It was Mid-August, Autumn was coming along well, leaves were falling everywhere, and somewhat of a dull atmosphere had befell our city. My name is Edwin. Me and my friend Jake have been buddies for a very long time, we both wanted to be great movie stars and filmmakers, we both enrolled in the University of Edinburgh to get our professional degree in Movie-making. We were given a project before our semester ended in September to make a short film, we both were excited. This was our chance to prove ourselves and get the highest grade in class.
We brainstormed for ideas in the nearby cafe, several hours and cups of coffee later, we decided to make a 'found-footage' thriller, and we had the perfect place in mind for our movie, it would be Eilean Donan Castle, Loch Duich in Scotland. It wasn't far and it was abandoned as well. If everything went to plan, we were definitely getting the highest grade this semester. After me and Jake finalised somethings, we decided to move out tommorow. We went home and prepared for the next day, which was sure to take a toll on us.
The next day, we met up at the same cafe, Jake had brought his car, we loaded up our equipment and before we knew it, we were off to Eilean Donan. We talked about how we would go about it, what kind of backstory we would have and how we would end it, It was a long journey as the roads leading to our destination were twisting and turning every mile or so. We finally reached our destination. It was more than we had expected, it was huge, old and decrepit, just what we had wanted for our masterpiece. The castle was fenced off with a huge sign outside the fence stating the age old message. 'No Trespassing', were we going to listen? No. We took out our equipment and climbed over the fence. The castle was built on a cliff, with a huge lake next to it. This would be perfect I thought.
It was noon, the Sun was at its peak, there was plenty of light. We stood before a huge, wooden door. We looked at each other and nodded, and started pushing with all our might. It was heavy and after sometime, the door moved on its hinges and dust came whirling out. It was dark inside, so we pushed the door open completely to let the light flow in. We looked in, and saw a long hallway, with small windows at intervals at the sides. At the end of the hallway were stairs to the upper level, the left side of the hallway had two doors, while the right side had three. "Alright, lets unpack and set up shop here at the entrance", said Jake enthusiastically. I nodded in agreement. We unpacked our camera, lighting equipment and some other essentials.
We had a bit of sunlight left and we wanted to film after dark, so we decided to walk through the castle to get the lay of the land, and plan out how we wanted to go through the castle while filming. While walking through the castle, we found many foregone artifacts and objects, old ripped banners representing some medieval kingdom, carpets in some rooms and torches hanging from the walls. These would be perfect props for our short film, after exploring most of the castle, we came back to the ground floor and in the immediate right, we saw a huge hallway going down, with a door at the end. We went in to see and were disturbed at what we saw on the door when we got a closer look. The door was wooden and sturdy, but what it had drawn on it, made us think twice about filming here. It had a pentagram drawn on it, with a red liquid. We both knew what it was. The door was chained up and had mysterious engravings around its walls. These things were there either to keep people out or to keep something in.
"Hey, let's check out what's inside", said Jake excitedly. "No! what are you? daft? don't those signs mean anything to you? and let's not forget the obvious and enormous pentagram made on the door, let's not explore this part of the castle and let's film in the rest and get out of here asap", I said in protest. "Bro, this is what we need, when people see this, they'll freak and we'll sure as hell get an 'A' on our project. This is our big breakthrough, we won't go in, but let's at least film in here, come on, please?" said Jake with puppy eyes. I agreed reluctantly, I did need an 'A' on this, considering how bad we did last semester.
YOU ARE READING
An Ancient Evil.
Mystery / ThrillerTwo University friends are given a project to make a movie, they find a suitable location, but what they discover while on their excursion leaves them scarred for their entire lives.