I don't own Busch Gardens or Curse of DarKastle.

Long ago in the deepest heart of the Black Forest, a young prince lived, unloved and neglected in a dark castle. Like the ghostly horrors that always grow in secret shadows, Prince Ludwig grew to be a troubled child. Soon, even the kindest of servants avoided his evil gaze. One dark winter's night, as Ludwig wandered the lonely, frozen grounds of the palace, an old woman appeared. Outraged at this intrusion, Ludwig howled in fury! There, in her place, stood a snarling wolf. As her yellow eyes bored into Ludwig's, she revealed his dark destiny: Wicked ruler of a corrupt kingdom. Guided by the wolf, Ludwig set out to take the throne. His parents tried to put an end to his ruthless ambitions, but they mysteriously vanished.

Mad little Ludwig became King, and transformed the castle into an impenetrable fortress with secret passageways to terrify his guests. Soon, the treasury was empty. Ludwig's advisers tried to overthrow him, but he just laughed and threw a lavish winter festival in their honor. That night, mad Ludwig took his guests on a tour of his castle, in a fleet of golden sleighs. No one knows what really happened, but they say the walls echoed with terror... The next morning, the sleighs were found in their stalls, but no one ever found Ludwig or his party guests, and to this day, the castle remains frozen in time.

"Yeah, he said that he can drop us off." I told Winter.

I was referring to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, only the best amusement park in the world. Almost every breathing moment of mine is at that park ever since I was 3. I could go into a whole 2 hour speech on the history and rides of the park so saying I'm obsessed is an understatement. Occasionally, people I've never met will recognize me since I'm there so often. If the officials went into the attendance data base, and looked through the names of people going, they'd probably see the name Ameria Grimm 50 times per month. I guess living 40 minutes away helps. I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a tourist hotspot. It's not Florida or California, but for people still looking for a vacation that didn't want to spend much, our city is the place to be. I've lived here since May 12, 1998, my birthday, and grew up with the sister I've never had, Winter Melbourne. It's ironic for me that we were born on the same day but she sometimes has the memory of a 5 year old. Winter and I are mistaken to be sisters sometimes though our only other commonality, aside from birthdays, is our blue eyes. She is about average height at 5'6 with shoulder length red hair and I, on the other hand, am on the taller side at 5'9 with long, brown hair that almost reached my waist.

"Well, you have your season pass still, right?" She asked. I could hear shuffling in the background which I assumed was her getting ready.

"Of course, he wouldn't ask me if I didn't. I'll be there in 5." I said hanging up my phone. I grabbed my season pass and let my hair down, and changed into a Verbolten tank top and jean shorts before heading out. When we pulled up at Winter's house, she was already outside waiting.

"Floor it, the park opens in 20 minutes…. Please." Winter said hopping over the car door. Dad's car's a convertible so it was easy for her to slip in quick. Dad only laughed before speeding off for the highway.

The way my dad drives shortens a trip in half. It's fun to take trips whenever he drives until he slams on the brakes at a stoplight. It must be entertaining for other people when they see us, or should I say me, double over nearly hitting my head on the dashboard.

Soon, we pulled up to the gate and dad unlocked the door, though we could have climbed over. "Call me when you need me to come get you." He said as Winter and I got out of the car. "Ok." I said over my shoulder as we walked to get our pass scanned.

"Well, Ameria, where do you want to start?" Winter asked once we got to the England section of the park.

"Doesn't matter, we can start in Italy and go from there." I replied. This was one of the only times my answer wasn't 'idk'. I blame dad for being so indecisive.

"Ok."

After an hour, we conquered Apollo's Chariot 3 times, Escape from Pompeii, and Roman Rapids. To say we were drenched was an understatement. It did help, though, since the temperature has been triple digits and continued that trend today.

"Do you want to go to Germany next?" I asked.

"Curse of DarKastle! Oh my gosh, I love that ride so much!" She said.

"Of course you do." I said smirking. I always teased her saying that the evil king, Ludwig, was her boyfriend and she passionately despised that. She smacked my arm, "Not like that!"

"Whatever you say."

….and to this day, the castle remains frozen in time…

The fake torches turned blue and a wall lifts up to reveal a whole new room that's elaborately designed to be the stables. We walk through the lifted door and grab 3D glasses.

"It's so dark if you put these on now!" Winter said randomly.

"Of course, the lighting is already dim in here. What did you expect?" I asked rhetorically. She had the tendency to do or say things simple-mindedly, and unfortunately, that happened a lot.

We sat in the front row of the sleigh and waited for the ride to start… and wait…and wait.

"Hey, we're the only ones in the sleigh." Winter said. I turned around, "Yeah, they usually fill it up so the line isn't so long." I said frowning. "I'm cold, what are they waiting for? Wait I thought there was a lap bar here, now it's freezing- I'm confused." She said frustrated.

The whispers of people in line talking turned into the whispering of wind. The cool of the AC turned into the cold of snow. The sleigh went from a dark tech amusement sleigh to an actual sleigh.

I stood up and looked around. Suddenly, we're in a forest. Not the fake plastic crap that's designed to look like trees, but the actual Black Forest.

"Well, Winter, meet Winter. The freaking season we're now apparently in the middle of." I said as she stood up.

Suddenly, she gasped. "Let's see if he's in there!" She said pointing to a castle in the distance and hopping out of the sleigh. "Hopefully it's warm in there."

"Who is 'he' and it better be warm?" I said as we start walking to the castle.

Faster than the 20 minutes I expected, we walked up the steps to a massive door. "Who were you talking about Winter?"

"Shhh." She said raising her index finger to her lips. She pushed the door slowly open to peak her head inside. I pulled it open even further and we walked inside. Thankfully, it was warm. It seemed like it'd be a living room since a fancy red couch sat in front of a fireplace. In between the couch and fireplace was a matching rug and a small coffee table.

"HELLO!" Winter suddenly yelled.

"Way to keep quiet." I muttered.

Suddenly, a man in a black German jacket walked down the hallway on the other side of the room from us. He was tall, really tall, like 6'4" tall. His hair was black and he had a matching colored mustache, goatee, thing that grew back into his hair. If you didn't look close enough, it would have looked like a tattoo on his face. He stopped in front of us and looked expectantly.

"I knew he'd be here!" She said, oblivious to how rude her pointing finger in his face was. I pulled her arm down, "Um, still not getting who 'he' is Winter, and, uh, sorry dude. She's just really happy-go-lucky without all the brain power she should have," I said.

"It's fine, it must be the weather outside. It has been quite interesting lately. Come, come, you must be cold and hungry from being outside. I can have my servants assist you." He said in this thick German accent. He turned back to where he entered from and led us down the dimly lit, creepy hallway.

Dang. It was then I realized we're in the middle of Curse of DarKastle. Meanwhile the person who I thought is lacking all intelligence figured it out the second we touched down in the middle of the forest. I soon didn't feel as stupid when Winter asked the next question.

"Ludwig, can I get your autograph?" She was so excited too, regardless of us now being trapped in a castle with some werewolf, power-greedy, psychopath. He stopped walking and slowly peered over his shoulder, "Autograph?"

"Yeah! Where we come from, you're this crazy king dude who killed your parents and haunt the castle forever.. until you go outside the castle walls… Oh and it's an amusement park ride." She explained oblivious to the distant look in his face as if he were thinking on how she knew this. "But," I added quickly, "that was just the ride's little horror story, nothing like the real Ludwig.." I didn't want him to kill us for knowing all this and hoped he wasn't like Busch Gardens' description, though I had a feeling he was. He snapped out of his thoughts, "Interesting.. Rest assured I'm not a ghost, or some werewolf, power-greedy, psychopath." He said glancing towards me when saying the last part. "I never said that… did I?" Winter asked, still on her simple-minded streak. "No, just filling in any blanks." He said starting to walk off again.

As soon as his back turned to us I stomped on Winter's foot. "Autograph? Really? I'll kill you while you sleep tonight if he doesn't beat me to it." I whispered to her. Ludwig, who apparently heard me, simply chuckled, shaking his head.

Good? Bad? Great? Anyone ever ride? Review please, hope you liked it.

:)