Gothic Story Essay

The advancing darkness overwhelmed his senses and the fear of the night crept upon him. Distant screams beyond the unavoidable forest seemed to draw him towards the tall trees ahead. He fearfully entered the overpowering forest, after a few footsteps in, the trees surrounded him at every angle and there was no escape. The journey had to continue, there was no turning back now. The scattered leaves and twigs crunched below his feet as he advanced further into the colossal forest, his nose was conquered by the dominant scent of burning wood and mud. The whispering footsteps of wild beastly animals seemed to be following his every motion, then the sudden roaring wind threw him off balance and he plummeted to the ground with a colossal thud. He rose to his feet immediately and a distance ahead of him he could see the moon light fighting through the dense trees. He proceeded in the direction in which he was originally travelling in. After a while of walking he became aware that the night was at its peak and nothing but death could be heard. He fearfully darted as rapid as he could and now the opening of the forest was near, he cleared the last of the trees, and he was now out of the mighty forest. In front of him stood an isolated castle, he sceptically approached the mammoth cast iron gates that towered far above him. The gates had huge rusted chains securing them, but they were not locked. He heaved the gates with great difficulty and managed to open a small gap that he was able to squeeze through. The gravel in advance of him seemed disturbed as if someone had already past over it recently, he continued anyway and the gravel crunched beneath his feet, the old cold stone castle was in front of him. He approached the huge rotting wooden doors, which were wide open and he slowly entered the vast hallway, a mighty bash was heard behind him, he spun around and realized that the doors had fastened. The hallway was damp, with a stale smell, it was decorated with ancient wallpaper and rotting furnishings, it seemed as if the place had been abandoned years ago and any previous owners are long dead, but judging by the size of the doors and gates the people who lived here must have been humongous. He progressed deeper into the ancient castle, he could hear dripping echoes around the corridor he had entered, the smell changed it was now a disgusting rotting smell as if something or someone had died in the area. Further forwards he saw an object hanging in the centre of the corridor in the distance but he could not tell what it was, the smell had become more dominant as he continued it was becoming unbearable, he reached the hanging object and to his disgust and astonishment was a man’s leg dangling from a piece of wire tied to a pipe above his head, the leg had already begun rotting away but a lot of flesh still remained, it appeared as if the leg was chopped of by a butchers knife or an axe. He had now reached the end of the corridor and was lingering at the top of a dark spiralling staircase, he descended slowly but fearfully into the darkness of the staircase that was slowly absorbing him, unable to see anything but his feet and the step he was treading on he would be unable to tell how many steps he would have to descend. Trusting himself he gripped onto the railing at one side of these stairs and went down one step at a time, he had descended masses of steps, he must have been going down for at least half an hour. Finally some light began to creep in as he continued downwards; he could now see the vast remaining number of steps beneath him begin to reveal themselves. He touched the walls for balance as he descended; they were as cold as ice. At last he discovered that the never-ending staircase was coming to an end. He reached the final step and felt a mixture of relief because the journey had ended and yet he was nervous as to what lay ahead. At the end of the stair case was a poorly lit room that was damp and dirty. There was blood everywhere; all over the walls and a huge puddle where he was standing. In the centre of the room he found a bleeding man tied to a small wooden chair with thick ropes. In the man’s leg a large butcher’s knife had been wedged deep into his flesh. The room was empty except for a large steel door at the back of the room. The door swung open and a giant man with a huge blood soaked knife stood at the door saturated in shadow.