The castle was shrouded in a thick layer of fog and the faint rays of the sun were slowly emerging from behind the castle. The figure of a tall man appeared within the fog, approaching the gates of the castle. He was wearing a dark gray hooded cloak that fluttered in the breeze, and his black coat was noticeable underneath. His face was hidden under the shadow of the hood. As he drew closer to the gate, he halted and looked at the ruined, crumbling walls and the plants that had taken root among the bricks. The gate, whose hinges were broken and both of its heavy wooden doors were tilted, and there was a gap big enough to pass a body through them. He grumbled, shrugged, took off the hood and strode through the gap into the enclosure of the castle and continued on his way.

His white hair screamed his hard years and elderly age, though his face looked surprisingly young. The fog thinned as the sun rose, and a relatively strong wind started to blow. He had now reached the stairs of the castle doorway. He got a sense of humor as heard the wind howling, so put his arms under his cloak, flapped like a bat, and whimpered along with the wind. This sound was so scary and deafening that suddenly a flock of birds, which until this moment had no sign of chirping, flew out of fear, and their abrupt flapping sound terrified him so much that he almost tumbled down the stairs. He came to himself and took a deep breath, stopping his impish sense of humor.

The entryway leading to the castle hall had no door when he ascended the steps. The man moved a little closer to the doorway before stopping and sticking his head inside while his body remained outside. Then he put his palms around his mouth and said loudly: "Hellooooo!"

His voice echoed in the hall and suddenly a strange darkness ran towards him from the shadows inside the hall. It didn't look big, but it was very fast. Soon it reached the doorway, he felt his heart stop for a second while he took a few steps back in fear. A black, blue-eyes cat came out from the threshold of the hall and stood with its tail raised. When he saw the cat, taking a deep breath, a smile appeared on his lips.

"Oh, what a cute cat!" he said while bending down, he kindly extended his arm to the cat.

Suddenly, the cat arched its back, hissed with spiked hair, sprang and scratched his arm with its claw, and ran away with its menacing look. Now that his face was as white as his hair, he was looking in shock at the faint stream of blood flowing from the scars on his arm and shouted: "Blood! Blood! What if I get rabies? That wild, tiger, black cat!" He was looking at his hand with tears in his eyes for a few minutes, then he remembered: "Ointment! I have an ointment! Oh, how forgetful of me."

He took out a small bottle from his coat pocket, opened it, took out some green slimy paste with his left index finger and rubbed it on the wound. It didn't take long for the scar to disappear completely.

Then he entered the castle hall with a hassle-free mind. The morning light rushed into the dark space through the cracks behind the castle and penetrated its broken tiles like a bright sword. There were long strings of plants hanging from the walls and ceiling, and the ground was full of dried leaves that didn't rustle underfoot because they were wet. Strangely, a maple tree stood tall in the middle of the hall and had grown towards the large hole in the ceiling. Next to the left wall of the hall, a fig tree had also grown upside-down from the ceiling, and its branches were sticking out of the broken glass. He was completely immersed in the mysterious atmosphere of this castle, had uncontrollably moved forward and while looking around, he did not pay attention to what was under his feet. When he reached the middle of the hall, his foot got stuck in a narrow gap under the protruding root of the maple and he fell hard on the floor with his face and hands widened.

“God!” he thought loudly, “Thanks God that no one was here to see me”.

His happiness did not even last as long as his thoughts passed. The sound of laughter of several people echoed in the hall.

“God! Thanks God…” A giggling woman cackled: "… that I arrived early so I didn't miss this scene!"

"I told you so," said another man while coming down the stairs from the second floor, not laughing but grinning. “Didn’t I? It was not unlikely that he would go head over heels!"

He was dressed in a black suit, a white shirt, and a dark tie. His trouser leg was tucked into his leather boot. He was grabbing the golden handle of a precious stick decorated with shining stones. When he reached above the head of the white-haired man, he hit him with the stick, but the white haired man didn’t react, making him worry.

"Didn't you die,” he asked, stooping down, “…did you?"

"I stumbled and collapsed in front of everyone!" The white-haired guy said in a quiet voice so that others could not hear: “How clumsy of me! I don’t wish to stand up!"

"Never mind!" Half-sitting, the stick man put his hand under the arms of the white-haired and lifted him up. This time, the face of the white-haired man was flushed with embarrassment. "What the hell, Sina! Because all of us got stuck here, we thought we can make fun of you as the last one of us."

“Really?” Sina sat, sighing of relief and asked, "Got you all stuck? Are you serious, Nick? Even Mary?”

Nicholas cocked his head toward the others: "Well! Of course, except for Mary and..."

-And ...

-And except me! And ...

Sina pushed Nicholas away, slightly tilted to see the folks on the stairs. There were four ones who could only be recognized as male and female in the arrays of sun. Then he softly addded, "And?"

-and the rest.

The sound of laughter echoed again in the hall.

"After a thousand years..." said Mary in a sweet tone: "…A… Thousand…Years! We already know you well enough, Sina! We know that in a new place, you are totally overwhelmed by the attractions around and you don't pay any attention to the ground beneath your feet.”

"Yeah! Do you remember…” said another guy, giggling. “…that he once fell into a well? He was lucky that the well was not deep. "Man, how did you survive for a thousand years?”

This time, he was the only one who laughed.

"Enough!" Nicholas stood, the light shining from behind him, darkening his face completely. He extended his hand to Sina, but he ignored and stood up with difficulty.

"OK! It was just kidding!” muttered Sina angrily. “It’s OK! Let's find out in the meeting who will be in charge of this new project!"

There was a dreadfully uncomfortable stillness. Not even the wind howled anymore. The sun was obscured by thick clouds, and a gloomy darkness covered the castle.

***