Good morning!  This story was written as a much longer story, so I didn’t want overwhelm you with a huge long story.  So this will be either 2 or 3 parts, I’m actually not sure how long it will be.  But this is part one.

This story is in the Paranormal category.  I hope you enjoy!

The King is Dead

Stratford was bored.  Nothing was happening.  No one had come to visit him lately and it was sad.  All he did was roam around the castle and hope that something interesting happened.  But it was all for nothing. Nothing ever happened.

He roamed down the hall past all the knight’s in shining armor.  He ran up to one of them and bowed. “Good day good sir.” Stratford snickered.  “I’m such a child. I think that’s what the kids say nowadays.”

He continued down the hall toward the throne room.  The hall was long and narrow. Banners hung down from the ceiling, symbolizing what the country traded and grew.  There was an ocean surrounding the castle so the country always traded fish. Blue banners with golden fish filled the hallway.  Stratford looked out the pane less window to see the water. It was calm and clear, not even a single boat in sight. It was relaxing.

Stratford entered the throne room and it was empty.  There was a throne but it was in shambles. He spun around.  The whole room was in shambles. “Guards! What happened here?”  Stratford yelled into the emptiness. He waited but no one came. He frowned and sat on the floor, his head in the palm of his hand.  “It’s no fun around here when no one is here.” He looked around at the room to see the destruction that was around him.

The throne was broken into multiple pieces.  There was an arm and a leg missing and it was turned on it side.  A lot of the jewels were missing, leaving multiple holes in the edges of the throne.  The floor was cracked and tiles were missing. Pieces were missing from the small staircase that led from the floor to the throne.  There were no banners hanging from the ceiling, making the room seem much larger than it actually was. There were no guards to watch over the room, no people here to see Stratford, no life left in the room.

Stratford let out a sigh.  “There used to be so much life in the building.  We used to have the best parties and have so many people who ruled the country here.  So many people ruled the country from this very castle. Why did this happen?”

The large doors opened, filling the entire room with light.  Stratford covered his face with his hand. When he looked over his hand he saw 3 people walk in.  Stratford immediately stood up and dusted himself off. He started walking toward the guests and reached out his hand.  “Hello! I am King Stratford and welcome to my kingdom!” As he walked toward them, he completely walked through them. He turned around to look at the people.

He shrugged.   “Oh yeah…that’s what happened.”

The two guys and the girl stood in the middle of the room.  The blonde guy started to point. “Look! I bet that’s the throne that King Stratford sat on.  It’s too bad people have ransacked the place already. I hope we can still talk to him.”

The girl shrugged.  “Shawn…I don’t think that will change anything.  We can still talk to the King.”

The redhead seemed like he was going to wet himself.  “Shawn…Kira…I wanna leave. I don’t want to talk to a ghost.”

“Trevor stop being such a baby.  It’s not really talking to a ghost.  You just try to hear what they say.”

“OOOOOOOO I’m a spooooooooky ghost!!!”  Stratford waved his fingers around Trevor’s head.  He loved messing with the people who were afraid of ghosts.  He floated back and forth through Trevor’s body hoping to get a reaction.

Trevor flipped around, eyes super wide.  “What was that?”

The other two looked at each other and sighed.  “It was probably the wind.”

Trevor shook his head.  “No…no…I want to leave.  Let’s go. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Shawn groaned.  “Are you serious?  We just got here.”

Stratford floated over to the overturned throne and shoved it over.  It made a huge ruckus and Trevor screamed. “This place is haunted! This place is haunted!  I’m leaving!” All three of them ran for the door, screaming the entire way.

Stratford chuckled.  “Goodbye now! I hope you had a wonderful time.  Please feel free to come back and visit!” The door slammed behind the three as they raced out the door.  Stratford yelled at them. “Be careful with those doors! They are very old!” He sat down on the overturned throne, sitting on the arm instead of the seat.  He let out a long sigh. “Scaring people is no fun anymore. Everyone is too afraid. No one is actually willing to talk to me.”

He stood up and floated toward the kitchen.  It wasn’t far away from throne room but he still had to do through 3 doors to get there.  He found the kitchen where there was nothing going on. The counter top was broken and taken apart.  Stratford had watched people come in and destroy the place. And there was nothing he could do about it.  He tried haunting them, but nothing happened.

Stratford opened the ice box and sighed.  “Well…it’s looks like I’m having air for dinner again.  Delicious…” He slammed the ice box shut and walked out of the kitchen.  He entered the hall and made his way up the broken staircase to the bedroom.  He apparated through the door and sat down on the edge of the four poster bed.

He let out a sigh.  “Well…another boring day.  Nothing interesting yet again.  Another day in this old castle and I’m still trapped in this horrific ghostly body.  Yeah…” He laid down on his back and closed his eyes. As he let out a long breath, he was ready to sleep.

Suddenly his eyes flew open.  “Oh yeah…I can’t sleep. I’m a ghost.”

————————————————————————————————————————-

Stratford spent the evening floating around the castle.  He raced against the squirrels in a footrace: he won. He practiced the magic that the wizard taught him years ago: nothing happened.  He walked down the hallway again, bowing to every single suit of armor. After everything was done he looked at the moon. “Gee…it’s only 10 pm.  What am I supposed to do with the rest of evening?”

The door started to open.  It was slow and careful, almost methodical.  Stratford turned around to see a young man walk through the door.  It wasn’t one of the boys who ran away screaming earlier in the day.  The young man carefully walked into the throne room and shone a flashlight around the room.  “Hello. My name is Jonah. I am not here to destroy the place. I am just here to talk to you King Stratford.”

Stratford was sitting on his overturned throne, staring at his fingernails.  “Sure…I don’t really believe you. Everyone says that but no one actually does that.”

Jonah turned around, shining the light right at the throne.  “Is that you King Stratford?”

Stratford shut his mouth quickly, his eyes were as wide as saucers.  This kid actually heard him? Or could Jonah actually see him sitting on the throne?

“It’s okay your majesty.  Like I said, I’m not here to hurt you.  I just want to find out what happened to you so you don’t have to haunt this castle anymore.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?”  Stratford sat there, jaw agape.  This kid couldn’t be serious could he?  Stratford stood up and floated out of the room to the hallway.  He needed time to think.

He paced in the hallway, walking back in forth in front of the suits of armor.  “Is this kid serious? Is he actually going to figure out what happened to me? I don’t even know what happened to me!  I don’t even know how I died. All I know is that I was asleep and woke up as a ghost. I saw my own body laying in the bed and I was floating around the room.  I saw everyone from the court. I saw the preacher who proclaimed I was dead. I even saw my lovely lady who I had loved mourning my death. But I didn’t know who did it.  Does this Jonah kid actually think he could figure it out? I’ve been dead for 500 years! That will be impossible.”

A light shone through the archway going into the hallway.  Stratford plastered himself against the wall as he was now paranoid about this kid being here.  He didn’t dare move a muscle. Do ghosts even have muscles?

Jonah sat down on the floor and placed the flashlight in front of his legs.  He cleared his throat. “King Stratford. If you are here in this room, can you please say something?  I would love to talk to you.” Stratford kept his lips sealed shut. Jonah nodded. “I know you probably don’t trust anyone who comes into this castle after everything that has happened.  You were murdered and then your kingdom ransacked your castle. They took everything from you. You were their king and they didn’t respect you. I am so sorry for your loss.”

Jonah sat in silence for a moment.  Stratford still stood pressed against the wall, but now he was curious about Jonah.  Jonah took a deep breath and grabbed the flashlight. “If you don’t mind King Stratford, I want to take a walk through your castle.  I want to understand what happened.”

Stratford nodded before smacking himself in the forehead.  Of course Jonah couldn’t see him nod his head yes. “Idiot.”  He muttered to himself under his breath. Jonah started to make his way to the kitchen and Stratford slowly followed behind him.  He felt like a dog following his master.

Jonah stood in the middle of the kitchen and looked around.  He walked over to the icebox and opened it. “You know Stratford, I forgot how old the castle is.  I was totally expecting a fridge, not an icebox.”

Stratford was laying on the counter, his head in one hand and one foot on the counter.  He still wasn’t completely sure if he should trust Jonah or not. Jonah slowly moved the icebox away from the wall to see if there was anything behind it.  He methodically looked through all the cupboards to see if there was anything hidden inside of them. Stratford just watched as Jonah made his way through the kitchen.

As Jonah was leaned down into a cupboard, he started to get up and hit his head on the counter.  “Ow! Dang it. Why are these cupboards to hard?”

“Because they are made of wood.”

Jonah rubbed the back of his head.  “Thanks King Stratford. I didn’t realized that’s what they were made of.”  He reached into the cupboard and grabbed a small scroll. “What’s this?”

Stratford immediately flew over to Jonah and peered over Jonah’s shoulder.  It was a recipe for something, but Stratford didn’t know what for. But it was very badly written.  Leave it to Charles to write a recipe that no one could read.  Typical chef.

“Do you mind if I take this with me?  I want to investigate what these materials would make if mixed together.  If it’s a recipe for poison, then that helps us know what killed you.”

As Jonah put the recipe in his back pocket Stratford shrugged.  He didn’t really care if the kid took the scroll. He was dead, what could he do.  Jonah walked out of the kitchen and started to make his way up the stairs. Stratford continued to follow him like a puppy.

They arrived in Stratford’s room and Jonah sat down on the bed.  Stratford scoffed. “Sure…you can sit on the bed. Be my guest.”

“I’m sorry sir.  I didn’t mean to.”  Jonah stood up and walked to the other side of the room.  Stratford smacked himself again. Why did he keep saying things out loud that Jonah could hear?

The kid moved around the room, trying to see if he could find anything.  Stratford floated up to the top of the four poster bed, stretching his ghostly body across the square on the top.  He watched Jonah move around the room trying to find anything that could help in his investigation.

As Jonah looked around at things, Stratford became more bored.  Jonah didn’t find anything and sat down on the floor. He looked up toward the ceiling.  “King Stratford. I couldn’t find anything in here. If you can hear me, or if you are still in the room, I would love to come back tomorrow to see if I can find anything.  I want to do some investigating at home and come back tomorrow. Is that okay?”

Stratford hung upside down from the banister on the bed.  He shrugged, purposely not saying anything. He couldn’t do much in the castle anyway.  And he probably couldn’t stop Jonah anyway.

Jonah stood up and made his way toward the door.  Stratford followed Jonah as he walked out of the building.  Before leaving through the front door Jonah turned back into the throne room.  “Goodbye King Stratford. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. I will see you tomorrow night and hopefully I have more information for you.”

He walked out the door and Stratford waved goodbye.  He watched Jonah get in his car and drive off into the distance.  “Goodbye kid. Please…release me from this castle.”