Below the Fear

The Castle of Darkwood

            I woke up on the solid dark ground with my head pounding and my forehead wet. Sweat was dripping down my forehead as my heart pounded in my chest and my breath was sporadic. The walls around me disappeared to a black hue and I looked to my right. A teenage girl with long, curly blue hair was lying there with her head in her hands. She seemed to be in the same condition as me: irregular breathing. She also seemed to be crying into her palms. As her weeping softened, her legs spread out and she lifted her head. Her eyes were red and puffy and there were tear stains on her cheeks.

            I stood up and soon after I felt nothing but dizziness. The room around me was shaking and the floor changed from a gray to white in a flash second. The girl with the blue hair stood up and opened her eyes to see the floor. Her eyes were a beautiful pale green and her outfit seemed to be a monk’s attire. She was in a dark maroon robe and had a golden chain that had a moon emblem on the end. I looked down to see what I was wearing and I realized that the same clothing had been put on me. Although, the golden chain I was wearing had a sun on the end rather than a moon.

            “Where are we? Who are you?” The girl asked as she fell to the ground again and quickly placed her hands over her eyes. “I don’t know what’s going on; I just want to go home.” She started weeping again and I ran over to comfort her.

            “I honestly don’t know what’s going on or where we are. I can barely remember my name. It’s Prescott, by the way, Prescott Jennings. I can’t remember anything. The last thing I knew I was doing was sitting in bed after saying goodnight to my parents. Then I woke up here next to you.”

 The girl stopped crying long enough to hear my statement, until she replied, “I’m Faye Lynch. My memory is foggy about everything else in my life. I don’t remember my parents or family, or where I lived. It’s all so confusing; this isn’t exactly a kidnapping, is it? We’re in a never-ending cycle. No walls, no color, this can’t be humanly possible.” She looked down again and started to softly cry.

“There has to be a way out. We can’t be captured in a vast room with no possible way out.” As my statement finished, a bright light appeared from the top of us. We looked up and covered our eyes so we weren’t blinded by the white.

As quickly as the portal opened, it shut leaving us alone, again. Faye went back to crying but I noticed a tiny slip of paper that was lying on the floor next to her foot. I slowly walked over to it and prepared to grab it. When I reached down to pick it up, Faye reacted by pulling her leg away and sliding back.

I ignored her and opened the half-folded sheet of parched paper. It read:

“Don’t be afraid…

Fear brings out the worst in people.

You must look to your feet for the answers.

And remember…

Watch your back…”

            “What does it mean, what do they want with us.” Faye suddenly started shouting, “This is not some silly game.”

            I shushed her with my hand and looked at her, “The note says ‘You must look to your feet for the answers.’ That has to mean something. Look to our feet, there’s nothing else in this void besides the floor.”

            “Does that mean they want us to search the floors for the answer? What could be on the floors that could help us? The note also read ‘Watch your back.’ What does that mean!? What do they want from us!?”

            “I don’t know, but is there a better solution? This is our only hint on how to escape and we have to use it! Would you rather be stuck in here for the rest of your life? No food or water? Just emptiness?”

            “It’s worth a shot.” As Faye said that, she took a small step forward. When her foot hit the ground the white floor transformed into gray bricks. Up ahead, we could see a dark opening that looked as though it led into something. We looked at each other with wide eyes and slowly started to jog over to the opening. Suddenly, Faye stopped. “What if it’s an illusion, just like the white floor and gray floor were?”

            “It’s our only chance, we have to take it.” She nodded in agreement and we trekked to the opening. We got closer and noticed that it was, in fact, a way out. Faye perked up and started to break out in a run. She got closer to the opening and I started to run, too.

Once we reached the hole, we could see a spiral staircase leading us south. She looked at me and motioned her hand for me to go first. I took a careful step into the hole and started to cautiously climb down. I looked up to see Faye behind me, climbing down with the same concern as me.

It took us ten minutes until we finally reached the bottom ground, and once we did, we weren’t sure it was the right choice. The walls around were all gray bricks and the floor was a dark concrete. The only light source available was a few torches that were placed on the wall. In between those torches were large knights in costume. They were in the battle-ready stance and looked as though someone had been in them. There was nothing else around us. The building we were in looked as though it led us to another hallway. It seemed as if we were in some sort of maze.

I looked over to Faye and notices how nervous she was. Her bottom lip was gently placed into her teeth and she was playing with her hands unconsciously. “Where do you think it leads?” Faye suddenly asked.

“It looks as though we’re in a maze. Perhaps the only way out is to follow the torches.” I walked over to the wall and delicately grabbed a torch of the wall. I slid the wooden torch into the palm of my hand and looked around us. There was no other way out.

“I’m scared,” Faye announced.

“Me too,” I replied pathetically. I don’t know how all of this started, but it seemed we were fighting for our lives.

“What about the letter?” I looked at Faye questioningly. “It said that we should watch our back and that fear brings out the worst in people. What are we supposed to be looking for in here? What’s in here that will force us to ‘watch our back’?”

Suddenly, a voice came from behind us, “Fear is the unlucky one.” I swung my head around and Faye jumped to the wall, grabbing for something. A woman in a teal and black jump-suit walked out from the shadows. Her hair was put in a pony-tail and still seemed to reach her hips. It was straight and black and swayed as she walked toward us. “My name is Valkyrie. Welcome to the Castle of Darkwood.  I was trapped in this castle ten years ago. I woke up and suddenly I was surrounded by these walls. There is no way out.”

“Who is Darkwood?” Faye asked bravely.

“Darkwood is a menace. Darkwood is a danger. He comes every so often to check up on his ‘toys’. This castle is set up to trigger fear, anything relatable to horror. If fear is detected, it will harm you and bring forgetfulness. Another name for this terror is amnesia. You must always remember who you are or Darkwood will have gotten to you. Once your memory is complete, he will keep you, forever.”

“Who sent the note to us?” Faye asked reaching into her sleeve to pull out the cream-colored paper.

“That was sent by me. It was to aid you to get out of here. It is too late considering you are standing in my presence. Darkwood must have already known you were here. The biggest thing to remember is stay in the light, Darkwood can sense well in the darkness. Also, always stick together. If one does get separated, the best bet is to say he or she will not make it back. Now my last question is: May I join you on your journey out of this place?”

I nodded my head. The more the better, right? She smiled lightly and started to walk closer to Faye and I. In the process, thunder and lightning cracked nearby. It sounded as though it was just two rooms away from us. Valkyrie stopped what she was doing and slowly stepped back. Flattening her abdomen, she announced, “We should get going.”

We began to walk down the dark hallway, fearful of what may lie before us.