The Forgotten town

The warning

The next morning, Rachel feels drained, her restless night taking its toll. She can’t shake the eerie feeling from the previous night, especially the whispers that seemed to call her by name. At breakfast, she meets Marcus and Tommy, and they immediately notice her pale face and dark-circled eyes.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Tommy remarks with a half-smile, though concern is evident in his eyes. Rachel manages a weak smile. “Maybe I did.” She explains the whispers she heard and the strange feeling that seemed to fill her room.

Marcus, ever the skeptic, waves it off. “It’s just nerves, Rachel. This place has a creepy reputation, and that can get to anyone’s head.”

But Tommy frowns. “Don’t ignore it, Rachel. Some things here are… different. They’re real, whether you believe in them or not.”

Marcus scoffs, but Rachel doesn’t press further. She knows she’ll need both of them if she’s going to uncover the truth about the vanished town.

After breakfast, they head to Evelyn, the innkeeper. They hope she’ll be more open to sharing details about the town and, especially, about the well with the strange symbols. When they mention the well, Evelyn stiffens, her hands gripping the edge of the counter.

“You went to the well?” Her voice is barely a whisper.

Rachel nods. “We heard something—a laugh, like a child’s. And there were symbols carved around the well. Do you know what they mean?”

Evelyn hesitates, her gaze drifting to the old wooden cross hanging on the wall. “I’ve heard stories,” she says finally, her voice thick with reluctance. “Long ago, that well was considered cursed. The townsfolk believed it was a place that connected our world with… another. They thought spirits lingered there, and that it should never be disturbed.”

She warns them to keep their distance from the well, but Marcus interjects, skeptical as ever. “With all due respect, Evelyn, these are just superstitions. We’re looking for real answers, not ghost stories.”

But Evelyn’s face remains somber. “Believe what you will, Dr. Chen. But if you keep digging, you might not like what you find.”

As they leave, Tommy stops Rachel, his face serious. “My grandmother used to talk about that well. She told me that people who went near it started to see things—visions, ghostly figures from the past. Some were even… marked.” His voice drops to a whisper. “She said the well had a way of binding people to the town, making it so they could never leave.”

Rachel shivers, but her resolve hardens. “We need to find out what happened to those people, Tommy. Whatever this is, I can’t just walk away.”

They agree to go back to the well that afternoon, but before they set out, Rachel insists on researching the symbols she photographed. Sitting in the library, she sifts through old records, ancient books, and anything that might connect to the symbols on the well. After hours of searching, she finds a clue in an old text on local folklore.

The symbols, it turns out, are associated with an ancient ritual meant to bind spirits. The ritual was thought to trap lost souls in one place, preventing them from moving on until certain conditions were met. Reading this, a chill runs down Rachel’s spine. She realizes that whatever happened in the town might have been more than a tragic accident—it might have been intentional.

When she shares her findings with Marcus and Tommy, Marcus looks visibly shaken, though he tries to hide it. “You’re saying the townsfolk might have trapped themselves there on purpose?”

“Or,” Tommy interjects, “someone else trapped them.”

Their conversation is interrupted by the distant sound of laughter, echoing faintly through the library. They freeze, looking around, but the library is empty, save for them.

Rachel feels the coin in her pocket grow cold, as if responding to the strange, ghostly laughter. A strange certainty settles over her—this investigation has drawn them into something much darker than she ever anticipated. She realizes that the town’s mystery isn’t just something from the past; it’s alive, waiting for them to uncover its secrets.

As they leave the library, Tommy mutters, “Maybe we’re in too deep, Rachel. Maybe this is a warning to stop.”

But Rachel only glances back at the library, then at the path leading toward the well. “We’re too close to the truth to stop now.”