As Hope walked up to the castle's front doors, she recalled the days events...
~Three Hours Ago~
Hope parked her black Sedan in the front driveway. She sighed as she gathered her backpack and walked inside, and saw her dad sitting on the couch with a beer watching football and doing paperwork.
"Hey Sweetie," he said, not even looking her way. Hope let out a small, "Hi," and walked up the stairs to her room, closing and locking the door behind her.
She set her backpack by her desk, turned on her computer and waited for the broswer to pop up. Waiting, she walked into her bathroom and sat down on the edge of the tub and was about to begin cutting herself when she heard the "ding!" of an e-mail arriving in her inbox.
Weird, I never usually get any e-mails... she thought as she wandered over to the computer.
Maybe it's your ex-boyfriend.... the voice said in her head.
Ugh, not this again. The voice had been kind, leaving her for so long but now coming back to taunt her again. She ignored it, like she usually did doubting the fact that her ex-boyfriend might of e-mailed her. Still, when she saw the e-mail wasn't him, she felt her heart drop a bit.
She read the e-mail,
You don't know me but I know you. In the last month your world has changed. One day you were alone in your head. The next you weren't. You saw doctors and did research but couldn't find the answers about what was happening to you. Soon you notice that the voice in your head isn't the only thing that has changed. You can now do something that no human can do. I am here to tell you that you are not alone. There are others like you. Others that have a voice that whispers to them and can do things that no one else can do. I have some answers. I am inviting all of those who has had these experiences to come to my castle where I will explain what I know about what has caused these changes.
She slammed the laptop shut and stepped back a bit. Impossible. How could there be others? If she wasn't alone, she must go to this castle at once and meet these other blokes!
She dumped all of her school stuff from her backpack and into a drawer and packed the bag with clothes, her laptop, and her little stuffed polar bear (whose name was Chillin. She was embarrassed that she slept with it still...).
She found where she needed to go, and she walked downstairs silently, leaving a note for her dad on her door that she was leaving (once and for all most likely).
She got in her car and drove off....
~Now~
She thought about all of this as she knocked on the door three times. Once quiet, then louder, then at a normal sound for a knock.