The Castle of Traps
by Hailey Wong Wing Huen 4C
“PLEASE! Don’t go in there!” Mary pleaded.
“Don’t be silly, I’m sure it’s safe.” Ricky replied. “Plus, aren’t you longing for this scoop?”
It was the middle of night. Ricky was joining Mary for a scoop, since the newspaper deadline was approaching. They were in the eerie Castle of Traps, fifteen miles from the nearest village and fifty two miles from Crater City, the creepiest city in the world. The castle was located in a prickly thorn forest, in the middle of nowhere. Rumour has it that this castle has a treasure guarded by a ghost!
Ricky and Mary had walked into a room where there was a bed with tattered cloth hanging from the bedstead, and it was very filthy. Across the room, various kinds of creepy pictures hung from the wall. A splintered closet stood in front of Ricky and Mary, and in the middle of the closet, was a huge hole.
“AAAAHHH!” shrieked Mary. A bat had landed on her head. She sprinted around the room, until the bat flew out of a shattered window.
“Scaredy cat!” muttered Ricky under his breath. Mary did some breathing exercises, calmed down, and dusted herself off. But then, she saw Ricky with a smug smile and she realised what was going to happen.
“Nooooo!” Mary screamed.
“Yes!” Ricky grinned.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the corner of Mary’s eyes.
“AAAAHHH!” she shrieked again, and went running into a spacious hallway.
“Wait for me!” hollered Ricky. He ran after Mary.
“What…a…workout…” gasped Ricky.
After a while, Ricky caught up with Mary, who had calmed down and started snapping photos of a great painting that stood hanging on the stained wall. Then the creepy shadow appeared again. This time, they both tried to steady themselves and they took a good look at the shadow. It was a shadow in the shape of a werewolf! Ricky was confused. There was nothing around except a table with a strange camcorder, a set of teapots and teacups, and half-eaten doughnuts.
“It MUST be a werewolf! It even ate the doughnuts!” Mary said, biting her fingernails.
“Use your brain!” Ricky grunted. “I figured it out. It’s a projector shaped like a camcorder!”
It was a long way back to the room with the hole, and since Ricky and Mary’s stomachs were grumbling, they went to the castle kitchen to grab a snack. They walked on, passed various rooms and they finally reached the huge kitchen. In the kitchen were baskets of maggot filled mouldy cheese, cans of opened tomato soup, spilled on the floor, bags of flour, and lots and lots of cockroaches in tanks.
“AAAAHHH!” Mary screamed. “THERE’S BLOOD!” Ricky groaned and rubbed his forehead.
“Can’t you read the can? It’s tomato juice!” Then, Ricky started to rummage through the kitchen cabins.
“Come on, Mary, help me make some tea!” Ricky tossed her a box of teabags. Mary caught the box, set it down, and went to put on the kettle. But then, the kettle spitted out some hot water at Mary.
“Youch!” she cried. Ricky came running over.
“What happen—” Splat! The kettle sprayed water on Ricky too!” The kettle must be broken and leaking! Let me take a look.” Ricky said as he dodged the spitting water. He got to the kettle and peered into the kettle.
“It's because the kettle has some kind of spring inside it. But who put it there?”
“Let's just forget about the tea and just grab the biscuits.” Mary suggested, who was sweating buckets.
“Good idea.” Ricky approved. He reached up in a cabin and pulled out a box labelled ‘Chocolate chip cookies’. He followed Mary back into the hall.
Ricky and Mary opened the box of cookies as they walked back to the room with the hole. Ricky ripped open the packet of cookies and found— cockroaches?!
“Oh no!” shouted Mary.
“It’s a packet of chocolate chip cockroaches!” The cockroaches spilled across the floor, some climbing onto walls, some slipping into rooms, some crawling onto Ricky and Mary. Ricky braced himself as a cockroach crawled onto his nose. Strangely, Ricky heard some metallic sounds as the cockroach held onto his nose. He grabbed the cockroach. Ricky found a little screw on the cockroach’s back. He was right! When he turned the screw, the cockroach steered into motion. Soon, the cockroach’s batteries ran out and the cockroach stopped moving.
“Mary! The cockroaches are fake! The cockroaches are robots!”
They went back into the room with the hole. Ricky just couldn’t hold his curiosity anymore. He took a great deep breath, grabbed Mary’s arm and —
“Wait!” Mary screamed.
“Let me think about my will first! And I’m begging you, PLEASE don't go into the hole! It could be something scary! It might give me a heart attack! I’m scared!”
“Boy, you sure are crazy…” muttered Ricky. He didn't want to think about anything, he just wanted to explore the hole. He leaped into the hole and dragged Mary with him.
“AAAAHHH!” Mary howled into the darkness.
They both fell down and slammed into the floor with a great THUD! They landed in a creepy room.
“Where are we?” wondered Mary.
“I think we are in the basement of the castle.” replied Ricky. They looked around. Wooden frames stood from the ceiling to the floor, and creepy dark red spots stained the frames. Pretty much everything was covered in trash. A mouse scurried out from a dark spot. There was really nothing except a table covered with a torn cloth.
But then, a voice boomed, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Ricky shuddered. “Now I regret going into the hole!” He said in a squeaky voice. Mary started sweating.
“How dare you try to enter my territory?” The voice continued. Mary couldn’t hold it any longer. She freaked and accidentally ran into the table covered with the cloth.
“What did you— fizzz” Mary had knocked off the radio that was imitating the ghost’s voice. “Now we know that the incidents are fake. Mary freaked out yet again and this time, she ran into a wall. To their surprise, the wall slid open!
“Way to go Mary!” Ricky cheered. They entered the room.
“Wow!” Mary and Ricky said. Inside the room was the legendary treasure! Jewels, necklaces and gold coins filled the sparkly treasure chest to the brim.
“This is just perfect for our scoop!” Mary exclaimed.
“Even more, we can use it to restore the city!” Ricky added happily.
Then, they returned to their city and printed their newspaper. It sold like popsicles on a hot summer day. Their boss was so proud of them, he gave them a free holiday!
Mary and Ricky thought that it was a fantastic adventure, and the holiday was just the right opportunity to go to the Castle of Traps.