Chapter 6: The Shadow’s Mark
Elias stood in the dimly lit motel room, the locket still clutched in his hand. The name inside—Emily Thornton—burned into his mind. Two lockets, two girls. One from fifteen years ago, one from just days ago. Both gone without a trace.
He sat at the small wooden desk, laying the lockets side by side. The etchings on the back were identical.
He sees.
A knock on the door made him jolt. His gun was in his hand before he even thought about it. “Who is it?”
“It’s me,” Grayson’s gruff voice came through the door. Elias exhaled and opened it.
The sheriff stepped inside, his face pale and tense. “We’ve got another problem,” he said, tossing a folder onto the desk. Elias opened it, scanning the black-and-white photograph clipped inside.
It was a picture of the old chapel, taken decades ago. Standing in front of it were several men, all dressed in dark robes. Their faces were blurred, as if the film had been tampered with.
“Where did you get this?” Elias asked, flipping through the papers.
Grayson crossed his arms. “Town archives. I had a feeling that chapel had more history than we knew. Turns out, it was abandoned for a reason. The church shut it down in 1903 after a series of disappearances.”
Elias frowned. “Disappearances?”
Grayson nodded. “Not just girls. Entire families. People would go to that chapel and never come back. No bodies were ever found.”
A cold dread settled in Elias’s gut. “So what are we dealing with here? Some kind of cult?”
Grayson hesitated, then pulled out another paper. A handwritten account, dated 1902.
‘The shadow moves at night. It does not speak, but it watches. It takes what it desires, and once it marks you, there is no escape.’
Elias stared at the words, his fingers tightening around the edge of the paper. The shadow. He had seen it. Felt it.
A sudden noise outside made both men turn. Footsteps—light, cautious—moving along the motel’s hallway. Elias grabbed his gun and swung the door open.
The hallway was empty.
Except for one thing.
A single locket, identical to the ones he had found before, lying in the center of the hallway.
Elias bent down, dread pooling in his stomach as he opened it.
Inside was another photo.
His own face stared back at him.
The words etched in the silver sent an icy shiver down his spine.
You are next.
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