WolfFrost dream: Thanks so very much for being my very first reviewer (even if it’s just the prologue). Hope you like this chapter as well And thanks for putting me on your alert list

Half of the Soul

by feifu

Chapter 1

Apparition

I trudged along with the people surrounding me. We were walking down a hallway passing torches set on the castle walls that barely gave light to the passageway. It was eerie. It was quiet. It was cold. The stone walls felt like they were about to meet at the center squeezing us in between. Once again, I rued my decision to come here.

“Lighten up, Kathy!” Ela, short for Eloisa, my new-found friend and roommate at the dorm elbowed me and hissed into my ear. “It’s just some special effects. They really did a good job making this haunted house, don’cha think?” Ela sped up her steps, actually cooing in admiration at the authenticity of the haunted castle’s set. “How cool!” And when a woman in white suddenly swung into our view, she even exclaimed, “She’s so pretty!”

I forced a smile into my lips. It was just like Ela, a Theater Arts major, to appreciate such things despite the questionability of their aesthetics. I mean how can anyone find a woman hanging by her neck with her tongue dangling out and her face almost black from asphyxia even remotely pretty? Only Ela would say anything of the sort.

I shake my head yet again. Going to the carnival was not my idea of fun. But when the carnival traveled into town and set up just a few blocks away from our university, Ela coerced me into going and I really didn’t have any excuse to say no. We were supposed to meet some of our other friends but we arrived early so Ela suggested we try out the haunted house while waiting for the others to arrive.

My mobile rang, shattering the near-silence. I paused and hurried to answer it after seeing who was calling. “Yep, Gil?”

Gilbert Brown was and is my best friend of several years. He went to the same elementary and high school as I did and even now went to the same university I enrolled in for college. He wanted to go to military school though, but his parents did not like the idea of their only son entering such a dangerous career. He followed their wishes despite the fact that he was old enough for them not to have any legal rights to stop him if he so chose to go. He told me that he loved his parents too much to give them any cause of worry.

I am Gil’s exact opposite. Why he and I are friends remains a mystery even to me.

“Where are you?”

“Inside the haunted house,” I told him, knowing what his reaction will be.

And predictably, he said, “Where?! Did I hear you right? Haunted house? You?”

“Ela had to drag me inside,” I say turning to give a pointed look at my roommate only to find her gone. I looked around and realized I was alone. Shit. The phone in my hands suddenly beeped, warning me that it was about to empty its battery charge. Double shit. “Gil, we’ll just meet you outside the haunted house, k?” I hurriedly said only to be greeted with multiple beeps and silence. The mobile was dead and the line cut off.

I sighed, prepping myself not to panic. So what if I was alone in the middle of an authentic-looking haunted house? My friend and the rest of the group that came in with us can’t be that far away. I turned the corner expecting them to be there but was only presented with an empty cobwebby corridor. I walked on, hoping nothing would jump out at me.

Finding a small wooden door at the end of the corridor, I opened it and heaved a huge sigh of relief when I saw the night sky.

“You’re not supposed to use that door, miss,” a man in black armor told me. He had his visor up but I could barely discern his face inside that ebony helmet he wore. “Employees only.”

“I got separated from my friend,” I told him, somewhat relieved to be with someone, anyone. He came near, curiously graceful despite the heavy-looking costume. He must really be used to wearing it, I figured.

“I’ll show you to the exit, then.”

He turned and noiselessly walked back the way I came and I hurried after him. He pushed a portion of a wall until it moved and revealed another corridor. “The exit’s at the end of this corridor,” he explained, “We use these false walls as shortcuts.”

I nodded and grinned. I felt like the story book damsel in distress having just been rescued by her knight. I felt like blushing, thinking like that. It was a good thing that the place was dim so he couldn’t see my reddening face.

Either I made a sound or something in my body language suggested my sudden embarrassment, but my rescuer remained quiet. He gallantly bowed and motioned me to go first, walking behind me and seemingly guarding my back. I was just thankful that he didn’t leave me alone. I could feel his eyes on me but didn’t feel at all threatened. His footfalls on the floor were a reassuring sign of his presence.

It didn’t take long before I saw the red-lit lights that spelled exit. I turned around to thank him only to find him gone. I whirled around, even went so far as to run back the corridor, away from the exit, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Kathy!!” Ela suddenly turned the corner colliding with me. “Gods, you scared me, I couldn’t find you. Where did you go off to?”

“I got lost,” I distractedly told her, still wondering where my rescuer went off.

“Oh.” Ela chattered on about how great this carnival attraction was and that how she’d like to go through it once again with our other friends this time. I tuned her out.

When we finally exited the house, I approached the personnel intent on having him thank my rescuer for me.

“Who did you say?”

“A man in black armor, near the small wooden door?” When he remained looking confused, I reiterated, “He was wearing a black armor, much like those knights in Medieval Europe or something? Helmet with visor, gauntlets, a guy in a black knight costume? You know?”

“Sorry, miss. We really don’t have anyone in our staff who’s wearing that kind of costume.”

I stare at him, puzzled and half slowly becoming terrified. Did I maybe see a ghost? A real ghost? My mind rebelled against that thought. My rescuer knight was just too real to be a ghost.

He couldn’t possibly be. Could he?

To be continued...

A.N. (January 11, 2005)

How’s that for a first chapter? I really don’t plan to make this into a ghost story, it isn’t, mind you, but it could be somewhat... Gah, I'm not making any sense. You’ll understand soon why I’m being so cryptic.

Chapter 2 will hopefully be out next weekend.

Now please, gimme a review or two? Inspires me to write faster, they do