Castle

Will and Jason had been watching the house for two whole days now and there had not been a single sign of life the entire time. The mail was piled up in the mailbox, newspapers soaking up the rain at the front door. They had seen lights come on inside, but after the second day they had realized that the lights were on a timer; not turned on by someone in the house. There were no dogs, no signs of a security system, no random company, no police, and most importantly, not a single neighbor anywhere near this place.


Will grabbed the bag with the crowbar, bump key and the other tools while Jason grabbed two large backpacks. Jason shot the only street light out with a pellet gun they had picked up on their last job. They crossed the street and went up the driveway at a fast walk, pausing at the shadows by the front door. It took less than ten seconds for Will to get the door open with the bump key and the two figures moved inside the entrance, politely locking the door behind them.

They paused for a moment to take in their surroundings and were stunned by what they saw. This place is amazing. The entryway opens up into a huge living room that boasted several large pieces of art, antique-looking furnishings, a huge and not so antique plasma TV and sound system built into the walls. There was a fish tank built into the wall leading towards the dining area that must have held over 500 gallons of water!

Will went right to work on the sound system and began pulling the components out of the wall as Jason moved deeper into the house. Room after room was like the first: sculptures and photos and art. One room was full of sports collectibles. Jason’s trained eye knew what they could sell for money and what would be too much of a pain to unload no matter what it was worth. Everything that could be carried easily he packed into a bag with quiet efficiency. The first bag full, he turned to go and stack it in the living room when he heard a startled cry from Will. He immediately dropped the bag and sprinted to the front of the house, pulling out his 9mm pistol.

What he saw when he arrives is terrifying! Will is crumpled up on the floor, already lifeless. Blood still pouring out of the huge gash in his neck but it had already stopped being pushed by a beating heart. Jason scans the room looking for who had done this to his partner, but sees no one. He moves closer to the body to get a better look at what had happened and is stunned to see that Will looked like someone had tried to take his head off with an axe.

Jason’s head whips up as he hears the sound of metal on metal back down the hall that he had just run up. He snaps the gun up in that direction and waits as his body jolts into high gear from the rush of adrenalin. All is quiet for several minutes, allowing him to finally decide that he is going to kill this guy for what he did to Will. He slips through the house in search of his hidden opponent, years of experience keeping his steps from making any noise without him even having to think about it. Suddenly he hears the metal noise again, this time from somewhere behind the last door in the hall.

How foolishly typical, he thought. He kicked the door open bringing the gun up to chest height as he did, but there is no one there, just well-lit stairs leading down to what looked like a large basement. He moves quickly down the stairs and is met by the strangest sight. There are all kinds of swords, knives, and guns on the walls encased in glass display cases. There are close to twenty suits of armor standing patiently on their pedestals like long forgotten sentinels of some ancient crypt. He stood there stunned for a moment at the sight, and in that moment everything went sideways.

All but a few of the lights suddenly blink off. That same sound of metal that he had heard before, the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath, came from just a few steps behind him. He spins, trying to bring his gun around in time, but is greeted by the completely bizarre sight of a man dressed head to toe in medieval armor thrusting a sword at his chest. His mind freezes for a fraction of a second trying to come up with an explanation for what it is seeing, and it is that fraction of a second that cost him everything. The sword, meant to battle armored opponents, slides easily into his chest and out his back. Jason’s arms went limp and he hears the gun fall to the ground, as he stands staring into the eyes of a crazed man in armor.

This is way too strange, he thinks as the man pulled the sword out of his chest and disappeared into the shadows.

Jason knew he was out of time as he slumped over on his side. The whole night had been one big mistake ending with, well, soon to be two people dead. At least Will died fast, lucky bastard; he looked down at the blood pumping out of his chest where the sword had run him through, this hurts more than you would think. As his vision started to get cloudy he rolled his head to the left for one last look around the museum like room. In the quiet darkness, Jason’s choking laugh was startlingly loud; the irony of what he was looking at was not wasted on him. He spent his last seconds in this world looking at a perfect replica of some European castle….a damn castle! It had been painstakingly built piece by piece complete with a bridge, tiny figures of men on horseback, and even little cloth flags at the tops of the towers. Jason’s last chuckle turned into that long sigh of the dead as the armor clad figure stepped back into the light and heard the doomed man whisper his last words, “a man’s home.”