The castle is deadly silent when Tyler enters through the front doors. He holds a lamp out in front of him with his free hand, the other clutching the opening of his cape. The flickering of the flame illuminates his way down the dank cobblestone hall, the old furniture seeming to move on their own before the light can touch them. Tyler shivers.
Nobody from his village and the ones around it dared to visit the abandoned castle. It had sat there for as long as Tyler could remember, with many myths and legend tied to its aura of evil.
According to local gossips, the royal family who once lived there and ruled over the land disappeared one night. An enchantress killed every member, all except for the eldest son, who was taken by the witch to raise as her own. Another legend says the eldest son went insane and ate his family, becoming a Wendigo in the process.
No one knew the truth of what occurred that fateful night from ten years ago, and no one dared to learn it. Who was stupid enough to climb the mountains in the middle of a snowstorm to go to a possible haunted or monster-infested castle?
Tyler, and his mother. He supposes it's genetic.
At one point, Tyler thinks he hears the effervescent ticking of a clock just behind him, but he dismisses it as his overactive imagination. The shadows dancing on the ceiling are making him paranoid.
He makes it to a large metal door at the end of the hall with a barred window too tall for him to look through. Tyler experimentally tugs at the knob to see if it'll open. It doesn't budge. The lock must be so rusted that it's stuck. Behind it, he can hear a woman's voice pleading for help.
"Momma? Are you there?" He calls out, pressing his face through the window bars.
"Tyler? Oh my god, Tyler! You need to get out of here before he comes back!"
"No, not without you! Hold on, I'm coming!" Tyler examines the door, twisting the knob. The rusty metal sphere breaks off in his hand. "Okay, that's not going to work."
He rolls up his sleeves to his elbows and shoves his shoulder into the door, shifting all of his weight forward. It reluctantly groans open, revealing a single barred cell in the far corner and a suit of knight armor propped at the door.
His mother sits inside the cell, her bony pale hands gripping the rusty bars. Dirt and blood cake her cheeks and torn dress, and her hair sticks out like a bird's neck. She jumps when the door opens, but cries out as he stumbles into the room.
Tyler drops to his knees in front of the cell, wrapping his hands over his mother's. They're ice cold and shaking. "Momma, are you hurt? Who did this to you?"
"Tyler, you shouldn't be here," she says, ignoring his questions.
"Neither should you. Hold still, I'll get you out of here."
He lets one of her hands go and pulls out his small hunting knife from its sheath, jamming it into the space between the lock and the door and attempting to jimmy it to open.
"You just go. He'll find you."
"Who will find me, Momma?" He asks as he gently turns the blade, the lock twisting along with it.
At that moment, Tyler hears heavy footsteps along with the familiar clicking of claws. He forgets about the lock and shoots to his feet, holding his knife out with one hand, his other outstretched holding the lamp.
"Who's there? Show yourself."
At that point, Tyler is two-thirds done with his personal mission; enter the castle, rescue his mother, and get back to the village before night settles. Nothing, not even the feeling of him being watched, will stop him from getting her out alive.
