The Lost Treasure Map Series (54 page)

When it thickened he started shifting and
grabbed his clothes, without entering the central region, and he
moved right up to it and watched it forming a turbulent cloud
formation, with it forming shapes in itself, like something was
forming itself into a life form, and, even after seeing all the
things on the previous day in the tunnel, he still tried to prove
that it was something else and he started thinking of other things
that it could be.

It was forming itself into something that
was unidentifiable and he knew Merton and Mortimer would love to
see it and started to work out a route to the door without entering
it and realized that he would have to go through one of its
edges.

He strained himself and prepared himself to
handle what could happen if it reacted and did anything. Though he
could not really see it doing much as it was only in a mist
formation!

Then within it he spotted what looked like a
head and he sat dazed trying to figure out what it would form into,
confused at what would happen when it did! What if it formed some
form of dangerous life form or something else?

The color of the head region was white, with
a far more dense shade than it had been minutes before, and it
clearly was now forming at an accelerated rate, and he decided to
go and get the others and rushed to the door and out into the
corridor and looked out for others but never saw any of them
about.

When he knocked on Merton and
Mortimer
’
s
doors he wondered if he had imagined what it was and he informed
them of what had happened and they both dressed quickly and rushed
over with him to his room.

They stood dazed examining it at the
doorway, searching it for clues to its identity, trying to see what
it could do.

“
What the hell is
that?
”
Mitchell said, announcing his arrival from behind them, from
the side of the doorway.
“
Is it dangerous?
”

“
We
don’t know yet?” Mortimer replied first, examining it more than the
others. “What I want to know is why it’s in your room and why we
have not seen this anywhere else?

“
What
did you do yesterday? Did you go out into the wood or something? I
noticed you were away for a long time ...”

Bryson
considered what to say and whether to tell him, ignore him, or tell
him something else.

“
We went
to find the other tunnel where Pendleton entered ...”

“
Was
that over there where the police banned us from going?”

“
Yes!
And we found it! Pendleton recalled where it was – as he now has an
interest in the treasure ...”

“
That
could have been dangerous!”

“
Did you
find anything?” Mitchell said, startled at the mention of someone
making a major move to find the treasure without him knowing of it.
“What was there?”

“
We only
found another tunnel like the other one under the
library!”

“
Where
is it then?”

“
I’ll
have to show you!”

“
Alright! Show it to us later!”

“
I think it is transferring itself
here!
”
Mortimer announced, staring at the formation forming in the
center of the area in front of the bed.

“
What will we do with
it?
”
Bryson
muttered, wondering if it had a means of understanding
them.

“
Wait here!
”
Mitchell replied, and he rushed off
to get his men at their rooms.

“
It is becoming more
powerful!
”
Merton stated, staring at its large head shape that kept
reforming into something, which it was clearly putting most of its
time and energy into.

Bryson spotted that it had transformed into
normal matter in places and that yellow slime dripped from its head
into the carpet, and a slight human/animal odor scented the
air.

The thing
seemed to sense something somewhere, perhaps danger, and increased
how fast it was building itself, and Bryson wondered why it had
chosen his room – which the others thought was connected to his
visit to the tunnel – and he wondered why something wanted to visit
him and he realized that it could have easily formed itself
somewhere nearby!

The main
questions had to be was it dangerous and what did it want to do
there?

Mitchell
arrived with his men and their weapons, and moved Bryson and the
two scientists out of the way, and stood at the doorway aiming
their guns at it, waiting for the opportunity to fire at it.

Bryson
wondered if they could kill it in its original state as the bullets
surely would have gone straight through it, and now it could keep
repairing the damage.

“
What
are we going to do with it?” Merton suddenly announced emotionally,
realizing something about it, deliberately grasping Mitchell’s
attention.

“
What we
need to do now is decide what to do with it if it does not attack
us?” Mortimer continued, wondering what Merton had noticed, and he
studied it in detail.

Bryson looked
at where Merton was staring, at its head region, and he suddenly
noticed that it was taking the shape of a human head, and realized
that they could be in trouble if they destroyed it in the form of a
human.

Chapter 16

The New Species of
Human

Once it had completely formed into a human
the men dropped their guns down and stared at it with their mouth
open, and they acknowledged that they had to have witnessed a
miracle.

Surprisingly Bryson had to be the most
startled and if not certainly the most confused as it was identical
to him, and he realized he was now going to meet himself.

The men seemed happier that they were not
now in any apparent danger, and they could destroy it or take it
prisoner.

Bryson started to wonder if it had any of
his memories and wondered how much of a danger it was to him? Was
it intelligent? What did it want? Why had it deliberately done it
in front of him, and when he awoke?

Did it have a mission? Was it connected to
the thing or was it the thing itself that he had encountered in the
tunnel the day before? And was it the same thing that had done the
killings there?

They all seemed confused and wishing
for answers, and a few of the police, some of
Mitchell
’
s
men knew, had passed there and had tried to explain what had been
happening, and now never understood why there was another Bryson
about.

They watched it put on some clothes
one of Mitchell
’
s men got for it and stand next to them at
the doorway, and Bryson realized that not only had it put on
clothes that it had done it in the same way that he normally did,
and he gasped at the thing knowing all his thoughts and memories
and he tried to work out how dangerous it could be.

Yet the supernatural thing could have read
and got his make up from the first seconds that he entered the
supernatural vortex, and perhaps even before then when he had
arrived at the castle.

What was the answer to this problem? None of
them knew what they were dealing with! Was it more than one thing?
Were the rest things that it had picked up through the vortex? And
what was it up to? Was it part of the thing in the tunnel that he
had visited the day before?

He did think it had some connection to the
thing in the tunnel as it had looked as if it had wanted to make
contact or something with him, but he did not risk it as he could
have end up in a worse place and situation than the last time!

Yet why had the thing in the tunnel
wanted to make contact with him when he must have made contact with
it going into the other tunnel and going through the vortex? The
thing would have got all the information that it had wanted there
and could have communicated with him! Was there two things
–
one in each
tunnel
–
or
perhaps more?

Bryson watched the copy of himself and
realized that he could learn a lot of things from it and about
himself, and saw all the advantages of it being there. If it was
there to do harm why did it not just kill him?

His first thing to do was try to communicate
with it and somehow get information about its mission.

Merton and Mortimer took Mitchell
further up the corridor and communicated in whispers with him,
decided on something and returned, and they took him and the thing
down to the empty dinning room, and closed the door behind them,
and offered the thing food that Bryson normally ate and they all
ate their breakfast, with Bryson sitting opposite them directly in
front of the thing, occasionally watching it with some amazement.
He had never fully known what he had been like until now
–
even though it
had a great deal of different reactions
–
mainly due to it being a stranger
and unfamiliar with many things
–
and Bryson slowly accepted it was something
else in his body, and realized the potential again, as well as the
others as well, and them actually getting information from the
thing haunting the place.

Yet after more observations he
realized that it could be something else
–
and not the thing haunting
there!

None of them said anything to it and
waiting for something to happen, and Bryson wondered what would
happen and sat chewing pieces of his food, considering what he
would do if he was it in different scenarios and when he finished
he considered what the others would do, until he felt that he had
considered everything, and was surprised that something else
actually happened instead and the dinning room door swiftly swung
open and two archeologists entered with startled faces
–
and stared at
the two versions of Bryson facing each other across the table with
amazement and laughed
–
and even thought of changing what they had
planned to do but went through with it anyway.

Both of them sat next to Mitchell and one of
them removed some documents and placed them on the table in front
of him, and Bryson recognized him as the archeologist that had been
at the tomb when they had taken it up into the room and found the
tomb had the name William Randall engraved on it.

“
We had both skeletons examined to see
if they are genetically linked to Bryson
’
s blood sample you gave
us?
”
the
archeologist announced.
“
To prove what one was William Randall and
what one was not William Randall!
”

“
As William Randall is marked as being
in a tomb at the other castle and in the tomb here
...
”
Mitchell continued further, vaguely amused, watching the
thing along the table from him.

“
That
’
s correct!
”
he replied, almost laughing
hideously for some reason that baffled Bryson
–
who wondered which one had
been the authentic one
–
thinking the archeologist would now tell
them that it was neither.

“
We even had the results checked again
after receiving them!
”
the archeologist firmly replied.

“
And what ...?
”
Mitchell moaned.

“
Well! They are both William
Randall!
”
the archeologist announced, handing the documents over to
them, shrugging and wondering again why the stranger looked like
Bryson.

Chapter 17

The Two Randalls

Bryson recalled examining the features of the
skeleton in the tomb at the top floor and comparing it with the
other skeleton at the last castle and knew that they had been the
same.

The other version of him had seemed to react
for a brief moment when it had been told!

Bryson was astonished and realized
that there had been two William Randalls and that they had not been
twins! Mitchell had suggested that they had been twins and that the
accounts of them had for some reason missed out details of them,
which was common in historical accounts as Bryson had learned on
many occasions, but the archeologist had firmly declared that they
had not been twins and had been identical
–
and that the documents affirmed
that they were of the same person.

It was strange as he now had to think
of there being two William Randalls at two castles and he wondered
what had happened to create such a situation? How did the William
Randall at the top floor die? And why had he been put where he had
been? And what had people at the time thought of it, and he
wondered if they had thought of it as witchcraft? There had been
accounts of it at the last castle, and he even thought the
occurrences there had been responsible for putting so much accounts
of witchcraft into the history books
–
as they had been the only proper
accounts of witchcraft happening
–
as far as he was
concerned!