Sam, Shari, and Jack went to the fort about an hour and a half before it closed with hopes to see a ghost or two. They knew that with less people wandering around, the chances of seeing one would be better. The three of them went up to the barbette tier of the fort first. Sam and Jack wanted to see some cannons if there were any and Shari wanted to enjoy the view before it got dark. They even went inside of a couple of turret’s and looked out over the ocean.
Jack and Sam found a couple of cannons and admired how well preserved they were. Shari took a lot of photos of the view, the guys, and even the structure of the building. When Sam and Jack were ready to explore the rest of the fort, they found Shari and all three headed down the stairs and into the courtyard. Before they went into the old artillery room, one of the fort employees told them that the fort will be closing in about fifteen minutes. They didn’t realize how fast the time went while they enjoyed the upper level.
“Okay, thank you,” Shari smiled at the employee.
Because Shari wasn’t interested in the artillery room, she wandered off and into the old dining hall. She noticed that since evening had arrived, the fort was eerily quiet. The only voices that she heard were coming from Jack and Sam across the courtyard. Shari examined one of the dining tables that was on display and then looked at the structure of the walls.
“Attention visitors, the fort will be closing in five minutes. Please make your way to the drawbridge so that you can exit. The fort will open again tomorrow morning at nine. Thank you, and have a wonderful evening,” a fort employee announced over a loud speaker.
“Did you hear that, we need to find Shari,” Jack said.
“Okay, hold on a minute,” Sam finished reading the description panel of the cannon balls.
Shari had wandered into another room that she found behind an old fireplace. As lights started to get shut off within the fort, she was left in the dark. She was startled but felt for the walls and then hopefully the doorway. After about two minutes, she hollered for Sam and Jack.
“Sam, Jack, help me.”
“Did you hear that?” Jack looked at Sam.
“Yeah, that sounded like Shari,” Sam walked out into the dimly lit courtyard.
The moon was bright and not a cloud in the sky so that helped them see a little of the courtyard. Jack called out Shari’s name while they glanced around.
“Guys, I’m in here,” Shari yelled.
Sam ran toward the dining hall but stopped before going in. He took his cell phone out and turned on the flashlight. Jack did the same and followed him inside.
“Shari, where are you?” Sam called out.
“I’m behind the fireplace but I can’t find my way out.”
Both guys shined their lights around until Jack finally found the fireplace.
“Here it is,” Jack peeked inside and ducked down to go in.
Shari saw their lights and walked toward them, “boy, am I glad to see you guys.”
“What are you doing in here?” Sam asked her.
“Well, I was curious since I saw it was a secret room but then the lights went out,” Shari grabbed Sam’s arm.
“Well, come on you two, they made the announcement. We have to see if we can find our way out of here,” Jack said.
Shari held onto Sam’s arm as they carefully left the dining hall. The atmosphere felt strange and almost spooky. The air cooled a couple of degrees as they looked for the doorway to the front of the fort.
“I know, you two stay here while I run up to the top level to see if anyone is still here,” Jack said.
Jack ran back into the courtyard and up the stairs to the barbette tier. He ran over to where the front of the fort would be and looked over the edge. He didn’t see anyone crossing the moat but he did notice the last car leaving the parking lot.
“Hey, wait,” Jack yelled as loud as he could.
It was no use, there was no one else around. Jack tried his cell phone since he was up top yet but his call dropped quickly. He tried again but couldn’t get a strong enough signal. While Jack made his way back down the stairs, he quickly stopped when he saw a shadow-like figure in one of the doorways across the courtyard. He turned on his camera and snapped a couple of pictures before it disappeared. Jack then hurried down the rest of the stairs and turned into the main corridor where he left Sam and Shari.
“Where did they go? Sam, Shari, where are you?” Jack called out.
Jack turned his flashlight back on and glanced around the dimly lit corridor. He saw a sign with an arrow that read Barracks so he went in that direction. Maybe they decided to hunker down in there, he thought. But when Jack walked inside of the large room, there was no sign of Sam or Shari. As Jack shined his light around the room, he noticed a big wood door with a barred window and something had moved passed it.
“Is someone there? Sam, Shari, is that you?” Jack said while he slowly walked over to the door.
When he tried to open the door to the dark room, it seemed locked. The sign next to the door read, cell. A cell? Does that mean prisoner, Jack thought. Jack shined his light through the bars of the window and didn’t see anyone. He turned around and walked back to the doorway of the barracks when he was startled by Shari.
“Oh, Jack, am I happy to see you,” Shari grabbed onto his arm, “I lost Sam. He said that he was going to look for you and he seemed to be gone for a while. I got scared being all by myself in this dark creepy fort.”
“Where did you guys go, I was only gone maybe five minutes,” Jack walked Shari over to one of the beds.
“Well, Sam got impatient and we tried to find the front door but didn’t.”
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