Devil's Ceremony
By: Justin McCoy
Chapter 1
The Village
The sun was at its highest point in the sky when Robert Benson and his friend John Crofter walked down the dirt trail that lead from the mountains to the village. The village was isolated, surrounded by forest and mountains for miles. As they walked past the large grey stone gates that stood as the entrance to the village, Robert wiped the sweat off of his forehead with a small handkerchief that was in his pocket.
After passing through the front gates, the two of them looked at the two large houses that were on either side of him. The windows were all covered with blinds that provided the only shade for the homes. The front doors were all opened and the children were playing with each other as they walked past the two homes. Robert glanced quickly at the children, but they paid no attention to him as they went on with the game they were playing.
They both stopped as the land went downhill and eventually leveled off and the dirt trail continued through what seemed like more houses.
"You sure we are doing the right thing?" asked John as he gave Robert a worried look.
"You heard what our orders were, to investigate the strange disappearances around the area. Though, the chief never did mention anything about a village."
"The map he gave us doesn't even have this village on it. According to the map, we should still be in the forest."
John went to take the map out of his jacket pocket, but Robert raised his hand and waved it. John put the map back in his jacket pocket.
"Should we continue through?" asked John, still puzzled as to what they should do next.
"No, we investigate this village a little more. If it's not on the map and we were never told about it, then maybe it has some connection to the case." Replied Robert.
John started to walk forward and just when he was about to walk down the hill, Robert called out his name. "John, is it just me, or did those kids not even glance at us?"
John turned around and shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't think of something to say, but at the same time he wanted to say something but never found the words.
"Just wondering."
Robert continued down the hill with John and within moments, was passing by some of the same houses they had seen before. John was the first to stop, as his eyes were focused upon a house on the left, where the front door was wide open. John walked forward and soon Robert followed right behind him as they walked into the house and stared at the layout. They were what seemed like the living room, with a hallway at the back end that seemed to go to the kitchen. They both walked down the hallway in the back of the room. A fork in the hall came, with the right path leading to some stairs and the left path lead to the kitchen.
"Hello. Anyone home?" yelled John.
Robert could see that no one was home and from the looks of the house, no one had lived in it for quite a while.
The walls were white, but they seemed to have some sort of black paint that went all over the wall. The wooden floor boards seemed to be chipped and warped. The furniture in the living room was turned over, rips were in the sofa and there was wax all over the floor. He could only guess that it came from candles melting away due to the heat put off by the flame.
"Looks like the place is empty?" said John in a staggered voice.
"Something wrong with you? You look scared?" answered Robert who took out his flashlight from his coat pocket and turned it on. The flashlight came on with a click and a small ray of light illuminated the room.
"No, it's just that this place seems…"
"Scary?" said Robert.
John could do nothing but nod his head as they walked towards the stairs. Robert moved his flashlight so the beam of light concentrated on the room near the top of the stairs. He started up the stairs, when he heard something fall and break behind him. He quickly turned around and moved the flashlight to the kitchen, where John was standing in front of.
"What was that?" shouted Robert.
John did not respond, but he take out his flashlight and turned it on. Robert could tell his friend was starting to shake, his arms flailing to his sides, the ray of light coming from the flashlight was shaking up and down.
"You go and check out the kitchen, I will go up stairs. If you don't find anything, come back up and find me." Said Robert as he turned back around and headed for the top of the stairs.
He could not tell what John did after that since his friend disappeared from his eye sight as he stepped off of the last stair. The room was large, with many windows on each wall. In the center of the room, was a turned over bed. Springs were poking out of the mattress, feathers covered the ground that apparently came from pillows. He walked to the turned over bed and noticed that a dresser near the back end of the room had a drawer that was open.
He walked over to the open drawer and saw that a piece of paper was placed on top of the neatly folded clothes. He retrieved the piece of paper from the drawer and held it up to the flashlight so he could read it.
"Dark…..Dark…..If only I could see you again, then maybe I won't be so scared…The darkness…….it will swallow."
After reading the piece of paper, he tucked it in his coat pocket where the flashlight used to be and headed back for the stairs. He ran his flashlight over the contents of the room one more time, then headed down the stairs.
John was not where he was when Robert left him, so he went into the kitchen. Upon entering, he took small steps forward moving the flashlight around the room looking for clues or anything that seemed unordinary. He moved to the back of the kitchen, but John was no where to be found. Near the back wall of the kitchen, he saw a closet door that was slightly opened. He moved right up to it and placed his hand on the door knob.
He could hear something on the other side of the door. He did not know what the sound was, but to his best knowledge it was some kind of substance in the form of a puddle, moving around on the other side of the door. Just as he turned the door knob, he heard something behind him.
"Can I help you?" Came a women's voice from behind him.
He turned around quickly, his hand still holding onto nothing, but it was as if the door knob was still tightly in his grip. He saw a woman who was a little shorter than him. Her dark blue eyes stared into his, he got a cold feeling that ran down his spine. She was wearing some kind of white dress, one that he had never seen before.
"Are you looking for someone?" asked the Woman again.
He stumbled on the words he was to say, but they eventually came out. "Yes, I'm looking for my friend, I last saw him around here. Have you seen him, his name is John?"
The women said nothing but continued to stare at him. Her pale white face stuck out into his mind, as if something was wrong with her. She turned around and pointed to the front door which was wide open, just the way it was when they entered the house. "Your friend is waiting outside, I told him I would send you out when I found you."
Robert could do nothing but smile as he walked past the women and headed for the front door. As he almost made it outside, he heard the women speak.
"You took my brother from me."
He paused, then turned around only to see nothing. He was the only one in the living room and he could not see the woman anywhere within his eye sight. He scanned the room one more time before exiting the house. He saw John standing by a tree on the opposite side of the road. John was rubbing his hands through his hair when Robert walked up to him.
"Did you manage to find anything?" said Robert.
"No, other than meeting the woman in the house, no."
He took the piece of paper out of his coat pocket and gave it to John. "I found this upstairs, it was inside one of the dressers."
John read through the letter, but it had seemed like he read it over many times before replying. "What do you make of it?"
"Right now, I can make nothing of it, other than somehow I have a feeling that this village has something to do with the disappearances around this area."
John only shook his head as he got to his feet and the two of them started walking down the dirt trail which lead deeper into the village. They passed by more houses, but other than the fact they were all the same, there doors were shut and the windows had curtains that were drawn over them. They saw no one else until they spotted a man and woman in the middle of the road ahead of them.
"Well, it looks like we might speak to some normal people." Said Robert as he pointed to the two figures that stood ahead of them.
"Should we show them the note you found. It would probably be the thing to do?" asked John.
Robert raised his hand to his mouth and coughed a few times before answering. "I think we should keep this from anyone until we learn more about this place."
To be Continued….