SCARVILLE- EVIL HAS NO LIMIT (HORROR)

Chapter 10 - Glow through the darkness to find the truth

The next morning the whole town was just recovering from the chaos of last night. Eric is seen walking down the street with his bag while holding his camera.

“I need to find the truth,” he whispers to himself while walking. He continues his pace with his recorder while trying to film everything he's going to see. He couldn't see properly because of the morning Mist covering the whole town.

He kept getting distracted every time the wind blew through the village.

After several minutes of walking, Eric finally sees what's supposed to be his first stop of the day: the cemetery.

Eric enters the graveyard and looks around for some kind of clue. He picks up a small rock and throws it in the direction of the graves, hoping to see one of them move. All he did was make the rock bounce off their headstone.

After a while of walking and talking to the tombstones, Eric finally found something. He pulls back the sleeve of his jacket revealing a small stone tablet. He holds up his camera to take a picture.

After placing the stone down on the nearest grave he notices a large pile of flowers laying on the ground. They were all purple. What caught his attention was their smell. It smelled sweet. He picks a single flower and reads the words carved on the stone.

“Lilacs,” he says. He picks more flowers and examines each one carefully.

There must have been hundreds of flowers laid at the base of the stones. He bends down and gently places them in a box. He stands up and goes back to where he came from. He smiles at his discovery.

Just after walking away, he suddenly hears a loud crashing sound coming from behind him. He spins around, ready to fight whatever it is, but instead, he sees a person standing about ten yards away from him.

“Isn't it dangerous to be out here alone?” the stranger says with a smirk.

Eric blinks for a second wondering who this man is. “Uh, you... Do you know me? Do I know you...?”

He laughs softly and shakes his head.

“No, you probably don't. I am one of your neighbors. I saw you standing in the middle of the road last night. You seemed to be staring off into space, not paying attention to anything around you.”

His neighbor walks over to the flowers laid on the ground and picks one of them. “These are beautiful,” he says softly. He holds the flower up in the air and inhales deeply. “You must've been looking at these all night long.”

Eric stares at the flowers, thinking to himself what this man might mean to him. Maybe we should be together, but... No, wait. If he knew about the killings they'll be done in a blink. He sighs and looks up at his neighbor's face.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?” Eric asks.

“Why would I mind? Ask away.”

“What is it like growing up in a place like this?”

“What do you mean?”

Eric shrugs his shoulders. “It seems kind of lonely sometimes.”

“Yeah...” he pauses. “Sometimes I feel as though I'm living in an echo chamber. Everyone around me is always either doing or saying something. But no matter what they say or do, they never really connect. It is almost as if they're talking in another language entirely.”

Eric nods, agreeing with what he had said. Before his eyes darted to the broken Amulet on the stranger's neck.

“Nice amulet," Eric says out

“Thanks" the stranger replied.

“It's broken, his dad it breaks?” he questions, looking to see if it broke.

The stranger nods and lifts the amulet from its chain hanging from his neck. He holds it in front of him as he stares intently at it. He looks back at Eric. "It belonged to my mother."

“Really? That's interesting... Well, it looks nice.”

“I think so too.” The stranger looked back at the amulet before putting it back on his necklace. “So... what do you think about all the death that has happened lately? Has it affected you at all?”

“Oh yeah.”

The stranger looks down, seeming a little surprised. “Huh, it hasn't been that long since I last heard any news about anything related to Death.”

“Death.”

“Hmm?” the stranger looks back at Eric. “Did you say something?”

Eric lets out a laugh. “Sorry, I thought it sounded odd. What do you mean by 'Death'?”

“Well... When the monsters started appearing, I became concerned and worried for myself. And then when the monsters attacked the town. My concern only grew when I learned that there was also a monster nearby. I wanted to investigate more, but the creatures killed everyone I almost got the clue from. I was lucky.”

“They killed people?”

“Yes... They didn't care about anyone except themselves. So many innocent lives ended because they didn't care about their own. They didn't even want the chance to kill anyone at all. But they could not get rid of the beast. That's why I'm here; to find out why.”

Eric looks at the ground feeling sorry for him. He doesn't look like someone who would want to go searching for monsters. He looks exactly like someone that would stay in the town, rather than explore beyond its boundaries. Someone that would never leave, no matter what happens. Eric starts to walk forward toward his destination. He notices his neighbor following closely behind him.

They walk silently for quite some time until Eric points out a tall structure rising from the middle of the cemetery.

“That's a church. It used to be the local church before the monsters attacked us, and then they left,” the stranger explains.

“ok, ?”Eric responds.

The pair walks towards the building with Eric opening the entrance door. As they entered, they both felt like their hearts were breaking apart inside their bodies. Their faces turned pale as they walked inside. They stood in front of the altar, unsure of how to start talking.

“My name is Eric,” he starts nervously, “and, Uhm, who are you?”

The stranger stares at him for a few seconds before smiling sadly and shaking his head. “You can call me Ryan.”

“So do you know why they shut down the church here?” Eric asked.

“It isn't really important,” Ryan responded. “But...” he hesitated, “...it would be nice if someone else could tell you why they did it.”

“Who?”

Ryan takes a deep breath, “the mayor.”

Eric raises his eyebrows in surprise.

“What? Why?”

Ryan looks down at the ground briefly before returning his gaze to Eric's.

“He has a lot on his mind. A lot of unanswered questions.”

“Questions?”

“Questions that he will never answer,” Ryan replies quietly before turning his head away. “He needs someone to talk to, someone who knows what he's going through.”

“But he hates humans, and he doesn't even know what to believe anymore!” Eric yells, completely bewildered by what Ryan was telling him.

“I know that's hard to understand, but trust me. I've seen the mayor when he gets mad. It's scary. He loses control of himself. He hurts someone, and he becomes furious with rage.”

“Hurt someone,” Eric repeated.

“Yeah, the sheriff had the murder case closed. The mayor murdered a man named Tom Miller. The victim had a heart attack or something. I guess he was afraid of something. Either way, there was nothing the coroner could prove. The police just dropped it.”

Suddenly Eric came in contact with a statue of the holy mary, behind it he sighted a secret passage. He opens the secret passage and walks inside it. He enters a hall that was made of red bricks. Torches are lighting the way, but they soon fade out as the walls become pitch black. Suddenly Eric feels a hand grab his shoulder, causing him to jump. He turns around to see his neighbor standing beside him.

Eric quickly pulls his arm away, “Just stay alert”

“Ok I will,” Ryan mumbles and chuckles awkwardly. “I never knew there was a secret base here”

Eric smiles back at him and gestures his hand to follow him through the darkness.

As they continue walking deeper into the darkness, Eric finds that the walls are becoming less solid and are now made of dirt. Eventually, the two reach the end of the hallway and find a huge door sitting on top of a giant rock. Eric opens the door. The small window inside allows light to stream through into the dark hallway. There is a staircase that leads them upstairs.

They arrived in a room filled with red candles and a strange scent, like a corpse on the table.

“Where is this?”Eric asks while taking footage he noticed the rats all passing by, “its looks like a sanctuary for what?”

“It isn't a sanctuary... it's an Abattoir ” Ryan answers

Eric furrows his brows, confused.

“Abattoir...? What is that?”

Ryan shakes his head before explaining. “Look over there" Eric looks forward to seeing body parts hung on the ceiling with a hooked rope attached to them; some with their heads missing.

“These are all dead people, aren't they”

“Not all of them. Some have lived to old age; but most of them...” he stops and looks directly at Eric, “...they were tortured to death.”

“They are........children,” Eric says quietly in awe.

Meanwhile, Sean wakes up to see himself on a mattress with Goldberg attending to his wound. He tries standing to his feet but was withdrawn by the pain in his chest

“Stay low...for now, if not the pain will increase," he says while applying for a dry leave on the wound and tying a bandage over it.

Sean sits still and continues trying to sit up again. This time Goldberg helps him, keeping one hand on his arm while pushing him back down to lie flat again.

“Thank you,” Sean says gratefully. Goldberg stands and moves over to where the whiskey is from it. Sean's eyes widen and he begins to move to his feet again as Goldberg hands him the bottle.

“Drink it” He states. “For your ribs and back. For now. You may not be able to keep much of it inside you, you're still healing. But that should give it some help. Besides, it might make things easier.”

“What happened?” Sean asked while feeling extremely hot. “Last night—”

“You have a minor fever from the event yesterday, so what did you see in the spirit world last night?”

Sean stares at him confusedly for a few moments, not knowing what to say. However, Goldberg already knew that.

“What kind of spirit? Did you meet another one?”

“No... No, I don't think so,” Sean answered slowly.

“Then maybe this will make everything clear for you.”

Goldberg takes a step closer to the bed and looks straight at Sean as he reaches for his shirt. Sean stares at the old man, still, a bit stunned that everything had happened yesterday. He had gone from sleeping in a hotel to finding himself somewhere he had never imagined being, and yet somehow he couldn't believe that all of this happened.

“All that happened yesterday was an illusion, but the pain is real. Did you find a way to break the curse?"

“I don't know...I remember meeting this kid telling me to find out the truth about what happened at the orphanage years back” Sean says while trying to get his shirt to wear it.

“So what are you doing now?" Goldberg asked

“finding out the truth,” Sean says while standing to his feet. “If it means going back to the orphanage to face that evil force"

“Good luck with that,” Goldberg said while turning his back to Sean.

Sean turns around and walks toward Goldberg as he grabs his hand and holds onto it tightly.

"Thank you," he whispers, "for coming to my rescue...”

Goldberg turns around quickly before pulling his hand away.

“Do you need anything?”

“No, I'll be ok. Thanks anyway."