THE MYSTERIOUS CASTLE WITH THE IPAD

“Mom, dad, we’re going exploring, ‘kay?” Oliver asked, tugging on Olivia’s hand. The friends walked out of the house and then broke into a run, anticipating a wonderful afternoon.

His grand mansion had a vast forest for a backyard, and Oliver led her down the winding path, deeper into the woods.

“Where are we going?” Olivia asked, nervously tugging on her braids.

“I don’t know, Vi” he replied, “maybe to that. Also, don't tug on your braids.” He pointed to a big looming shape ahead of them. As they drew closer they realized it was a castle, a big one at that. They skidded to a halt in front of it, catching their breath. The huge towers that made up the castle were not well-maintained, actually, the whole castle looked abandoned, as if no one had lived there for centuries. Cobwebs hung from the big empty space that should have held a door.

“What’s this?” Vi asked, “is it safe? Do your parents know about this? Is it safe??”

“I don’t- My parents don't control my lif-" he stopped at the look on her face.

"Then how come you get to control my braid-tugging?" she challenged.

"You know what? I dare you to go inside and grab the first iPad you see.”

“You're ignoring me and you know it." Vi singsonged.

"Well, fine, but I don't tug my braids."

"You don't have braids! Your hair is too short!"

"Well, I don't anyw-"

"No resonable logic, eh? Plus, you know that this castle looks like it’s way older than the age of iPads, right?” Vi looked strangely at Oliver, as if seeing him for the first time.

“Are you passing up on a dare? Winner gets the other’s ice cream!” he taunted, reminding her of the promised ice cream for when they returned.

“Um, I’m pretty sure-”

“You don’t want more ice cream? It’s my mom’s homemade.” he singsonged. 

“Fine! Deal.” Vi said, as she adored his mom’s homemade ice cream. Then, to be that kid that forgets everything right away- the kid every parent knows and loves, she tugged nervously on her braids at the prospect of this castle.

They carefully picked their way through the tall waving grass, which was clearly not mowed, to the entrance. Cracked rotten wood made up the frame of the castle.

“Ewwwwww…” Vi cried as a piece of moss fell on her hair. "My hair! Oh, my braids are going to be so dirty, and I didn't even bring my comb!" she wailed as if it was the end of the world.

"It's just moss, Vi! What's wrong with that? Why do girls always seem to think that they'll die without their makeup and comb??" Oliver chastised. But, as our strange world has it, a huge piece of wet moss fell on his head at that exact moment.

"EWWWWWW!" he cried, as Vi was bent over, roaring with laughter. Shooting her a nasty side eye, he shook his head hard, his hair flying from side to side, moss still on his head. This only doubled the make-fun-of-Oliver-athon.

"You look like a small-fanged mollyhusker!" Vi giggled.

"A what?"

"You know, they walk around eating rainbows and people!"

Oliver ignored Vi and walked into the castle, knowing that these fanged mollyhuskers obviously didn't exist, and Vi had no choice to hurry along, giggling behind her hand.

Inside the castle they saw an old chandelier well past it’s years. Dust was thickly layered on everything. Oliver raced into a side room, frantically looking everywhere, as if he knew exactly where to go, or maybe because he just wanted to get away from Vi?

As Vi walked into the room beside her friend’s, she saw what had to be the kitchen. Big cabinets of rotten wood filled the room. All of a sudden she saw something move in the corner of her eye. She shrugged it off, determined to win.

She reached out a hand and opened the closest cabinet, wincing at the feeling of the cold wood. 

Inside the cabinet all she could see was darkness, then something moved, and then hundreds of big black rats scuttled outside of the cabinet, onto her hands, running over her feet. It was complete pandemonia, the rats were biting everything within reach, crawling up her hands as she tried desperately to swat them off, to escape. She was whipping her head from side to side, completely unaware that they were rats- she thought they were large-fanged-mollyhuskers, so she started stomping everywhere, yelling, thrashing...

Screaming, she raced out of the room and slammed the door behind her, yelling, shrieking, as if her life was in danger.

“Oliver!!! Oliver!!! THERE'S LARGE-FANGED-MOLLYHUSKERS!!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" she shrieked, panicking like a 6-year old.

“What?” he cried running out of the room. “Where?”

“IN THE KITCHEN!!!” Vi hollered, unable to stand still. “TRILLIONS OF THEM!!!” which was clearly an overstatement, but when things are scary you gotta do what you gotta do.

"What's wrong with mollyhuses?"

"THEY'RE CARNIVORES!" Vi spluttered as if that settled the matter.

“Vi, calm down, they can’t be-”

"I HAVEN'T EVEN WRITTEN MY WILL YET! Oh, goodbye Snickers, goodbye life, goodbye cruel crazy world!” she cut him off, moaning into her hands, shedding tears like a fountain on high.

"Vi! You're gonna lose if you don't look for the iPad!"

"DON'T GET ME STARTED!" she cried, wiping fresh tears off her face. "THERE'S NO iPad BUT IN YOUR IMAGINATION!"

“No! There’s an iPad, I know for sure there is! Please, all we have to do is not go in that room and then we’ll be fine!”

“No, I want to leav-” she started, then gave him a suspicious look. “How do you know there’s an iPad?”

“I - oh, come on Vi, I think I saw one through the window. It was in the room I went in.”

“AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME???” Vi fumed. “YOU WENT IN THE ROOM YOU KNEW THERE WAS ONE IN AND I HAD TO GO AROUND SEARCHING WHO KNOWS WHERE??? YOU NEVER TOLD ME?!”

“Come on, you can come with me now, you know?” he said reassuringly, dragging her into the room he was in. It was a bedroom, with a moth eaten canopy over a bed with ragged sheets. A big dresser stood to one side and a window with cracked glass stood to another side. Unbeknownst to them a small door was hidden in the corner of the room.

They took to searching through the room, until all of a sudden the bedroom door slammed closed. 

Vi froze, a look of terror on her face. 

“What was that?” she asked shakily.

“I don’t know!? I'm not your mother, how would I know?!” Oliver replied, looking equally terrified. Shaking, he walked towards Vi and grabbed her hand. “We should go.”

“I KNOW WE SHOULD GO! I'M NOT DUMB! BUT THERE’S PROBABLY A GHOST BEHIND THAT DOOR AND…...”

“Ghosts don’t exist! It was probably the wind from the window! ”

“There was a ghost!”

“GHOSTS DON’T EXIST! IF YOU'RE NOT DUMB YOU SHOULD KNOW!” 

“How are we going to get out now?” Vi wailed, ignoring Oliver's comment, then just as Oliver opened his mouth she said “not through the ghost door.”

“I - it isn’t - hey, look, there’s another door!” 

He'd spotted the small door by the closet, which led to a set of stairs. Though it looked sketchy, both friends wanted to leave right away, and Vi was very firm on her ghost belief, so they slowly made their way up the stairs. Vi made a point to go first as then she would be farther from the so-called ghost.

As she neared the top, her high-pitched scream shattered Oliver’s eardrums for the third time. 

“What now?” he asked, exasperated, only to scream at a higher and more impressive pitch that would have earned him a spot as an opera singer. 

The biggest spider they’d ever seen was balanced on a huge web at the entranceway to the roof of the tower. It’s hairy legs, big and black, probably poisonous body made Vi back up so fast she tripped on the stairs and fell back into Oliver. They rolled down the winding stairs hollering so loud you could hear them a mile away. 

“Watch it!”

“Move your foot!’

“OUCH!”

Then the loud ‘thud’ as they landed on the stone floor of the bedchamber. 

A very disheveled Oliver groaned at Vi’s weight on top of him, barely making out a very annoyed “get off of me!”

Vi wasn’t looking very good either. “Let’s just climb out the window, ‘kay? I’m done with this place, done with these - these things. First large-fanged mollyhuskers, now a Undefrulager up there... I just want a peaceful life, one without Undefrulagers and why did I come here we’re never exploring again, I’m never coming back, never ever-” she ranted, followed by a very long and impressive string of swear words. 

“That was a spider, not a Udeefralewhatwhat."

"Then why did it have eight legs?" Vi challenged.

"Because spiders have eight legs!"

"No, they have 2! Spies have 2, that's where they got their name!"

"They are not- Never mind, let’s go through the window, then! But how are we supposed to get up there?”

“We could use the chair.” she suggested, probably the most helpful thing she’d done all day.

But the chair had a bug’s nest on the bottom, which didn’t help anyone’s case. Some Vi-screaming later, Vi was hitting the bug’s nest with all her might, using the moth-eaten pillow. Oliver didn't bother pointing out that the pillow had a bug in it.

After a lot of work, they go out. Just as they were leaving, Vi noticed something glimmering high up on the bed.

 'It must be the iPad!' she thought.

“I’ll be right back!” she cried.

As Oliver stood there, confused, she climbed back into the room and grabbed her prize, the iPad.

“What were you doing, going back in the castle like that? Who wanted to leave so fast?” he teased.

“I got the iPad!” she exclaimed triumphantly. 

“Thanks for getting my iPad!” he said corrected, grabbing the iPad and turning it on. 

“What?! This is yours?”

“Ya, I was playing here before with friends and I forgot it in there when I left, I was too scared to go back in and get it by myself, thanks for coming with me!” he said apologetically. “At least you get my ice cream, right?”

Vi didn’t look very happy about that, as she was grumbling under her breath, and the only words Oliver could make out weren’t very pretty.