The Castle Karlstadt – Excerpt 15 – Malcolm Marsh

The Castle Karlstadt – Excerpt 15

We concluded our search, then returned to the others. The fire they had built was burning brightly and they had a meal of sorts cooking over the fire. All very satisfactory I thought. But my mind was not on my meal. The information I had been given by Father Michael had my head in ferment. It was a very different story to the one I was told earlier.

It all seemed to centre on the castle, but why was it so important? Strategically it was in a good position. But I’m looking at this through a soldier’s eye, maybe its not about the castle. Is there something of worth or importance hidden within the castle? so many ideas, so many options.

I spent a restless night trying to solve the conundrum that was the castle and woke bleary eyed and bad tempered. The fire was still glowing red, so I built it up a little to generate a little warmth. The Doctor was asleep head resting on his saddle, Father Michael lay near to him, wrapped in his cassock. but where was Bruno, he was missing?

I was just about to wake the others, when I heard a scream, it sounded like a woman or a girl in distress. I grabbed my rifle and headed in the direction that the sound had come from. It was Bruno, he was manhandling a young woman, He spun her round and slapped her across the face, howling, ‘Vampire bitch! I will kill you!’ as he drew his knife, I had no choice but to intervene.

‘Drop the knife Bruno, or I will shoot, and if you make me, I will shoot to kill!’ I made my intentions crystal clear. He hesitated, so to make my intentions perfectly clear, I fired a warning shot in to the air. Bruno dropped his knife and stepped away from the girl, for girl she was. He gave me a look of total malice, but the rifle in my hands kept him in check, he knew I would not hesitate to use it.