sketch, sketch, sketch... [open]

[elizabethmay]

She stood in front of the mighty Windsor Castle, taking in fresh air that she needed every once in a while. In her hands was a lovely, yellow spiral sketchbook and a metal case for her General brand drawing pencils. She swallowed. The gigantic structure in front of her seemed spooky, haunting, spine-chilling, but she chose this place to sketch.

Elizabeth-May exhaled. Taking on such an enormous building like this one and putting it on a blank piece of paper sounded like a job for someone with patience, someone who can stay focused while drawing it. That wasn't her, but, it was a good opportunity to try sketching something else other than the items in the apartment she lived in, or things she saw outside at a bird's eye view.

She looked back at a shining, black BMW with a middle aged Caucasian man in the driver's seat. "Don't worry Lizzie-May", he told her, "You're just doing something quite different from what you're used to." She knew that. The only thing she wanted from him was to stay with her, watch her as she sketched Windsor Castle, maybe follow her inside since she wasn't one to wander inside by herself.

"You promise you'll stay Dad?", She asked the middle aged driver. He nodded, "Of course, I wouldn't leave my child out here by herself... she would start panicking." Elizabeth smiled. She felt comfortable now that her father was here to watch her draw something she wasn't used to.

Right where she stood was a good spot, so she sat down on her knees, laid her sketchbook and pencil case on the ground and flipped open the case, picking out a 3B pencil then opening the sketch book. She picked up the book and laid it in her lap. After 3 minutes of analyzing Windsor Castle, she began to pencil down what she saw.

[Teris]

Anna-Leigh was just finishing closing up the shop for the after-noon. She’d have to return in a few hours, but until then, she had a destination in mind for her lunch break. Recently, Leigh’d heard of this castle, which was rumoured to be wickedly haunted. Goose bumps rose on her arms, and she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. This was going to be totally awesome. In her backpack (which was slung over her back), she had a camera, a flashlight, and two peanut butter granola bars in her bag. Coupled with a can of fruit punch, and she was set. A determined smile was on her features as she knelt down, entering the combination for her bike chain. Flinging the chain into her backpack as well, Leigh hopped onto her bike and began take-off.

It would have been about a fifteen or twenty-minute bike ride if a) her tires weren’t so flat, b) there weren’t such a thing of vehicles and roads, which blocked her path, and c) the slush and snow. It took her, instead, about forty-five minutes to get to the iron, rusted gates of the castle. It was gorgeous, holding a slightly ominous look over it. Clearly this old building had seen better days, but now it was left to ruin. Nature was attempting to take back what once had belonged to it; vines were crawling up the walls, trees over-grown and gnarly. The fact that it appeared as if it might storm soon only added to the look.

She hopped off her bike, still gripping the handlebars as the two-wheeled form of transportation leaned against her. Anna-Leigh could imagine the windows not boarded up, and a soft glow from candlelight illuminating them, could see the walls scrubbed and gleaming in the sunshine as a two small children and a mutt ran across the front lawn, tripping in the snow. A light smile made it’s way over Anna-Leigh’s face as she took it all in. She sucked part of her bottom lip into her mouth, twirling the lip ring with her tongue. This was simply spectacular. The architecture was splendid to the eye, and Leigh found herself wondering why anyone in his or her right mind would let such a beautiful building go to ruin.

”Man, this is so totally epic.” She muttered to herself, before glancing down at the gate. It was held together with a chain, though the chain was neither locked nor tied together well. Giving it a tug with her numb fingers, Leigh let the chain drop to the ground as she gave a light shove to the iron of the gate. The hinges screeched open as if screaming in pain, and shivers of dislike ran up and down Anna-Leigh’s back. That sounded much too much like nails on a chalkboard. Even thinking of the ringing that had assaulted her ears made Anna-Leigh want to kick a puppy down a flight of stairs. Pushing her bike in, Leigh brought it over to the side of the stonewall that was starting to crumble in places. Leaning her bike against it, the late-teen wiggled out of her backpack before unzipping it and hunting out one of her granola bars.

Locating the piece of food, the girl unwrapped it and stuck an end in her mouth while zipping up her bag and slinging it back over her back. She made her way over to the house, coming up to the large front doors. She reached out with one hand, still munching on her lunch with the other, and felt the intricately carved handle before giving it a test-turn. She was surprised it gave way, though not that surprised that the door didn’t budge open when she gave a light push. Sticking the bar in her mouth and holding it with her teeth, Leigh braced herself against the door and gave a hard push. The door groaned open, dust and mothballs falling from above. Leigh ducked out of the way after a noise of protest in her throat, trying to keep her food safe from the rain of disgusting. When the rain was over, she squeezed in through the crack and stood there for a moment as she finished off that bar. Bringing her backpack around again, she stuck the garbage in a compartment before grabbing her other bar and the flashlight.

Zipping up her backpack as she leaned against the door to close it, Leigh accidentally dropped her flashlight and cursed under her breath. Bending down to pick it up, a noise reached her ears; car doors closing. She paused for a moment, before feeling around in the dark and finding the flashlight and flicking it on. The space around her illuminated in the poor light was even more amazing then the- Anna-Leigh spun around to stare at the doors when she heard a voice from the other side, albeit far away. Two voices, actually, one stronger then the first. The first had defiantly been male, while the second sounded more like a young female, perhaps 10 or so.

Shoving her granola bar into her coat pocket, Anna-Leigh ignored the slight disappointment in her gut (disappointment for not being able to explore more of the castle) before it was completely over-rode by her sense of curiosity for who was out there. Opening the doors, Anna-Leigh’s eyes took a moment to adjust as she flicked off the flashlight. When she was no longer seeing black splotches, her eyes focused on a young girl who defiantly was not 10. She was probably in her mid-teens, in fact. Anna-Leigh smiled at the girl, ”Your boot’s untied.” She greeted her. What else do you say to somebody when you first meet them? It was only polite to inform the girl, since there was a possibility she might trip. If she were to trip around here, though, she might be lucky enough to score a soft –but cold- landing in a snow bank.