The Madness Within ✓

XIV.

I spent the next few days inside the house, refusing to go outside. I was too afraid to. Every single day I checked each and every window multiple times and made sure that they're all locked and nothing happened. I did the same thing with the doors. While I was well aware that the creature could probably destroy the whole house whenever it felt like it, and that I wasn't actually really safe in here, I still felt slightly better when I knew that I had almost everything under control. It was just like when we hide under the bed sheets to protect ourselves from whatever we're afraid of - it doesn't protect us, but it makes us feel more safe. And sometimes that's all we need to feel better.

I think I spent 4 days locked in here in total. I had enough food to survive all 4 days without leaving the house, and had just about everything else that I needed with me here as well.
While I was able to stay here for 4 days without leaving the house, I knew that I can't live like this forever. But after everything that happened, I needed some time alone. I needed to think about everything. I needed to accept the truth. And while doing that, I did some research myself.

The next day, after the encounter with the creature in the forest, I went back to the library. I looked at the 11 statues and inspected each one to make sure there's nothing I haven't missed. There was nothing. I also tried searching for the missing 12th statue that I was unable to find back then. I searched through each room of the house, but I didn't find it anywhere. It's possible that it might be somewhere in the village, or in the forest, further away from the house. Or maybe there's a place that I'm not aware of.
After I was done checking out the statues, I moved on to the books. I searched through the books again and tried my best to find anything that could tell me more about the creature that I saw in the forest that day.

While I found nothing specifically related to the creature, I managed to find something related to the village and its history.
The village was a friendly place at first. They celebrated birthdays together, invited in people from other areas and showed them around, and overall made their village a welcoming place. The forest was a place they often visited as well. Kids used to play games such as hide and seek there, some turned it into a place where they could relax.

But one day, something tragic happened.

Three children from the village went missing one day. They were last seen playing around the village, then they wandered off into the forest and never returned. Everyone searched for them for days, but we're unable to find them. They found two of the children a week later in the forest, dead.
The children had stab wounds all over their body, everyone was convinced that it wasn't an accident. The third child, however, was never to be found. Rumors started around the village, many villagers claimed that the third child killed its two friends and ran away, others believed that all three were murdered, but the third one was further away. But the body of the third child was never found.

This tragedy continued for a few weeks. Then, one day, the village suddenly closed off completely. They refused to invite anyone inside the village and pushed them away into the forest. Nobody else other than the villagers was welcome anymore. Nobody could come in, but nobody could leave either. And everyone seemed fine with that, which is why it stayed that way to this day.

That would explain the way they acted towards me. Maybe they are afraid that someone might come back and the tragedy might repeat itself. And maybe the creature itself was the cause of the tragedy. But something still made no sense to me. The villagers kept mentioning something about faith. How their loved ones 'stopped believing' and something happened to them. I wonder what that means.
While I was now closer to the truth, there were still many things that I knew nothing about. But at least I was getting somewhere.

On the next day, someone rang the doorbell. At first I was surprised and was too afraid to go check it out. I froze in place and stared at the door, wondering who it could be. There was always the possibility that the creature would suddenly decide to come back, but it would make no sense why it would ring the doorbell. Maybe to scare me.
The person knocked after a moment of silence. I carefully walked over to the door, making sure that my steps were as silent as possible, and checked who it was through the peephole. But once I checked, nobody was there. Maybe I was too late. Or maybe it was someone playing tricks on me again.

But it happened the day after as well. The doorbell rang once more when I was up in the library, trying to find out more about this place. I finally felt better and more comfortable walking around the house, but stepping outside was still too difficult for me. The doorbell rang once more, but I decided to ignore it this time. Whatever it was, I'm sure it's not important. Maybe the villagers came back to annoy me again. Maybe they wanted me out of the forest now, too.
But then the next day, the doorbell rang again. Whoever came here every single day to visit me really had nothing else to do. I ultimately decided to open the door today, or at least see who was there.

When the doorbell rang, I was in the living room. I stood up from my seat and slowly made my way to the entrance door. I made sure to be careful so that the person who stood there wouldn't know if I was home or what I was doing. When I arrived by the entrance door, I looked out through the peephole.
To my surprise, outside stood a man in his 30s. His hands rested in the pockets of his jacket as he looked around himself. He didn't seem dangerous whatsoever, but it was still better to be careful.

I slowly opened the door and stuck my head out of it slightly. The man turned to look at me and gave me a light smile.
„Oh, hello," the man said and reached out his hand to me.
„My name is Christopher.. Christopher Davis. But you can just call me Chris."

I stared at his hand for a few seconds, thinking about whether all this is a joke or a trick. He could pull out a knife on me anytime. Should I really trust him?
Christopher stared at me for a few seconds, then slowly put his hand down.

„Look, I know you might not trust me right now, and I completely understand. I expected that, actually. I promise that I'm not here to hurt you, I would actually like to help you," Christopher said and searched for something in his pocket. Then he pulled out a statue - it was another statue of the creature that I saw in the forest. I froze for a second when I saw it, to which Christopher said: „I.. saw you in the village a few days ago. You were asking questions about a statue similar to this one. As soon as I saw it, I knew that you don't know what's happening in this village. And to be honest, I don't know either. That's why I came here. I want to help you."

I stared at the statue for a moment, then opened the door more so he could walk in and took a step back.

„I'm Clara Moore. Please come inside."