I sat panicky in my living room, waiting for Michelle and Jared to pick me up. They'd told me they would be picking me up at 8 o clock. The clock seemed to be ticking forever. I’d told Alyson that we were going to Michelle’s to watch a DVD. That seemed pretty innocent - she couldn’t ask many questions about that. I told her they’d drive me home. She gave in surprisingly quick.

I heard the beep of a car downstairs and realised it must be them.
“Have fun.” my sister called.
I threw on a jacket and ran out the house. I was anxious, but excited.

I climbed into the back of a silver jeep and we drove off into the night.
“Nice car,Jared.” I said.
“It’s my mums.” He laughed.
I looked at my feet. There were bottles of alcohol everywhere.
“ Is this…a drinking party?”
“ Rebecca,” Michelle began and pulled out a bottle of straight vodka from behind me. “Its Saturday night, of course it’s a drinking party.”
“You ready to have some fun?” Jared asked before grabbing the vodka from Michelle and drinking it.
“Sure.” I said slowly.
“That sounds reassuring. You are going to drink aren’t you Rebecca? You’re not gonna be a bore and just sit there all night are you?” Michelle asked, sounding slightly drunk already.
“Well… my sister would freak if I came in drunk-”
“So stay overnight,” Jared began, smiling in the rear view.
“You can sleep in the Jeep if you like, that’s where I’ll be.”
“You are shameless, Jared.” Michelle laughed.
I bit my lip, what HAD I got myself into.

When we pulled up to the castle, it looked really unsafe. First, we had to jump a metal fence, then climb under a wooden fence, all that with alcohol to carry. I scraped my leg on a loose scrap of metal.

When we finally reached the castle, I could hear loud music playing from inside. There was a massive wooden door which took all of Jared’s strength to open. Michelle and me walked into the castle, it was unbelievably cold, someone had placed little candles on all of the stone steps and this led the way upstairs. I hated the stairs, they were spiral and there must have been at least 3 flights worth. I felt quite sick.

There was a dirty black curtain in front of the door frame. I walked through it and the music hit me. It sounded like death metal. A mix of bands I really couldn’t stand. The walls were covered in candles and there were roses, everywhere. There were people dancing at the back of the room, and there looked like there was a mosh pit in the middle, I made a mental note to stay away from there.

I was happy to see a familiar face. Kimberley walked over to me, drink in hand, with a skimpy black dress on. She looked me over. I became conscious that what I was wearing made me look like I didn’t belong there. A pink dress. Everyone elsed seemed to be wearing darker clothes. I wanted to die right there and then. I couldn't have been anymore embarassed.
“You look…nice.” She smiled awkwardly.
I forced a smile.
“Do you want a drink?” She asked.
“ Nah, I’m fine.”
“ Aww go on.”
“Nah really I can’t.”
“Don’t be such a virgin.” Michelle said as she appeared next to me.
I felt my face go bright red. Apparently I could be more embarassed.
“You’re not chicken. Are you Rebecca?” Jared asked, sarcastically.
“No.” I said.
“ Get this girl a beer!” Jared shouted. I suddenly felt a can being thrust into my hand from my side.
They all seemed to be waiting for me to drink it. I opened it up and took a quick sip.
“Good girl.” Jared said and patted me on the back.

Jared grabbed onto my hand and we all went to sit on dark, worn black couches beside the back wall.

“So, princess do you like candy cane?” Jared asked.
“Candy cane? Not really, I normally only have it at Christmas, rots your teeth something awful.”
Everyone around me laughed and I knew I must have said something stupid again.
“No silly, Candy Cane. Cocaine?” Jared said and pulled his arm around me.
“God, no.” I said in disgust.

A man seemed to appear out of the shadows then. A bottle of beer in his hand, he swaggered towards us. I noticed he was wearing a white tank top and black baggy jeans. He was muscularly built and had lots of tattoos. He was very handsome but his face was hard. He looked as if he tensed his forehead 24 hours a day.
“Is this girl for real?” he asked, a ruthless tone to his voice.
Michelle got up and stood next to the man. She brushed her hand across his spiky brown locks.
“Remmon.” She said softly.
“Michelle, just when I thought I’d got rid of you.” He laughed and kissed her playfully on the neck.
I sat uncomfortable, with Jared’s arm draped around me. Remmon gave me a dirty look before stalking off with Michelle clinging to his waist.
“Are they dating?” I asked Kimberley.
“Nope- Remmon doesn’t date, He’s too busy. I think Michelle is sweet on him though.”
“How could anyone be too busy to date.” I laughed.
Kimberley’s face became serious.
“They wont let him.”
“Who won’t?” I asked.
Kimberley looked hesitantly at Jared.
“You might as well tell her Kim.” Jared said.
“ Well, he’s part of some group. He’s trying to get into it anyway. They told him he’s not allowed to date if he wants to be part of it. “Self Control” they say.”
“I doubt Michelle is happy about that.” I said, sympathetically.
“She isn’t.” Jared cut in. “He’s a bit obsessed with it though. Did you notice the tattoo on the inside of his arm?”
“Nope.” I shook my head.
“Death is only the beginning.” Jared whispered.
“Jared thinks they have some sort of satanic ritual to initiate them into the group.”
“ Hey, I’m no holy man myself but… there’s just something wrong with this group. No one sees them, they walk around at night, they disallow dating-”
“ I heard they only accept males from selected families.” Kimberley interjected.
“No girls?” I asked.
“No girls.” Jared stated.
“Probably just a weird group of men who think they are better than others, like most secret groups.”
“ Haven’t you ever been taught to be more suspicious about the things you don’t see? For instance, there’s a cellar downstairs and no one can get into it. We’ve tried millions of times. My grandfather is an architect, he checked this castle out years ago, he said he’s been into the cellar. There’s a lock inside and outside the cellar door. The outside door is never locked, so it must be locked from the inside. There must be something in there. Something that people like Remmon don’t want us to see.”
Kimberley looked around herself, worried.
“Remember where we are Jared. The walls have ears.” She whispered.
“Just think about it.” He retorted.
“I think I’m going to go get some fresh air.” I said.
“Do you want me to come with?” Kimberley asked.
“No,” I said “You stay here, I’ll be back soon.”
I hadn’t realised castles would be so hot.
I found my way back to the old stone steps, and held on for dear life back down the spiral staircase. I opened the heavy door --with great difficulty and stepped outside.

It was a cold,dark night. It reminded me of home. Its so strange to miss bad weather. All the stars were out and I took in the general beauty of the night.

I heard the rustle of leaves on the ground and abruptly realised I wasn’t alone.
A pale face with brilliant brown eyes was staring back at me.
“Nice night isn’t it.” He said, his eyes smiling.
“Lovely, yes.” I said, a little taken back.
“Not the party type?” He asked curiously.
“No, not really.”
“ I thought all girls your age were.” He said, slightly patronising. It sounded like something a dad would say, but he didn’t look much older than me.
“ I’m James by the way. James Strait.”
He said and stuck out his hand.
“ Rebecca Thomas.”
I shook his hand.
“Are you going into the party?” I asked.
“Oh, no. I don’t have the self control for a party.”
There was that word again. “Self control?” What the hell did that mean?
“ I always get drunk out my head.” He suddenly said, I obviously looked like I had no idea what he was talking about.

He went quiet for a few minutes after that. Contemplative, almost like he was in a trance, staring at the ground.
“ I better go back in…” I began.
“ Would you like me to walk you home?” He asked.
Did I really look like I didn’t belong there? That much…that a complete stranger could tell I wasn’t having fun.
“ I don’t tend to walk away into the night with complete strangers.” I stated.
“ That’s a shame.” He laughed softly.
“No its fine, thank you.”
“ Its almost 10 o clock, are you sure you wanna go back in there?”
“ What happens at 10 o clock?” I asked.
“Oh, Nothing.” He laughed again.
It worried me, but I simply closed the door and walked back upstairs. I think I jumped a few steps to get out of the spiral staircase faster.
The mood in the room had changed. It was more busy, more crowded. I walked around the corner to see if I could find Jared or Kimberley. Jared was up in the corner of the room with a group of long haired teenagers. He was sniffing something. Drugs. I realised straight away. Most corners of the room were taking different drugs. I ran around looking for Kimberley. I was going to ask if she would leave with me. Kimberley had her legs wrapped around some random guy.
“Kim?”
She turned around to look at me. She looked really drunk, or stoned, or both.
“Hey babe.” she smiled. “This is… Arnold. He’s the new love of my life.” she laughed.
“Kimberley, Can we go?”
“Of course not! I wanna have some fun.”
She took a little white pill out of her pocket and placed one half on her tongue and the other half on the boys tongue.
“What are you taking Kimberley!” I shouted, gripping hold of her arm.
“Just an E, sweetie. You should have one, you worry too much! You need to relax. Do you want one?”
“No.” I shouted.
“Fair enough.” She laughed.

She began making out with the guy in front of her, she wasn’t listening to me anymore. My last hope was Michelle, I saw her standing against one of the walls.
“Michelle.” I said “You didn’t tell me, it was one of these parties.”

“You didn’t ask.” Michelle laughed and took off her coat.
“This isn’t my idea of fun.” I said.
“It wouldn’t be, would it? Why did you think it was such a private party?” she said, almost angrily.
I didn’t realise but there seemed to be a group around us, male and female. They all seemed to be taking various pieces of clothing off.
“Don’t you want to have a little fun?” she said and twisted part of my hair.
Most of the people around me were in their underwear now. It hit me then. I felt sick, people came here to have sex and do drugs. Thats why they didnt want adults to know about it.
I felt someone behind me pull down the right strap of my dress. It was Jared.
“Get off Jared!” I shouted.
He continued to try to pull down my dress strap.
I turned around and punched him. He hadn’t seen that coming.
He fell over and blood began to pour from his nose. Michelle looked at me in shock. Everyone was looking at me. I grabbed my bag and ran right out of the room, down the stairs and out of the castle.
I stood with my back against the castle door. Breathing in deeply. I couldn't believe what had just happened,
I observed then that James was still standing there. Head to the sky, with one foot resting upon the castle wall.
“Sure you don’t want me to walk you home?” He said, with a smirk on his face.
I sighed and then shook my head. "That would be helpful, yes."
“Where is it you live?” he asked.
“ In the flats behind Blackhawk road.”
“Ah. I know where that is.”
“It might take about an hour to walk though.”
“That’s ok.” I said.

We walked in silence for the first 15 minutes.
“Was it really that obvious? That I didn’t fit in there?” I asked.
“Yes.” He said and smiled at me. “That’s not such a bad thing though. It wouldn’t get you anywhere to fit in with THAT crowd.”
“What’s that suppose to mean?”
“Nothing.” He said.
“What school do you go to?” I asked.
“ I don’t go to school.” He said, keeping his eyes to the ground.
“How old are you?”
“ 18.” He smiled.
“ So you finished school this year then?” I asked.
He looked like he was thinking of what to say.
“Yes.” he said slowly.
“Why were you at the party?” I asked again.
“You’re an inquisitive little thing aren’t you?” He asked.
“ I suppose.”
“ I… have a house a little behind the castle. I go out for walks around this time of night. I like the quiet, I suppose you do too.” He smirked.
He asked me a few more questions about how I was liking Whitby and I pretty much asked him every question I could think of.
We finally got to the block of flats.
“Will you be ok if I leave you here?” He asked.
“Sure.” I said.
“Can I ask you a favour?” He asked suddenly.
“Sure.” I smiled.
“Well its more of a tip. Stay away from the castle.” He was suddenly grim.
“Why?” I asked.
“ Its not safe. Not anymore.” He said, a sad smile came over his face. “Goodnight.” He said suddenly and turned on his heels and left.
“Goodnight.” I said quietly, but he had already gone.
I wondered what he could have meant.
Why was it so dangerous?
The night left me with more questions than answers.