is now. A bit arrogant, maybe, but always in a good mood and a pleasant customer overall."

Erin supposed that sounded like the Thomas she'd once known.

"Eventually, that changed. He became prickly, quick to anger, and the way he looked at people... He looked constantly aggressive and tired. About a month ago, he left the bakery in a foul mood and never came back to buy anything again."

"People change." Erin's ability to jump to her friend's defense even now surprised her. "He told me he's been dealing with some mental health issues. That sort of thing affects a person's behaviour."

Dess scoffed. "You'd be a fool if you thought my entire argument's built on those changes alone. Do you remember what I told you about Maddison's journal?"

Maddison's journal. Erin thought back to one of her first conversations with Dess, when they'd fled the sun's heat together and discussed the castle's history in church. A fascinating and uncomfortable experience, one that had ended with Erin promptly fleeing, for she'd been certain the eyes of a statue of the Virgin Mary had flashed red, just like that statue in, in...

That statue in the dungeon.

"I remember. Maddison was the castle's previous owner. You said there's a legend the journal he kept during his time living in it still exists somewhere."

"It's not just a legend," Dess confessed. "It's real. Don't ask me how, it's a lot to unpack, but I have access to its text and I've made some alarming observations. Maddison's writing in 1849 looks so different from his ramblings in 1855 he might as well have been a different person, but the handwriting looks exactly the same. Maddison changed and it wasn't for the better. Just like Thomas."

"That could be a coincidence."

"True. But while studying Maddison's journal, I discovered something else. See, animals have been systematically killed off in Saint-Vincent before, though the stories about it don't really detail just how far into the past the killings took place. But in his final journal entry, Maddison wrote about dead animals. That means the previous killing spree might've taken place when Maddison lived in the castle, between 1849 and 1855."