Hallowed Ground – 500 word story.

Day 1 : Father Hope hears a scream coming from the nearby woods. He investigates and finds Cecelia strangling a girl, he flees and at first, she doesn’t follow him at first. But after he returns to the safety of the church, he has flashbacks to this traumatic event. He then goes into the main body of the church; he hears a twig from outside snapping. He runs to the window and sees this deadly girl stood at the window. Her hand reaches out to him. Father Hope stands back; he grabs a vile of holy water and a wooden cross from his desk. He sits at the alter all night, hoping for this horrible girl to leave. She doesn’t.

Day 2: Father Hope is awoken by a loud repetitive knocking on the door. He panics and runs to the peep hole. It is only a townsperson. He opens the door, his nerves getting the better of him. The woman walks into the hallow church, she greets Father Hope, and questions him of his whereabouts of the previous night, as he had missed a fundraising event at the town hall. He collapses in a state of horror.

Later that morning, Father Hope awakes again, this time in his bed in the vicarage across the churchyard. He no longer feels the safety of the church grasping onto him. He looks outside, there’s nothing to be seen. A crash echoes through the house, Father Hope jumps to his feet. Fully dressed, he prances down the old wooden stairs, he sees Mrs Higgles washing the pots from the previous morning. She greets him, asks of his wellbeing, then leaves the vicarage for her noon stroll through the woods.

A while later, Father Hope is wandering through the churchyard, reminiscing of the days of his youth. Suddenly, a twig snapped behind him, some leaves rustled, and out crawled Mrs Higgles, her long, grey hair is tangled and stained with blood. Father Hope runs frantically to her rescue. He sees a figure standing in the trees of the woods behind the churchyard.

Day 3: Father Hope is in the church hall, sat at the back, near the window. He is mortified about the death of dear Mrs Higgles. A few hours had passed; Father Hope remained in the same position, at the back, near the window.

Day 4: A group of people, all in black, gathered out in the churchyard. They said their farewells to dear Mrs Higgles. They then turned to Father Hope, who recited the Lord’s Prayer as the coffin lowered into the cold, soggy ground on which she died.

In the afternoon, Father Hope took a stroll, in commemoration of dear Mrs Higgles. He took her usual route, down the old lane, through to the woods and down to the clearing. Hardly knowing what he was doing, he sat on a log in the clearing, and looked at the ground, the exact spot where the poor, young, unknown girl lost her innocent life. The body was gone. The blood remained.

Father Hope carries on with his stroll, but the night is creeping behind him. The trees are getting restless and the spirit responsible for all the tragedies is awoken.

Day 5: Father Hope calls his colleague from the next village, alerts him of the tragedies that have taken place. Father McFlyn comes down to the village immediately. The two priests make their way

to the clearing in the woods, they sit on the ground. Father McFlyn opens a bible and performs an exorcism as the demonic spirit appears through the trees. After a long battle with the demon, the girl falls. Her face turns pink and her scars leave. She does not return from the dead.