20
A Museum Comes To Life
The children awoke sometime later to a terribly bruised silence, intuitively knowing something was dreadfully wrong. The eerie lack of noise was almost deafening and most strange. Even though the small gas lamp that had comforted them when they fell asleep was still burning, they knew immediately that they were not in the hotel. Florrie was the first to open her eyes, naturally expecting to see the bedroom she had fallen asleep in, but even though everything was very dark and shadowy, she could see they were elsewhere. 21
The bed was exactly the same and was still on the rug that had been in the hotel even
their
slippers
remained
tucked
underneath, dressing gowns were hung at the bottom of the bed and their clothes for the next day laid out neatly. It was most bizarre as you might imagine - to fall asleep in one place and wake up in another. Florrie turned over and shook her brother, who in turn just pulled the covers further over his head. “Leave me alone Florrie, I’m trying to sleep,” he muttered grumpily. “Wake
up,
wake
up
now,”
she
whispered. “Something bad has happened.” “What are you talking about?” moaned Albert, feeling sluggish with half dreamt dreams. “Look around,” urged Florrie. “Do you see what I see?” 22
Albert cautiously peeped over the edge of the blanket and saw that they had indeed woken up in a place they did not recognise. “Where are we?
What’s happened?”
gulped Albert, trying to readjust his eyesight. “How should I know?” replied Florrie nervously, “but you can bet wherever we are it’s not going to be nice, knowing our luck.” “I don’t understand. How did we get here?” “It’s probably another one of Madame Divitan’s horrid tricks, some nasty magic.” “Whatever it is, we can’t just stay here, anything might happen. We have to get some sort of bearings, find some clues as to what has happened,” frowned Albert. “We need to get into our clothes and let’s put on the dressing gowns as well - we don’t know how cold it might get.” 23
“Alright,” nodded his sister, as she hastily pulled on a long sleeved dress, some woollen stockings, a pair of sturdy shoes and the fluffy robe. She picked up the oil lamp. “Which way shall we go?” “Let’s try that way,” suggested Albert, as he wriggled into a pair of trousers and yanked a jumper over his head. The children had taken a few cautious steps when Albert realised that they had forgotten Ebenezer Smythe’s satchel which aside from all the wondrous rarities that the smuggler had collected over the years, also contained all the quest items. He quickly ran back and grabbed it. “Lucky I remembered it was tucked under the pillow, we’d have been totally lost without this. It’s got all the quest items we’ve collected so far.” 24
“Maybe we should light the next match and at least then we will have some idea of what we have to do next.” “You’re right.
We have to continue
otherwise it’s all over for us. Besides, Mr. Smythe still has the compass and they’ll find us eventually.” “They’ll be looking for us now, more likely than not,” exclaimed Florrie, trying to inject an element of optimism into her voice but feeling very wobbly and jittery inside. “Of course they will. Well here goes then,” said Albert pulling out the matchbox. He selected a match and struck it, watching as the smoky yellow flame spat into the musty air.
Once again, the same, thin, watery,
irritable voice addressed them.
25
‘The tenth quest that my mistress has set for you is as follows: You must travel to Prussia and just outside the city of Berlin you will need to locate an enchanted castle whose occupants have been asleep for almost one hundred years.
The castle will be
surrounded by an impenetrable wall of thorns and even if by some miracle you manage to find a way through, which is highly unlikely, you must find the spindle which caused the curse. It will be in the highest tower in the hands of Gerda, otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty. I’m sure you don’t need reminding what the consequences will be if you fail. I know my mistress is eagerly awaiting the collection of your souls...’ “Why does she hate us so much?” asked Florrie. “I mean all we want to do is see mother and father again, to be a family and all she seems to want to do is to put us in as much danger as possible.” 26
“I don’t know - all I do know is that we need to get out of here and find a way to this stupid castle.
We can probably persuade
somebody who will help us until Uncle Arthur and Mr. Smythe find us. Come on let’s go,” Albert urged, as he nodded towards a gloomy looking doorway. “Let’s try this way.” “I don’t like the look of that.” “Which way do you think we should go then?” “I have no idea - I suppose that way is just as good as any.” The Leadington twins hesitantly walked forward towards the creepy arched entrance with an anxious feeling gurgling up in the pit of their stomachs.
As they crept through
they found themselves confronted with a strange and somewhat unnerving scene. There were all number of stuffed 27
animals which looked so realistic that for a split second the children thought they were alive and about to pounce on them! As they nervously passed by giant lifeless bears, eagles and other creatures that the children had never even seen before such as monstrous looking lizards, elephants and giraffes, they felt more than a little intimidated to say the least. The beasts’ glass glazed eyes seemed to be watching them, and at one stage Albert thought he saw one of them blink. “What is this place?” “Some sort of museum?” suggested Florrie, as she glimpsed a suit of armour and an array of elaborate swords in an adjoining chamber. As
they
progressed
through
the
seemingly endless array of rooms and hallways they came across statues, paintings, fossils and 28
vast skeletons that didn’t resemble anything they recognised. As soon as they realised they weren’t in any imminent danger they even managed to pluck up enough courage to take a closer look at one of the exhibits - a strange tomb painted in such a way that it looked as if a man was lying on top of it and it appeared to them that it must have been a king or similar, as he was wearing an intricate gold gown and some sort of odd hat or crown and had two staffs crossed over his chest. Florrie cautiously peered at the cold hard shiny surface
of
the
tomb,
admiring
the
craftsmanship and the dazzling jewels that were embedded in the rim of the lid. “Do you think there’s a dead body inside?” asked Albert, his curiosity aroused and even though he knew better he couldn’t help but want to see. 29
“Stop it! Don’t be so morbid! That’s a horrible thing to say!” exclaimed Florrie. “Nothing is going to happen, we’re here by ourselves.” Unfortunately the moment he tried to shove open the top of the tomb it seemed to fly off by itself and the children took a terrified step backwards as a figure wrapped in old bandages slowly sat up, seemingly staring at them.
The two children stared at each
other in utter horror before running from the chamber screaming at the top of their voices. “I told you not to touch anything!” shrieked Florrie. “Things are bad enough without you making them any worse!” And truer words could not have been spoken as the rest of the museum came to life as well... 30