Keira woke up panting for air. Bertha heard Keira moaning in her sleep. She got up and headed towards her room and saw that Keira was already awake.
“Oh, honey, same nightmare as always?” Bertha asked while hugging Keira.
“Yes, I was locked in a dark room. There was an old man in the room, but I couldn’t see his face clearly, and water splashed out of the walls and filled the room. I couldn’t breathe in water,” Keira replied anxiously.
“What is going on? Another nightmare?” Johnathan asked standing next to the door. “Given your condition with all these nightmares, I don’t think you should go on this trip. I and your mother are worried about you!”
“But I’m not going to be alone. Lucy will be there too. Plus, I want to see her uncle’s castle in France. It sounds so cool in the summer!” Keira said and got out of bed. She stood between her father and her mother, who were still sitting on her bed, looking worried.
“Please let me go, I need this.”
"You just became friends with Lucy. You dont know much about her and her family," Bertha said worried.
"Yes, but we are already best friends now!" Keira said with a childlike enthusiasm.
Johnathan and Bertha looked at each other. They didn’t know what was right for their daughter, letting her go by herself and enjoying her time or keeping her inside the house because they felt too protective of her.
They initially disagreed on Keira going on this trip because they believed Keira was still too young to travel by herself or with a friend. But when Lucy’s mother talked to them over the phone, they were convinced that Lucy’s uncle, Arthur was a stable man and they would be safe with him.
After a 17 hour flight, they arrived in France with no issues. And Arthur came to the airport to welcome them.
“Having two beautiful girls as my guests is what I need for this summer,” Arthur said with a smile.
He stood still for a moment when he got a closer look at Keira.
Keira felt uneasy and tried to brush off his weird stares all throughout their drive to the castle.
When they arrived at the castle, Keira didn’t imagine the castle to be that old and big. She got a creepy vibe from the castle. It reminded her of old horror movies.
“Let me show you your room. You’re going to stay in Lisha’s room.
"It’s the best room in the castle,” Arthur said with a bit of sadness in his voice.
“Who is Lisha? Doesn’t she need her room?” Keira asked, curious about Arthur and his personal life.
“Lisha was my daughter. She died from a stroke 18 years ago when she was 18. My wife died while giving birth to Lisha. I raised her myself,” Arthur replied trying to be emotionless, but a heavy sadness was apparent in his voice.
They entered Lisha’s room where there were two beds- one on the left and one on the right.
“You can refresh yourselves and I will be waiting for you downstairs at 6 p.m. I have a surprise for you!” Arthur said in a hurry.
Arthur left the room, allowing the girls to take a shower and change their clothes. Keira looked around the room. The wallpaper looked old, and in one place, it was peeled off, revealing some sort of yellow paint underneath.
“Didn’t you hear my uncle say he has a surprise for us! Let’s get ready. I am so excited to know what his surprise is,” Lucy said happily.
The girls took a hot shower, got dressed and went downstairs. Arthur was waiting for them at the dinner table.
“After dinner, we will play a game. It’s like hide and seek. You can hide anywhere in the castle and I have to find you,” Arthur said with a mischievous smile.
“Aren’t you too old to play hide and seek!” Keira snapped and wiped the smile off Arthur's face.
“Keira!” Lucy said and reminded Keira to be polite, “We would love to play hide and seek with you Uncle Arthur!”
“So, I will count to 100, and you girls hide,” Arthur said excited, like a little boy.
The counting started, and Keira and Lucy wandered around the castle looking for a place to hide. Suddenly, Keira remembered she put her phone in the charger and her mother told her to call her when she arrived in France. She forgot to call her.
“Oh, she will be worried if I don’t call her!” Keira whispered, and hurried to Lisha’s room. The silence in Lisha’s room was deafening. She found her phone.
“Oh, this is bad. Two missed calls. I have to call her!” Keira murmured.
She was about to call her mother, when her phone rang and broke the silence of the room. It was Dylan, her boyfriend.
“Hey, I have to call my mom, I will hang up now and will call you later!” Keira said with a low voice.
“No! No! Don’t hang up! I just wanted to tell you I am here in France. My aunt invited me. Can’t you bail on Lucy and come stay with us instead,” Dylan said.
“What? Bail on Lucy and leave her here with her creepy uncle? No! I can’t do that. Sorry!” Keira replied, a little angry at Dylan’s request.
It was at this moment when she suddenly heard someone locking the room. She heard the sound of keys. She went towards the door with her phone in her hand, and tried to open the door, but she couldn’t. She put the phone on the bed and tried again. Keira tapped on the door, but indeed, the door was locked.
“This is not funny Lucy….. Open the damn door!” Keira shouted with full force.
“Open the door!”
“I can’t let you leave this castle….. Especially for Dylan!” Arthur whispered with a cracked voice. Because of the silence, Keira heard him perfectly.
Keira’s fears came to the surface, and she felt she was suffocating.
“Get Me Out of Here!” Keira shouted, and Dylan who was on the other side of the phone heard her. Keira felt she was losing control and the whole room was going round and round in her head and she passed out on the ground.
“What is going on Keira? Are you in danger? Send me the address and I’ll come!” Dylan shouted from the other side of the phone.
After a moment, when Keira gained consciousness, she couldn’t move. She was frozen in time and space. Keira was disoriented and couldn’t stand on her feet. She couldn’t reach the phone. She couldn’t talk.
An energy engulfed her and suddenly she saw a man with no face wearing a hooded black cloak and wielding a scythe. She was shocked and her soul came out of her body.
“Keira…….. Keira……. Say something. Don’t pass out on me! Not Again!” Arthur shouted, he unlocked the door and rushed to Keira.
The man in the hooded black cloak closed the door by moving his hand without touching it. Fear was all over Arthur’s face upon seeing the man with no face. Suddenly, water splashed from inside the walls. The water pressure was so high that with no time, the room was filled with water.
Keira, Arthur, and the hooded man were all underwater. There was a little shiny ball in the hooded man’s hands. He gave it to Keira. With the help of the ball, she was able to see the yellow door, which was painted on the wall. The painting came alive. The door was half open, and Keira had to take off the wallpaper to see it clearly, which she did. She opened the door and went through it towards the darkness, and Arthur followed her.
The yellow door was the only way out of the room. And water was everywhere.
Keira swam until she reached a vast body of water almost like an ocean. When she reached the surface of the water, she saw little shiny balls floating on the water. There were so many of them. She looked at her ball, there were three flames inside it. The shiny light of the ball came from the flames within it.
Near the ocean-like body of water was a dark forest. She reached the shore and she saw Arthur struggling in the water but finally got out. The hooded man appeared before Keira again and said, “Find Lisha and get her out! I need to take her!”
The heaviness of the forest's atomosphere got to Keira. It was suffocating. She couldn’t breathe in the forest. For some reason, she thought that if she would do as the hooded man said, she would be free of that place.
So, she started to shout “Lisha………. Lisha……….”
Arthur who got out of the water followed the sound of Keira’s voice and found her. When Keira saw Arthur close to her, she ran as fast as she could. She hid herself behind a bush.
“I can’t let you leave me Keira…. Not you, Not Lisha. Both of you are my daughters! I don’t let someone like Dylan take you away! A good girl listens to her daddy!”
“Crazy overprotective man! God knows what he did to Lisha,” Keira whispered.
“I have to find Lisha,” Keira thought and looked at the flames inside the ball. They were moving and creating heat. Keira’s hands were hot but not too hot to burn. The ball reminded her of all her good memories with her parents and Dylan.
She got up and without Arthur noticing her, moved forward until she reached a river. It was dark, but with the light of the ball, she could see someone, a girl, who was stuck in the river, which flowed to a waterfall.
“Help me! We were playing hide and seek when my dad locked me in my room because I wanted to go to my boyfriend's house without his permission. He treated me like a little girl. I had a stroke because of him. The room filled with water and I saw the yellow door. My soul entered the yellow door, and he followed me. I tried to ran away from him and I got stuck here. He left me here, he got back himself, and left me to die,” Lisha mumbled in a raspy voice.
Keira stretched her hands and with effort reached Lisha’s hand and got her out of the water. It was dark, but Keira could see Lisha’s face. She looked exactly like her.
“Why do you look like me? You’re dead. Does this mean I’m dead too?” Keira asked, exhausted and fearful.
“If you get back soon enough, you won’t be dead like me! I’m you but from a past life. Our soul is one. I’m a part of you, just born in a different time! You have good parents this time around! Not overprotective like mine!” Lisha said panting because she had just got out of the river.
“So, all those nightmares I had was because you were stuck in this river in some realm,” Keira asked and her mind was flooded with questions.
“Yes, the yellow door opens up to a realm between the living and the dead. It’s a limbo land. Some souls are saved; some stay here for a long time!” Lisha replied.
Suddenly Arthur crept out of the darkness of the forest, and the two girls ran as fast as they could until they reached a cliff.
They couldn’t go any further.
“No, I can’t let you touch Lisha. She needs to be away from you!” Keira said, and Lisha was standing behind her, her face down. Keira took a step back because Arthur took a step forward. The man with no face was behind Arthur and shouted “Lisha! It’s time to go to the world of the dead!”
“No! Not my little child!” Arthur shouted and rushed towards Lisha.
"No, it is not your time yet, Arthur!" the man with no face cried.
Lisha slipped and fell from the cliff.
Arthur went after Lisha, and he fell too crying "Lisha, you will always be my little girl! I never wanted to hurt you!".
The man with no face, flew and took both of them in mid-air and disappeared.
Keira terrified, ran to the darkness of the forest with her ball of light, and went into the water and found the yellow door. Crossed it and got back to her body.
Everything happened so fast. Keira opened her eyes, gasping for air. She was in Lucy’s arms. The ambulance was there, and they were giving Arthur electrical shocks to bring him back to life. It was a tense moment for Keira.
Keira watched Arthur fighting for his life. Out of the blue, the electrical shocks worked and he opened his eyes.
They took him to the ambulance, and just before going inside the ambulance, he waved for Keira.
“What happened to you two inside that room? I came and found you both on the floor, I was so afraid and I called the ambulance!” Lucy asked, with a shaky voice. “I hope Uncle Arthur gets well soon!”
“There is something wrong with that room. I rose from the dead. That’s all I can say about it!” Keira replied and looked at her phone. There were 120 missed calls and messages from Dylan, his mother, and his father. They were all on their way to the castle.
Thanks for reading. It got a little long 😅.