The Secrets of Gotha Castle-5- by wretched

-Chapter 5-

Abandoning the portrait, Erik ran for the door. Fumbling with the awkward shape of the doorknob, Erik wrenched the door open. Looking wildly across the hall he saw that the library door was now ajar. Erik, moving from the door, made his way across the hall in four long strides, with Alexi at his heels.

Erik met with the iron door and pushed it open with all of his might. “Julia?!” Erik called out, while scanning the library. He noticed that the chair, once standing behind the desk had been thrown to the floor, along with a few more books scattered across the floor then there had been earlier. Julia was no were. “Where did she go?!” He asked out loud more to him self then Alexi. The expression on Alexi’s face told him that he was just as confused as him.

“Well…she has to be around here somewhere,” said Alexi. “Could she have went back outside?”

“No! When I suggested that she head back for home earlier she was totally against it. Besides, why would she have screamed if all she did was go out side?” Erik asked. “We have to go looking for her. Come on.”

Erik stepped back out into the hallway. To his left was the door leading outside, which he was sure Julia would not have taken, the door in front of him led back to the family room, then there was the iron door to his right, which he had not tried yet. Without saying a word, Erik moved towards the door at the end of the marble hallway. Erik stopped when he reached the door and tried opening it, but the door was to heavy for him to move. Alexi took his place besides Erik and asked, “Is it locked?”

“No,” he replied, “I think that it’s simply to heavy for me.”

“Hmmm let me help. Scoot over,” Alexi commanded. Moving a little to the side Erik gave Alexi room to place his hands on the knob. With both Erik and Alexi pulling the door squealed under the force of there pulls.

When the door opened Erik beheld a weeded over garden of dead roses, overgrown bushes and tall grass. There were two small steps leading down into the dead garden followed by a walkway of gray cobblestones. The walkway stretched out to the right and left of the door that Erik had just opened and it went all that way around the house disappearing around two corners. Looking directly across from where he was standing, Erik saw another large iron door set into the stone work that enclosed the entire garden. Erik looked up at the sky and noted that very soon he would not be able to see a thing. Turning to Alexi he spoke, “What should we do? I have to find her and there are three different ways for us to go.”

“Erik, if it took two of us to open that door, how could Julia get threw?”

Erik hadn’t thought of this, but she wouldn’t have went out the front door, at least not with out telling him. “I don’t know what I’m still going to look out here first, before I check the front.”

“Well, let’s split up then. You go right and I can take the left.” said Alexi. “If we can’t find her, well just meet back here, then we can go through that door,” Alexi no pointed to the iron door across the garden.

Erik nodded saying, “Okay,” and took off down the steps onto the cobble pavement. Erik turned back towards Alexi, who had also descended the steps, “If you find her over there, bring her here right away and wait for me.”

“Of course.” Alexi called back. Erik gave a grateful look towards Alexi and then Erik disappeared around the corner.

When Erik turned the corner he saw an area as large as the hall inside that castle. He continued walking halfway down the walkway when he stopped and looked off to his right. There stood the stained glass window to the library. Looking back in front of him, Erik say that the wall to his left connected to one of the towers. The tower had a plain wooden door facing him and slightly to the left of the door, Erik saw a small white cross poking up form the ground. Becoming a little curious, Erik walked the rest of the way up the walkway and stopped at the cross. Bending down to get a better look at the cross, he noticed that here was other crosses besides the one in front of him. Some were broken; others covered by tall grass. In all there were eight cross markers that Erik could see. Erik glanced back at the marker that was sticking up out of the ground about two feet. The marker was made of white marble and it read Nikolai Josef Gotha and underneath of the name was a small, engraved snake. Stepping back from the grave, Erik caught sight of a shiny object. Bending down , Erik picked up the item. Trying to examine the item Erik held it up in the dying sunlight so that he could see it better. The item was a large silver chain with a intertwined snake hanging form its center. Looking at the snake Erik realized that it strongly resembled the snake on Alex’s necklace

Erik’s head rose with a quick jerk. Something moved behind him, he started to rise from his crouched position , “Wham!” Erik was hit hard in the back of the head by a solid object. Falling to the cobblestones Erik could hear heavy breathing about him and feel blazing pain shot threw his body. Erik attempted to roll over to get a clear view of his attacker when another heavy blow fell into Erik’s face.