castle crossing©
Comicbooks / Graphic Novel — written by Terry John Barto
A flashback connects Florida to the castle in Ireland as similar lightning strikes cross the sky.
Shadows jump everywhere inside the castle as a wicked thunderstorm tears through the night. The viewer moves from room to room and ends up in the kitchen. On the far side, there's a door that's slightly ajar. A flash of lightning shows stairs descending behind the door.
Adaptor is in the dungeon in Ireland, running for his life. He looks over his shoulder at something chasing him. Everything goes dark as the lightning subsides. A loud slam follows the sound of shuffling and scrambling. Flashes of lightning show Adaptor diving into the castle's kitchen from the dungeon door as it slams. He returns to press against the door to ensure whatever is chasing him doesn't come through.
Anthony's uncle comes into the kitchen, muttering about noisy storms, and finds Adaptor pushing against the door. He picks Adaptor up and mumbles about meddling kids. He sets Adaptor on the counter and goes to the study. Everything goes dark as thunder roars.
The following day, the sun shines through the windows, and the skies are clear. Anthony's uncle is puttering through the house. He goes into the kitchen and sees Adaptor pressing on the door again. He mutters, "Those eejit kids!" I told them to stay out of here when I'm not about!"
It's a sunny morning in Florida.
Sai dozed off in the sleeping bag. Sterling fell asleep with Adaptor in his hand. They get ready for school. Sai refers to the story, and Sterling says, "Yeah, who knows? My dad's uncle is kooky."
At lunchtime, Sterling sits against a tree at school, reading a fantasy novel. Sai is nearby doing yoga. The bullies intercept, and one grabs Adaptor, breaks his arm off, and throws him. Sterling picks Adaptor up in dismay and leaves with Sai. The bullies follow and start chasing. Sai and Sterling run through an overgrown field behind the school, lose the bullies, and end up at an abandoned ice skating rink.
Later, Barbara talks to the school principal while the boys wait outside the office. She exits and reprimands them for missing their afternoon classes. As they drive home, Barbara thinks a car is following them, casually moving in and around other vehicles in the distance. She asks Sai if the car is the same one that chased his family that night; he's unsure.
Barbara tells Anthony about the encounter. He mentions that his uncle has a friend who is the Chief of Police in Wicklow, Ireland and that he will keep them safe. Barbara agrees to relocate.
Sterling busts into Anthony's office. He has Adaptor in hand and is looking for super glue. Sterling asks his dad about moving and thinks we should do it.
Anthony, Barbara, Sterling, and Sai drive through old wrought-iron gates down a long driveway in Ireland.
The landscape is full of dead plants and brown grass, a fountain without water, and fog that has cleared enough to reveal the castle.
Sterling and Sai take off inside excitedly. They race from room to room and pick two bedrooms across the hall from each other. Sterling holds Adaptor up, says, "Happy to be home, Adaptor?" and sets him on a shelf.
The boys make their way to the kitchen and open the fridge, but it's empty. They look around for the pantry and open a door. They are taken aback yet inquisitive, staring into a dark, spooky, and dramatic dungeon.
Back in Sterling's room, Adaptor, whose eyes are suddenly alive, has a look of alarm lighting up his face.
Anthony and Barbara are outside talking to a local police officer. They are informed that Cillian, the Chief of Police, went missing the night Anthony's uncle died. As the castle looms in the background, Barbara looks at him with dread.
The boys are playing a Maze Runner-like game in the Drawing Room.
Inside the game, they run down a stone corridor while the wall behind chases them, gaining ground. The boys zig and zag, dodging the wall just as it's about to squash them. They open a door on the side wall and jump through as the chasing wall flies past. They turn around, and this room looks like the castle's kitchen. There's a flash, and the game jumps back to the Menu screen as if it has glitched. They both remove their headsets and ask, "Did you see that?"
Anthony looks in from the doorway and says, "Hey, boys, you should have the internet working tomorrow so you can play." Sterling replies that they were just playing. Anthony says, "Love that imagination of yours," then leaves. Both boys put the headsets back on, only to see a screen that says, "No network connection. Please connect to the internet to play."
The next day, Sterling and Sai decide to look around town. It's a lovely little storybook village like the Dingle Peninsula. The boys saunter into a coffee shop where kids can play video games, thinking they will show the Irish how it's done. They meet a lass, a rascal gamer named Colleen; she's tough and intelligent. She challenges them to a game, and the boys laugh it off because she's a girl. They play a game, and she kicks their butts. Colleen takes the boys to an ice cream parlor, where she buys them dessert and tells them about the eerie legends of Donohoe Castle.
That night, the internet is working. The boys go to the Drawing Room and start to play. On the game selection screen, they pick MID.evil but are taken to the Sci-Fi Ship. Sai gets on Sterling for choosing the wrong game; Sterling swears he picked MID.evil.
Unbeknownst to them, a shadowy image floats by the window. Sterling pulls his headset off to check it because he's confused about why it went into the wrong game. He sees the shadow in a mirror's reflection and turns to look. It looks like the Dullahan is walking down some steps.
They step outside and glance at the second-floor window; no stairs exist. Barbara comes out to see what they're up to. The boys exchange a wary look and head back inside.
Sai and Sterling walk home from school down a path along the edge of a forest.
Sai fingers his necklace and remembers his grandma telling him of its destiny and how his mom emphasized its importance. "At the time, I just blew it off as some dumb old fairy tale, but maybe it wasn't?"
Sai and Sterling stop by a pond and skip rocks across the water. They talk about the future, heaven, aliens, and other existential things. Sterling mentions what he saw last night. "Was it a ghost, a cryptid, or does Ireland even have a Bigfoot?"
Clouds drift in, then fog. It's darker now. The boys discuss childlike fears. A noise behind them interrupts the moment. They scramble to get up and turn to see only trees and fog. They hear another sound and see the Dullahan partially obscured by shadows. The boys look at each other in terror and look back to where the Dullahan was; there are only branches in its shape.
The boys start walking faster and faster, then hear another noise. This time, the Dullahan is charging at them. They panic and run!
The Dullahan closes in on them. They cut onto a narrow path through the trees, thinking he would be too big to follow. But further into the woods, the Dullahan is coming right at them! A ghostly clawed hand reaches out for them.
The boys backpedal until Sterling's foot hits a hole. He yelps and falls down it. Sai grabs a nearby tree branch and takes Sterling's hand with his other hand. He glances back where the Dullahan was, but it's as if it was never there.
Their hands slowly slip apart. Sterling falls into the blackness of the hole. Sai lunges to grab him, losing his grip on the tree, overextending, and falls into the hole. Sai tumbles down a dark slope and lands in total darkness. He opens his eyes and can see Sterling in a faint light.
The fall deposits them in the catacombs under the castle.
Along the way, they notice a familiarity that reminds them of level seven in MID.evil. The path twists and turns like going around in circles, but not returning to where they started. Further along, the corridor hits a T. One direction has a faint glow, and they move toward it. The glow is from small "veins" in the walls and ceiling of different colored gems, each putting off various colors.
The glow gets brighter, and the veins become numerous, larger, and more frequent. They step into a room brightly lit by the most significant and numerous gem veins in the walls and ceiling.
There's a miniature city in the center of a room full of maps. Alone in the town square is an ancient wooden statue about the size of an action figure. It's Darknel, but they don't know that yet. The boys geek out about bringing their action figures down here and how this can be their secret base.
A door like the one in the castle's kitchen is on the other side of the room. Sterling says, "This has to be the way out!" After ascending the stairs between the two doors, the boys emerge from the kitchen door.
That night, Anthony sits in the library by a fire, reading a mythology book.
He hears a Sirens' song, gets up, and follows the sound down the stairs, into the kitchen, through the door, and towards the glow of the Map Room. He disappears in an explosive flash of multi-colored light.
The following day, the boys and Barbara are eating breakfast. She asks them if they have seen Dad. Sterling and Sai glance at each other and then at the dungeon door.
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