The Forgotten town

Echoes from the past

Back at the inn, Rachel tosses and turns, struggling to sleep. Faint, unsettling whispers seem to drift through the walls, growing louder in the silence of the night. She sits up, listening carefully, but the murmurs stop as suddenly as they started, leaving her room in an eerie stillness. She glances over at the coin from the vanished town, now lying on her nightstand, catching a faint glimmer in the dim light.

In the morning, she meets Tommy and Marcus at breakfast. Tommy looks worried, while Marcus remains skeptical, insisting the whispers Rachel heard were likely nothing more than the creaks of an old building. “People let their imaginations run wild in these isolated places,” he remarks, sipping his coffee. Tommy, however, shares his own experience, claiming he heard footsteps outside his window during the night. The tension between Marcus and Tommy escalates, but Rachel interrupts, eager to investigate further.

Their plan for the day is simple: return to the site of the vanished town in daylight. Marcus hopes to find historical clues, while Tommy insists on retracing the steps of local ghost stories. Despite Marcus’s doubts, they’re drawn to the site of the well, where locals say strange things happened before the town disappeared.

As they arrive, the area feels colder, and an unsettling silence falls over the land. Rachel studies the old stones of the well, noticing faint markings etched into them. They don’t look like ordinary carvings—more like symbols with an ancient, ritualistic quality. She pulls out her phone, snapping a few pictures to research later. Tommy, standing close by, warns her, “Locals used to say this well was cursed—that it holds something beyond this world.”

“Stories to scare people, no doubt,” Marcus interjects, rolling his eyes, though his gaze lingers on the strange symbols.

Suddenly, a chilling sound echoes from within the well—a faint laugh, light and eerie, as if from a child. The sound freezes Rachel and Tommy, sending a shiver down their spines. Even Marcus’s skeptical facade falters for a moment. Rachel leans over the edge of the well, peering into its depths, but there’s only darkness.

Just as she’s about to pull back, she catches a glimpse of something shimmering at the bottom of the well—a small, round object that gleams in the dim light. She steps back, shaken. Tommy mutters that the well might hold more than just water, and he persuades them to leave for now. Reluctantly, they turn back toward the inn, each lost in their own thoughts.

That evening, back in her room, Rachel examines her photos of the strange symbols, now convinced that the town’s disappearance was no ordinary event. The whispers return, faint but insistent, like someone calling her name from far away. She lies awake, clutching the coin, wondering what secrets lie within the darkness of the well—and whether the vanished townsfolk are truly gone, or if they’re waiting to be found.