The Castle of Mysteries

Before Ivy nearly got devoured by a ferocious three-headed tiger, her day was going great. Penny Heywood had invited her along with most of the witches and wizards in the village to her castle for a Halloween feast. Unfortunately, the castle was very confusing, especially on Halloween. You could enter a room near the main entrance and end up on the roof. It didn't help that all the horrific creatures of Halloween had lived there, so they wouldn't bother the regular humans. Despite being a witch, and having the ability to cast spells and fly on broomsticks, Ivy couldn't help but think that normal people were very lucky.

After stumbling upon the room with the three-headed tiger, Ivy found herself in a space with hungry-looking vampire bats. She tried to cast some spells, but that only seemed to anger them. After narrowly escaping the vampire bats, with her clothing tattered, Ivy fell through a trap door and into the worst smelling potions lab she had ever been in. Her sudden appearance startled Merula Snide, a young witch Ivy went to school with, causing her to drop the pixy weed and glass vial she was holding. She seemed to be brewing some sort of green potion, which is where the smell of rotten eggs was coming from. After apologizing to Merula, Ivy came across a room in which several ghosts seemed to be celebrating. Perhaps they were having their own feast, too. The ghost wasn't too happy to be disrupted, and even after Ivy explained that she had no intention of disturbing them, the ghost didn’t believe her. All of them in the party glided towards and right through her!. Having one ghost glide through you was uncomfortable enough, but twenty was unbearable. Ivy got out of there in a hurry and faced more hectic situations, such as very hyper werewolf cubs and brain-hungry zombies. Just as Ivy was about to get eaten by a very large spider, a familiar face came to the rescue and save her. 

Venus Brownie was one of Ivy’s closest friends. They had known each other since they were little kids. They always had each other’s backs, just as Venus did when Ivy nearly got killed by a giant spider. 

“Are you okay?” Venus asked, out of breath. “I thought that spider had you.” 

“Yeah, I’m-- look out!” Ivy shouted. 

The spider had gotten up again and was about to smack its hairy, long legs right into Venus. She dodged out of the way, and Ivy cast some jinxes. Together, they defeated the giant spider and got lost in a few more places before finally finding the dining hall. 

After cleaning themselves up, Ivy and Venus walked in, feeling embarrassed. They were probably really late to the feast. Soon, they found that they weren't the only ones. Tulip Carasue, another close friend of Ivy, had said she was chased by an evil skeleton man, and Thomas Dean, another classmate, had told them that he got stuck in some odd goo. The last person to arrive was Merula Snide, who claimed that she got lost and didn't say another word about it. She sat down at a table with her friends as Ivy, Venus and Tulip waited for Penny to signal the beginning of the feast. 

“What’s taking her so long?” Tulip asked. “I’m hungry!”

Ivy was just about to answer when Penny finally came out of the kitchen. She had a nervous look on her face but quickly replaced it with a smile. “What are you waiting for?” Penny asked the people in the dining hall. “Let’s eat!” 

Food and drinks magically appeared at their table as ivy and Venus got up to the front of the table to join Penny. 

“Hey, guys!” She said. “I hope you enjoy the feast.” Penny turned to face just Ivy and Tulip shouted so loud that some of the people in the dining hall turned their heads towards them. 

“What about me?” Venus asked. “I’m allergic to--”

“Enough talking!” Penn interrupted. “Let’s go eat!”

They made their way back to their table, Penny the quickest of them all. She must have been starving from all the hard work. When they finally got there, Ivy, Venus, Penny, and Tulip quickly gobbled down their food while having conversations. Ivy and Tulip talked about pranks they could pull in the future, (Tulip was a big troublemaker) while Venus and Penny argued over something silly. 

“It’s spelled P-O-T-A-T-O,” Venus said. “There’s no “E” at the end.” 

“Yes there is!” said an annoyed Penny. “Or else it would be pronounced Po-tay-toos!”

“Those idiots,” Tulip muttered quietly. “Don’t they know it has multiple spellings? Why does it matter anyway?” Ivy nodded her head in agreement and continued to listen to the argument. 

“No, no!” Venus insisted. “There’s only an “E” in the plural! Or else it would be pronounced Po-tay-toss!” 

“Stop being ignorant, Venus!” Penny snapped. “You’ll only make a fool out of yourself!”

Venus angrily smacked down the goblet she took a sip from. “I’m not--” But what Venus was not, Ivy never learned. She turned around from the apple pie she was eating to see why Venus stopped talking abruptly. What she saw next made her scream. Venus lay there on the ground beside her spilled drink. Her eyes were closed as if she were dead, and she wasn’t moving. Worst of all, she had gone pale as a ghost. Venus had been poisoned. 

“But how?!” Penny wailed. “How did it happen!? I checked everything before the feast and it was all fine! How could this have happened!? 

Word had spread quickly that Venus had been poisoned, and now everybody was afraid that the same thing would happen to them. Some people even tried to leave, but Penny would not allow it until the mystery of who poisoned Venus was solved. 

“ We have to find clues,” Tulip said. “Does anyone know a spell that can reveal someone's fingerprints?” The small group of people that actually wanted to help solve the mystery shook their heads.

“I do have a book on poisons, though.” Said Penny. “I ‘ll get it from the kitchen.”

She left the group, leaving them to discuss what could have happened.

“There have to be other clues,” said Ivy. “The poison must’ve turned the drink green, before it was purple, remember?” The group nodded.

“Besides,” Ivy continued. “That poison looks really familiar. I think I’ve seen it before, but I can't remember where.” 

Just then, Penny came rushing towards them with a book in her hand. “I found it!” She called. “Here, take a look!” Penny handed the book to Ivy, and she began to read it. 

“Pixie’s death. This deadly poison will-- wait a minute, are you sure this is the right one, Penny? Ivy asked. The word “death” was in the poison's name, yet Venus was still alive, just unconscious. 

“Well, the pictures match,” Penny replied. It was true. Both the poisons were the same shade of green. “Besides,” Penny continued. “Didn’t the book say the poison smelt like--” 

“I’ll check!” Tulip interrupted. She bent down on the ground and smelt the poison. Immediately, she started gagging. “That was disgusting,” Tulip said. “It smelt like something rotting mixed with apples and cherries.”

“Apples?” Ivy asked. “Is that even supposed to be in the poison?”

Penny took the book from Ivy and checked the ingredients. “There’s dragon scales, Pixie weed, werewolf fangs, all of the rare and expensive things, but no apples.”

Ivy, Penny, and Tulip exchanged worried looks. Whoever poisoned Venus must have known that she was allergic to apples. Venus had only told three people about her allergy: Ivy, Penny, and Tulip. “Is there anything else we need to know?” Ivy asked. 

This time it was Tulip’s turn to read the book and answer. “The poison is really complicated and it takes three days to make,” she replied. While Penny, Tulip, and the rest of the people in the group had discussions about the evidence, Ivy went into deep thought. 

The person who poisoned Venus had to be really good at brewing potions, extremely wealthy  and must dislike her. Other clues appeared including the position was green, smelt of something rotten, and took three days to make. Finally, the poisoner must have known Venus was allergic to apples. Who could apply to all of these clues? It wasn’t tulip because even though she was very mischievous, Potions wasn’t exactly her best subject. Besides, why would she want to hurt Venus? They were friends. Penny seemed like a better suspect. Unlike Tulip, Penny was brilliant at potions. She could brew anything you asked for! Penny was also very wealthy. She lived in a castle! Getting a hold of the ingredients would be no problem for her. As for not liking Venus, that seemed to fit as well. The two of them argued far too often. Other things started to make sense, like why Penny had gotten a nervous look on her face at the beginning of the feast, and how Penny was so sure that Pixie’s Death was the poison in Venus’ drink. Even though it looked very suspicious, Ivy couldn't believe that Penny had done it. It didn't seem like Penny to poison someone she greatly disliked, even if she argued with that person every day. But if Penny didn’t do it, then who did? Ivy racked her brain and tried to remember why the poison seemed so familiar. She tried and tried, and suddenly she got it. First, Ivy had to make sure she was right. So, she bent down on the ground just as Tulip had done before and smelt the poison. Sure enough, she could smell rotten eggs, along with apples and cherries. Ivy then got up and stomped angrily across the room to confront Merula Snide. 

As Ivy was falling through the rippling black lake to her death, she thought about her last moments alive. After she confronted Merula Snide about poisoned Venus, she first denied it, but the evidence made it very hard to hide. Merula, like Penny, was great at potions. However, she used her skills for bad, just like the rest of the unpleasant but wealthy Snide family. Penny even told her that she didn't have any Pixie Weed in stock at the moment, but when Merula insisted that she could show them where she got it from, Tulip reminded her that the reason she was late to the feast was that she got lost in the castle in the first place. These new discoveries, along with the other evidence of the way the potion looked and smelled, was too much for Merula to take. She cast a powerful spell on the door, breaking it into thousands of tiny little pieces, and ran away. Ivy, Penny, and Tulip chased right after her. Unfortunately, this meant that they got lost in many terrifying and dangerous rooms. 

First, they ended up in a small, cramped room with a single flickering light and mysterious banging noise coming from places unknown. Tulip thought she saw Merula come in there, but she appeared to be wrong. Merula was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did she go?” Tulip asked. 

“I thought Merula came in here.”

“Maybe she turned around and went the other way,” Penny suggested. 

“Where is that banging noise coming from?” Asked Ivy.

“Am I just hearing things?”

“No, I hear it too,” Penny answered. 

“Listen! I think it's getting louder!” 

Sure enough, Penny was right. The louder the noise got, the more the light flickered, and the faster their hearts beat. Ivy wanted to turn around and leave but the door had disappeared. Suddenly, the light stopped flickering, and everything went dark. The banging noise had stopped as well, and Ivy could have sworn her heart stopped along with it. As quickly as it started, it was over. The light had turned on and was no longer flickering. The banging was still absent. Ivy, Penny, and Tulip slowly turned around, only to find a nasty surprise. Skeleton men that were six-feet tall emerged from the ground. They were even worse than the ones Tulip faced earlier before the feast. The skeletons had glowing red orbs where eyes should have been. As they turned towards the girls, their eyes flared bright until the room was bathed on a faint red tint. Each carried a sword made out of yellowed bone. The one in the lead almost took Ivy's head off with its sword. Tulip and Penny had tried to cast some spells, but it wasn't very effective against these monstrous creatures. They only had one option left: run, dodge, and hide. 

After barely escaping the skeleton creatures, Ivy, Penny, and Tulip found themselves in the least dangerous room in the castle-- or so they thought. 

“What's in here?” Tulip asked nervously. “Is there anything dangerous?”

“I don't think so.” Replied Ivy

“Look! It’s a kitten!”

A small black kitten with green eyes had just appeared in the room, and Penny bent down to pet it. 

“Awwww! It’s so cute!” As soon as Penny touched the kitten’s fur, two more heads suddenly appeared. The three kittens played together, and six more appeared. Then twelve, then twenty-four, then forty-eight, and the numbers kept multiplying until the room was filled with playful, meowing kittens. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Ivy. “What if they all suddenly turn evil?”

As soon as she said it, Ivy had jinxed them. At that very moment, all the kittens in the room had stopped looking cute and looked scarier. Their green eyes had turned red, and their claws were ten times sharper. At least Ivy, Penny, and Tulip’s magic came into use at that time. 

Finally, after they defeated the evil kittens, Ivy, Penny, and Tulip found themselves somewhere dark. Ivy felt the wind blowing in her hair. 

“Are we outside?” Ivy asked, shaking from the cold. 

“I think so,” Penny answered. 

“If we’re outside, where are we?” 

“Where did Merula go?” asked Tulip. “Did she get away?”

Ivy didn't have answers to any of these questions, so she tried to find them. “Listen, I’m going to try to figure out-- AHHH!” Ivy slipped on a rock and nearly fell into what looked like a lake, but Tulip caught her. 

“Be careful!” she warned. “We need to get out of here alive and well!”

The three of them created light in their hands and saw that below them was an inky, black lake. 

“How are we going to get across?” Penny asked. 

“Over there!” Tulip pointed to somewhere in the distance. “That's a giant frog!” She said. “We can hop on its back and let it take us across the lake.” Neither Ivy nor Penny could think of a better idea, so they just went along with Tulip’s plan. They carefully climbed onto the frogs back and waited for it to hop or swim across the lake. But the frog had other plans. It didn't like having people sitting on its back, so the frog shook his whole body vigorously while Ivy, Penny, and Tulip held on for dear life. Finally, Ivy couldn't hold on any longer. Her hand slipped out of Tulip’s and she fell into the rippling black lake. 

Ivy continued to fall. She wondered if she had made it across the lake safely. She wondered if Merula had escaped, or been caught. But most of all, she wondered if she would survive this fall into the cold, inky, black lake. Just then, Ivy realized that she could feel the wind in her hair. She could breathe again. Ivy was falling through the sky, just moments away from hitting the ground. She braced herself for the landing, which was surprisingly soft. Ivy landed near the edge of a cliff, where she saw a girl running away. Immediately, she knew this girl was Merula Snide. Ivy got up as quick as she could and chased her. Merula soon found out she was being chased and ran even faster. She was just about to fall off the cliff when Ivy grabbed her by the arm. 

“Tell me,” Ivy growled. “Tell me how to cure Venus. It’s the least you can do if you're going to escape.”

“Never!” Merula said cruelly. “Your stupid little friend is going to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

“I wouldn't say that if I were you.” Ivy snarled. “One wrong move and you’re the one who’s going to die. Tell me how to cure Venus. NOW!”

Merula’s eyes widened in fear. “A- all you have to do is make a healing potion, but add Venus’s favourite food at the end.” Before Ivy could ask more questions, Merula let go of her hand and fell off the cliff. Ivy remained there, frozen in horror, staring at where Merula had been. She was gone. 

It was well past midnight, and without having to worry about monsters trying to kill her, Ivy dashed inside the castle. She barged through the dining hall doors and immediately gathered the ingredients for a healing potion. “Unicorn tears, phoenix feathers, dragon fangs and…”

Ivy spotted a plate of fries and dumped them into her cauldron. She began to chant. 

“Tears of a unicorn, dragon’s breath

 Save my friend from Pixie’s Death!”

The potion turned a pale blue. Ivy poured the concoction into a goblet and, praying that Merula was telling the truth, fed the unconscious Venus the potion. Moments later, Venus emerged from her sleep, coughing as she stood up.

“What happened?” Venus asked, bewildered.

“Venus!” shouted Ivy with glee. She gave her friend a bear hug and began to explain the evening's events.

“But why would Merula want to poison me?” asked Venus

“I don’t know,” Ivy replied. “But Penny and Tulip are still out there. We’ve got to find them!”

And together, Ivy and Venus set off down the Castle of Mysteries to find their friends.