Cabyll-Uisge - Novella

Part 3

Sitting outside the church, Wanda watched the quiet town move about their daily lives. A young woman with one child in a stroller and one grasped in her hand moved down the sidewalk. An older man parked his car in front of a storefront and slowly made his way in.

Wendell tapped his fingers on the dashboard. "I don't like these people."

"That much is evident." She pulled the key out of the ignition and twirled it around her fingers.

"I want to say they had something to do with it."

Wanda whipped around. "With what? Their deaths? I refuse to accept that. They are alive somewhere."

"But where?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I don't think anyone around here did anything to them, but I refuse to dismiss it completely. There have been stranger mysteries before with reasonable explanations discovered eventually." She opened the door. "Let's go".

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"Kinder's Point?" The collared man nodded his head at their question. "Why do you want to know about that place?" He moved around the altar and rearranged the candles.

"Our friends went there, and they haven't been seen or heard from since." Wanda leaned forward on the pew she was sitting on.

He paused with his hand mid air over a candle. "Missing, you say?"

"Yes. They were seen in town as well as here, but after they returned to their campsite...it is like they disappeared from the face of the earth." Wanda didn't know how else to explain it.

"They might have," he answered softly. When he turned around, Wanda's stomach clenched at the look of fear on his face.

"What do you mean? That is impossible."

"Things are not so...logical here." He sighed and sat down on the steps by the altar to face them. "Ms. Yates, do you believe in supernatural powers?"

"Do I believe in God?"

"Well, yes and no. Step away from my religion. Do you believe in the supernatural world as a whole?"

"No. I believe in science."

"Then we have a problem."

"What do you mean?" Wendell interjected.

"What you are looking for is completely supernatural."

Wanda stood up. "This is ridiculous. We don't want any mumbo-jumbo. We want our friends."

He raised his hands to her while remaining seated. "Please, sit down. I know this is hard to believe, but I'm serious. Did your friends purchase a large amount of salt by any chance?" Noting the look between them, he gave a small smile. "Yes, I know they did. Small town. People talk, especially when it involves what no one wants to talk about."

Wendell took a step forward. "Why would they buy so much salt? I can't believe they'd fall for this and see the legend as real."

"They obviously thought beyond science. Salt is a known deterrent to the supernatural world...according to old wives' tales. Please sit." He waited until Wanda sat back down. "Mysterious things have been happening here for many years. In fact, the stories go back past the settlers and into Indian folklore."

"We're listening to legends now?"

"There is a lot of fact wrapped up in legend. The more legends are studied, the more the truth is exposed. It is just enhanced and embellished."