```The Story of a Writer```

II

Dear readers,

“Hey! Derek!” Harvard shouted as they finally reached the end of the road.

Derek was standing alone in front of a gigantic door. The door looked ancient, as if it came from the past. It was rusted with cobwebs covering every corner of the door. Derek did not turn around to look at his friends. He continued standing there like a soulless puppet.

“Whoa…” All six of them were awed by the enormous structure that stood firmly before them. The structure towered over them, casting its shadows upon the very ground they stand. They could not make out how tall was it as it ascends beyond the clouds. And Derek, who stood in front of the door, looked even smaller than he ever was.

Forester slapped his forehead in sudden realisation. “Derek! Let’s get out of here now! It’s getting dark. This is not…”

Derek cut him off by raising his hand. “There is something in here. I know it. It calls for me.”

Derek moved closer and pushed the door open. There was a sentence on the door. The carvings of the words were fine. Forester noticed it before the door before them swung open. Derek stepped inside. The others followed in awe, except for Forester. He finally understood what it meant. It was for them…

“Come on in, Forester! It’s huge in here!” Emma exclaimed as she went and pull Forester in, entirely oblivious of where they were standing on.

When Forester entered, he stood beside Derek while admiring the main hall of the mansion. “Derek, remember the line from the book I showed you?” he stammered…

“What line? The bold one? Nope, never had the chance, your wife came to disturb, remember? Why?”

“’Cause I think it means us…and it is on the door …”

“Don’t be ridiculous. According to you, that castle was brought down to the ground.”

“Yes, I know I said that, but the fact is that it is still here and we’re standing in it! This is entirely why we should just step back the way we came and…”

“Oh, don’t be a coward. You don’t get such magnificent structures anywhere nowadays. We should get some ideas!”

“Not good, Derek, not good. That bold line was exactly the same as in the book and
now I understand the true meaning of it. I hope it’s wrong, but…”

“Oh? What did it write?”

“It says ‘at last night falls for the seven souls gladly welcome their arrival to enter the great dimension. Ignore this not heed it till the seventh is gone.’”

“I don’t see a problem in that sentence. Just a nice sentence to make the place look eerie.”

“Well, try fixing the punctuations… ‘At last night falls… For the seven, souls gladly welcome their arrival, to enter the great dimension… Ignore this not, heed it… till the seventh is gone….’”

“Wow… Nice sentence… But I don’t see the connection. Did you make that up?” Derek looked at Forester sceptically.

“Of course not! Look at the-”

Then a ear-piercing scream caused both of them to drop silent. It filled the whole place with its echo. Derek and Forester both turned towards the long hallway by their right. The darkness within the mansion was lit up by dim lights on the ceiling. Only Derek, Forester and Emma were in the main hall, the rest of the party had disappeared. The great door where they came in shut with a loud bang. There were shouts from the hallway. Then, everything was silent.

Emma opened her mouth, about to say something. Forester placed his hands over her mouth, and they both looked at Derek. It seemed that Derek had also heard it. It was a short screech, but continuous, as if something heavy was being dragged. It was then that Derek saw, all the way down the left hallway, a figure emerged from a door moving slowly towards them. The figure was dragging something really big behind him…

“Errr… Guys…” Derek said as he dragged his feet backwards and pointed at the figure, whose head was looking at the floor. “I think he’s holding an axe, and umm… I don’t like the way his walking here.”

The figure lifted his head, placed both hands on the axe’s handle, and flung the axe towards them. The three immediately broke into a sprint towards the hallway right opposite the main door.

“Hell! What on earth is that? Leave us alone!” Forester shouted as they heard a loud bang behind them.

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