Ok, my last debut of this didn't go over so well, maybe someone will take interest in another chapter though...hopefully?
Empty Sioka
Chapter Two – Adding Color Streaks to Sioka
Yellow ribbons adorned the side of the entrance when the children walked in. Black words were written boldly across these film-like adornments, they had once blocked the door even it seemed. Inside was dark, but the screens let a bit more light in than the traditional walls of the day would as the building tried once again to let its secret be known. Everywhere the four children looked these walls seemed to be screaming to them in a language that could not be translated by human ears.
A paper was nailed to the door’s frame.
“Con-dee-med,” Alex sounded out the unfamiliar word with a puzzled, tight-mouthed face.
“That must be the name of the castle!” Brynn cried happily, looking at the paper as well. “Castle Condimed! Oh how beautiful!” she stopped talking abruptly as they stepped inside, seeing what the castle had to behold.
Each child was wide-eyes and speechless as they walked around the smooth wooden floor taking time to walk in a slow rhythm and see all that they could. Even Brynn wasn’t saying a word or giving off a boastful look, she too was mesmerized.
“Treasure!” the oldest girl cried suddenly as her eyes rested on an ancient wooden box.
The other two turned their heads with interest and quickly ran to the spot. Both of them wanted to be first to see what was inside first as Brynn lifted the ancient lid. Their giant grins turned immediately into open circles in their mouths as the children were in awe once more.
“What are they?” Alex questioned, peering inside. Rusted rings which were held together by other shapes of metal were piled high in the box, spheres that were completely rusted over laid amongst them as well as a few golden coins.
“Gold!” Silas cried in excitement, he began to draw out the other contents of the box to obtain the rounded, flat gold shapes from beneath. Brynn instead busied herself with trying to find some rusted bracelets that would fit her wrist, they seemed oddly linked together to fit someone precisely, but she wasn’t quite sure what the bracelets were meant to fit…
“Look you guys!” Alex called the attention towards him, laughing as he kicked up three of the rusted spheres, keeping them in the air like soccer balls. Silas looked over and laughed as well. He decided that his pockets were gold-laden enough and went over to play Alex’s new game.
Missa had not joined in with her sister or the other two friends; she was busy on the other side of the castle. This side didn’t have any treasures it seemed, but rather papers that were stacked high. The small girl reached up to a shelf that sat against the wall and took a paper from the top, releasing clouds of dust into the area and causing the weak parchment to crumble in her hand, its knowledge never to be passed on.
“Achoo!” Alex sneezed from the smoke, dropping all of the balls onto the ground. They wriggled for a bit strangely, but seemed to be kept shut by the rust, unable to break open. The cloud quickly surged over the entire room, blanketing everything with its smell of agedness.
“Missa, stop that! You’re getting our castle dirty!” Brynn yelled from the other side of the room, rolling her eyes at the other girl. Missa frowned and retreated further away from the others to sit down against the screen wall in the darkness. It was the only thing that seemed to have held up.
“Hmmm?” she made a small, bird-like noise as the girl on the floor noticed something on the wall. She rose, taking two steps backwards. Words were written in thick, black lettering which had not faded in the shadows of the castle. It seemed to have been etched with ink and had dripped for a few moments before drying. The letters were severe and thick, clearly the strongest and most powerful sight inside the venerable place. Missa tried again to sound out the letters.
NEVER FORGET
After two tries, the six-year old found that the message wasn’t very hard to read, but it was still very difficult to understand. Why would someone write that inside this beautiful old castle? The child dismissed it as someone who wanted to spoil everyone’s fun, such as the teenagers that wrote obscenities on the playground equipment nearby. So she moved on, unaware of what these words were so desperately and bluntly trying to scream to her.
Another box stood in the corner. It wasn’t wooden like the one that Brynn found; this one was made of cheap, pink plastic. “Sumi” was written across it in large, childish letters. Missa thought that it would be a good box, one that she could relate to since it seemed that it was once owned by a child by the handwriting on top. Its contents were of lesser quality than the wooden box’s Missa discovered upon peering inside, but they were still wondrous to her nonetheless.
Inside sat another one of the spheres; this one was much less rusted because only a limited amount of air had gotten through the plastic, and its white bottom and green and yellow striped top half showed their original colors. Also in the box was a long piece of coarse braided rope, as well as a brightly colored spray bottle.
Missa lifted up the box containing its preserved relics and returned to the group, ready to leave. It was the only thing that she encountered that was worth anything to her inside the decaying, screaming place. Castle Condimed was more of an excitement to the other three, to Missa it was just another thing that she didn’t understand.