Who's Afraid of the Dark?

Louis was livid. He was beyond comprehension. He couldn't believe his friends thought that he would joke about Charlotte's disappearance.

It was undeniable that Louis was considered the prankster of the group. He would be the one to set the mood light and fun with his sarcastic humor or just plain idiocy.

But Louis knew when to draw the line. When to stop with the jokes and take things seriously. His sister's safety was his responsibility and it was no laughing matter.

"Lottie! You here? Answer me!" Louis yelled into the darkness. Moments ago, he and Zayn had heard Charlotte screamed and the both of them immediately took the left hallway, following the cries. But what Louis didn't notice was that in his haste to run after his sister, he had left Zayn behind.

Louis ran all the way down the darkened hallway, only to meet up with a dead end.

"What the hell? Lottie! Lottie! Damn it!" he cried out exasperatedly. Louis shined his flashlight at the wall in front of him, fingers groping on the coarse brick slabs. The only thing decorating the ugly grey wall was a portrait of a young girl. Out of anger and frustration, the brown-haired lad punched the portrait, leaving a tear and bruising his knuckles in the process.

Letting out a loud sigh, Louis addressed his friend without turning around.

"This is a fucking nightmare!"

Hearing no response from Zayn, Louis finally turned around.

And saw nothing but blackness surrounding him.

"Zayn? Z-Zayn? Quit messing around, will ya?"

Everything was eerily silent. Louis could hear nothing, but his own heartbeat thudding loudly against his ribcage.

"Zayn! Come out! It's not funny!" Louis hollered. He felt his anger subsiding, only to be replaced with panic. It was bad enough to lose his sister, but losing one of his good mates along with it was a bit too much for Louis to handle at the moment.

Add to the fact that he was now completely alone in a supposedly haunted castle, made Louis on the verge of hysteria.

He shined his flashlight down the dark hallway before shouting Zayn's name once more.

No reply.

Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic.

Brushing a strand of damp hair off his sweaty forehead, Louis made a quick sweep of his torchlight to see if there was another way to get out without heading back the way he came from. As his beam of light fell upon the portrait, Louis stopped to take a look at it.

It was a painting of a young girl's bust. Upon a closer look, Louis realised how much the girl in the painting resembled his sister.

The girl had long blonde hair which flowed freely around her shoulders in voluptuous curls. She was wearing a dark blue dress that showed off the top of her plump breasts; those which were normally worn in the 17th century. A small smile plastered her thin lips, but her blue-grey eyes mirrored those of sadness.

But what shocked Louis the most was how realistic the painting looked like Charlotte, from the blonde hair down to the colour of the eyes.

Louis let out an involuntary shiver, goosebumps breaking on the surface of his arms and neck. He spent a few moments not doing anything but simply stared at the portrait and being mesmerised by it.

The tear at the bottom right hand corner caught his eye and Louis stepped nearer to the painting to see that there was something written on the canvas. He couldn't read all of the tiny handwriting because of the tear, but he could clearly make out a person's name which was not affected by it. His blood ran cold when he read the name aloud.

"Charlotte."

At that exact moment, a gust of wind blew past Louis and startled the lad. He gave out a loud yelp before dropping his torchlight that went out upon hitting the floor.

"Fuck!"

The panicked lad got down on his hands and kness, scrambling to reach out to the only source of light he had. He managed to get hold of his torchlight and cursing under his breath, switched it on.

And he screamed.