Episode 4: The Cellar Beneath the Smoke
224 Words
At the far end of the village, behind a crooked fence and a half-collapsed barn, there stood a house no one spoke of anymore.
It was Garrick’s.
After the fire, the elders ordered it sealed—
but the fire never touched the cellar.
No one dared go down there.
No one… except Lina.
That morning, barefoot and silent, she stood at the entrance. The door creaked open like a dying animal.
Inside, everything smelled of ash and time.
But beneath the floorboards, hidden under layers of burnt hay and cracked stone, was a trapdoor—
one the villagers had forgotten.
She lifted it.
And the moment it opened, heat breathed out of the darkness below.
Not fire.
But something older.
Something angry.
⸻
She climbed down slowly, her fingers brushing the stone walls as whispers rose to meet her.
“Lina…”
“Lina, you hear us now.”
“You carry what they tried to bury.”
The cellar was not empty.
Jars lined the shelves — filled with dark milk, bones, and… eyes.
In the center sat a single wheel of cheese, glowing faintly green, with symbols carved into its hardened rind.
One word repeated again and again:
“Betrayer.”
She reached for it—
But before her fingers touched the surface, a hand gripped her wrist.
It was not human.
- Writer
