The Old
Castle Over the Hill
by Danusa
Fernandes
Once, in a small city in the countryside of France, surrounded by castles dating from the middle ages, there was one, a special one, on the top of a hill.
The tourist centre would always arrange guided visits to these castles, except for that one on the hill. Actually, nobody would dare to visit it.
People said that a long time ago an old woman who used to be a very beautiful and graceful young girl who was going to marry a lord from Denmark, lived there. However, three weeks before the marriage, her bridegroom died in battle. After that, the young princess was never seen again. She would only leave the castle to fetch some vegetables and fruits from the garden. People in the city assumed that she had died when the plants in the garden grew without being cared for, and even after that, nobody tried to get into the castle.
No-one could understand why sometimes she would go to the windows and scream for help and, when the guards got to the castle, she wouldn't even open the door and told them to get out.
One day, a foreigner who didn't know about the legend of “the crazy lady” and was curious about that exquisite castle on the top of the hill from where sometimes there came strange noises and flashes, and tried to get in.
Getting close to the gate, it opened by itself, and while he was walking through the garden, he felt a strong wind which made him quiver. It was not cold, but he couldn't control himself. He kept going on, and suddenly a beautiful princess appeared before him. She invited him in for a cup of tea, he hesitated but accepted in the end.
While he was walking towards her, he noticed that she seemed to be frightened as it trying to tell him something she couldn't.
Finally, he got into the castle. It smelt bad, the furniture was old and the atmosphere was humid. Then the young girl broke down in tears and disappeared. He couldn't understand what was going on and turned back to leave the castle. Suddenly the door was locked. He looked for another exit and all the doors were locked. A strange voice started laughing. He couldn't see anybody there, so where was this voice coming from?
When he turned to the left, he saw a black cat without head walking through the living room, then he turned to the right and saw a mummy calling the cat ´baby`. He was afraid , and to make it worse, he couldn't find that beautiful lady who had once made him feel so good, and now he found himself in a bad situation because of her.
After a long time trying to get out of that room, he saw a small passage between two walls. Passing through there, he found a huge room, where there was a big army standing, led by a man wearing different clothes, which he had only seen in historical films.
The man was telling the army about his victories in battle. He saw the young lady there, sitting next to him and listening to those things. He tried to call her but she couldn't see him. Then he realised hat those people were talking about a time that was not the present.
While trying to reach the young lady, getting closer to the crowd, he slipped and fell over the feet of the lord of the manor. He became extremely angry and sent him to prison, from where he never left until he died.