Dylan sat down in front of the massive fire place, tending the dying fire as he thought about his grandmother Sylvia. Even though he knew that he was the only one in the family to ever show interest in the old family manor house when she was still alive, he still didn’t know why exactly she had left it to him solely.

He wasn’t even that sure if he enjoyed being all alone in such a huge, old, crumbling manor. At least he had Bez, the ancient cat that Sylvia kept. Dylan always liked Bez despite his hateful nature, though that was probably because Bez hunted birds. Unfortunately, Bez was not in the room with him right now, making Dylan feel very alone and on edge. His hand self-consciously moved to grip the old charm necklace Sylvia had given him and he instantly felt more at ease.

Just then, he heard Bez meow from the other room. Checking his watch, Dylan sighed. He had forgotten to feed Bez in the chaos of trying to close all the old windows in the castle. Getting up, Dylan left the room in search of the cat.

Following the meows from room to room, Dylan eventually found himself in the hallway that led to the garden. Dylan groaned at this realization- the Garden Hallway was one of the places where the windows just wouldn’t close.

“Bez, you idiot cat,” Dylan muttered as he went back to the dining room. “Why can’t you stay inside during the night like normal cats?”

Grabbing the flashlight from the table, Dylan returned to the Garden Hallway. He then grabbed the key ring from his pocket and sifted through until he found the skeleton key. Turning it in the lock, Dylan opened the door and stepped outside into the frigid air.

Shivering at the cold, Dylan shoved the key ring back into its proper place and rubbed his hands together. Turning, he closed the door and heard it click shut. He then flicked on the flashlight and began looking for Bez.

“I am never going to come back here unless it is the middle of summer,” Dylan told himself as he walked through the garden and into the apple grove. Dylan shone the light all around the grove before remembering that there were birds nesting here. He hesitated, but gathered his courage and continued to search for his cat.

Dylan walked through the grove, cringing every time he broke a twig, calling for Bez. All of a sudden, he heard a whistling noise on the wind. He paused, and backed up slightly when the noise grew in strength until it sounded similar to a far off scream. Then, it suddenly stopped, leaving Dylan on the verge of screaming himself. As soon as the noise died down, Dylan had a strong feeling that he should go back inside. He began to walk towards the light of the house, slowly speeding his gait due to his growing sense of dread.

A cat-like shape caught his eye to his left, and no sooner had he turned his head to look did he crash into a moss covered wall. Shaking himself from a slight daze, Dylan realized that he was still in the grove- he had been walking towards the garden wall. His sense of dread grew when he felt the weight of invisible eyes again and he heard a cackling sound.

“Calm down Dylan,” he said to himself rather loudly. “It’s just a fox or something outside the wall-” He paused in mid-sentence when the cackling sounded right behind him. “Okay… Time to go inside!”

Dylan turned on his heel and began to speed walk through the grove. To his horror, the cackling sound seemed to be growing louder as he went on. Suddenly, his feet stopped moving, as if held down by something, causing him to fall over. He picked himself up onto his knees, and felt something glide over his face. His face suddenly felt ice cold on the cheeks- it felt like someone with cold hands was cupping his face. A pressure sunk in on his cheeks and along the bottom of his jaw, and he found himself being forced to look up. There was no one there.

“Well well, if it isn’t the little one,” a male voice said clearly in a menacing tone from in front of Dylan, causing him to scream silently. He tried to move backwards, but his body wasn’t responding. “You shouldn’t be out this late- mother might worry…”

Dylan then felt something cold streamed down his hands, and he realized it was a liquid. He brought his fingers to his nose, and recoiled at the smell- it was blood. A searing pain then blossomed around his neck as the male voice began laughing sadistically.

Suddenly Dylan regained control of his body and scooted backwards away from whatever was there, dropping the flashlight in the process. The laughter grew louder as he scrambled to his feet and began running away from the sound. His senses were overloaded, and his instincts signaled that something worse was about to happen. And, as it normally goes with instincts, something worse happened.

The trees suddenly began to shake as if there was an earthquake, waking the birds. In their fear they began swooping around the grove in a panic. Then as one they all began to swoop at Dylan, who was now sprinting and screaming in fear.

Beaks caught on his face and ears; talons ripped at his neck, clothes and hands as he shielded his eyes, and the screeching of all the birds caused Dylan to remember the birds in his home town attacking him one day. He tripped and fell on his hands just as a hawk screamed. He felt the large bird swoop over his body, and felt the sharp talons snag at his battered sweater.

He stumbled back up just as he heard another voice scream a high pitched shriek of pain. He then ran faster than he ever had in his entire life, tripping and stumbling along the way. Finally, he was out of the apple grove, and he kept running towards the manor house.

Dylan heard the sinister male voice again, and it screamed “You will never escape!” in a hoarse tone. The sound of running started behind him, crashing through the grove. The thudding footsteps crunched through the last of the grove just as Dylan reached the door and wrenched the handle open. Pulling hard, Dylan let out a moan of fear and displeasure when it did not open- the door relocks after closing, and he had forgotten that. He hurriedly searched through his pockets and brought out the key ring. His relief at that was short-lived when he realized that he now had to find the skeleton key amongst the other keys.

As he quickly shuffled through them, his fingers numb with the cold and his own fear, the running steps grew ever closer. With a cry of relief, Dylan found the skeleton key and shoved it in the key hole just as the running sound started across the patio. He quickly turned the key to the right, and tried to open the door, but it remained locked. Dylan let out a dry heave as he hastily turned the key in the other direction and pulled open the door with all his might. Taking the key from the lock and running inside, he felt an ice cold hand brush across his back. He slammed the door shut and again shoved the skeleton key in the lock and locked the door.

A heavy bang sounded as something appeared to hurdle into the door, causing Dylan to shrink back against the far wall. A yell of anger bellowed forth as Dylan ran down the hallway, slamming the door to the hallway shut as he passed.

He quickly locked the door and leant against it, trying to regain his breath as he basked in the artificial light of the main hall. The feeling of dread was lessened now, but a seed of it remained, buried in his mind. He slumped into an armchair in the hallway and reached for his necklace. Dylan’s eyes widened then, and he sat up quickly, looking around the room. His necklace was gone.

A movement in the kitchen caught Dylan’s eye, and he turned his head slowly to face the kitchen doorway. A shadow moved across the doorway, and Dylan felt himself go tense again. Then, much to his relief, Bez slunk into the room, looking displeased.

Dylan smiled weakly at the orange tabby. “There you are Bez,” he said tiredly. The greeting was met with a glare from the addressed, practically ordering Dylan to put food in the cat dish. “All right, all right. I’ll get you some dang food.”

Looking satisfied, Bez pranced back into the kitchen as Dylan followed. ‘Stupid cat,’ he thought as he filled the cat dish.