Short Story Collection

The Castle [Short Story]

It was an extremely stormy night and not one single person could be seen on the normally busy streets. A Castle stood on a small hill, looking down onto the little village that would have looked asleep if there wouldn't have been clearly lighted windows belonging to  small houses. Everyone knew the castle was busy in the night. They said its habitants were cursed, damned to live forever without sleeping. Others said, they had to bury dead passengers, which had asked for help.

And then a shiloutte appeared in the streets leading to the castle, a girl on a black horse. If someone had looked onto the streets they would have been surprised, it wasn't normal for woman to own horses and being away from their home without someone male accompanying them was even more unusual. But not only unusual, also the most dangerous thing you could do at night.

"Look, Raven. No one is out here except for this storm like breeze.", the girl whispered into the blackness of her horse's neck. The horse snorted and the girl laughed quietly. She knew her horse was nervous but she did not know why. If she had known, she would have turned immediately and would have never returned. But she kept going, ignoring her horse's protests.

"Calm down Raven. We'll leave before anyone notices our presence.", the girl convinced her horse in an attempt to calm herself down as well. They were in the stable belongiong to the castle and so far no one had seemed to notice them. But just then a voice spoke, directly behind the girl: "Could you tell me, why you are in our stable without permission?"

The girl screamed and turned around. She was unbelievable scared and tried desperately to calm her breath. "I was surprised by that storm. I needed my friend Raven over there to be safe.", she said with a surprisingly calm and steady voice. The man eyed the horse while the girl took his appearance in.

Dark hair, black eyes, pale skin and expensive looking clothes - indeed no groom. He was now looking at her again  and she could very well imagine what he was seeing - a girl covered in so much dirt, you couldn't tell neither her hair colour nor the look of her clothes. She seemed to be tanned but that could also be the dirt but she had breathtaking blue eyes.

"You're not someone who would be missed by anyone but your horse, i take it.", the man said under his breath but the girl heared nevertheless and was even more scared.

"What's your name?", he asked, noticing her fear. "Tina.", she answered shaking at the thought of what the man might do to her.

"Come with me Tina, I'll find you a place to stay.", he told her slightly smirking as if he had just made the most hilarious joke ever.

Tina followed him not seeing the look Raven gave her. The horse's eyes seemed to be yelling at her "Don't you dare go with that man. Don't you dare leave me here alone. And why don't you ever listen to me, silly girl!"

The man lead her into a stunning room and ordered her to clean herself up. And after a few minutes spend in the most beautiful room Tina had ever seen, she had not only put on a pure white dress, but also put off her fears towards the man.

When she was lead into a big room without windows and many hungry persons in it without any food around, she began to feel scared again however. And as soon as the giant, wooden door closed with a bang, an ear piercing scream could be heard even in the firmly locked houses of the village.

Since that day, to the sayings concerning  the castle and the people living in it was added the saying, that every stormy night, a black horse is walking through the streets and a white dressed girl looking at it with excusing eyes from one of the giant balconies of the castle.