The Ghosts of GingerBread Castle and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Chapter 11

I hadn't set eyes on Sinella again, for the rest of the day, and wondered where she'd gone. I went out right after she left and saw what looked like a clump of fig trees and decided to have some, but strangely, walking grew difficult, and I had to crawl on my knees to move closer to the trees. Each movement left me deathly tired, rendering me a collapsed mess on the ground. I rested right there, noticing the environment turning redder and redder. The place strangely resembled hell. I tried to stand to flee the place, but even standing seemed to require monumental energy, which I lacked, so I decided to return to the castle and had to crawl my way back. By the time I was in the castle's foyer, I felt as weak as never before. What was happening to me?

I clambered up the staircase, and crawled my way to my bed, hoping for a much-needed rest, but my stomach had a mind of its own. It churned and reeled, and I staggered toward the bathroom just in time to spew the remnants of the plums I'd consumed earlier. I felt relieved suddenly, and strangely, I was shocked to find that I needn't crawl anymore. I was able to move, though in a slumped state. Making my way to the bed, I lay down and let me breaths even out. I breathed deep, before letting it out again, a few times, and some more. I closed my eyes, and fell into slumberland.

I awoke to the sounds of bells chiming, somewhere in the distance. Looking at the bedside clock, I noted that it was 8:00 p.m. I sat up and felt better, one hundred percent. Deciding to see if standing was still difficult, I rose and to my amazement I was able to walk about, quite normally. Why had I been so weak before? Was it because of the plums I'd eaten? Or, was it because I needed rest?

I lay back down on the bed and thought of Sinella, and where she might have gone. How could she have been able to leave when the death angel told me that were I to return to the village I was as good as dead?

Suddenly the windows burst open, drawing me out of my thoughts. A strong wind held the curtains inward, smothering the lights of the candles I'd lit in all four corners if the room, after Sinella left. Luckily, I'd found a few packs in a cupboard. Now, I was left in darkness, save for the eerie bluish glow around the bed.

At once, the scraping, scratching sound revivified, and died down just as the curtains billowed out again and I glimpsed the navy blue and purple skies outside. Strange, I thought the forest ought to be pitch black at night. Perhaps, it was the moonlight.

I rose suddenly, the opened windows coaxing me toward it like a magnet. Instantly, my shocked eyes beheld a bewitching scene bathed in navy blue light. Strangely, all the trees and plants pulsated with a purplish neon light. There was an unfamiliar looking vegetable patch with huge neon-glowing pink flowers, just beneath my window. I watched mesmerized to the sight of a flower engulfing a passing toad, before snapping shut.

Suddenly the window slammed shut again, almost hitting me in the face, and though I vigorously tried to open it up again, I couldn't. The strange clasp-like lock just would not budge. I turned around to see the room had grown darker as the sound of doors creaking, opening and slamming echoed along the corridor outside.

I approached my bedroom door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. I pushed and pulled and turned, but still it would not budge. I was locked in, but how, by what queer magic?

I felt something brush past me, and swore I glimpsed a whitish thing skip behind me, but turning I found nothing there.

Serious pounding erupted all of a sudden, on my door and I quaked in my spot. I approached the door hesitantly, the pounding still raging, and lightly touched the door to find it locked. Then in a burst it flung open and the pounding ceased.

Huge shadows crept upon the walls as a woman's screams pierced the silent night. The shadows were of very long fingers with pointed talons and advanced toward my door making me quickly shut and bolt it. Double checking whether it was bolted properly, I hastened to the closet thinking to make it my hiding place but shadows there turned me back to the bed. I grabbed the covers and was about to duck underneath when the door burst open and in walked a tall jet black lean silhouette, with blazing red eyes, like a devil. Was he here to take me to hell?

It soon pinned me to the bed as I slouched away from its nearness just aa it spoke in a thunderous voice. "Heidi Piper, do you know why you are here?"

What did it mean? Of course I knew why I was here. Because of some really bored death angel who didn't have anything better to do with his life besides hurt a poor young girl, just to satisfy it purposeless life. "Yes," I replied.

"And why would that be?"

"Because my time to die, has come."

The creature laughed as if I'd told the joke of the century. "No, I don't think you are aware. But I will tell you now."

I was silent, anticipating the creature's answer.

"You are here because of a terrible wrong you'd done when you were just a wee little girl of six."

I listened, wondering what the creature was going go say.

"You once did a very unforgivable deed, little Heidi."

I waited with bated breath afraid if the creature would cast me into greater doom.

"Do you remember?" it asked, its red eyes looking like the devil's.

What was this creature talking about? No, I had no idea what it meant. "No." I couldn't fathom a reason why I was so doomed as to abandon my family, especially my poor dying mother, for a strange place to live out my last days.

The creature continued. "Because of this wrong deed you once committed, your time was taken away, but because of a few great deeds you did yesterday, you were given a second chance at life.

Why was the creature beating around the bush. What wrong deed was it referring to? "What have I done?" My voice was a faint whimper.

The creature stepped into the light, his red eyes glowing. "You once wished that you were an only child."

At once vague memories came back to me. "But it was just a wish."

"No. You actually prayed for it. It is one thing to merely wish for something, but to ask God for it is to take it to another level. You actually prayed for it, for many nights, little Heidi."

"That was because my brother was—he was—selfish, greedy, and tried to control my parents."

"As strange as it may seem, everyone has a purpose, the good and even the very evil. It is like pieces of a great puzzle. Everyone has a part to play in this puzzle of life, and death os not something to wish upon another, no matter how bad we may think we believe them to be. One's wickedness might be a catalyst or even a blessing in disguise. But no matter what, one never wishes a person unborn, for it is like wishing on death. And that Heidi, is why you are here."