I looked behind me, having just made my way out of the Forest Pleasant. The forest was exactly as its name suggested. Pleasant. Looming beyond me was a long, shaky bridge. I reckoned it would take me at least half an hour to cross to the other side of it. This was the part where nobody had the courage to go. No one dared to stray away from the Forest Pleasant, where the birds sang and the rabbits danced. Nobody was brave enough to confront the dangerous ancient history of the castle.
I checked my watch for the time and brought my backpack off my shoulders and opened it. I took out an important book. It was all about the history of the castle. I took the book out and flipped to the part about the bridge. An instruction said, tread the bridge slowly and carefully. With a bit of luck this will get me through to the other side all in one piece. My breathing gets heavier as I realise I'm advancing on to a taboo area. I was stepping towards the part that everybody from the neighbouring towns were scared to tread.
According to legend, anyone who dared enter the tower of the haunted castle was subject to a curse and may never return. Yet within the tower, there was a precious Book of Secrets and the story has it that only one person can ever touch the Book of Secrets and break the curse of the castle. As I made my way shakily over the bridge, I closed my eyes breathing hard. I prayed that that person was me. In fact, I was convinced it was.
The book of information I had about the castle was very limited for all it knew about was its tales and an assumption about its history but it knew nothing about what the curse of the castle was nor why anybody who entered its tower never returned. The book also had nothing on who would break the spell, what would happen and what exactly was written in the Book of Secrets that was so important to the castle.
I made a note on where the position of the sun was and as I headed closer to the grounds of the ancient castle, the atmosphere grew more and more dreary. It felt hollow and abandoned. I could also begin to see the building of the castle itself. I still had a chance to turn back and get away from it all, yet I was so sure I was the one who would break its curse. It was the only thing that drove me forward.
The castle was both tall and wide. It was made of stony pebbles of grey and white. As I arrived over the bridge and towards the grounds, everything seemed to be getting colder. The castle's grounds was made of little and large stones, pebbles and boulders. There was a stony and cold silence looming. I reached the stairs outside the castle's porch. I climbed the stars and entered the dreary doors. There was still time to turn back and run away. According to the book, the curse wouldn't begin until I read what was in the Book of Secrets. However, the curse wouldn't advance on me at all if I was the one who would break its spell.
As I entered the castle, I noticed a variety of stony concrete statues. There were so many of them. They seemed to be.... people. They all stood in different positions. Some seemed like statues trying to escape. Suddenly I felt an icy chill on my back and then I heard a noise:
Cass-an-draaaa
How did it know my name?
'Who's there?'
Wh-y are you heere, Cass-an-dra?
'Um..' I was shaken, 'I want to see the tower...'
Wh-at makes you think that you'd be the one who breaks the spell, Cass-andra? It said. Then I heard a chuckle.
Wh-at makes you so special, Ca-ssandra?
'Um - ' This was the moment of truth.
You see the statues, Cassandra - they were all once young hopefuls like you. The fools... they thought they were the ones who could rival the spells of the Book of Se-ecrets. Now they've all been turned to stone... and so will you be...
'Am I then not the one?' I asked.
I don't know... a-are you? The voice taunted. We won't know until you touch the book. Le-eave the castle now while you can, else you too will be in its peril...
'But I think I might be the one!' I said.
Al-right then Cassandra... t-ry.. taunted the voice. Then a cackle.
I was frightened but the only thing that propelled me forward was the conviction that I was, indeed, the one who would break the spell. Yet, as I glanced at the other statues, I began to cry. For all these people were also once as hopeful as me. And looking at them now, they had all been turned to stone.
I leant against one of the statues and my tears continued to flow. Was it because I wasn't brave enough? Was it because I didn't have faith enough? After a long while of crying, I realised that the voice taunting me had stopped and the castle was now back to its stony, hollow silence. in a way I felt relief. The voice had said that I still had the chance to escape the castle. I won't be turned to stone unless I found out the secrets of the book. Unless, of course... I was the one.
I moved onwards towards the castle staircase. I supposed that the tower resided at the very top of the staircase. Carefully, I began advancing.
One thing the castle didn't know about me is that I've been a charity worker. I've helped lots of poor and sick people in the past. A couple of years ago I was one of the fortunate few who won $23 million on a winning lottery ticket. I donated the entirety of the cash to all of the charities I've been working for. I went from being a very wealthy woman to back to my humble roots. Money was never as issue but I was never greedy for so much of it. I strongly believed that my humble generosity made me the right person to challenge the Book of Secrets.
After four slow hours of climbing the steps, amid a lot of pauses and gasping for breath, I finally reached the top of the castle. There was a small wooden door about half my size. I realised this was the door that leads into the room of the tower. I closed my eyes hoping the door would open. I challenged the bolt of the door and it gave way easily. I crouched through the entrance and into the room of the tower.
The room was the most spacious and beautiful room I had ever seen. The floors and the walls were a gorgeous shade of pink. There was an open window that breathed in air. Within the centre of the room there was a glass casket. And inside that... it was the Book!
I carefully walked towards it and lifted the casket. I took out the Book and began reading its pages. What I found out was astounding! I kept turning and turning. I had to know more! I spent far longer time in the tower than I assumed I would, reading the scripts and savouring all the information of each and every page. There were over a thousand pages and all of its scripts were as shocking as the last. I now had all the secrets of this sacred book within my hands.
The first time I checked my watch, I realised I'd been in the tower for all through until the morning, having kept awake straight through the night. As I absorbed all the revelations of the Book, I realised I still was not overcome by sleep. In fact, the contrary. I felt quite alive. After a couple more hours of reading I decided it was about time to leave. Yet I couldn't go without the Book. It is what I had come for.
I opened my bulky backpack and stuffed the sacred Book inside it. Its revelations were now entirely in my hands. One important thing I noticed is that I was still me and not turned to stone. I silently prayed that I might be the one afterall. I'd had the Book in my hands for hours so there just might be hope.
I left the entrance of the tower and proceeded to go down the enchanting staircase. Going down the staircase was a far easier ordeal than climbing up it had been and I realised that I was now moving faster. In no time at all I was down in the hallway where were all the other statues. The castle's victims who hadn't made it. My progress stalled as I realised that the castle might just turn me to stone anytime now. I closed my eyes and prayed, hoping it wouldn't. Gradually, I found myself advancing out of the doorway and through the doors of the castle. I had now reached the porch.
'Yes!' I shouted realising that I had made it through the hallway and outside of the castle building still not turned to stone. 'There might just be hope yet!'
However, as I lift up my right foot to tread my next step, I realised that I couldn't move it. I couldn't move my foot! It felt like concrete. I then attempted to lift up my left foot and realised I couldn't move that one either. I looked down the ground at my feet and they appeared to be cemented together.
'Oh, no...no...no...' I said.
Suddenly I noticed a greying cement beginning to work its way up through my toes and on towards my ankles.. my shins.. up my legs and my thighs and on to my hips. I couldn't move any part of the lower half of my body anymore. The cement worked its way up to my stomach.. my back.. my chest and through to my neck.. chin.. and head. It now consumed every part of me and I could no longer move at all. I was being turned to stone.
Cass-an-draaaaa... Did you really think you could defy the spell of the castle, Cass-an-draaa? Did you th-ink you could run off with the Book and tell the world its s-ee-crets? Not this time...
I couldn't reply even if I wanted to. I was now a beast and a slave of the castle's ancient curse. My mortal humbleness and generosity stood for nothing against the secrets of this book. My backpack.. I had subconsciously dropped that while being turned to stone. It was the only part of me that hadn't been. My clothes.. my watch.. my jewellery.. it was all frozen. I was like them. No different.
Yes, actually, there was one slight difference. All of the other stone statues were in the hall but I was the only statue in the porch. Why hadn't I turned to stone in the hall like the rest of them?
Y-es, you a-re different, Cass-andra, the voice called as if reading my thoughts. Anyone who looks into Cassandra's eyes shall be turned to stone... unless.. they're the one. A cackle.
I stood inanimate waiting for the voice to say something more. I waited hours for something to happen. For her to say something else but she no longer did. It began to sink in that the mortal world was now my prey and I was its predator. Those who looked into my eyes shall be turned to stone. In a strange way that made me happy...
Suddenly I heard a shuffle as something behind me made a noise but I couldn't see what it was. It arrived in front of me where my backpack was situated. As I remained frozen, I realised it was a troll:
'You stupid, quack!' The troll said angrily and he kicked me on my leg quite hard. Once.. twice.. three times.. I couldn't move though I heard it vent: 'Take the Book of Secrets from us! No you don't.' He kicked me again. I saw him open my backpack and take out the Book. I knew he was going to deliver it back to the tower where it's supposed to be. He took my backpack too and then he disappeared. He went back in to the castle and left me in the lonely hollow silence of the castle's porch with nothing or no one around.
Over the next couple of centuries I noticed a few people enter the castle's doors but I never saw them come out. Then one day I saw a young man coming towards me. He reached the steps of the porch when he noticed me. He whistled towards me in appreciation:
'My aren't you just the most beautiful statue I have ever seen.'
As he made his way up the stone stairs, he began checking me out. He then inspected my face and looked into my eyes. I don't know what he felt at that moment but it was electric. The man seemed to be hypnotized by me as he gazed into them. If my eyes could speak a thousand words then he would have recognised despair. He gazed at me and as I looked back, he gradually started turning in to stone. Consumed by the overpowering energy of my gaze. He was not the One. He probably deserved that. We were equal now.
For the first time, I languished at how well my powers worked and eagerly wanted to do it again. Over the next few centuries, I consumed a few more victims. They all deserved it.
Then one day I saw a mother arrive with a little boy no older than two or three years old. She should have known better than to be in a place so dangerous with a child. The child was crying for what I realised might have been fatigue or a clear disliking of the castle. I saw the woman slap him hard on the cheek and his crying intensified. He was the first mortal I had seen who would rather have left upon arriving and who would rather have not been here. The mother and her son disappeared in to the castle and I saw no more of them.
A couple of weeks later and to my surprise, I saw the child come out of the castle but his mother wasn't with him. In his hands he held the Book of Secrets. I saw him open the Book and have no understanding of it because he was too young to read. I then saw him take the Book and escape the castle. He went back over the bridge and toward the Forest Pleasant where he was since safe. That little boy had made it out of the castle with the Book alive and he was no longer a victim to its curse! This could only mean one thing. That mysterious little boy was the One!
Suddenly I saw an intensity of clouds gather and it began to rain pebbles. Moments later I began to turn into my mortal self Cassandra. I couldn't believe it. I could move! I entered the hallway and noticed all the other statues too were turned back to the mortals they were. Then I heard a voice that sounded like an angel:
'The spell of the castle has been broken. The Great One has arrived and is now in possession of the Book. In fifteen years time the Great One shall be made King of the castle and its neighbouring towns and villages. You are all now free to go. Hail to the King!'
'Hail to the King!' We all repeated, thrilled that we were all now free.
So that little kid was the One? The boy had been too young even to be able to read. I was stunned by how easily he took the Book out of the castle like that. That little boy... Who'd be King of our towns in fifteen years time.
I make my way out of the castle's doors and marvel at the pebbles as they gracefully and gently fall over the building. Marking the final end of its ancient-old curse.