secret love, within death

Secret Love, Within Death

As Ingrid looked up towards the sunlight, while she was working in the fields of Stonehorn woods, with the mud all over her hair and face and her wet and stained clothes, as Ingrid stopped, she felt a slight relief in her feet, because of her blisters burning on her heels and yet she is still the most attractive female left in the Stonehorn. As the day dragged on for Ingrid, she got tired and very weak, but as she looked around the woods she noticed a shadow of a castle in the distance, which she had never noticed before. When Ingrid put down her rake and lifted her robes of the floor, to go see what it was up close, she saw a wall that reached about 8ft, with leaves and vines all over it and above the wall, she saw the castle and an open window, within it she saw the most elegant looking woman she had ever seen who was looking right at her, so Ingrid waved to her, when the woman in the window looked down and looked bored and then she smiled and waved back at Ingrid and that made her happy. But then Ingrid had to go and pack up her work gear up for the night, so she waved goodbye and wondered if she would see that lonely looking woman again. Ingrid had just got back to her room at the local grounds, after a long walk from her day at work. This was where the workers slept and hung out most of the time and when she got ready to chill out, she asked some of the people about the castle and about the woman who lives there in Stone horn woods, the response she got of everyone there was staggering, the whole room just went silent and everyone was looking at her after she mentioned it. Until her friend Dona took her in to another room and explained to Ingrid about the castle, and also told her the name of the woman which was Elizabeth who lived in the castle. As Dona was talking to Ingrid, she was day dreaming about what it would be like to work in the castle that big and whether she would see Elizabeth again. While Ingrid was dreaming of Elizabeth and the castle, her friend Dona was explaining all about the dark tales the castle holds and all of the deathly rumours about Elizabeth, but Ingrid weren’t paying much attention, even though this might be crucial in the near future. 

It’s been six days since Ingrid saw Elizabeth last in the castle and every day since the last, she has been looking into the window, to see if she can catch a glimpse of Elizabeth, but yet still no sign. Each time Elizabeth didn’t show up there was a slight sadness in Ingrid’s heart, like she misses her, even though they have only seen each other once. But what Ingrid didn’t know was that Elizabeth was the Countess and was also showing all the new young girls around the castle, where they all had to work and later become victims of a sick and creative death. When the night came to a close, when the moon came up and the street lights were lit and the animals went to sleep, but the only person that was awake was Ingrid, she could not sleep, all that she could think about was work and finally getting to meet Elizabeth in person, after she got an invite to go to the castle to work and also to meet the countess herself, just before she got into bed. No words could describe how excited she was, but Ingrid got really nervous the more she thought about it and she didn’t know what the invite was truly for. When Ingrid got the invite she realised that no one in the village liked Elizabeth and that no one really talked about her, so she decided to keep the news to herself, which could be for the best. As she was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep she had the window open, because it was a very hot day and out of nowhere, she heard a scream come from within the woods a young female scream, which sounded like it was near the castle, but as soon as she jumped out of bed to see out the window, the screams had to stop. Even though the screams were loud enough to wake a whole village up, no one got up and tried to help. Was it because they knew the truth of who was really behind those screams or maybe they were scared who knows, but Ingrid will find out soon enough.

It’s the day of Ingrid’s visit to the Countess’s castle and as she makes herself look presentable and when she finished, she looked like a princess herself, she was so nervous, Ingrid keeps going over and over everything before she is about to leave the house, Ingrid hopes she will impress Elizabeth. As she left to go through the woods to get to the castle a heavy fog suddenly appeared and covered her path, and that didn’t stop her but what did worry her was the leaves and the branches on the trees in the woods, it was like they were speaking to her using young girls voices, telling her to turn around and go back, but that did not stop her, because she is a strong female and does really believe in ghosts. When Ingrid got across the muddy fields, she noticed an unusual looking tree that she remembered seeing last week when she worked here, it was tall and wide and looked very rustic, with a hazelnut colour look to it, but then after she saw it Ingrid realised where she was, she was at the wall where she saw Elizabeth and the front door was just yards ahead. Finally after that horrible journey through the woods Ingrid got to the front door of the castle and was ‘wowed’ by the size of it and also amazed by the detail and decoration of the doors. As she stood there waiting for the door as it slowly opened, she noticed two young servants behind it with bruises on their face and asked “what happened” then they replied, “It’s just a slight mishap with our fists, it’s nothing really, now please come in and wait by the stairs.” Then the girls have a slight giggle while the walk away.

As the two girls had gone, Ingrid is left waiting by herself for Elizabeth and as she was alone the whole castle was silent, she cannot hear any talking, no laughing, just pure silence and when Ingrid was looking around the hallway, she noticed a door which could not be opened unless you use one foot, two hands and a long neck so your chin or head can push the button in to open the door, so she guessed it was for the cellar and as she was messing around with the door, she heard footsteps on the stairs, which were light so she assumed they were Elizabeth’s footsteps which she was right. Then Ingrid moves away from the door and looks at the countess and her jaw dropped as she saw her, Ingrid thought to herself ‘wow much more pretty in person’ when Elizabeth introduced herself to Ingrid, Ingrid also then introduced herself and slightly kissed Elizabeth’s hand and bowed, then Elizabeth giggled “welcome to my home Ingrid we finally meet and may I say that you look even more pure and young in person than I first imagined” Ingrid blushed. After Elizabeth introduced herself, they went into a room which looked like a lobby, but a more homely place where only relatives or important guests are allowed to go, which made Ingrid nervous, because she had never seen a home or any other place like this before and she felt out of place. “know I bet your wondering why I invited you here Ingrid, well as you can see this is a large home and it needs looking after, and once or twice a month I go to the village and bring in workers to help out, but I didn’t do that with you, I am giving you a special job which only a few people ever get to do and you should grateful for this opportunity. The job is fulltime and it’s a busy day to day work looking after me, which will include shopping, travel, looking after my appearance and also so we can get a closer bond together, which sounds like a good offer?” Ingrid stopped and thought for a second about the offer and finally chose to accept and this will truly be a friendship to remember.

Weeks have passed since Ingrid started her new job in the castle as the countess’s right hand and there is still one place she has not seen yet and that is the cellar and she is determined to find out what’s down there, but the only problem is, that she is with Elizabeth 24/7 apart from when they are asleep, which then gave Ingrid an idea. So after a whole day of planning in her head, Ingrid left her room at midnight when the whole castle was asleep, she then went down stairs to the cellar door, but Ingrid realised about the lock system on the door, which she was standing there for 5 minutes figuring out how to open it. After countless attempts to try and open the door, until she saw a wooden ruler on the cabinet next to the cellar door, then she put the ruler in her mouth to use as a pressure point on the button on the door above her head, which it then did, she then pressed all the over buttons and the door opened strangely, it moved sideways which she has never seen before. When Ingrid took that first step on the cold wooden staircase to the cellar, she had a flashback of when herself and Elizabeth first met in the field and when the first started to get really close, which lead to their first kiss, that came out of the blue, then after that very moment their feelings got even more stronger, until this very night when Ingrid finally got into the cellar.

As the flashback finished Ingrid slowly walked down the stairs and the closer and closer she got to the bottom her heart pounded harder and faster, she got very nervous and the light that was on down there was flashing on and off, which was not helping the way that Ingrid was feeling at that time. When she finally got to the bottom, she noticed spots of red liquid all over the floor heading towards another door, when Ingrid went to open the door; she slips but manages to keep her balance. As she got through she then wished she had never even come down to the cellar because of what is hanging right in front of her over the bathtub, Ingrid got closer to the bath and the shadow above it, was a dead body, which was a female. When Ingrid took a closer look over the body, the girl had knife marks around her breasts and a slice across her throat and all the blood from her body was in the bathtub below, which looked like someone had just recently bathed in it, which made Ingrid feel a bit sick. As she was about to walk away Ingrid noticed a string of red hair popping from out the leather mask the dead girl was wearing, so she lifted the mask of the girls face and it turned out to be the Hungarian King Demeter’s youngest daughter Beatrix. Demeter’s daughter had vanished from her room one night and was never found since, until now that is, but there was no time to get the body down from the ceiling. As Ingrid stepped away from the bath, she hit a desk behind her and out of nowhere a secret passage appeared and inside looked to be a small dungeon, with metal bars on each cell, which looked like a prison. So she walked through to take a look around each cell and in each one was a female body, in an even more gruesome pose in which each body was displayed and by the time she got to the end of the cells, Ingrid nearly fell to her knees of sickness, until she saw a female body and a rare male body in the same cell laying on the ground. The male had no head, but the female was still intact but looked drained of blood, but she still looked familiar to Ingrid, so she bent down to take a closer look at the body which was still warm and then it turned out to be her close friend Dona, and Ingrid was in shock, that girl her closest friend was the one that warned her about Elizabeth, but she didn’t listen and now she is the one dead and but not Ingrid, Ingrid started to cry and realised that her feelings clouded her heart and just fell for the countess Elizabeth. When Ingrid turned back and closed the secret door to the dungeon, she then took a deep breath and then thought to herself, ‘why did I come down here, why!!’ Ingrid then controlled herself and went to get out of the cellar until she noticed the door that she used to get to the cellar was locked and then the light turned off and the room went completely dark. Ingrid started to panic, her heart pounded and a slight tear fell from her eye, but she had to stay strong and think of a way to get out of there, so she went back down the stairs to the main room of the cellar and when she got there, the light came back on, but it was still flashing and something didn’t feel right when she got there, it was like someone was watching her and then the light went out again for a minute or so, so she played around with it to see if she could get it to work again, which she did finally, but it didn’t turn out so good, two red eyes popped out from the shadows and lunged towards her and the eyes turned out to be Elizabeth’s.

Elizabeth pulled Ingrid off the floor by her hair, as she told her that “you should have listened to your friend Dona” and then forced Ingrid to lick the blood of Beatrix’s body. Ingrid was hoping Elizabeth would spare her life, because of their connection together, but she was wrong. Elizabeth kissed Ingrid’s blood soaked lips and said “you were my last secret love, farewell” she then dragged Ingrid into the dungeons and found an empty cell, tied her to a chair and slit open her stomach and then took Ingrid’s blood and poured it over her own face and locked Ingrid away, never to be found again.

No one knows if Ingrid ever survived or was ever found but all that we know is that Elizabeth had a secret love.