A Castle and a Curse

Chapter 1.

Seraphina ran through the halls of her parents' castle, her satin slippers providing little protection from the cold stone beneath her feet. She stumbled and almost fell, nearly skidding into a wall, and made a sharp turn to the left. She could hear her sister, Genevieve, slowly gaining on her behind and Seraphina frantically tried to make her legs move faster.

She didn't even seem human anymore, she was some kind of creature, as threatening and inevitable as a rising tide.

After a few minutes of tense sprinting, she noticed she was losing her older sister, as her menacing footsteps were slowly fading away in the distance.

As she fled down the window-lined passageway, Seraphina tried to think of a place to hide. She was in the east wing, one of the newest parts of the ancient castle. In this area, there weren't many rooms or any good hiding places, really.

She saw a glint reflected in the next window, and realized two things with an unpleasant jolt. First, Genevieve was far closer than Seraphina had estimated, scarily close, in fact. She didn't like to think about what would happen if she caught up. Second, the glint in the window was the reflection of metal. Not jewelry, though. A knife.

Seraphina's stomach dropped again and she felt sweat starting to soak through the silk of her ripped dress. She thanked the stars that she hadn't worn the chiffon dress; she would never have been able to tear it up enough to run.

Nearing the end of the long corridor, she made the snap decision to make the long journey back to her suite. This was the advantage of being chased, Seraphina thought to herself. She could decide where to go.

Several exhausting minutes of running later, she hadn't lost Genevieve completely, but she had managed to gain a bit of distance, and she could tell that the other girl was tiring as well.

Digging deep into herself, Seraphina mustered up one last bit of effort, and burst open the door to her chambers and slammed and locked it behind her, not caring if she disturbed the castle's other inhabitants. Hastily, she looked for something that could be used as a weapon. Not to kill her sister, just stop her from hurting her.

Seraphina's suite consisted of a sitting room, where she was right now, with three doors leading off of it, to a bedroom with a four poster bed with lush tapestries, to a bathroom, and to her dressing room, complete with mirrors and more dresses than she could ever hope to wear.The entire set of rooms done in a rich burgundy colour, with matching warm wooden furniture and rugs that offset how cold the stone floors were in winter.

The only conceivable weapon Seraphina could see was a particular heavy novel, and she grabbed it and waited behind the door with bated breath.

After a moment, she heard a loud pounding on the door and she knew the old wooden door and rusty lock wouldn't hold up under much of this. She could hear it straining already.

The pounding stopped.

With horror, Seraphina noticed a large knife stabbing around the edges of the door and jumped out of range quickly, but not before the knife grazed her arm. She felt tears forming in her eyes at the pain and saw crimson beads of blood dripping slowly from the wound.

It was fairly shallow, she noted with relief, but that didn't stop it from stinging.

Suddenly, the horrible stabbing stopped and things were eerily calm. However, this only lasted a second before it resumed, but it was different. It was one of the servant girls, Cecily, practically screaming.

"There's a fire, miss! You 'ave to get outside!"

Only once she was standing on the manicured lawns with the household as the castle was being drenched with water did Seraphina start to wonder how a stone building could catch on fire.   

First part is up, I hope you like it.. I haven't written the whole thing but I know where its going, don't worry, it won't be like that fanfic

Ok have a great day, leave a vote or a comment if you want :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

-Evelyn