All Are Welcome Here – Chapter 6
The Fourth Bell
The fourth bell sounded different from the others.
Deeper.
Longer.
The metallic vibration rolled through the mountains surrounding Valemere with enough force that Elias physically felt it beneath his feet. The lantern flame on the table flickered violently the moment the sound echoed through the forest, and outside the house every moving shadow beyond the windows stopped completely.
Then the silence afterward became unbearable.
Not normal silence.
The kind that feels like something is listening.
Elias Ward slowly stepped away from the front door while the distant bells continued faintly vibrating somewhere inside his mind. Mara immediately moved toward the windows, carefully peeking through the edge of one curtain before quickly shutting it again.
“They’re closer tonight,” she whispered.
Elias stared at her. “Who are ‘they’?”
Mara looked toward him with visible hesitation, like even saying the answer aloud carried risk.
“The ones the town keeps feeding.”
Cold uneasiness spread through him instantly.
Before he could ask more, something brushed softly against the front porch outside.
A dragging sound.
Slow footsteps crossing old wooden boards.
Then another set followed.
And another.
Whatever stood beyond the door no longer sounded like a single person.
The lantern walkers had reached the house.
Elias instinctively moved toward the nearest window despite Mara’s warning. Carefully, he pulled back the curtain just enough to see outside.
Fog covered the yard in pale silver beneath the moonlight.
And standing beyond the porch—
were people.
At least twenty of them.
Men.
Women.
Children.
All carrying lanterns while facing the house silently from the darkness near the trees. Their expressions remained calm. Smiling softly. Watching without blinking.
None of them moved.
The sight made Elias’s chest tighten painfully.
Then he noticed Emily standing among them.
She wore the same dark jacket from the photo on his phone. Her long hair moved gently in the wind while she stood barefoot near the front of the group holding an old brass lantern at her side.
And she was smiling too.
Not unnaturally.
Not like a monster.
Just peacefully.
That somehow terrified him more.
“Emily,” he whispered.
The moment he spoke her name, her smile widened slightly.
Then every lantern holder in the yard turned toward him together.
Mara immediately pulled the curtain shut.
“Don’t let them see you looking.”
“What happened to her?”
Mara’s voice lowered almost to a whisper. “The forest changes people after the bells begin.”
“That doesn’t explain anything.”
“No,” Mara answered quietly. “It explains everything.”
The house suddenly creaked hard beneath a gust of wind outside. Somewhere above them, something heavy moved slowly across the roof.
Elias froze.
Mara closed her eyes briefly.
“They found the house.”
A second movement dragged across the ceiling overhead.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Like footsteps.
Except too heavy to belong to a person.
Dust drifted softly from the wooden beams above while the lantern flame trembled again on the table.
Elias stared upward. “What is that?”
Mara didn’t answer immediately.
Outside the windows, the lantern walkers remained perfectly silent in the fog surrounding the house. Emily still stood among them watching the front door calmly.
Then the ceiling creaked again.
And this time—
something softly knocked from directly above them.