57 Arriving

Having parents who lectured for a living meant Charlotte moved around. A lot.  Glyphord was her sixth school and she would only be there for one year to complete her ‘A’ Levels.  She was an expert in making new friends and here she provided a kind of magnet for three students who had spent most of their school lives as loners.

Ever since her new friends had told her about the ‘haunted house’, she had been desperate to visit it.  Tamara said her sister had spent all night there and found it completely underwhelming, but the stories that made Jake and Louise so reluctant to go fired Charlotte’s imagination.

She had conceded to their request to visit the place – officially called Almington Castle – in the daylight.  The possibility of ghosts did not interest her but terrified her friends, so it was an easy decision.  The real atmosphere of the old house intrigued her more than the potential for supernatural happenings.

So, one Wednesday morning during the summer holidays, when they would have the maximum amount of daylight and the minimum risk of meeting ghost hunters, and before they were scattered across the country to different universities, she picked them all up in her new car and the adventure began.

Almington Castle was less than ten miles from where they lived but the city itself sprawled over such a large area that it took a good part of the morning to escape it.  While they were surrounded by houses and street signs, they talked about everyday things: the latest reality show (Louise), or video game (Tamara), and anxiety about results (Jake).  As buildings gave way to fields and trees, however, conversation was harder to come by as they all considered what lay ahead.

Charlotte had programmed her sat nav with the location they were making for and the recorded voice sounded loud and harsh in the quiet car, so she turned on the radio only to find they were out of signal range for any of the channels they wanted to listen to.

“What does this place look like, anyway?” she asked, more to break the silence than anything.

There were blank looks from her companions. 

“It’s just a big, old house…” said Jake.

Tamara nodded.  “Half of it’s fallen down, too.”

Silence fell again as they continued along a lane bordered on each side by high hedges in full leaf hiding anything that might be beyond them.

“Turn left in 100 yards,” announced the sat nav and there was a rise in the level of tension in the car.

Charlotte slowed down so she would not miss the turning but it was obvious when they reached it.  Stone gateposts stood on either side of a wide opening, their gates leaning against them and slowly giving way to rust.  The car slipped between them and they found themselves following what was originally a graceful gravel sweep but was now covered in weeds.  On either side, tall grass grew right up to the overgrown trees of a once decorative wood.

They all held their breath as they drove on, expecting to see the house around each bend, the late morning sun somehow not reaching over the trees that crowded in on them.  After what seemed like ages but was really only a few minutes, the view opened up before them.

“Ohhh…” said Tamara.

“It’s… beautiful…” Louise whispered.

Jake gave a long whistle and Charlotte simply smiled.

“Park here!” suggested Jake.  “Then we can walk up to the front door properly.  Take it in…”

The others agreed, so Charlotte stopped the car and they all got out, staring at the building in front of them. It was part fortress and part wedding cake, a flight of fancy from the imagination of someone with too much money and not enough to spend it on.  Fairy tale turrets rose from walls made of massive stone blocks, some of them larger than the car.  Strange carved beasts lurked in niches, most now overgrown with ivy making them look like cloaked figures patrolling for eternity.

“So, who wants to go inside?” Charlotte asked, but found herself speaking to empty space because the others were already through the front door.