A Haunting Tale of Fyvie Castle

On the east side of Scotland, in the Grampian region, lies a magnificant castle -- Fyvie Castle. A bumpy dirt road leads up to marvelous stone steps; five huge towers stand against the horizon. Among these five stone fingers, reaching for the sky, is the one tower known to be the oldest built in the land. This tower has stood it's guard against all challenges, natural and man-made, for over 1,400 years. The towers, each stretching from the ground as if to grasp the stars from the sky, are set among an ocean of green; the wide expanse of lawns mute testament to the towers' ability to guard the land.

The mysterious dormer windows look out over a huge forest, known country-wide for it's excellent hunting. This forest, once known as the Royal Hunting Grounds, reaches from one side of the castle, around the back, and continuing on to the other side, billowing out behind the castle almost as if the graceful structure were wearing a full skirt. Among the trees, not but a short walk from the castle itself, lies a lake, known to Scotsmen as a 'loch', with many paths leading around it's perimeter; these paths create beautiful 'lochside walks', scenic, refreshing and calm. Near the lake, the castle grounds sport a lovely icehouse, where once upon a time, ice was made and stored for the convenience of those residing at Fyvie.

However, looks can be deceiving. This place is not all calm beauty, as it's pictures would have one believe..........

Three years ago, I received a strange letter in the mail. The return address read:

Fyvie AB53 8JS
Grampian
Scotland

I recall thinking it truly strange, as at the time, I didn't know anyone who lived in Scotland. Immediately curious, I tore the letter open, and began to read....

Dear Amanda,
I am dying, and need to pass my home to someone in my family. My doctor has stated that I have but a month to live, and I was wondering if you and your mother would be willing to receive my gift. If you would, I've enclosed airline tickets and travel monies in with this letter.

If you can come, please hurry!

Love always,
Grandpa

"Mom? Mom!!" I yelled, excited and at the same time still very curious. "Mom, you've got to see this! HURRY!!"

"What now, Amanda?" My mom called back with impatience.

"Hurry, read this!" I cried, running into the kitchen and shoving the letter under her nose. She gave me an exasperated look, but took the letter from my hand, and began to read. As her eyes darted over the paper, they grew wide, her jaw slowly dropping a bit more with each word she read. I turned around to dash upstairs and call my best friend, Kate, when all of a sudden my mom began yelling and dancing around the kitchen as if she'd lost her mind. I turned around in the kitchen doorway, staring at her for a moment.

"Mom, are you okay? What are you doing?"

She stopped dancing, turning to look at me, her eyes sparkling. "I've been waiting for so long for your grandfather to give us the castle!" she said, her words coming out in such a rush I could barely understand her. I was astonished.

"But, Mom.... aren't you sad that Grandpa is dying?"

"Well, yes, I am. But at least he's dying of old age!" Confused, I turned back towards the stairs, intent on getting to the phone and talking to Kate about all this. Parents can be so strange sometimes!

"Where are you going?" mom asked.

"Upstairs, to call Kate and tell her all about this," I said, impatient to get to the phone and talk this whole strange scene out with the one person I knew could probably make sense of it.

"All right," my mom said, her voice distracted. I dashed upstairs and picked up the phone, dialing Kate's number and breathlessly telling her everything. After a short conversation, I hung the phone up, running back downstairs to ask my mom a question.

"Mom?" She seemed to have gotten over the initial shock of the letter, and was in the living room, writing something.

"Yes?"

"Can Kate come with us?" I asked, really hoping she'd say yes.

"Well," she said, glancing down at the letter she was writing, "I suppose she can, provided her parents say it's all right for her to go. I'll just write that there will be three of us, instead of two, so your grandfather will be expecting us."

"Yay!" I exclaimed, dashing back up the stairs to call Kate again and give her the good news.

A week later, we stood on the white front porch of my house, our bags packed at our feet, waiting for a limousine to come pick us up and take us to the airport. Bear, my dog, was pacing restlessly in the animal carrier we'd bought for him, just so we could bring him with us.

"I've never ridden in a limo before," Kate said, very excited. "Or been to a castle, either!"

"I went to Fyvie Castle once," I replied, grinning at my best friend's enthusiasm. "But I was too young to remember anything."

Just then, turning the corner onto our street, was an off-white limousine. It stopped in front of our house; the driver stepped out and came up to the porch, helping us to pack our things in the trunk of the huge car before we climbed in. Then, just like that, we were on our way to the airport. Early afternoon traffic made the trip longer than expected, making a ten minute trip into a half-hour one, and nearly causing us to miss our flight.

We rushed to board, and by the time we got on the airplane, it was crowded. We found our seats, buckled our seat belts, and within minutes the plane began taxiing down the runway. I tried to relax in my seat, sitting back and taking a deep breath, reminding myself that we still had 17 hours of flying before we could reach our destination, but it wasn't easy. I was way too excited. I tried looking out the window, once the plane was in the air, thinking maybe the clouds would help me relax......

Then Kate was shaking me awake; I'd fallen asleep on the plane, and we had arrived in Banff, Scotland. From here, we had an hour's ride by car before we could reach Fyvie Castle. We went through customs fairly easily, collected our bags, and met the driver who would take us to the castle. Stepping out of the airport, I stopped in my tracks; what a beautiful sight! I breathed deep, smelling the fresh air, my eyes trying to look in every direction at the same time. My mother, impatient to get to the castle, took my hand and nearly dragged me to the car. The hour's ride to Fyvie seemed to take much longer than just an hour; it stretched on forever.

Finally, after a drive I was sure would never end, we arrived at the castle. As the castle itself came into view, I nearly fainted, it was so absolutely HUGE!! The first semi-coherent thought that ran through my mind was 'we're going to live in THAT??' The car pulled up to the entrance, and stopped. We had arrived. I somehow managed to get out of the car without taking my eyes off the incredibly large stone structure before me. Kate climbed out behind me, and together we walked up to the front door, opening it and stepping inside. The temperature as we walked in was quite a bit cooler, and -- although we could have imagined it -- we both felt a momentary chill just after our feet touched the entryway floor. The sensation was there one moment, and gone the next. We gazed around at the sheer amount of room there was, not even noticing when my mom and the car driver came in, bringing our luggage with them.

Looking up, I noticed that the ceiling was covered entirely in plaster squares. Eager to see how far the squares stretched, I ran from room to room, each room incredibly huge, and each room bearing the same plastered squares on the ceiling. It was the most incredible thing! It must have taken years to finish all the ceilings with those squares, each room being much larger than any room I'd ever been in before. Hearing a familiar barking, I turned around and dashed out into the hallway from the room I'd been in, in time to see that Bear had been released from his carrier, and was doing a bit of investigating on his own, disappearing into a different room from the one I stood in.

Hours later, after having investigated what I swear were at least a hundred rooms, my mom called to Kate and I to come join her in the dining room for dinner. By then, I had nearly become used to the overly large rooms, and had found the kitchen and dining room quite a while ago. I retraced my steps, finding the dining room without too much trouble, and joined my mom and Kate at the table. Bear, for his part, sat near the far wall, tail wagging, watching us -- his way of begging. Of course, we allowed him to clean our plates when dinner was over, just like we did at home.

With food in our stomachs, Kate and I realized just how exciting and full the day had been, and decided to retire early. We walked down the hall together, and found our room with little trouble at all. Kate opened the door, and we stepped in together, halting in the doorway as another bout of amazement hit us both. Our room was easily as large as my entire house back home had been! Against the far wall stood two queen-sized beds, but that was just the start! There were three humongous wardrobes, a huge fireplace.... and nearly hidden on the far side of the room, another door. Kate darted into the room first, heading straight for the other door; opening it, she revealed the largest bathroom I'd ever seen. An overlarge bathtub stood within, surrounded by two sinks and plenty of cabinets. We took turns; one took a bath while the other unpacked, then we switched places. Once we'd both had a bath and time to unpack, we climbed into our beds, and immediately fell asleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I was awakened by the sound of several voices screeching; it sounded to me like several kids screaming.

"What was that?" Kate whispered, her voice shaky.

"I dunno," I whispered back. The noises had stopped. "We must have imagined it. Go back to sleep," I whispered, my own voice shaking. I closed my eyes, but sleep eluded me. About an hour later, our bedroom window flung itself open with a loud BANG!!, startling us both and making us sit straight up in our beds. We opened our mouths to scream, when out of nowhere a bright light sprang up, filling the room. We were too terrified to make a sound! The light coalesced into an incandescent humanlike figure that simply stood there, in the middle of the room.

"Who are you? Why do you come?" the strange apparition questioned us. Kate found her voice first, letting out an ear-piercing scream, and the small, ghostlike figure disappeared. My mom came running into the room. "What's wrong? Are you two all right?"

"We were sleeping," Kate said first. "The window banged open, and startled us awake, then the room filled with bright light, and some kind of figure appeared over there," she said, her arm shaking as she pointed to the spot where the ghost had been standing. "It asked us who we are and why we're here."

"And then Kate screamed, and you came in, and it was gone." I added.

"The window probably came open because of the wind," mom said as she crossed the room to close the window again, latching it tight. "The figure was probably just a shadow, and the light was more than likely nothing more than moonlight. If you get scared again, light the fire," she continued, pointing to the fireplace. "You girls go on back to sleep now." Mom left, closing the door behind her. As her footsteps receded down the hallway,we heard another strange noise.

"What was that?" I asked Kate.

"I don't know," she replied.

"Just go to sleep. The faster we fall asleep, the faster we can forget about this whole thing," I said, deciding that sleep was the best remedy. We laid down again, pulling the covers up to our chins.

"Good night," Kate whispered. We closed our eyes, and fell back to sleep.

We woke the next morning refreshed, despite our late night scare. Kate and I both got dressed, then went downstairs to breakfast. A note on the table near our breakfast said that my mother had accompanied my grandfather into town, and they wouldn't be back until late evening.

"Yes!!!!" I whooped, excited.

"We've got the castle to ourselves for the whole day!" Kate yelled happily. "How cool is that?"

"Well, come on," I urged Kate, digging into my own breakfast quickly. "The faster we get through breakfast, the faster we can get to some major exploring!" Kate dug in, and we finished breakfast in short order, cleaning up the dishes as fast as we dared.

After breakfast, we went exploring together. After awhile, Kate drifted off one way, while I went the other. Gazing around, walking slowly, I found a beautiful staircase. "Kate, come here!" I called.

"What is it?" She yelled back, her voice coming nearer. As she turned the corner, she gasped. "Oh my gosh," she breathed, her eyes going wide in astonishment.

"I think this is the great wheel stairway," I said, walking nearer to it. The stairs sparkled, the bannister shining with a curious inner light that spoke silently of mysterious mischief. It took us a few moments to tear our attention away from such a beautiful staircase, and continue our investigations.

Even though we were alone in the castle, just Kate and I (well, and Bear, but he'd wandered off awhile ago), we felt as if we were being watched. We prowled around the upstairs for awhile longer, then found a stairway leading down, and proceeded to investigate the lower floor. One room that caught our attention was filled with sparkling silver suits of armor, everywhere we looked. It was beautiful. We continued our investigations, walking down the hall towards the Grand Corridor. As we were moving from one room to another, suddenly I felt myself jerked to a stop from behind.

"Hey, Kate, stop it!" I yelled. But then I realized -- Kate's up ahead of me, not behind me! I spun around, not sure what to think, but the corridor behind me was deserted. I started to turn back around, when a glint of metal caught the corner of my eye. There, not two feet behind me, on the floor of the hall, was a gold necklace. I reached down, snatched it up, and dashed off back down the hallway to catch up with Kate.

"Hey, Kate! Look!" Kate turned around as I pushed the necklace towards her.

"What is it?"

"Well, when you got ahead of me, something jerked me back. When I turned around, this was on the floor." I raised the necklace in my hand, practically shoving it under her nose.

"Let's go put this in our room and save it to look at later. I want to explore some more," she suggested. I agreed, and we trudged upstairs to put the necklace in a safe place in our room before going back downstairs to do some more investigating. As we walked down one hallway, Kate stopped in her tracks so suddenly, I ended up bumping into her. She raised her arm, pointing to a spot on the wall, without taking her eyes off that spot.

"Look," she said.

I looked, but didn't see anything unusual. It was a piece of wall. "What?" I asked. "There's nothing there."

"Look, don't you see it?" I shook my head; I didn't see anything but a piece of wall! After another minute or so, Kate walked over to the expanse of wall she had been pointing to, and pushed on it. The section of wall swung in!

"Oh my gosh," I breathed. "You've found the secret chamber of blindness! Don't go in there!"

"It is NOT the secret chamber of blindness," Kate said, scoffing. "That's just a stupid tall tale we read in a book. It's not real. Besides, the book said it was in the grand corridor, and that's NOT where we are."

"C'mon, Kate, don't," I pleaded. "Don't go in there. PLEASE."

"I'm going, no matter what you say," she replied, laughing. I stepped back a few feet, unable to take my eyes off Kate's actions. She reached into the chamber, opening a second door that was just beyond the opened section of wall, revealing a wide staircase leading down into a small room. That same bright light that we'd seen the night before illuminated the small room, then appeared to race up the stairs and hover in the hallway between us. As it had the night before, the light hovered in the hall a moment, then vanished, leaving behind a figure. In the daylight, we could see the figure better; it was the figure of a petite woman, wearing a long, dark blue formal gown. Her raven black hair hung behind her like a long, shimmering cape, and she gazed at us with big blue eyes. After a moment, she spoke.

"Who are you? Why do you come?" Her voice was like the wind on a summer's day, refreshing and sweet. Before either of us could answer, Bear came barrelling down the hallway, barking. The woman vanished, as if she'd never been there. Then, out of the air, we heard her voice again. "Get out. Do not disturb me again!"

"Bear, you scared her!" I scolded him.

"That was weird," Kate said. Her eyes were drooping, and I realized that I felt drowsy myself. I tried to move towards Kate, but I was beginning to feel very sleepy; too sleepy to move. I noticed Kate's eyes drooping shut; she tried to raise her arm to reach for me, and I tried to do the same, but my mind was whirling down, down, down..... we slumped to the floor of the hall, unconscious.

When consciousness returned, it was near 4:30 p.m. Kate groaned. "I'm sooo hungry," she said.

"So am I," I replied, agreeing completely, as my stomach let out a loud rumble. We pulled ourselves to our feet, and stumbled down the hall towards the kitchen. When we reached the kitchen, we raided the fridge, preparing a huge, if late, lunch, and taking it into the dining room to eat. We sat down at the table, digging into our meal with gusto.

"Man, that was a good nap. I dreamed I opened a chamber, and you were there. You yelled at me to stop, but I didn't. And then when I opened it, there was this beautiful woman, and she said something, but Bear scared her off," Kate said, getting the story out between bites.

"That was no dream, unless we had the same dream," I observed. "If it was a dream, how come we woke up in the hallway by the stairs?"

Kate shook her head, taking another bite and chewing before answering. "I don't know. Maybe we were hypnotized, and forgot what happened to us?"

"I don't think so," I replied, thinking about it. "I think.... I think something is going on here that we don't know about, and it's freaking me out. I *know* we weren't hypnotized. I think maybe there's someone else in the castle, besides you, me, Mom and Grandpa."

"Okay, maybe there is," she conceded. "All I know is it's freaking me out too. It could be our imaginations, like your mom said, but I'm not so sure I believe that anymore." We finished lunch, cleaned up after ourselves, and went exploring again.

An hour or so later, my mom and grandpa arrived home. We were at the back of the castle, and it took us a few minutes to get to them. By the time we got to where they were, my mom was in the process of cutting a hole in one of the back doors by the kitchen.

"What'cha doing, Mom?" I asked.

"We're making a doggie door for Bear," mom explained.

"Yes!!! Now we don't have to go outside with him!" Kate exclaimed.

"But, Mom, what if he runs off?" I asked, concerned. At that moment, Bear came running into the kitchen, padding around excitedly before sitting next to Mom, his tail wagging a mile a second.

"Oh, this door leads to the courtyard, hon. He can't exactly climb the stone walls." She turned to Bear, petting him. "Can you boy?" Bear woofed a reply of his own, then dashed out the newly-made dog door and began running around and jumping up and down in the courtyard.

"C'mon, Kate, let's go check out the courtyard. Oh yeah, Mom? How come you're home so early? Your note said late evening, and it's not even seven yet!"

"Oh, Grandpa's doctor's appointment wasn't as long as we expected it to be," mom replied, smiling.

"Okay. See ya!" I took Kate's hand, and we dashed out into the courtyard. When we got out to the courtyard, we were very surprised. We had both figured that, since the castle was so old, the garden in the courtyard would be all dead; we were so wrong. We gazed around in wonder, ooh'ing and ahh'ing at the square garden plots filled with flowers, surrounded by sidewalks that were obviously well kept. There were many exotic varieties of plants and flowers, most of which neither Kate nor I could identify. As we wandered around the garden, the door snicked shut behind us, then we distinctly heard the sound of the deadbolt sliding home -- from the inside! We glanced at each other, then broke out in a run towards the door. The first thought that ran through my mind wasn't very coherent, true, but it was a single word -- PANIC!!!

"Hey, who's there?" Kate yelled as we reached the door. She ran up to it, pounding her fists against it. "C'mon, stop! Open the door right NOW!!"

As if in response, that bright light we'd seen before appeared again, darting between us to hover over the garden path.

"This is so *not* funny!" Kate yelled as she pounded on the door, not having noticed the white light yet.

"Why is it not funny?" the nebulous voice asked. "Why, it was quite funny to others when it happened to me." The voice made Kate turn around, and she saw the light too. Like before, it flashed very bright, then disappeared, leaving the same black-haired, blue-gowned woman. "Why do you keep bothering me?" She asked, her head cocked to the side. "I warned you...." Then, in an instant, she vanished.

"Oh no, Bear!" I exclaimed. "Bear must have scared her again!" Kate and I stared at each other for a moment, then she turned back to the door.

"You think it's still locked?" she asked, her hand hovering over the doorknob.

"I sure not! I don't want to stay here and have to eat plants the rest of my life!" I replied, taking another look around the courtyard garden. Kate turned the knob, and, lo and behold, the door was unlocked.

"D'you think we should tell my mom about this?" I asked.

"She'll probably say it's just our imaginations," Kate replied, her mouth quirking in a half-grin.

"Yeah, you're right," I agreed.

That night, before we climbed into bed, we made sure the window was tightly closed and latched.

"I hope we don't *imagine* anything tonight," Kate said.

"Yeah, I hope not." We climbed into bed, and turned out the lamp on the nightstand between the beds. "G'nite," I said. We fell asleep fairly quickly, without incident.

Sometime after midnight, we were startled awake by a strange sound. It sounded like a dog, out in the forest, whining.

"What's that?" Kate asked in a whisper.

"I dunno," I replied, listening to it for a minute. "It sounds like Bear, and he's whining. C'mon, I don't want to leave him out there alone. Maybe he's hurt!" We dressed quickly, grabbed a couple of flashlights, and made our way downstairs. I opened the side door, and we trudged out onto the lawn, near the trees.

"It sounds like it's coming from that way," I said, pointing in the direction of the forest.

"I'm scared," Kate said in a shaky voice.

"Yeah, I'm scared too, but I don't want to leave Bear out there by himself either," I replied. Kate nodded agreement. We switched on our flashlights, and headed off towards the sound. As we approached, the sound became louder, and clearer.

"That's not a dog," I said, as we got closer. "That sounds like a young girl. And she sounds like she's laughing!"

"Who's there?" Kate called out. A white light flickered off to our right in the distance, as if in answer. We walked towards it, scared to pieces, but at the same time curious too. Before long, the light flickered closer, and a young girl walked out of the clump of trees directly ahead of us. This is the same figure that appeared to us in our room last night! I thought to myself. She looked to be about the same age as Kate and I; she was dressed in a blue gown similar to the one the other woman had been wearing, but this young lady's hair was dark brown, and her eyes were green.

Kate screamed, turning around and dashing back towards the castle. Deciding it would be a VERY good idea to follow her, I took off running after her.

"Wait!" the young girl cried. "Wait, please! Come back! I only want to play!" Heedless of her voice, we booked it right back to the castle, and didn't stop running until we were back inside, the door shut safely behind us.

"What *was* that?" Kate asked.

"That was the same ghost that visited us last night in our room; I'm sure of it," I replied. We walked back upstairs to our room, a bit out of breath from our midnight dash out of the forest. As I opened the door to our room, Bear came bounding out, throwing his paws up on my shoulders. He'd been in our room the whole time! We walked into our room, Bear padding behind us.

As we climbed back into bed, Kate remarked, "I think we should tell your mom about this."

"Yeah, me too. Let's tell her at breakfast tomorrow." We climbed in, and pulled the covers up over ourselves. "G'nite," I said.

"G'nite," Kate replied sleepily. We drifted back off to sleep, and didn't wake again until the next morning.

The sun shone brightly the following morning. Kate and I dressed quickly, and went downstairs to the dining room for breakfast, only to find another note from my mom.

"Isn't Mom ever going to be home?" I groaned.

"Nope," Kate replied sassily.

"I wonder where they went THIS time?" I asked, more to myself than to Kate.

She shrugged. "I dunno. We could probably run around like chickens with our heads cut off and they'd never notice."

I cocked my head at Kate, thinking maybe she'd lost her mind. "What do you mean by that?"

She shrugged again, shaking her head. "Well, I mean that if we get hurt, how will anyone know?"

I had no answer for that, so I didn't answer; instead, I sat down and dug into the hearty breakfast that had been laid out for us. Kate, deciding to drop the issue for now, sat down and started eating too.

After breakfast, as we were carrying our dishes to the kitchen, we heard the doorbell. "I'll get it!" Kate called, having reached the kitchen first and dropped her dishes off in the sink. She dashed off down the hallway, calling out "I'm coming!!"

As Kate reached the front door, I made it out into the hallway and dashed off after her, arriving just as she opened it. Standing at the door was a tall man in his mid-30's, dressed in a business suit.

"Good morning! My name is John Movart, from Castle Explorers. I set up an appointment for this morning with Cameron MacDougal. Is he here, by chance?"

"That's my Grandpa," I replied. "But he's not here right now. Would you like...." I noticed he wasn't listening; he was staring over my head at the hallway behind me. "Ummmm excuse me?" He turned his attention back to me. "Would you like me to make another appointment for you? Maybe set up a better time?" Again, his attention was on the hallway behind me, and not on me. I turned around, but didn't see anything. Grownups are strange people sometimes.

The man looked at me, blinked a few times, then pulled an appointment book out of his blazer pocket. "All right. How about..." And yet *AGAIN* he was staring at the hallway behind me.

"What's wrong?" Kate asked, turning around to look behind her down the hallway.

"I could swear I keep seeing this la---AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! I'm outta here! Tell that lady behind you she can quit with the mirror show already!!" He turned around and dashed off down the driveway. I grabbed the door and slammed it shut, dashing back down the hallway until I reached the biggest room on the ground floor. I ran in, stopping in the middle of the room.

"What do you want with us?" I shouted into the air. "Why are you bugging us??"

"Who are you screaming at?" Kate asked, standing in the doorway.

"Whoever's bugging us. I am sick and tired of the visions and the sounds and the voices. I want it to stop!!"

Kate looked at me funny for a minute, then came to stand beside me, grabbing my arm. "C'mon, let's go lay down for awhile."

I jerked my arm out of her grip. "I don't WANT to go lay down! I want to find out what the heck is GOING ON AROUND HERE!!! Who's doing this? Is it some grand joke someone's playing on us? Or is this place REALLY haunted??"

"C'mon," Kate said, grasping my arm once more. "Let's go lay down and forget about it."

I sighed heavily, but nodded. "Okay, maybe you're right. But I'm *going* to find out what's going on here." I let her lead me up the stairs, Bear appearing at our sides as if he knew that I needed a friend. I felt emotionally drained and about at my wit's end. We'd been here all of 48 hours, and already we'd been scared half to death on any number of occasions; how much of this is any one person supposed to be able to take without going completely, stark-raving mad?

As we neared the top of the staircase, Bear dashed off to stand in front of our bedroom door, and began barking at the closed door.

"Shut up, Bear. There's nothing in there," I said. I reached the bedroom door, took a firm hold on Bear's collar (just in case), and swung the door open. "See? Nothing." Bear began to whine, tucking his tail between his legs, his ears drooping. I moved to step into the room, but Bear refused to move from where he stood, pulling on his collar as if he wanted to run off. With a final jerk, Bear managed to pull his collar out of my hand, taking off down the hallway like someone had bitten him right in the butt. Kate and I walked into our bedroom, choosing to sit together on one of the beds.

"What do you think Bear was barking at?" Kate asked.

"Nothing," I replied. "He just got overexcited." I turned to look out the window, and saw two figures standing in our bedroom. One was the lady we'd seen twice before, first when we opened the secret hallway door; the other figure was the young girl we'd seen in the woods! "Kate!" I whispered, elbowing her in the side. "Kate, look!"

"Huh? Wha?" she replied, then looked where I was pointing. "Whoa....."

"Hello, excuse me...." I said, addressing the apparitions. "Who are you?"

"My name is Queen Rachel," the taller lady replied. "And this is my daughter, Princess Maranda, known as Princess Mandy to the family."

"Are you two haunting this castle?" Kate asked them.

"We didn't realize we were haunting our rightful home. We've only come looking for my husband, King Brian, to apologize," Queen Rachel replied.

"What do you mean?" I asked, totally intrigued now, and forgetting for a moment that they were ghosts.

"A long time ago, Mandy and I got upset with Brian, and yelled back at him when he was angry and yelling at us. My husband became enraged, and locked us out of the castle, in the courtyard garden, refusing to listen to us when we tried to apologize to him for yelling. He came out a few moments later, still very much enraged, and beat us both to death, still unwilling to listen to us."

"Why was she," Kate asked, pointing to Princess Mandy, "in the forest last night?"

"Because I've been SO lonely, I just wanted to play," the Princess replied. 'How are we supposed to play with a ghost?' I thought to myself.

"Why would you want to apologize to someone who beat you to death?" Kate asked.

"We don't believe he meant to beat us that badly," the Queen replied. "We deserved to be punished for yelling back at him, because he *did* have a legitimate reason for being angry with us. We wanted to apologize for what we did, and tell him that we know he didn't mean to kill us, and that we still love him. But by the time we returned to this castle, he was gone."

"Well, thanks for telling us who you are and why you're here," I said, remembering my manners. Queen Rachel nodded, then moved to point her finger at us. Princess Mandy lunged forward, hanging on her mother's arm and spoiling her aim.

"No!" the princess cried. "Stop! Mom, don't, please!"

"What do you mean, don't?" Kate asked. "Don't what?"

"My mother was going to put you to sleep so you'd forget you saw us, and think it was only a dream."

"You can do magic?" I asked, incredulous.

Princess Mandy shook her head. "Only my mother can. She says I'm not old enough yet, even though I know how."

"That's one of the perks of being a spirit," Queen Rachel said, grinning.

"If you let us stay awake," I said, taking a chance, "I can promise we won't tell a living soul about you."

Queen Rachel shook her head. "I'm sorry, girls. I have to do what I have to do. For us, it means survival; if you people in the flesh ever discovered us, and stayed awake to tell, we'd become no better than the ghosts on the other side of the loch. Feared, and yet driven into hiding by thrillseekers who would want only to draw us out, stare at us, and make a public spectacle of themselves and us. We've seen how your people react to us."

"But mother," Princess Mandy said, "I want to play! They're near my own age! PLEASE!!!"

Queen Rachel sighed, shaking her head at her daughter. Then, without another word, she pointed her finger at us.......

I woke up in my bed, with Kate beside me; she was just beginning to stir too. I groaned; my head hurt something awful.

"That's the last time I take a nap on an empty stomach," Kate groaned beside me. I agreed.

"Mother, why did you do that?" a young voice asked. I must've jumped ten feet off the bed, the voice startled me so much!

"You'll see, darling, you'll see," an older voice replied. I sat up, looking around the room.. but no one was there. I sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes, waking up; then all the memories of meeting with Queen Rachel and Princess Maranda came flooding back to me. I began to smile.

"Thank you," I said to the air. "I won't tell a soul, you'll see. I'll keep my promise."

"Huh?" Kate asked. "What the heck are you talking about? What promise?" It was then that I realized -- Queen Rachel had let me keep the memories, but Kate had no memory of any ghosts or apparitions, or even of anything weird going on at the castle. I'm not sure exactly how I knew, but I did. I smiled.

"Nothing... guess it was part of my dream." I shook my head a few times to clear the cobwebs from my brain. "Whatever it was, it's gone now." Kate looked at me like I'd lost my mind, but got up and went into the bathroom.

"Since I'm staying," I said quietly to the air, making sure my voice was low, "you let me keep the memories so I could play with Mandy, and you erased Kate's memories, because she's going back to the States, didn't you?"

Queen Rachel's form appeared for a brief moment. "Yes. As long as you go along with her 'dreams', she'll never have to know anything she 'dreamed' was real," she said, smiling. "And Mandy can play with you, after Kate leaves to go home to the United States." Then she disappeared, but her voice sounded in the room one more time. "Remember to always keep your promise, and you and your family can see us anytime. We won't try to scare you off again."

MysticKat will be entering the seventh grade this coming fall; her story, A Haunting Tale of Fyvie Castle, was written as an English project for her sixth-grade english class. Not only did she get an A+ on it, her teacher asked to keep a copy so she could use it for future classes as an example of "exemplary writing skill and ability."
MysticKat lives with her mom, dad and little brother in their home in Washington State; along with three goldfish, a cat, a snake and a tarantula. In her spare time, she loves to read, write, draw, sing and dance. She also loves Disney movies, and has recently begun to appreciate a growing skill for cooking and baking. She's a member of the Camp Fire Megaclub Master Gardner program, enjoys appearing school drama productions, and has recently won the Presidential Physical Fitness Award; she also has an avid interest in track and field events, and loves jigsaw puzzles.