The interior of Castle Lorne was as old and in ruins as the exterior. Damaged chandeliers hung from the high, vaulted ceilings. Broken statues, burnt paintings, and torn tapestry decorated the halls. There wasn’t much that was of use to them here at first glance. So, they want further in, approaching the closed doors dotting the walls.

  The first door they pushed open let out a deafening creak, startling all three of them.

  “If there’s anyone alive in the castle, they surely know we’re here,” Alaric muttered as the door finally stopped creaking. He pulled his hands away from his ears and waited for his racing heart to calm. Once his heartbeat wasn’t so deafening anymore, he listened quietly for any sounds.

  I suppose it really is abandoned. Only now did he notice how much he wished for helpful people to be here.

  “I can’t see a thing.” Sarah muttered as she rummaged through her pockets. “There we go!” She exclaimed a moment later as she pulled out a lighter. She glanced around for a moment, then walked a few steps along the wall and took an old torch from its hook. It caught fire easily, illuminating their surroundings.

  “Now we can see!” She seemed quite content with herself as she walked through the doorway, torch in hand.

  It was a relatively large, rectangular room filled with boxes. A small fireplace remained unlit, with a large pot hanging over it. A long, wide table took up most of the free space in the room, surrounded by old benches.

  “That’s one.” Alaric pointed at the pot. Ava rushed inside, snatching it with glee.

  “Ava, check the boxes,” Sarah then grabbed Alaric’s arm and pulled him out of the room after handing the young girl her torch. “We’re in a castle,” she said with a lower voice as soon as they were back out in the hallway. “Castles usually have armouries, right? If we could find it, get our hands on some weapons…”

  He scowled. “There’s a curse here, remember? We shouldn’t stay here a moment longer than necessary.” He glanced at either side of the hallway, then back at the door they came from. “And we don’t have much time before sundown either.”

  “I know but think about how useful an actual weapon would be!” She pointed at the door they just came from. “Ava has a knife, and you’ve got a hammer. I don’t have anything, and neither do most people back at camp. What happens if an attack happens?” She lowered her voice. “Remember what one of the objectives is – setting up defences. It’s not just to keep us busy, I’m sure of it. And I don’t think Robert’s six bullets will be enough, do you?”

  She wasn’t wrong. Without any proper weapons they had little chance to survive against an attack. Even if that attack came from wolves like when the system first appeared. They needed something. “Fine. But we need to be fast. Grab a torch for me too, I’ll let Ava know.”

  The sun crawled closer to the horizon, dyeing the skies red and purple. They couldn’t see more than a few steps ahead inside the dark, dilapidated castle without the torches Sarah had found. With hasty steps, they checked the rooms near the entrance one by one.

  “Armouries were usually located near the barracks, in dry places.” Sarah explained as they checked the rooms. “Moisture damaged the equipment, so they needed to keep them away from it.” She paused by a set of stairs going downwards. Unlike the rest of the hallways they passed through, there wasn’t much in the name of lavish decorations here.

  “I think these are barracks.” Ava’s voice rang from a little further down the hallway. She was peeking through one of the closed doors.

  “We should check downstairs.” It was a simple, easily accessible, and near the entrance. And the stairs led underground – exactly the criteria Sarah mentioned.

  Holding their torches high, they descended the stairs. Alaric glanced at the timer slowly ticking down. “Fifteen minutes till sundown,” he reminded them with a grim tone. “We’ll have to travel in the dark.”

  “We have torches.” Ava showed a rather uneasy smile. “And we’ll have weapons,” she added with quite a bit more confidence.

  The stairs didn’t go too far down. About two dozen steps later, they found themselves in a round chamber, and a single door right across the stairs.

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  Shadows danced to the whims of the torches’ flames. There were cracks on the large stone tiles of the floor, and the walls had cracks and holes in them, with ivy and moss growing through.

  “No time to waste.” He spoke mostly to calm his own racing heart and charged nerves. The system’s warning still weighed on his mind – there was a curse here. Seeing the glimmer of excitement in Ava’s eyes, he marched to the door before she could.

  He couldn’t let a girl the same age as Clara get hurt. Especially not Clara’s best friend.

  He forced the door open after some effort. The rusty hinges let out a deafening creak as it slowly swung open, revealing a rather large room.

  “Oh!” Ava exclaimed. She rushed past him and raised her torch to see better.

  Alaric stepped inside. The dusty, old air tingled his nostrils and dried his throat. A part of him wondered for how long this place had been abandoned.

  It was a large, rectangular room that was clearly once an armoury. Armour stands lined one wall while boxes had been stacked up against the opposite wall. There were some tables and chairs, grindstones and a once heavily used anvil in the middle of the room.

  He approached the weapon racks and reached for one of the swords hanging from them.

  The metal blade was covered in rust. It felt light and brittle in his grip. Disappointed, he put it back.

  “Those won’t be useful.” Sarah walked past him to the boxes. “No matter how dry they were kept, the blade had contact with air. And these aren’t made of steel – they’re iron. They rust easily.” She grabbed a smaller blade and rammed it under the lid of the nearest box. “These must have been prepared to defend against an imminent attack. What we need are the ones they stored.” A grunt escaped her lips when she pushed down, trying to pry the lid open.

  The sound of breaking wood and nails popping off were followed by a gasp as the lid finally came off and fell to the ground next to the large box.

  “Ah, see?” She smiled. “They oiled the blades, then either wrapped them in something, or kept them in water. These guys preferred wrapping.” She rose on her toes and reached down into the large box, grabbing one of the objects tightly wrapped and bound in cloth. “If we’re lucky, we’ll find crossbows too.” She hesitated. “For the young and the elderly.” She added, seeing Ava’s somewhat confused glance. “That hunter had six bullets. We’ll need more than that, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah.” Ava muttered, getting to work opening the other boxes.

  While they were busy with that, Alaric walked to the back of the room, where most of the armour stands and other miscellaneous things were stacked.

  Just like the weapons left out in the open, the armours were also rusted beyond repair. At least the plate and chainmail ones were. He opened one of the boxes at the back of the room. It was smaller than the ones Ava and Sarah were dealing with, and its lid came off with ease, revealing layers of folded cloth.

  “Look at this,” he grabbed one of the layers and pulled it out. It was made of a thick wool and had a little bit of fur on one end, as well as a small chain hanging from it. He let it unfold in his grip, revealing a grey cloak.

  “Cloaks!” Ava exclaimed loudly, her eyes glimmering with excitement. She rushed over and snatched it from his hands, ceremoniously throwing it over her shoulders. With a beaming smile, she spun around, caressing the fur around her neck and over her shoulders. “It’s so warm and fluffy!”

  Sarah let out a laugh. “It certainly looks like it. Give me one too.”

  Alaric grabbed another and handed it over before taking one for himself. As he threw it over his shoulders, the fur tingled his neck and chin a little. It even had a fur-lined hood. “It’ll be good for when night falls. It’ll keep us warm.” He glanced at the box. “We should take some back for everyone who’s back at camp.”

  “Yeah.” Sarah reached into the box she was standing next to and grabbed something. “Put them all in here, it’ll be easier to carry.” She threw it to him.

  As he filled the large sack, he glanced at the countdown. They had less than five minutes before the sun reached the horizon. But they had found weapons and cloaks – a means to say warm and defend themselves, not to mention the large pot they found which would allow them to boil water.

  It’s worth the risk, he told himself as he stuffed the last cloak into the sack. “Are you guys done?” he turned around to see Ava grinning at Sarah.

  “Yeah.” She said, glancing at him. “Oh and look,” She pointed on top of one of the crates. “We put these aside for you.”

  It was a blade in its scabbard, a set of leather gloves and a belt. “There’s a lot more in these boxes,” she continued speaking as he put on the belt and clumsily attached the scabbard. “We’ll have to come back and get them later. I bet we could even find some tents and such.”

  “Not to mention some clothes,” Sarah added, dusting her jeans off. She took a bow from the top of a box and hung it over her shoulder. “It’s almost dark, so let’s go back.” They took the torches from the wall, then headed back up the stairs.

  By the time they had reached the door leading to the courtyard, the last rays of sunlight vanished behind the horizon.

  Bats flew from the overhangs they slept under, startling the crows lingering in the courtyard. A cold wind blew in their faces, threatening to extinguish their torches. Clouds gathered in the sky.

  Carrying the sack full of cloaks, Alaric raised his hand to cover his face. The cold wind carried the scent of roses, and something else too. Blood?

  “Visitors, at this hour of the night?” A sweet voice rang in the air. “How entertaining.” It echoed in the dark halls, followed by the sound of heels clicking against the stone slabs. “How sweet.”