# 🩸 **2. “The White Boy of Chillingham Castle” – a very long horror story**

### *Prologue: A Castle That Breathes the Past*

Chillingham Castle in Northumberland towers over the valley like a stone beast, its towers resembling fangs.

Its walls remember screams, pains, pleas, and judgments.

The castle was always alive—it breathed tragedy.

When Alice Bramble, a young archivist from Cambridge, arrived there one October afternoon, she had no idea she would become part of a story the castle told only to a select few.

She had heard legends: of the ghost of a child in white, of figures in armor, of shadows in torture dungeons.

But she was a scientist—she believed everything could be explained rationally.

She would soon change her mind.

---

### *Chapter I: Arrival*

Alice stopped at the gates of Chillingham. Rain slanted, and the wind howled like an animal searching for a way in.

The old caretaker, Mr. Holling, led her to the door.

“We have a guest interested in archives?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. “Good… but you should know that the castle can be capricious.”

“Capricious?”

“It chooses those to whom it shares its secrets.”

Alice smiled politely, though she privately dismissed it as typical local folklore.

She was ushered into the guest wing—the wooden floors creaked, the walls smelled of wax and dust, and the ceiling was so high it disappeared into the darkness.

Night fell quickly.

Alice didn’t sleep long.

At two in the morning, she heard a knock.

Gentle, regular.

Knock… knock… knock…

She opened the door.

The hallway was empty.

But she saw something else:

At the end of the corridor stood a boy.

He wore a white shirt, translucent as fog.

He held a teddy bear with no eyes.

As Alice took a step toward him, the boy turned away…

and disappeared into the stone wall.

--

### *Chapter II: Secrets of the Archive*

The next day, Alice worked in the castle archives.

She looked through letters, old journals, family books – and the deeper she delved into history, the more she felt something looming over her like a shadow.

In one of the documents, she came across information about children from the 17th century who had disappeared in the castle.

The trail ended abruptly, and there was a suspicious gap in the archives.

Mr. Holling suddenly appeared behind her.

“What did you find?”

Alice showed him a fragment of the chronicle.

“These are the missing children from 1631, right? Why are there no further records?”

The caretaker paled.

"Because we shouldn't talk about them."

"Why?"

"Because if they tell you… they'll hear it."

And he left, leaving her with a chill down her spine.

--

### *Chapter III: Night Sounds*

That night, Alice didn't sleep again.

The castle seemed alive.

She heard:

*running footsteps in the hallway,

*whispers close to her ear,

*the creaking of the door, which no one answered.

She got up, grabbed a lantern, and went out into the hallway.

Mist poured in through the windows, even though they were closed.

A child's toy lay on the floor.

The same one the boy had held at night—a teddy bear with no eyes.

As she bent down to pick it up, she heard a voice:

> *"Help me…"*

Behind her.

She turned around.

He was there.

The boy.

Paler than before.

With dark circles under his eyes.

A scar on his neck.

She stepped closer.

The boy reached out and touched her fingers.

His skin was as cold as ice.

“Who are you?” she asked.

But the ghost didn’t answer.

He merely pointed to the stairs leading down.

To the dungeons.

--

### *Chapter IV: Torture Dungeons*

The lantern light flickered as Alice descended the stone steps.

The castle held its dark secrets—everyone knew about the torture dungeons, but no one liked to look there.

The doors creaked open on their own.

As if welcoming her.

It was cold inside.

There was a smell of metal, damp, and something else—the scent of an old fear.

An iron cage stood in one corner.

Beside it—red stains congealed.

And then she heard a sound.

A child's cry.

"Are you here?" she asked quietly.

The cry faded.

Silence fell.

Alice took a step.

The streetlight suddenly dimmed.

Behind her, she heard a second, lower breath.

The breath of a grown man.

She turned slowly.

A dark, tall silhouette stood in the darkness.

Eyes like burnt holes.

Mouth twisted in an inhuman grimace.

> *"Leave. Him."*

The voice sounded like the crunch of bones.

Alice stepped back, but the man moved toward her.

Unnaturally fast.

He grabbed her arm.

In that same instant, the boy in white stood between them.

He held out his hand.

The man howled and vanished into the darkness.

The boy turned to Alice.

His lips moved silently, but it took her a long moment to hear the words:

> *“He left me here…”*

“Who?” she asked.

> *“My father.”*

And suddenly she understood everything.

The castle wasn’t just a place of execution for strangers.

It was a prison.For her own blood.

--

### *Chapter V: The Final Discovery*

Alice returned to the archives. With feverish determination, she sifted through the documents.

She found what was missing:

letters from the boy's father, a 17th-century lord known for his cruelty.

In one letter, he wrote:

> *"A weak boy, unworthy of my legacy. I locked him away where no one would find him. If he dies, God will know it was his fault."*

Alice covered her mouth.

Her eyes filled with tears.

The boy didn't die in the castle by accident.

He was *left* there.

Sentenced to death by his own father.

--

### *Chapter VI: Farewell*

That night, she returned to the dungeons.

The boy waited.

"I have found the truth," she said.

His eyes filled with a light they hadn't held before.

He smiled sadly.

"Can I leave?"

"Yes. You can."

The boy nodded.

And then…

the body began to dissipate like mist in the sun.

The last thing he said was:

> *"Thank you."*

And he was gone.

Forever.

---

### *Epilogue*

After returning to Cambridge, Alice often thought back to the castle.

One day, she received a package without a sender.

Inside was an old, rotten toy.

A teddy bear.

No eyes.

And beneath it was a note:

> *"He's gone now. But the castle remembers."