THE PRIEST'S DIARY
517 Words
The fog swallowed the cemetery.
Alexa stood frozen, unable to take her eyes off the place where the old priest had disappeared.
"That's impossible," she whispered.
Damien's voice was barely audible.
"I attended his funeral."
Alexa looked at him.
"You mean Father Benedict?"
He nodded.
"I was four years old, but I remember everyone crying. They said he died trying to stop the curse."
A chill crept down Alexa's spine.
"If he died..."
She couldn't finish the sentence.
Who—or what—had they just seen?
---
Damien led her away from the cemetery.
Neither of them noticed the crow perched on the nameless grave.
It watched them in silence.
The moment they disappeared beyond the gates...
The crow opened its beak.
A woman's laugh echoed across the cemetery.
---
"There has to be something we're missing," Alexa said.
"There is."
Damien stopped in front of the town's abandoned library.
Its stone walls were cracked with age.
The sign above the entrance hung by a single rusted chain.
BLACK HOLLOW ARCHIVES
"The town sealed this place decades ago," Damien explained.
"They wanted people to forget."
"And did they?"
He gave a bitter smile.
"You can bury the truth."
He pushed open the heavy wooden door.
"But you can't bury a curse."
---
Dust danced through beams of sunlight.
Rows of books leaned crookedly on ancient shelves.
Spiderwebs covered forgotten portraits.
The air smelled of mold and old paper.
Damien walked confidently toward a locked cabinet.
From his pocket, he pulled out a small brass key.
"You have a key?"
"My grandfather was the town librarian."
The lock clicked open.
Inside lay a single leather-bound journal.
Its cover was faded.
Across the front, written in worn gold letters, were the words:
Father Benedict
Alexa carefully opened the diary.
Most of the pages were blank.
Until...
The final entry.
The ink looked fresh.
As if it had been written only yesterday.
She began to read aloud.
"If anyone finds this journal..."
"Do not trust the stories."
"The bride was not the monster."
Alexa frowned.
"What?"
She continued.
"The town lied."
"They murdered an innocent woman..."
"And something worse was born that night."
The room fell silent.
Damien slowly lowered the book.
"What does it mean?"
Alexa turned the page.
There was only one sentence.
Written in shaky handwriting.
The groom is still alive.
A loud crash echoed upstairs.
Both of them looked toward the ceiling.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Someone was walking across the second floor.
But the library had been abandoned for years.
Damien picked up an old lantern.
"Stay behind me."
The footsteps stopped.
Then...
A man's voice drifted down from above.
Soft.
Broken.
"I've been waiting..."
Another step.
"...for someone to believe her."
Alexa's heart pounded.
The staircase creaked.
A pair of polished black shoes appeared at the top.
Then the rest of the figure emerged.
A man dressed in a century-old wedding suit.
His face was hidden beneath the shadow of a wide-brimmed hat.
He held a gold wedding ring between his fingers.
When he finally looked up...
Alexa gasped.
His eyes were completely black.
- Writer
