The Investigation Continues; The Madness

Hollow was alive in its stillness, not with life but with whispers of terror and echoes of madness. Each step Father Gabriel and his missionaries took felt heavier than the last, as if the ground beneath them had been soaked in despair for decades. The town breathed, not with the rhythm of human life but with the sighs of the condemned.

As they moved from house to house, their purpose unshaken but their spirits burdened, they began to uncover a tapestry of horror that even their faith struggled to confront. Hollow was not merely a town lost to sin; it was a graveyard of hope, and its people were walking corpses.

The First Story: A Mother’s Lament

They entered a small home near the outskirts of the town, a decrepit structure held together by prayers and rot. Inside, they found a woman seated on the floor, clutching a small, tattered doll. Her eyes were vacant, her hands trembling.

Gabriel approached her gently. “Madam, we are here to help. Can you tell us what has happened?”