Are you brave enough to face your deepest fears? Bella Darkwood is back with Shivers volume 2, a bone-chilling collection of horror stories that will leave you breathless. From cosmic horror to body horror, from tales of deep sea terror to supernatu...
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VI
Disoriented and panting, Joseph awoke to the faint light streaming in through the windows, the beautiful vista of the Italian countryside belying the dark nightmare that had unfolded within the villa. Light trickled through the air, casting everything in a magical golden hue, as if there were some divine force reaching down into the villa, trying to balance the scales of good and evil.
His heart hammered in his chest with guilt and regret as he searched the rooms and hallways of the villa, the whispers and chaos of the night before replaced by a heavy, stifling silence. His voice trailed off into a whisper as he called out for Francine, but the crumbling walls seemed to swallow the sound whole.
A car horn cut through the silence, a lifeline to the world outside. With frantic hope, Joseph ran through the shifting corridors and threw open the front door. A sleek black car pulled into the driveway, its arrival heralding both doom and salvation.
A middle-aged man stepped out of the car, his assertive demeanor softened by deep-set sorrow in his eyes. He greeted Joseph somberly, "Good day, Mr. Hayes. My name is Professor Philip Weston. I'm a parapsychologist and occult expert."
"The villa," Professor Weston continued urgently, "it's under a malevolent presence, an evil that has festered here for centuries. I'm sorry that I couldn't have warned you sooner. If only I had arrived earlier..."
Joseph told him of the terrors that had haunted the night and the disappearance of Francine. Although the professor couldn't hide his horror at the revelations, he was not without hope.
"I promise you, we will find your wife," he reassured Joseph.
The calming warmth of daylight did not follow them as Joseph and Weston stepped into the darkened halls of the villa, carrying the mysterious weight of countless lost souls within its walls. The whispers quieted as they climbed the incongruous staircases, the silence evermore unsettling.
In the echoing emptiness, Professor Weston revealed the torrid tale that lurked beneath the villa's picturesque exterior. Millennia ago, the Roman family who built and resided in the villa dabbled in the occult with obsessive conviction, yearning to gain the power of the gods themselves. Incestuous relationships and dark rituals led to sacrifices, the blood of the innocent staining the native stones.
And yet, as with all tragic tales, the villa's story would not be complete without a heroine. Juno, one of the family's younger members, had long since grown sickened by their ghastly deeds. Riven with terror and guilt, she approached the Roman authorities, and Roman soldiers descended upon her wicked kin like a storm of righteous fury, slaughtering them in their decadent lair.
Juno's remorse for her family's atrocities was vast and consuming, a torrential sea that engulfed her in its relentless waves. Overcome by the enormity of her grief and guilt, she took her own life, leaving behind a veil of darkness that would forever suffocate the villa.
