Hallowed Ground – 500 word story.

Father Hope is walking towards the church door, whistling to himself. All of a sudden he hears a faint scream in the distance. He turns to face the churchyard at once, to look for any danger. He sees nothing. He then runs down the side of the church; where he sees two girls. One struggling, the other is calm. The calm girl turns at the sound of Father Hope, her hair is tangled, her face is pale, her hands are blood soaked and cut. She drops Annie. While Father Hope drops to the floor in shock. Her eyes are as black as the eyes of the devil. She resumes strangling the weak, vulnerable girl. Taking all her life away in a grasp of her neck. The girl falls to the floor, silent, dead. Father Hope runs back to the church door at once. He is followed by Cecelia, who then gets distracted by a bird and walks off. He retires to his office and drifts off to sleep.

The next morning Father Hope is awoken by a loud repetitive knocking on the door. He panics and runs to the door. It is only Mrs Higgles. 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. Father Hope begins to feel faint. He then collapses.

Later that morning, Father Hope awakes again, this time in his bed in the vicarage across the street from 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 town. 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.

The following day, 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. 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. 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.