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Behind the shadow of the ruins


Behind the shadow of the ruins
Summer evenings in a small town can be frighteningly dull - unless you set up a group of friends as unusual as Igor, Lena and Kacper. They didn't have much in common other than a curiosity about the world and a tendency to get into trouble. But it was this that pushed them that day towards the Old Corner - the part of town where the remains of the von Lichtenberg manor house had been haunted for years. Among the overgrown paths, stealthily escaping the watchful eye of their neighbours, the three sneaked under the barely holding gate. The dark windows of the manor glowed empty, but Lena, with her inseparable torch and camera, couldn't help herself. Igor, always sceptical, threw in quiet jokes. Kacper - he was always the first to act, so it was he who pushed open the creaky front door. The smell of mustiness and something indefinably sweet hit them in the face. "It looks like the set of a B-grade horror movie," Igor whispered as they entered the main hall, where moonlight leaked through a hole in the roof. The floor bowed underfoot. Lena took pictures, every rustle echoing off the cracked walls. Everyone had heard the urban legends - of lost travellers, of mysterious lights above the manor, even of a hidden passage in the cellars. Just then, Lena noticed something strange. In one of the rooms, under a pile of decayed books and cracked frames, lay an old casket. Small, metal, covered with strange symbols that seemed to glow slightly in the faint light. "This must be some kind of family heirloom..." whispered Lena, carefully bringing it out into the middle of the dishevelled floor. Kacper squatted closer, Igor still looking around nervously, as if the ceiling was about to fall on them at any moment. Lena opened the lid. Inside, instead of the expected valuables or crumbled letters, there was a crumpled piece of paper. When Lena unrolled the paper, they saw a drawing of the manor house on it - with a place marked that they did not know. Beneath the sketch, neatly but as if in haste, someone had written: "Last chance before they close the doors. Tonight at midnight." They heard a sudden creak coming from the corridor. They exchanged frightened glances, and Kacper felt that something was following their movements. In that moment, all the urban legends seemed more likely than ever....


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Age category: 16-17 years
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Times read: 37
Endings: 2
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