Old Castle Blue

It stood a thousand feet tall, towering over the village, so high up into the sky clouds often obscured it. They called it "old castle blue" because of its particularly light shade of grey bricks used to build it, it often looked blue under the fog of the atmosphere in the distance especially on beautiful, sunny days in Spring or Summer. It was an ancient relic, one that may have looked pretty, or added to the picturesque landscape, but deep inside held many dark secrets. The castle looked like something straight out of a Ricky Mouse movie, what with its decorative roof, stylish architecture and many different carvings. However, just like in the cathedral of notre dame, this place also had its secret little monster and it was no misunderstood hunchback like in all those kids films. What lay beneath the grounds of old castle blue was something far darker and dangerous. Not just in the dungeon, but also in the old rooms that nobody should dare enter. Before I go into all the different creepy crawlies that secretly dwell in the darkness of this castle, I must first tell you the story of three daring trespassers who attempted to witness these horrors for themselves.

The village old castle blue towered over was in Norway, a cute little place called Piccadilly. The locals were friendly among each other, but in recent years their home had become an obnoxious tourist trap. People from all over the world came to Piccadilly just to take photos and videos of old castle blue, there was even a gift shop in the village that sold postcards, fridge magnets, t-shirts, posters and miniature models of the castle. Unfortunately most of these tourists weren't respectful towards the locals, or the history behind such a grand castle. The relic was strictly off limits to the public, it didn't matter if they were native to Piccadilly or not, the rules were law in this land. Of course, that didn't stop people from trying to enter anyway, lots of folks like to be rebels and break the law regardless. Some tourists were incredibly self entitled about trespassing into the castle. Believing they were owed a look inside just for travelling all the way out here. It was Barry, Larry and Andy from New Jersey in America; who came out to Piccadilly with the intention of breaking into old castle blue and one midnight in winter (when tourist season was well and truly over) they broke into the old relic without alerting any of the security. The place was cold, dark and spooky at night, cobwebs hung upon the walls, big spiders and rats fled from the American's presence.

"Damn rats!" Larry said.

"Keep it down!" Andy hushed, "we're here illegally remember?"

"That's right, Larry..." Barry added, whispering. Larry only nodded in reply.

"You better see what's downstairs if you're going to be so loud..." Andy told Larry, "I'll search the rooms and Barry can check the roofs. That sound all right?"

They all agreed.

"Good!" Andy smiled, "remember to take lots of photos and videos, we want to go viral for being the first people to enter."

"We will." Andy nodded.

Larry veered away from the group and took the long, narrow stairs deeper underground, filming the whole journey into the dungeon. The walk took a while, maybe 15-20 minutes, as the castle was incredibly huge and maze-like, it would be too easy to get lost in such a dark, claustrophobic and tired place. Eventually he made it to the bottom floor, he immediately regretted it, although he was still morbidly curious to explore. You see, he found several old torture devices, ones only ever seen in medieval horror movies. The equipment was all made of either wood or metal and they were rusted over and mouldy. Human skeletons were still trapped under some of the gruesome choke holds and strapped into hideous chairs with metal spikes all over them.

"Could make for a good horror movie..." Larry chuckled nervously, then foolishly continued his descent into darkness, using his phone's torchlight to brighten the way forwards. What he discovered next would have made even the poorest beggar a millionaire overnight, a living breathing dragon, with black scales and a thousand spikes. It was sleeping, breathing in and out, chained up by the neck in an open space of rock. This was like something straight out of a fantasy film, Larry knew filming or taking photos of it was incredibly risky, but he just couldn't resist the temptation. Before he even snapped a photograph of the sleeping beast, the light from his phone immediately stirred the lizard, rudely awakening it from its sleep. The dragon's eyes peeled open, they were made of yellow fire and looked beyond furious.

"Oh shit!" Larry gasped, before he was quickly engulfed entirely in flames by the fire breathing dragon. His death was pure agony, burning intensely for a good five minutes, before the dragon ate him alive but properly roasted. Poor Larry could feel the dragon's fangs tear open his flesh, crack his bone and devour his blood.

Andy was busy taking photos of the castle's living quarters, he also stole old jewellery such as gold coins, crowns and silver necklaces. Eventually he stumbled upon an old treasure chest, like something straight out of a fantasy video game or pirate movie.

"What a find!" He grinned, before lifting up the lid of the treasure chest, just as he expected; it was full of gold, colour gems and diamonds of different sizes. He routed through the contents and then felt something wet and slimy wriggle across his hand.

"What the fuck!" He exclaimed, pulling his hand away sharply, unintentionally pulling out a green cobra with it, the snake looked furious.

"Eas-"

The cobra bit him, not just once, not twice but three times in rapid succession! Andy fell to the ground with a great big crash, wheezing and gasping, as the venom slowly, painfully killed him. Now only Barry remained.

He finally made it all the way to the rooftops of the castle, it had been an hour long trip, but the view was spectacular, like something out of a dream or adventurous kid's film.

"Wow... What a view!" He grinned, watching the clouds below him. Barry could even see a passenger plane fly above him, it was actually pretty close, that just went to show how high up he actually was. Everything seemed so perfect and peaceful, but this was not meant to last. Barry suddenly heard the sounds of flapping, like those of a bird's wings. However, this sound was much louder and giant, like the bird was twice the size of that plane. Then he saw it, the most horrifying sight he had ever seen; a large black bat wing, with veins visible beneath the thin skin bulging. The wings were stretching in and out, looking like some kind of nightmarish demon.

"Oh my god..." Barry gasped upon seeing it, the bat was ten times his size, it had massive red eyes, piercing directly into his soul. It then roared a deafening screech, it darted straight towards him, picking him up by its claws and flying him away with it into the darkness of night. He was never seen again.