Lonely

Chapter 4

“So, uh, where are we going?” I asked Sierra. She looked at me in the rear view mirror and laughed, the other girls giggling along wither her. Something wasn’t right. “Oh, not far. We’ll be there soon.” She said. I sat back in my seat and frowned, looking out the window. I never should have gone with them, but I couldn’t say anything now. It was too late. Josh put his arm around my shoulders and I scowled at it until he moved it. “Now, now. Don’t be like that. We’re gonna have fun today!” he said enthusiastically. I glared up at him, but didn’t say anything. If necessary, I could probably take him down, easy.

Suddenly, the jeep came to an abrupt halt at the foot of a long, winding path. I looked up and at  the top of the hill, poking over the trees, the black points of a massive castle pointed. Don’t ask me why there was a random castle in the town, but there was, and it was massive. Only a couple kids had ever been in there, and they came out petrified. It took months just to find out what happened, they were so scared. There was a legend of an old man named Hanger who lived there, who had lived there his entire life and never came out. Supposedly he had set a massive dog on the kids, and they barely made it out alive. I frowned as we jumped out of the jeep.

“What are we doing here?” I asked tensely. Sierra laughed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “We’re just here to look around. I thought Sadie Albert’s was the toughest girl in the entire town.” She said in a childish voice, twirling her hair around one finger. She suddenly smiled and looped her arm through Josh’s, and the other two girls did the same to Brandon. “So come on. It’ll be great.” she said brightly as they started up the winding path. I followed reluctantly, trying desperately to hold up my reputation. Our feet crunched on dead leaves, fallen to the ground, and the wind blew eerily. I shivered, and Josh smiled at me again, offering me his other arm. I glared at him, and he shrugged. One of the other girls spoke up, a girl named Sarah with bright red hair.

“They say a bunch of people have gone missing around this castle, in these very woods.” She said, giggling stupidly. I rolled my eyes. Everyone knew those were just old stories someone came up with to keep kids from vandalizing the castle. We finally reached the top of the hill, and were standing in front of a pure black castle, leaves built up in piles against its walls. It glared down at us in its dark glory, ruling over us all. For a moment we all just stood there, catching our breath, then a twig snapped and we all jumped. Sierra laughed nervously, and the others copied her. Then she looked expectantly at me.

“Well, are you going in or not?” she asked. I raised my eye brows. “No way. I won’t go anywhere near that thing. Its creepy.” I said. Sierra made a frowny face and cocked her head to the side. “I thought that Sadie wasn’t afraid of anything? I thought you would at least go near it. Apparently you are just the perfect little preachers daughter.” She said, smiling at me. I shifted nervously from foot to foot. At that time, my ego and reputation were the most important thing to me. If I didn’t go near it, then Sierra would tell everyone I was nothing but a perfect priest’s daughter. I made up my mind an strode quickly over to the black wall of the castle, stretching my hand out to touch the wall and prove to Sierra that I wasn’t a-

The ground gave out beneath suddenly, and then fell, opening a gaping hole right under my feet. I plummeted in and grabbed the edge of the of the hole, trying to pull myself back up. “Help!” I screamed, terrified. Josh and Brandon reached for my hand, but it was like someone was pulling on my feet. The earth beneath my fingers crumbled and I felt myself dropping, dropping, dropping into the pitch dark. I screamed, and the others all crowded around the hole, screaming my name. I tumbled and my head hit the wall. The little patch of light above me faded and I lost consciousness.