All Are Welcome Here – Chapter 14
The Scream in the Tunnel
The scream echoed violently through the underground tunnels.
Human.
Raw.
Full of terror.
It lasted only a few seconds before suddenly cutting off deep within the darkness beyond the cavern.
Then silence returned.
Not even dripping water remained afterward.
Elias Ward felt every muscle in his body tighten instinctively while Mara immediately raised the lantern higher toward the tunnel entrance behind them.
Neither moved.
Neither spoke.
The silence after the scream somehow felt worse than the sound itself.
Then something softly shifted within the darkness far down the tunnel.
A scraping noise.
Slow footsteps dragging across stone.
Approaching.
Mara’s face drained of color.
“We need to go deeper.”
Elias stared at her. “Someone’s down there.”
“Not anymore.”
The certainty in her voice chilled him instantly.
Another slow scrape echoed through the tunnel beyond the cavern.
Closer now.
Elias grabbed one of the old rusted tools leaning beside the cavern wall without thinking. It looked like some kind of broken iron pipe, heavy enough to use as a weapon if necessary.
Mara noticed but said nothing.
The footsteps continued approaching slowly through the darkness.
Then lantern light appeared far down the tunnel.
Small at first.
Swaying softly.
One lantern.
Then another behind it.
Then several more.
Elias’s pulse quickened immediately.
The lantern walkers had entered the tunnels.
Mara quickly extinguished the chamber lantern, plunging everything into near-total darkness except for the distant approaching lights.
“Stay quiet,” she whispered.
The underground chamber disappeared around them beneath darkness and shadows while the lantern glow drifted slowly closer through the narrow passage ahead.
Elias could hear voices now too.
Soft humming.
The same welcoming hymn from outside the house earlier.
Only slower this time.
Sad.
Like a funeral song.
The lantern lights finally reached the entrance to the cavern.
Elias held his breath.
Three figures stepped into view.
Townspeople.
Smiling calmly beneath the dim lantern glow while walking slowly through the underground chamber.
Mud covered their bare feet.
Their eyes looked unfocused.
Sleepwalking almost.
Then Elias realized with horror that the person leading them was Thomas.
The old man from the town square.
His warm smile remained unchanged even here beneath the earth.
Thomas slowly looked around the cavern while humming softly under his breath.
Then he spoke calmly into the darkness.
“You shouldn’t hide from the ceremony, Elias.”
Elias physically froze.
Beside him, Mara silently gripped his arm harder.
Thomas took another slow step into the cavern.
Behind him, more lantern walkers entered from the tunnel carrying pale golden lights through the darkness. Their smiles never changed.
“The forest already knows your name,” Thomas continued gently. “Fighting the bells only makes the transition painful.”
Transition.
Elias hated how calmly these people said horrifying things.
Thomas stopped moving near the photograph wall.
Then slowly—
he reached toward Emily’s scratched-out picture.
And carefully touched the damaged photograph with surprising tenderness.
“She waited for you,” he whispered.
The distant bells echoed faintly again somewhere above the tunnels.
Elias’s chest tightened immediately.
He could hear them more clearly now.
Every ring felt warmer.
Closer.
The lantern walkers suddenly stopped humming all at once.
Complete silence filled the cavern.
Then one of them quietly whispered:
“He’s beneath the roots.”
Mara’s entire body stiffened.
Thomas slowly closed his eyes.
Almost respectfully.
Then he looked directly toward the darkness where Elias and Mara hid.
And softly smiled.
“The Hollowed found the lower tunnels.”