Who's Afraid of the Dark?

The castle hadn’t really frightened Ember. She had always been the kind of girl that enjoyed some adventure, a little bit of adrenaline, and she wasn’t going to let some ridiculous legend get to her head. She already saw that Charlotte was beginning to freak herself out, and Ember wanted to make sure nothing like that happened to her.

After the tour, the group collected in the hotel suite that Anise and Sophie shared. Young adults were scattered everywhere, sitting in chairs, on the floor, on the desk that was against the wall opposite the sofa. Niall had taken a seat against the armrest on the couch, and Ember immediately settled down next to her boyfriend, lying down so her head rested in his lap, crossing her arms in front of her flat stomach.

His hand went to her dark brown hair, raking his fingers through it absentmindedly, a nonverbal sign of affection. The rest of the group was talking in hurried, excited whispers, wondering how they could possibly sneak into Ireland’s most haunted castle.

“Why did you even make this dumb bet anyway?” Charlotte asked Niall in an irritated huff, giving him the evil eye from the corner of her vision. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t.”

Niall scoffed, his breath stirring the small hairs around Ember’s face, before answering, “Love, don’t blame me because you’re too much of a wimp to handle the scary stories.”

“Niall, naff off and leave my sister alone,” Louis intervened, giving the blonde boy a warning look.

“She started it!” Niall pouted, eliciting a little giggle from Ember that she tried her best to hide.

“How old are we?” the brunette in his lap teased, looking up at her boyfriend’s face with light green eyes that formed a startling contrast to her nearly-black hair. “Now come on, let’s stop bickering and figure out what we’re going to do.”

“Wisely worded,” Harry laughed, running a hand through his curls. “Does anyone have any ideas already?”

“Do we know if they have security guards or anything?” Liam questioned from his place next to Anise. The two were sitting as close as possible, hip to hip, and the looks they kept sneaking each other communicated pretty clearly that they wanted nothing more than to get time alone together so they could do whatever lustful things were running through their minds.

Ember snickered to herself as she snuggled closer to Niall. She liked that they were in love and knew they could control themselves just fine in public. They’d had sex before, of course, considering they’d been dating for nearly a year, but they weren’t the kind of couple that felt the need to perform the act every time they were alone together. And while Ember was fond of Anise and thought she was a wonderful and beautiful girl, she couldn’t understand her personality when it came to boys.

“I don’t know of any guards,” Zayn mused thoughtfully as he got to his feet. “Maybe we should Google this.”

“If there aren’t any guards, it’d be pretty easy to find a way in,” Charlotte stated clearly. “We could just, you know, walk through the front door.”

“I’m sure there’s someone watching,” Ember piped up. “It’s a pretty historical site. They wouldn’t want some drunk Irishmen or tourists going into the castle to pee on it or spray-paint Suck My Dick on the side.”

“Ember’s got a point,” Niall agreed. “I’m pretty sure some friends of mine got caught when they peed on one of the old Celtic landmarks when we were in secondary school, and it was nowhere near as high profile as Leap Castle.”

“Wait, I have an idea!” Sophie exclaimed excitedly, her eyes lighting up, although Ember hadn’t remembered her being even the least enthusiastic about breaking into the haunted palace. “What if we all split up and go through different entry points? Think about it: if we all go in one place, and someone sets off a guard’s knowledge, then we’re all done. But if we all split up, then one person can alert any possible guards, and the others will still get in.”

“That’s brill!” Anise complimented her best friend. “I agree with that.”

“And I think it’s the best plan,” Zayn mused from across the room, his dark eyebrows pulling together in frustration, “because I can’t find any information on whether they have security or not.”

“So let’s go with that,” Ember agreed. “What are the groups?”

“I call being with Ember,” Niall spoke up without hesitation, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend’s middle and squeezing gently. Ember immediately looked up at him and smiled, happy that Niall had voiced his request for them to stick together, since Ember would have felt kind of awkward staking her claim in front of so many other people.

“Shocker there,” Anise teased, rolling her eyes. “So how about this? I go with Liam, Harry’s with Sophie, and Zayn can go with Louis and Lottie. We’ll meet as soon as we can in the dining hall of the castle, just to make sure that everyone made it in okay. Any objections?”

No one said anything, so it could be presumed that everyone was fine enough with the arrangement. Or else they were too nervous to say anything.

“So what time are we going tonight?” Niall questioned. “Not too late, since we might miss all the haunted stuff.”

Charlotte shuddered subtly, and Ember gave her a confused look that the younger girl didn’t catch.

“What about nine?” Harry offered. “It’s late enough to be completely dark, which will be good for cover, but it’s not late enough to miss all the haunted happenings.”

The rest of us agreed on the time and decided that we would meet back in front of Anise’s and Sophie’s room at eight thirty to ensure they got to the castle on time.

“Do you really think it’s haunted?” Ember asked as she and Niall walked down the hallway hand-in-hand toward the room the two of them were sharing. Had Ember been in charge of the room assignments, she probably would have roomed herself in a place without her boyfriend, but Anise had jumped to conclusions. At least Niall seemed fine with the arrangement.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve heard more stories than I can count, and it’s hard to deny the evidence, you know?” Niall leaned over and pecked his girlfriend on the side of her head before whispering in her ear, “But don’t worry. I won’t let anything hurt you. We’ll be fine.”

Ember nodded with a smile, glad that her suspicions had been confirmed. They were all going to be perfectly fine, and there was no reason for everyone to get their pants in a twist over it.