"Sam! Come on, we are nearly there!" The girls called me from the top of the hill, but I decided to ignore them.
They were too noisy, my two friends, disturbing me from my pleasant reverie. Right now I wanted to stay alone for a while, to admire the beauty spreading around me.
This was the trip of my dreams. I always wanted to visit the Bran Castle in Transylvania, and now that I was finally here, the place was making me feel strange. As if I had been here before, as if I knew it well, just couldn't remember entirely. The feeling I had was like a distant memory, or like one of those dreams which fade away with the sunrise, and all that is left of them is a faint hint.
"You go on, I'll reach you inside," I called to the impatient girls.
"Ok, but hurry up, the tour starts in fifteen minutes." Then they jogged up the road to join a group of people gathering outside the castle, leaving me on my own.
The sudden silence washed over me like a flood, and enveloped me like a thick blanket, muffling all the sounds. I took a few more steps up the centuries old road, and reaching the top of the hill I noticed that all the people had already disappeared inside the medieval fortress.
This way, the place was perfect. I was there alone, surrounded by its timeless beauty. It was a Halloween evening, when the gates between the worlds stood open and anything was possible...
Pleasant shivers ran up my spine as I contemplated the haunting silhouette of the castle, set against the backdrop of the tree covered hills of the Carpathian Mountains. The motionless trees were incredibly colourful, as if painted by a crazy artist, with thin stripes of fog coiling through them like a rugged veil. A stray ray of the sun, already beginning its descent towards the far horizon, illuminated a narrow, silvery ribbon of water rushing along the bottom of the deep gorge on the right side of the road.
This view reminded me of the setting of Bram Stoker's book. I really wanted to believe that this was the castle that inspired his story, and more...A special place where time stood still, and anything was possible. Especially on a Halloween night.
I was so absorbed in my fantasies that I imagined hearing a distant, ominous howling of the wolves, a sound of the wheels of an invisible carriage rushing past me, and a silent, chilling laughter carried to me on a swift gust of wind.
I took my copy of Stoker's Dracula from my bag, and hurried to join my friends in the courtyard of the castle.
The group was waiting there. The ten of us, all in our twenties, were staying in the same hotel, located some thirty minutes' walk from the fortress. I've met them all over the last few days.
I looked for my friends, Anne and Lia. The girls were at the far end of the courtyard, absorbed in conversation with two boys, Mark and Lucas, two young Londoners, just like us. I walked over to them, but seeing that they were all quite busy with each other, and hardly looked at me when I joined them, I stayed a little on the side.
When we were invited to enter, I strolled a few steps behind them, as the last one of the group. That was exactly what I wanted, to soak in the atmosphere of this place alone, undisturbed.
"Sam, come closer!" Lia called me when we walked in the first room, a large, dark hall with an impressive staircase leading to the upper floors at its end.
"I'm fine here," I whispered back as we were just joined by a guide, welcoming us to the castle.
Lia shook her head incredulously, but didn't insist. She knew me well enough not to argue.
I looked around, but could not see much. The only source of light in here were the last rays of the setting sun, coming through the massive, wooden door through which we had just entered. I opened my book to re-read the parts describing the castle, but it was too dark to see its small, printed words.
The guide's speech was swallowed by the vastness of the hall, but I saw him pointing to the stone staircase. The first people of the group began climbing up, and Lia looked at me again.
"I'm fine," I mouthed at her, "go!"
"You're crazy," she mouthed back, shaking her head.
One of the boys noticed our silent exchange, and followed Lia's look. He smiled at me, and they moved on. Then I saw the girls disappear up the stairs, followed by Mark and Lucas.
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