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ADVENTURE IN THE CURSED CASTLE

 Written By - Prabir Rai Chaudhuri

© All Copyright Reserved By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri- 2023

     The car was following a small cornice road which overlooked the sea from the top of the cliffs. In the back seat, a little squeezed together, were Alex and his friend Ethan, both eleven years old, Linnea, Alex's sister and her great friend Celeste, ten years old each. Celeste's parents were up front.

This one had the great chance to be able to invite her best friends for a small trip, during the Easter holidays, in Great Britain, in Wales.

Suddenly, the mother braked gently, after a turn, and caught the children's attention.

-Look, she said, over there, we can see it.

On a rocky outcrop stood a fortress whose gray and black stones overlooked the ocean from a height of about fifty meters. You could see two massive towers, a dungeon set in a more recent body of building and the walkway running along the perimeter walls.

The whole was on a sheer drop, on a peninsula that jutted out to sea. The waves of the ocean crashed against the rocks at the foot of the castle. In the greyness, under the sky covered with clouds, the spectacle was impressive.

Celeste's mother started off again and drove for a few more minutes on a narrow, winding road. They arrived in a small village. In the center of the village was a very simple inn, but close to the beach. They were going to spend a few days of vacation there.

When they entered the inn, luggage in hand, the manager watched them and looked surprised.

- You told me, sir, madam, that you were coming with two girls and two boys. I see three boys and a girl there. This may be a problem for the rooms.

Christina smiles. She likes being taken for a boy. She is very different from her friend. This one has beautiful long blond hair that she arranges with care every morning. She often wears very pretty dresses, in the best taste.

Linnea prefers her short hair. You will always see her in faded jeans and a t-shirt, preferably those already well worn by her big brother. She feels very comfortable there. She claims to be allergic to dresses and therefore easily passes for a boy.

Veronique's parents reassured the innkeeper and he presented his accommodation offer.

-I have four rooms in my hotel, he said. An elderly customer has been occupying the first for a fortnight. I attribute another to two young people, students, I think. So I have two left. One is for you, sir and madam, and I reserve the other for young girls. Would these two young people agree to stay in the attic? I have two beds installed there. It's very big, and it's not cold there. Finally, a matter of trust, I will give them a master key. I'm counting on you boys, you won't go into rooms that aren't yours.

Alex and Ethan looked at each other. What a great idea to stay in this attic. Very quiet, they will be masters at home up there, a real eagle's nest.

During the midday meal, our friends who occupied a table for four separated from that of Veronique's parents, saw the other customers. They spotted a strange merry-go-round.

An older gentleman, he seemed to have crossed sixty, approached the table of the two young people. He put a long, heavy iron key on their tablecloth and said to them “Yellow”, which Ethan, bilingual, translated as “yellow” for his friends.

One of the young people stood up. He grabbed the key, went upstairs, then came back without it.

After the meal, our friends questioned the tenant.

-Can we visit the castle and at what time, sir, please? Ethan asked in his best English.

-Visit the castle? Yes, if that makes you happy. But I advise against it. He is abandoned. A cursed castle. Very few people will see it.

-What do you mean ? wondered Linnea, very interested in this mystery.

- Yes, what do you mean? insisted Alex.

-In a nutshell, said the owner of the inn, the current castle was built around a dungeon which dates from the time of the Vikings, more than a thousand years ago. No owner ever stayed there long. All died shortly after their arrival, for reasons that have remained mysterious.

"Exciting," murmured Ethan.

- Here, a hundred years ago. They were the last occupants. A young couple, with a baby. Four months after their installation, the body of the father of the family was found at the foot of the cliffs, half devoured by crabs. Two weeks later, the young mother committed suicide by jumping from a window in the North Tower.

-And the baby? asked Veronique.

- He remained alone at the mansion. Two women from the village tried to go get him, but they came back terrified, saying they had seen shadows and heard inhuman moans. The baby cried for a long, long time, insisted the innkeeper. Sometimes, certain nights, when the wind comes from the North, that is to say from the castle, we still hear, in the village, this baby howling in the night. It makes your blood run cold…

Ethan approached Alex.

-That was a hundred years ago. It must be an old baby now.

The four friends, not believing in ghosts, burst out laughing and left for the beach. The boy questioned his friend.

-What do you think ? Right now or tomorrow morning?

-What do you mean ? asked his friend.

-For the visit of the castle, we go there immediately or tomorrow morning?

- Right away, of course...

"The innkeeper advises us not to go there," murmured Celeste.

-It's true, added Linnea. I am all the more curious.

The four friends left by the beach towards the cursed castle.

The further they advanced, the higher the cliffs became and the less space there was between the sea and the rocks. The beach was visibly shrinking.

Arrived in sight of the castle, they observed it for a moment. He looked impressive. The towers, the loopholes, the battlements, the keep, the high walls of the walkway, all of this in black stone... Not very reassuring! In a setting of gray sky, clouds, wind, spray, sea, the splendid spectacle fascinated and worried at the same time.

A small path made it possible to leave the beach and climb the cliff. They followed him and arrived in front of the fortress.

They crossed the entrance, flanked by two enormous towers linked together by a thick wall, pierced and lined with a heavy wooden door. This door was open. Our friends passed without difficulty in the paved courtyard. At the other end stood a three-storey square building, of almost black stone, too.

A round tower could be seen in the center of this construction. It rose a little higher than the square building. The dungeon, no doubt. 

The friends crossed the courtyard and entered through a large door inside the castle. They visited the ground floor, the first floor and the second. It was quite disappointing. No furniture, no decor on the bare walls. No glass in the windows, of course. They only discovered huge chimneys and sometimes a few sculptures on the ceilings.

After following all the stairs and even going up to the third floor, they came back to the courtyard. There, they were surprised not to have been able to visit the dungeon.

Returning, they observed the place with more attention. Visiting the old walls a second time, they discovered, behind the fireplace on the second floor, a narrow door that gave access to a dark hallway.

They took a few steps there, but had to stop quite quickly. A heavy gate prevented them from going any further. The passage slanted and probably led inside the dungeon. This portcullis was closed with a brand new padlock which obviously could only be opened with a high security key.

A little disappointed, our four friends turned around. They were about to return to the inn.

Celeste joined them after a minute. She had bent down to retie the lace of one of her purple gym sandals. She came running.

-You are very pale, remarked Linnea.

-I heard a noise, beyond the gate. A hoarse noise, like a baby crying, she said with great emotion.

During the evening meal, they noticed the old man sitting at a table in the small dining room. He read while eating. The two young people were not present. Where could they be?

-At the cinema, suggested Celeste.

-The first cinema is more than a hundred kilometers away, remarked Linnea.

-Maybe they just went for a walk, conciliated Alex.

The meal passed pleasantly, then everyone went to bed early. The bedroom for the girls, the attic for the boys.


Linnea woke up in the middle of the night, precisely at ten past midnight. A little noise in the corridor tore him from his dreams. The two young people were returning. She heard their door slam.

Celeste was sleeping peacefully. Her friend stood up and, approaching the window, she looked into the distance. The sky was clearing a little. She saw a few stars and a beautiful crescent moon. She guessed towards the horizon, the rocky outcrop and the castle on the cliff.

Suddenly, seeming to come out of the dungeon, a yellow smoke, very luminous, rose towards the sky. Linnea woke up her companion and the two little girls watched the curious spectacle. The smoke rose to a height of about a hundred meters above the keep. At that time, thousands of small bright lights of all colors lit up the yellow column with their lights. It looked like sparks. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Then the smoke descended back into the building and everything disappeared.


The next day, during breakfast, the girls told the boys about it. You remember, the four friends occupy a separate table from Celeste's parents and can therefore chat freely. Ethan pointed out that the older gentleman had already left. On the other hand, the two young people were in the dining room and spent their time laughing.

Our friends returned to the chateau in the morning. They wanted to deepen the research concerning the baby heard by Celeste, and solve the enigma of the luminous smoke.

Alas, when they arrived in front of the monumental gate, flanked by its two towers, and giving only access to the paved courtyard, they saw a sign. “ Entrance prohibited. Don't come back here ."

Disappointed again, the children turned around without insisting and returned to the inn by the beach.

"It's strange," exclaimed Ethan suddenly. This sign is for us only.

-For what ? Linnea asked.

"I don't understand what you mean," Veronique insisted.

"This sign is for us and no one else," their friend repeated. They want to get us away from this castle.

-What do you mean ? said Alex.

-Because this text is written in French. Now we are traveling to Wales. English is spoken there, as you have noticed.

Our friends, intrigued, were silent for a moment. Then they convinced themselves that there was a link between the absence of the two young people in the evening, that of the old gentleman in the morning, the castle, the sign prohibiting entry, and the yellow smoke seen by the girls in the night. It all seemed intertwined.

-I'm thinking of a bunch of evil people, suggested Alex. Bandits? Counterfeiters...

- Well seen, added Ethan. But I would rather think of smugglers. They may be hiding weapons. The colored smoke suddenly becomes a signal sent at sea to a boat that docks somewhere and unloads its goods.

-Maybe drug dealers, added Linnea.

-And why not child thieves, launched Celeste. Remember, when visiting the castle yesterday, the three of you came down. Me, I listened for a moment, while I retied my shoelace. I thought I heard a baby cry. Maybe even two, because I heard different voices.

Our friends stopped on the beach. This case impressed them very much.

-We must carry out an investigation, affirmed Ethan. Let's see what happens. This noon, after dinner, we will meet in our attic, sheltered from indiscreet ears and we will try to put forward ideas and establish plans. This yellow smoke does not appear at night for no reason.

"Okay," replied the other three.

They returned to the inn.

During the midday meal, the little merry-go-round of the day before repeated itself and held their attention.

The elderly gentleman arrived a few minutes late. He approached the two young people before sitting down to eat. He gave them the same metal key, about six inches long, then he said to them, discreetly: "Orange." Our friends clearly heard this word. They all four looked at each other.

- Orange, now. For what? Philip wondered.

"And this key," said the girls. To open what? A large lock given its dimensions.

- In any case not that of the padlock of the gate of the dungeon, added Celeste.

One of the young people got up and, taking the key, went up to his room. He came back to sit at the table, without her, two minutes later.

Alex suggested following them this afternoon.

As soon as their meal was over, the two young men left the inn and headed for the beach. Our friends followed suit from a distance, sometimes hiding behind rocks, sometimes behind a sand dune or along the cliffs, so as not to be spotted. The grayness and the wind raised the waves, still as strong.

Arrived in sight of the castle, the two accomplices did not take the narrow path which climbed along the cliff. They continued their walk, towards the rocky outcrop, by the beach. They rounded the point and suddenly disappeared.

Alex, Linnea, Ethan and Celeste ran towards this place at the foot of the cliffs. The waves crashed within two meters of them. The foam stuck to their skin and clothes and the spray froze them. The two young people had disappeared.

Turning back, our friends examined the footprints in the sand carefully. They scanned the cliff carefully. No one in sight! Was there a passage along the vertical wall? They searched.

After a few minutes, Celeste called her friends.

-Come on, I think I found something interesting.

The other three joined the girl.

- Look at this crevice, there, in the cliff, it seems that it continues. This may be the entrance to a cave.

The three of them followed their friend inside the passage. They thought they were only taking a few steps, because they thought they would have to come back with flashlights, but after walking two or three meters in the narrow trench, they passed under a small lamp, a simple bulb, which hung on the ceiling. She was on.

They continued their progression and discovered, after six or seven meters, a staircase which comprised ten steps and led downwards. This staircase was prolonged by a wet corridor of approximately thirty meters. It ended with a second staircase which went up. Ten steps up, then a sharp angle, then another ten steps. They ended up in a vast cave.

It was impressive. They were below the castle. Another small bulb shed a poor light.

Our friends discovered the presence of a spiral staircase at the bottom of the cave. They followed him but were quickly blocked by a gate, an old rusty gate with a big closed lock.

-I understand, affirmed Alex. To open this gate, you need the key that the old gentleman gives to the two young people at noon.

-Totally agree with you, said Linnea.

"Too bad we can't go any further," Ethan continued. We would have interesting things to discover.

"Listen," Veronique whispered, lowering her voice.

They fell silent, and in the silence and the ambient semi-darkness, they heard the hoarse moans of a baby…

-What horror! whispered Alex. Children are prisoners in the cellars of this castle, just above us. They must be released.

-Poor babies, Veronique mused aloud.

Our friends shook the gate but it remained firmly closed. They turned around, went back down the spiral staircase, recrossed the cave, took the two sets of ten steps, followed the damp corridor, and climbed the last ten steps to exit through the crevice that opened onto the beach.

The waves were still crashing with just as much energy. The wind was blowing stronger and stronger, and the clouds were dropping a little cold rain.

Our four friends returned to the inn chilled and impressed.


In the evening, the two young people were again absent at the meal. The old gentleman ate while reading, in his corner. Our friends drew up a first plan. They decided to observe, once again, the strange phenomenon which occurred, it seemed, every night at midnight.

Alex's electronic watch rang at eleven forty-five. The boy woke up his sleeping buddy and the two of them, in pajamas, went down the stairs to the girls' room.

After the three knocks as agreed, they let the boys enter. They all stood in front of the window. Ethan caressed the neck of his dear Celeste, who this time did not balk.

A few minutes after midnight, our friends heard the two young people enter the inn and enter their room, like the other time.

Towards a quarter past midnight, orange smoke rose above the dungeon. She climbed more than a hundred meters in height. She was extremely beautiful, luminous, almost flamboyant. When it reached its peak, the children saw thousands of small multicolored sparks appearing within it. A dazzling spectacle! Then the smoke slowly descended and disappeared into the castle.

"That amazes me," confessed Ethan.

After a moment of silence during which each of them remained silent, impressed by the splendor of the phenomenon, Linnea revived her idea.

-This smoke is a signal for a boat at sea, she said. A message for smugglers. Drugs, weapons, stolen babies, anything that is delivered and then stored in the cellars of the cursed castle.

"For a signal, I don't find it very discreet," said Alex. You can see it for miles around.

One thing remains certain, said the four friends sitting in a circle, the girls on their beds, the boys on the carpet, we won't know anything until we have visited the cellars of this accursed castle.

-Alas, to enter, you need the key, thinks Linnea.

"Exactly," Ethan muttered. We need a key.

The boy insisted on the "one".

-That of the padlock at the top of the dungeon, we will never have it. But the bottom one seems possible to me. The old man gives it to the two young people when he comes to dinner at noon. At this moment, one of them goes up to the bedroom, no doubt to put her in a safe place.

"We could borrow it discreetly from them," suggested Alex.

"No," replied Celeste. They'll figure it out real quick and we'll blame you guys. Only you have a master key.

-I agree, thinks Linnea. We need a duplicate of this key.

"Good idea," said Ethan. Here is my plan. He holds the road.

"Not so loud," Veronique interjected. We could be heard.

-You took, I believe, your digital camera?

"Yes," answered Veronique.

And he explained his project.

-When the old gentleman comes back tomorrow noon from the castle and gives the key to his associates, one of the two will get up to take it to their room, as always. When he comes back, one of us will leave the table with our master key. He will go and take the device prepared in the girls' room, then he will go into that of the two thugs. He will photograph the key.

-Okay, confirmed Alex, but another one of us will have to watch from the stairs, to warn whoever is going to the bedroom, in case one of the two young people downstairs gets up.

-A picture of the key will not be enough to have it made at a scrap dealer, added Ethan. A graduated slat must be photographed at the same time, so that the locksmith can get a precise idea of ​​the dimensions of the object. You will need to take at least two photos, one of each side of the key.

The plan being developed and accepted by all, they drew the roles. The trickiest fell on Linnea. She should play spies and enter the two men's room to photograph the key. His brother Alex shot the role of the one who would guard the stairs. Ethan received the one who, claiming some reason or other, would warn Alex if one of the youngsters got up during the operation.

At noon, the old gentleman arrived a little late again. Everyone was at the table. He approached his two accomplices and gave them the key. He muttered "red". We know what that means… (red) .

One of the young people went up to his room. He then went downstairs to finish his meal.

Linnea got up in turn. She was a little pale and her hands were shaking.

-It does not go well? asked Veronique's parents, when our friend passed by their table.

-I have a stomach ache, pretended the little girl. I'm coming, ma'am.

She wasn't lying. She was actually cramping. Emotion and fear no doubt. But fate designated her for the most delicate part of the mission. She's not the type to back down.

She ran up the stairs, went into her bedroom, took Veronique's camera, crossed the hall and opened the door for the two young people with the boys' master key. She entered the lair with the graduated lath in hand.

Alex, at that moment, left the table in turn.

- Are you not feeling well too? asked Veronique's mother.

-I'm going to see my sister, Madame, I'm coming.

The boy went upstairs.

Linnea had just entered the room of the two young people. She saw a bit of a mess there, but saw the famous key on one of the bedspreads. She cocked the camera and took a first shot after placing the graduated slat right next to it. She then turned it over and took a second picture.

At that moment, in the dining room, one of the young people stood up. Ethan rushed down the hall.

-How are you ? said Celeste's dad.

- Yes, sir, I'm going to the toilet.

He whistled down the hall. Alex, leaving his observation post, ran to the room of the two young people and ordered his sister to get out as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, the one who had risen did not go up the stairs. He just went to the bathroom.

Linnea rushed out of the room and closed the door with the master key. Then she went to put the camera away. But when she came downstairs, she realized that she had forgotten the slat on the bed in the bandits' room.

Her brother came upstairs, opened the door, took the lath and closed it carefully. The operation had gone well. Both photos were successful.

At the beginning of the afternoon, our friends went to a junkyard. His studio was next to his house.

They asked him to make a key similar to the one in the photo. The man rummaged through various crates and pulled out several old, rusty keys. Then he announced to them, in English of course (fortunately Ethan manages in this language), the price of the operation.

The boy turned to his friends.

-It's horribly expensive, guys. All our pocket money will go there. What do you think ?

-I accept, said Alex.

"Okay," Veronique whispered. I find it worth it.

-Good, sighed Linnea, thinking of the ice cream and candy she was going to deprive herself of.

Ethan came back to the scrap dealer and handed him the money. The worker promised that the key would be ready the next day.

That night, the four friends, again gathered in the girls' room, admired a splendid red smoke. She ascended to the sky. She seemed, like the other times, to escape from the dungeon. She was covered in sparks. Then the column of light descended again, everything disappeared and the night regained its dark silence.

The children went back to the locksmith the next morning and took the key. She seemed perfect.

All that remained was to put the second part of the plan into execution: to go to the castle around midnight, without being noticed by the parents or by the people of the inn, of course, and discover the secret of the cursed castle.

At half-past nine in the evening, the children went up to their rooms after having kissed Veronique's parents. The girls dressed in dark jeans, sneakers, black t-shirts and prepared a big jacket. The boys did the same. It was quite cold outside.

At eleven o'clock, Ethan and Alex knocked on Linnea and Celeste's door. They left their room noiselessly and the four friends descended the stairs in silence. The inn's dining room and lounge were empty.

They opened a window and stepped through it. They didn't want to ask for the key to the hostel. They would be asked too many questions. They pulled the window towards them, without closing it completely, so that they could enter that way, of course, when they returned from their expedition.

Once outside, they ran towards the beach and headed as quickly as possible to the castle. They arrived at the crevice a little before midnight.

For a moment, while walking on the sand, at the foot of the cliffs, they were afraid to meet the two young people returning from the castle, but the meeting did not take place. The two bandits were probably returning to the hotel by the upper road, easier at night.

The children entered the small cave. The waves fairly close to them also wet them up to their ankles because the water invaded the entrance to the narrow passage. They descended the ten steps, followed the dark corridor, climbed the other two times ten and arrived in the large cavern. They found the spiral staircase. They climbed up and stopped at the gate.

The big moment was coming.

They put their key in the lock, turned, and the gate opened.

They continued their progression up the stairs and were greatly surprised to discover a chemistry laboratory. A little everywhere, there were lighted gaslights under enormous vials or transparent retorts containing liquids of all kinds of colors, some of which were bubbling.

Our friends had a moment of fear when they heard voices. They recognized those of the two young people. Tonight, they were still there… The children bent down behind a long chest and listened.

-What color does the teacher want for tonight?

-Green.

- Okay, perfect. I wear yellow and blue. If it mixes as expected, it should succeed.

-So. Save us.

-Where is the cat? said the other. Prof's cat. He always hangs around here.

-I do not see it.

-Too bad. We don't have time anymore. Let's go before it's too late.

This last sentence, translated like the others by Ethan, worried our friends. What did they mean by "before it's too late"?

The two young people disappeared by the upper staircase. They went up into the dungeon and went out, no doubt, through the gate of the curved corridor which was, you remember, on the second floor of the castle, next to the great fireplace. They locked the gate behind them. Our friends heard the click. They didn't have that key.

Going back down to the laboratory, they first wanted to free all the prisoners. They looked for human babies on the off chance, but they did not find any. At that moment, a cat began to meow hoarsely.

You may have heard cats meow like this in the spring, especially when they are hunting. Closing your eyes is like hearing a crying baby. Open your window at night, even in town, you will be surprised by these strange meows that sound like the moans of small children. It's impressive.

The little cat was hiding in a corner of the laboratory. Linnea walked towards him and managed to take him in her arms, caressing him. 

Our friends saw blue and yellow smoke coming out of boiling retorts and heading towards the ceiling of the room. Looking up, they observed a gigantic extractor hood.

The smoke, green now, escaped through this conduit. A few moments later, it would no doubt appear at the top of the dungeon, rise about a hundred meters, present a series of sparks, then come back down, like the other times.

A few minutes later, the four children saw the fumes arriving and gradually invading the laboratory.

A pigeon, coming from outside, passed through the smoke which was floating for the moment on the ceiling of the room and fell dead on the floor.

The strange green cloud slowly descended and filled the laboratory. The four friends, horrified, understood at that moment that if they stood there watching, they risked breathing in this toxic smoke and perhaps dying as well. We had to save ourselves, and quickly.

Alex, Linnea, Ethan and Celeste decided to take the cat and run away by the beach, the only way out that remained possible.

The children, impressed and terrified, ran up the spiral staircase and arrived at the gate. They passed it and locked it behind them. Linnea held the cat in her arms. They crossed the cave, then took the first flight of ten steps. They reached the bend in the stairs. They had ten more steps to descend. But a very unpleasant surprise awaited them.

The sea water, carried by the rising tide, invaded the lower corridor and completely immersed it. The water lapped on the steps of the second staircase. Impossible to get out of this place, unless you can swim at least thirty meters under icy water.

The friends turned and went back to the grate of the spiral staircase, but there they saw that slowly, the poisonous smoke, the terrible green, deadly vapor, was spreading towards the cave. Alex, Ethan, Celeste, and Linnea, with the little cat in their arms, were stuck between the smoke which was slowly descending and the tide which was inexorably rising.

They returned to the cave. What to do ?

Ethan, the mathematician, estimated the time it would take for the cave to fill with deadly gas and become unbreathable. We had to try something and urgently. And the children could only rely on themselves. No one was aware of their presence in these places in the middle of the night.

Take the spiral staircase and try to cross the smoky area. Impossible. Even pinching their nose and hand over their mouth, they wouldn't have time to cross the laboratory without breathing. And anyway, the upper gate was locked. They couldn't escape that way.

So we had to go through the water. They all four looked at each other. The best in swimming are Alex and Linnea, both very athletic. 

Bravely, Linnea took off her jacket and sneakers.

"I'm going," she affirmed.

"No," said his brother. I know your courage, but I will do it. I am your big brother. It's up to me to try to save you.

"The water is freezing," muttered Linnea.

"Too bad," replied our friend. I don't want to die here without trying everything first.

-I admire you, said Ethan. I don't believe I could do it. Thirty meters underwater at once is too long for me. More than a swimming pool length. And when you get to the end, you still have to climb the last ten steps, which may also be under water. I thank you for your courage.

-Normal, answered Alex. I know that if you were able to do it, you would propose.

-I think I'm stupid, recognized his friend. In sketching out my plan, I did not take the tide into account. I didn't even think about it. Yet our feet were wading through the water on the way.

"We should all have thought of that," the girls whispered. Especially since it has happened to us before.

Alex stepped into the cold water, went down a few steps, and turned around one last time.

-It will take time. I have to run to the inn to ask for help…

He dove and disappeared from the eyes of our friends.

He swam with all his might, displaying extraordinary energy. He reached the other staircase, out of breath. He quickly climbed the stairs and was finally able to breathe. A wave crashed over him. Soaked, freezing, he ran as fast as he could on the beach.

The inn was far away. He had to be reached shirtless, barefoot, in the rain, in the middle of the night. He was going all the faster because he was shivering with cold. It kept him from shivering in the icy downpour.

The other three and the little cat sat down on the floor in the cave, at the top of the stairs. Slowly it was filling with smoke, the terrible deadly vapour.

Ethan turned to Celeste. He put his arms on his friend's shoulders. He brought his face closer to hers and whispered in her ear.

-We don't even have an hour left to live, maybe. Since we are in great danger of dying, let me kiss you one last time in love. It will console me a little to make my last breath so young.

Veronique looked at the boy. She cried.

-Are you still taking advantage of the situation? she said in a very small voice.

Then she let herself be kissed tenderly.

With a little note of humor, despite the dramatic situation, Linnea asked if she was not too much, if she shouldn't go away. She was content to give kisses to the cat…

When the lovers stopped hugging, the smoke was so close that the children were forced to start down the stairs. The water stopped them. Time ticked away its minutes to the rhythm of their fear.

Suddenly, ghostly and terrifying shadows appeared in the green smoke. Three abominable beings, with triangular heads, black and shiny bodies were approaching. Our friends uttered a cry of terror.

The shadows emerged from the smoke and took off their masks. They were the old gentleman and two policemen. They brought waterproof suits which the children immediately put on.

There was no mask or protection for the little cat. Linnea refused that she be sacrificed. She hugged it to her shirt and slipped the zipper of her suit over it.

Our friends accompanied the three men through the green smoke, towards the dungeon where Veronique's parents were waiting for them with Alex, still barefoot. All returned to the inn.

The lights shone in the hotel dining room. The two young people, awake in the meantime, Veronique's parents, the police and the innkeeper listened to the accusations of the four friends. Then the older man spoke.

He began by acknowledging that children had a lot of imagination. Then he explained that they were not thieves, nor traffickers of any kind, but chemists. He himself teaches at MIT in Boston, USA, and the two young people were students. All three were following a bold project that aimed to improve safety during fireworks.

They created a colored powder which, mixed with other substances, bloomed into the sky. These smokes had an infinite variety of colors. As soon as they were in the open air, they lit up with more beautiful sparkles.

This corresponded perfectly to the sight that our friends noticed three times during the night and which intrigued them so much.

Unfortunately, this powder then went back down to the ground and, because of the sparks, became very toxic.

-We work, continued the professor, with all the authorizations, inside this isolated castle where we installed a laboratory. If we succeed in making gunpowder harmless to humans and animals, fireworks, as they are thrown today, will fall into disuse and be replaced by this marvelous gunpowder. It will be much less dangerous than those firecrackers or rockets which sometimes explode too soon and injure the artificers, or often burn them horribly.

Alex, Ethan, Linnea and Celeste had come a long way. They thought they were dealing with dangerous criminals. Ashamed, they offered their sincere apologies.

The three chemists, with a perfect sense of humor, left with a big smile, and everything ended at the bar of the inn, around a glass of friendship, in the middle of the night.

The professor stroked his cat, which was mounted on his lap.

- Thank you Linnea! he said moved to find him safe and sound.

Our friends ended their holidays on the beach and at the foot of the cliffs, sometimes looking moved at the cursed castle which had very nearly become their tomb