All Are Welcome Here – Chapter 9
The Song Beneath the Bells
The humming outside grew louder slowly.
Not aggressive.
Not chaotic.
Calm.
Beautiful, even.
That was what made it terrifying.
The lantern walkers moved through the fog surrounding the house while singing softly beneath their breath in perfect harmony. The sound drifted between the trees alongside the distant ringing of the bells deep within the forest, blending together into something strangely hypnotic.
Elias Ward felt the melody settling inside his chest like a memory he couldn’t place. Every note seemed familiar somehow, pulling faint images through the edges of his mind.
Lanterns moving through dark woods.
People smiling beneath falling snow.
Hands reaching toward firelight.
Then the images vanished instantly.
Mara noticed the change in his face.
“Don’t listen to the song too long.”
Elias looked toward her sharply. “What is it?”
“The welcoming hymn.”
The answer sent cold uneasiness through him immediately.
Outside the windows, Emily slowly lifted her lantern higher while the other townspeople continued circling the house through the fog. Their humming never broke rhythm. Not one voice fell out of place.
Then Elias realized something horrifying.
No one outside blinked.
Not once.
The roof suddenly groaned again above them. Several long pale fingers tightened around the broken ceiling boards while shadows shifted slowly overhead.
The Hollowed were still there.
Waiting.
Mara quickly moved toward the back hallway and opened a narrow wooden door hidden beside the kitchen shelves.
“Come on.”
Elias stared at the dark staircase revealed beyond the doorway. “There’s a basement?”
“Old storm cellar.”
The humming outside continued rising softly while bells echoed deeper within the forest beyond town.
Elias hesitated.
“Emily’s still out there.”
Mara’s expression tightened painfully. “That might not be your sister anymore.”
The sentence hit harder than he expected.
“No.”
“She followed the bells farther than anyone should.”
“You don’t know that.”
Mara looked toward the windows where Emily still walked silently through the fog with the lantern procession.
“I do,” she whispered.
A sudden crash exploded above them.
Part of the ceiling collapsed inward as one of the Hollowed forced an arm through the broken wood. Elias stumbled backward while the creature’s long fingers scraped violently against the floorboards below.
Then another arm broke through nearby.
And another.
The things above the roof were trying to enter.
Mara grabbed Elias hard and pulled him toward the cellar staircase.
“NOW.”
They slammed the hidden basement door shut moments before something heavy crashed into the room overhead. The old wooden staircase trembled beneath their feet while Mara locked the cellar entrance from the inside using a thick iron latch.
Darkness swallowed them afterward except for the weak lantern light she carried.
The storm cellar smelled like earth and old wood. Narrow shelves lined the walls holding dusty jars, blankets, and ancient supplies that looked decades old.
Above them, slow footsteps crossed the house floor.
Heavy.
Searching.
Elias could hear furniture shifting overhead while the humming outside continued faintly through the walls.
Then came Emily’s voice again.
Muffled this time from somewhere upstairs.
“You shouldn’t hide from your family.”
Elias closed his eyes briefly.
The voice sounded so normal.
So real.
That was the worst part.
Mara lowered herself carefully onto an old wooden crate while gripping the rifle across her lap. Her hands shook slightly now beneath the lantern glow.
“They usually wait longer before the Hollowed start hunting.”
Elias stared at her. “Hunting?”
Mara looked up toward the ceiling.
“They know the ceremony is close.”
The words settled heavily into the cellar silence.
Then, very softly—
a new sound drifted through the floorboards above them.
Footsteps.
Not the Hollowed this time.
Human footsteps.
Slowly descending the main staircase upstairs.
Toward the cellar door.