All Are Welcome Here – Chapter 4
The Lantern Walkers in the Trees
The smiling figure remained motionless between the trees.
Its lantern swayed softly in one hand while fog drifted through the dark forest around it. Behind the figure, the other lantern walkers had stopped too.
Every single one now faced the house.
Watching silently from the woods.
Elias Ward felt a cold heaviness settle deep inside his chest.
Something about the way they stared felt wrong.
Not curious.
Expectant.
Like they already knew him somehow.
Mara quickly pulled Elias backward toward the house porch.
“Inside. Now.”
She unlocked the door hurriedly while refusing to look toward the forest again. The moment they stepped inside, she slammed the deadbolt shut and immediately closed every curtain covering the windows.
The small house fell into dim yellow lantern light afterward.
No electricity.
The realization hit Elias instantly.
Outside, Valemere had looked old-fashioned.
Inside, it looked frozen decades in the past.
Wood-burning stove.
Ancient furniture.
Candles beside shelves instead of lamps.
No television.
No computers.
Nothing modern except the phone inside Elias’s pocket.
Mara noticed him looking around.
“Power gets unreliable after the bells.”
Again with the bells.
Elias dropped his backpack near the table while trying to calm the growing uneasiness in his head.
“What exactly are the walkers?”
Mara stayed silent while checking the window curtains carefully one more time.
Then softly:
“People preparing for the ceremony.”
“The ceremony Thomas mentioned?”
She nodded once.
Elias stepped closer.
“What kind of ceremony?”
Mara finally looked directly at him.
And for the first time since meeting her—
he saw genuine fear in her eyes.
“The kind nobody refuses.”
Silence settled heavily inside the little house afterward while wind brushed softly against the walls outside.
Then Elias asked the question that mattered most.
“Where’s Emily?”
Mara lowered her gaze immediately.
That alone terrified him more than anything else tonight.
“You said she stayed with your family.”
“She did.”
“Then where is she now?”
Mara hesitated long enough for Elias’s pulse to quicken painfully.
Finally she answered quietly:
“She entered the forest three nights ago.”
A freezing numbness spread through him.
“What do you mean entered the forest?”
Mara slowly sat near the lantern-lit table.
“She started hearing the bells more clearly.”
The sentence made no sense.
Yet the way Mara said it made Elias wish it did.
“She thought the town was hiding something,” Mara continued softly. “She kept asking questions. Visiting the church archives. Following the lantern walkers.”
“And?”
Mara looked toward the dark windows.
“Then she changed.”
Silence.
Elias physically felt his heartbeat slowing.
“What kind of changed?”
Mara rubbed tiredly at her hands before answering.
“She stopped trying to leave.”
The words hit wrong immediately.
Not dramatic.
Not emotional.
Matter-of-fact.
Like describing an illness.
Elias shook his head. “No. Emily wouldn’t just stay here.”
“That’s what I said too.”
The room suddenly felt colder.
“Mara… what happened to my sister?”
Before she could answer—
three soft knocks echoed against the front door.
Both froze instantly.
Not loud knocking.
Gentle.
Patient.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Mara’s face drained of color.
The knocking came again.
Then a familiar voice spoke softly from outside.
“Elias?”
His entire body locked.
Emily.
That was Emily’s voice.
He moved toward the door immediately.
Mara grabbed his arm hard.
“No.”
“That’s my sister.”
“No,” Mara whispered sharply. “That’s the forest calling you.”
Another knock sounded outside.
Then Emily’s voice again:
“Please let me in.”
Elias’s chest tightened painfully.
The voice sounded exhausted.
Cold.
Weak.
“Emily?”
The silence outside lasted several seconds.
Then softly—
almost smiling—
the voice answered:
“You came exactly when they said you would.”