The Ghosts of GingerBread Castle and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Chapter 15

I had the envelope with the money. Counting it, I soon discovered that a few hundred dollars were missing. Still, I instantly felt guilty for taking it, but then I thought of my mother's cancer treatment and was relieved to have it. I can try to do something for her.

Just then I looked around for the yellow-billed bird and couldn't see it anywhere in the room. Had it flown away? The room was brighter somehow, and looking around I soon discovered why. All the windows were opened, with the curtains pulled and tied to the sides, to allow in the breeze, I suppose. Perhaps, Sinella had done that.

I heard something like a fluttering outside my bedroom door. Opening it, I walked outside, but there was no bird there. In fact, there was nothing except the eerie bluish glow of the corridor's flooring and walls closer to me, and the shadowy corners further away. Suddenly, I thought I saw something shift in one corner past my door. Gluing my eyes to the spot, it wasn't long afterward that I beheld a shadowy figure that stood staring at me. I froze, afraid to move an inch, as my heart raced and pounded ceaselessly. Then, to my relief, the figure drifted in the air, before magically vaporizing out of the castle. Was I imagining things? Or was my brain just replaying last night's experiences all over again, making me think it was real?

I turned and approached Sinella's bedroom door which was ajar. Peering in, I saw no one inside. Though, I swore I saw something shift and disappear underneath the bed. Was my mind playing tricks on me again? I stood staring and contemplating whether I should check beneath the bed, but soon decided against it. I made my way downstairs, where I searched for Sinella, but she was not there, and neither was the bird.

My stomach hurt suddenly and I thought of food again and the fig trees I'd seen yesterday. I remembered that I was scarcely able to make it to the trees then and wondered if I should approach them again. My mind suddenly recalled my ability to walk about outdoors last night, quite normally, and so I decided to give it a try.

I made straight for the fig trees, but the same thing happened again. The closer I got to the trees, I found that I was unable to bear my weight and had to crawl, until I could scarcely move. Immobile, I lay discarded on the ground, feeling as if the life was about to slip from me. I rested a while, and swore I heard someone calling my name. Too weak to answer or look around, I waited, but no one came to my rescue. Eventually, I slipped into unconsciousness.

It must have been some time later, not sure if it was minutes, or hours, when remnants of consciousness returned to me. I tried to move toward the trees, but my body was lead. With great struggle, I crawled all the way to the castle, before finally collapsing on my bedroom's floor.

Lying there, I closed my eyes, willing my strength back, and felt it slowly returning. After a while I opened my eyes and pushed myself up on my elbows, before finally sitting up. I felt stronger now, and not weighed down as if by lead. I was back to my strong old self again. At once, my eyes were bedazzled by something on the floor.

Squinting, I reached out and snatched it up. Shock engulfed me and my mind ran in races. Wasn't I wearing it? It was the necklace that the creature had given me last night. I tried to think of when it could have fallen of, and soon reasoned that it must have come off when I touched the bird and my body convulsed and buckled. I put it around my neck when suddenly an idea came to me, an idea I was determined to try out.

I was soon making my way toward the fig trees again. And this time, my stroll toward it was quite easy. My body was not weighed down and weakness had abandoned me. So, it was the necklace that made it possible for me to get around. Yes, I think the creature had mentioned something about that last night, though the exact words escaped me right now. Anyway, I picked a handful of figs and devoured them in a flash, before filling my skirt pockets with them and deciding to return to the castle.

That decision was soon altered by the sound of a joyous exclamation. "Heidi! You're back already!"

I knew that voice. Turning, I saw Sinella running toward me. She had been out foraging for food as well, as nothing she'd eaten since her arrival in the forest seemed to agree with her. Everything made her sick. She'd found some cherries which she shared with me, but she refused the figs I offered, saying that she couldn't hold them down for long. "I think I might be allergic to them," she informed me. After a while she asked about my visit home. "Did you get it, the money?" she asked.

"Yes. But I seemed to have lost the bird."

"Oh!"

I recalled my earlier morning experience, lying on my bed and experiencing everything the bird had also experienced. It was really weird, I thought.

Sinella, at once, began coughing and convulsing on the ground before my eyes. She soon cast off the gooey-looking contents of her stomach—a bluish liquid—which pooled onto the ground, before seeping into the earth. The cherries were all red, yet it seemed to have turned blue inside her stomach.

How strange, I thought growing concerned. "Are you alright?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "It seems not even the cherries I can stomach. All I've had since my arrival here was some strange substance that I believe the creature gave me last night after I completed my task."

"You believe the creature gave it to you? So, you're not sure?" I asked.

"No. I thought it was a dream when I awoke, but now, seeing the blue liquid, I think it was real. The substance in the dream—or what I thought was a dream—was blue."

Suddenly, fluttering sounds alerted me. Turning to look in its direction, I noticed two black birds fighting atop a wild berry bush. I recalled the yellow-billed bird at once and began speculating on where it'd disappeared.

Sinella must have read my mind. "You said you'd lost the bird?" she asked.

"Yes. I couldn't find it anywhere." I tried to think of what might have happened to it. Maybe it flew away with the windows and curtains opened like they were, I thought. "Was it you who opened the windows and tied the curtains?"

"What curtains?" Sinella seemed confused.

"The curtains in my bedroom."

"There're no curtains there."

"Yes, there was this morning, after I woke up."

"There's never been curtains there, Heidi."

I was confused. Had I been seeing things? I wondered about the bird, and remembered Sinella's words that the first step was the bird. "Did you ever lose your bird?"

"You can say so," she replied. "Only, I'd touched it before I was supposed to touch it, and so I guess I wasted the chance to put it to good use, for when I woke I found myself being dragged to a pillar to be slaughtered."

"What?"

"It was the morning you arrived here."

I remembered. "But I saw them dragging you from the forest, over there," I said, pointing in the direction I'd first seen Sinella.

"Yes, I had to leave here by 6:00 a.m., so I left before that time with my bird. If I'd remained here, and the clock struck 6:00 a.m., then I was as good as dead."

I never quite understood everything about that day. "Why did the woman have to leave for you to be spared, when no one had to leave for me to stay?" I asked.

"It's because we share the same story."

"The same story?"

"Yes, the same lives, only in an alternate place and time, like a doppelgänger. But, it's not just our looks that were similar, but also our personalities, our character, and lifestyles. Only she was born one hundred years before me."

"She's that old?"

"Yes, the Gingerbread Castle gave her an extremely long life. It seems you do age here, but I guess it's at an extremely slow rate. The disappointing thing is that a person can only stay in the castle as long as no one else comes along with the same personality, character, lifestyle, and looks."