The story is inspired by Jonathan Coulton’s Skullcrusher Mountain.
And special thanks for Vampraths and Lueur to help me on the translation.
特別感謝良夜和微光幫我看翻譯。
The Chinese version is on 碎顱山.
本文的中文版在碎顱山。

“Welcome to Skullcrusher Mountain.” This was the first thing Sharah heard after she woke up.
The man speaking looked friendly but somehow strange. Maybe it was his paleness. Sharah frowned and looked around, “Where am I? Who are you?” She remembered something then. “Where are the bandits?”
The man smiled proudly, “This is Shadow Castle on Skullcrusher Mountain, and I’m the master here.”
“It was Scarface who brought you back.” He nodded to a strapping man in black stood behind him. The man’s face looked extremely grim for the messy scars.
“Scarface looks a bit disturbing, but he is actually a sweetheart. The war not only wounded his face, but also took parts of his body,” the master sighed, “Including two-thirds of his tongue, so I’m afraid he probably won’t be able to tell us what happened to you.
“However, he is my most intimate servant. If you need anything, just tell him.”
This was how Sharah came to Skullcrusher Mountain, but she soon discovered that something was wrong here.
She was woken by howling outside her window on the first night. She told this to the master, and his face lit up, eyes began to shine. “Ah, you heard them, those lovely children!” Then he started to tell her of the importance of wolves for the ecological (She did not understand this word, but he repeated again and again.) balance, about how they reduced the herbivores (She did not understand this word either.) in this area, and about the damage the herbivores done to the mountain vegetation.
Sharah asked the master if she could leave. She spoke carefully, saying that since she did not get hurt, this should be reasonable. Or her family would be worried. Hearing her request, the master’s eyes widened, “No, No! It took me a lot of…” He stopped suddenly, and burst out a hollow laughter, “I mean it’s dangerous outside. Yes, very dangerous. You are afraid of those wolves, aren’t you? Not to mention the ionizing radiation and avian type neo-tuberculosis. I think it would be safer for you to stay here.”
On the third day, the master proposed to her.
He showed her the diamond ring shyly, and stuttered how the diamond was made of his parents’ corpses. They are the former master and mistress of the castle. “I think it represents the inheritance of the family. Hope you can accept this ring as the mistress.”
“Are you crazy?” Sharah was stunned and speechless.
“I know it’s crazy. The differences between us are huge,” he said eagerly, “You are ignorant, for now. And I… Oh, they said I was crazy for bringing those should not exist into the world. One day,those foolish lives will all be burned for their foolishness.
“But that’s doesn’t matter at all. I won’t mind . All I want is just marry you.”
She could only refuse.
The master looked very disappointed, but still walked away with great manners. He left some picture books for her.
Sharah dared not touch what he left at first. However, she had nothing else to do. In the end her curiosity get the better of her, and she finally picked up the books. Fingertips sliding over the glossy pages, Sharah was amazed by the lively animal pictures in the marvelous books. She had never seen such beautiful things.
The master must be watching her somehow. Perhaps he was the silent Scarface. A few days later, the maser invited her again cheerfully.
“I have a present for you,” he said. “It is different from those stuff, you will definitely like it.”
Sharah hadn’t known that it was such a huge castle. The master led her through layers and layers of corridors. Finally they arrived at a stable, or what looked like one. The master took her to the door, and went inside himself.
“Hush, hush. Good girl. Come over here, come on.” He made a sound of calming animal. Messy hoof sounds came from the stable.
Seeing the monster, Sharah could not help but screamed.
It was a capuchin monkey, a squeaky capuchin monkey just like the cute ones in the picture book. Or more precisely, it was a giant capuchin monkey, with partial pony’s limbs, mallard wings and the helical horns of oryx.
Sharah could only scream and scream.
The master seemed very confused and frustrated at her response. For a few days, he did not ask her to dine together. Now Sharah was determined to leave this place. She started to wander around in the castle looking for a way out. Surprisingly, no one stopped her.
She heard the master’s voice when she was outside a door. He sounded very angry, but she could not hear whom he was arguing with.
“No! No! No! I don’t care what you say, I won’t do that.”
“Why? Because she is mine! Did you hear that? Why? Because here, here is a voice saying that I shouldn’t kill her yet, and it will work this time! Nothing failed so far! Nothing!”
Sharah covered her mouth in horror, afraid to make any sound that might expose her. She hurried away, even more panic, and soon began to run along the corridor. The rooms and corridors here were many and messy. She cannot find the way out, and even lost the way to her room.
Maybe her overhearing was discovered, maybe Scarface told the master about her escape, or maybe the master just again wanted to show some scary things to her. Sharah heard the master calling her. The sound was faint at firsr, then getting clearer and clearer. She ran away from the voice, hoping to be hidden before he could see her.
Sharah snuck into a big room with semi-closed door. There was a tall towering bookshelf, which curved up to the painted dome. Perhaps this was the study in the castle? If she was found , Sharah could pretend that she was here to borrow more beautiful books.
There were half opened books and papers on a big desk. Sharah tried to look if there were anything useful. At first, she had reading difficulties; she could only understand almost nothing. Slowly, the text seemed to come alive, and started to make sense. Sharah seemed less confused. She looked over a page, then another, and another. The footsteps outside came close and away, but she did not even notice.
The desk itself showed more secrets than the documents. Sharah’s finger slipped over the smooth desktop, and more messages flashed out. One by one, chapter by chapter, snuck into her mind.
The footsteps came again, with much urgency than before. The door was slammed open.Entering the room is the flustered master.
“Sharah? ”
She turned back absently and answered: “All of the telomere must be bound with virus AD245R sequence, and the mispair repairmen shall be processed with Rift Strain No. 9023 in the reverse transcription system to allow the allele swing. Then it divides the 7 2/5 genes by 42, and takes the third paragraph of the sine wave to induce mutation. RET2/K-ras fused protein is placed in the second oval…”
“Damned! The personality has been destroyed for too much information exposure. Failed again! Why does things always like this?” The master swore and commanded Scarface, “Take her away. We will start it over again.”
“Why always like this? Why? I was so careful… Who will knew she would run inside? It was close, so close. A little more…”
Scarface completed the work quietly, evinced nothing to the weeping master, who curled up on the armchair with shoes and chewing his fingernails.
Each time failure, he always acts like that.