The phantasm of the girl had an eerie look to her. Her long hair covered most of her eyes, and she just stared at Damian and Elise.
"What do we do?"
Elise wandered. The girl was already giving her the creeps.
The Phantasm walked out of view.
"Let's follow.
Damian and Elise followed. They were led into another passage, but this one was wider with tall, thick pillars. The presence alone felt like an ancient Greek hall. The passage had exterior lighting like sun rays draped on the pillars, but there was no opening; the roof was sealed with a clay wall.
"More flaws in the architecture?"
Elise asked.
"You can say that."
While Elise studied the abnormality of the environment, Damian watched the girl; her pace was slow and calm, and they maintained a good distance from her. Again, there was no sight of a door on the distant horizon.
The passage had doors on each side that were slightly open. On each door, they saw the phantasms of the girls play and laugh with each other.
"They look so happy."
Damian glanced at her. He wanted to say something, but he held back. Elise noticed.
"What? I know you have something harrowing to say that will most likely ruin my mood, so say it."
"They're not memories, only visions of a reality the girls wished were true." "In the library, the phantasms showed 12 girls and 6 bunk beds. The orphanage recorded almost 200 girls in the home, all 200 of them dead and 12 missing." "The girls somehow wished for this reality."
"It still baffles me how over 100 girls can all die at once."
"Whatever happened, we're about to find out."
A door appeared before them, and the Phantasm walked into it and vanished.
The door handle was an extended hand. Damian moved to touch it, but Elise held his hand back.
"Are you sure about that?"
"There's no other way in."
Damian grabbed the hand and pulled it down. The door opened wide, and they both entered the dark room.
Everything was pitch black. They could barely see themselves.
Damian and Elise lit their lighters. The flames on Damian's were wilder.
"Show off."
Damian smirked.
Elise picked up a torch, and Damian lit it up. They made brief eye contact before they turned away from each other. Elise looked down and pulled her hair behind her ears.
"Let's continue."
Damian led the way.
They descended steep steps, and as they approached the end, their torch cast a glow around something that looked like a sacrifice.
"Stay behind me."
Damian got very protective immediately, which scared Elise.
They got to the end of the stairs, and Elise froze. 12 tombstones with the bodies of the girls lying on them were arranged into a circle. The girls were adorned in a white garment, and their skin was as pale as snow. They lay with their hands folded on their stomach and eyes gently closed. They didn't look like corpses but more like souls laid to rest. The girls were a little over 10 years.
Elise moved past Damian to one of the girls; she touched the neck.
"She's cold."
The tears started coming. Elise felt for a pulse.
"Damian, there's no pulse."
"Elise, stand back!"
Damian quickly grabbed her by the arms and pulled her aside. Damian's expression had changed; he felt something sinister. Something evil.
"What is it?"
In the middle of the circle, Damian spotted a totem, a figure with 3 heads and 6 horns; all the eyes of the 3 faces were closed.
"Something evil occurred here."
Damian took out an elixir from his jacket and spread his jacket on the floor beside one of the tombstones.
Elise was flustered; she didn't know what was happening.
"Talk to me. I don't like this feeling."
"There's something we're missing. The totem has 3 heads and 6 horns, and there are 12 tombstones. In this world we live in, every anomaly follows a certain order."
"There has to be something in 9."
"We're missing a 9th element." "I need the girls to show me what we're missing."
Damian gulped everything inside the elixir.
"To communicate with the dead, you must join them."
"What do you mean?"
Damian gave Elise a syringe with a fluid in the tube. He held her hand tightly and looked into her eyes.
"It's very important that you administer this intrathoracically—into the chest. Within 30 minutes."
"Or what?"
"Or I'll die."
"Oh my God!"
Elise was already devastated; the responsibility was too much to handle.
"Look at me! My life is in your hands."
"What if something happens?!"
"I trust you." "Make sure I don't die completely."
Damian lay on his jacket, placed his left hand on the tombstone and closed his eyes.
"Show me."
He whispered.
Damian appeared in the courtyard. The children, all girls, laughed and played around. The courtyard was beautiful; it had a garden with a variety of flowers. Rodents hopped around, and the girls played with them. The nuns sat together and diced vegetables and fruits for lunch, all while telling gossip and laughing.
They were all happy; there was nothing out of the ordinary, until…
One of the 12 girls, in a white garment and with long dark hair, the same phantasm that led Damian and Elise to the tomb, appeared out of nowhere. She locked eyes with Damian.
Damian sat there and waited for her as she approached him. The wind blew her garment and hair in the air; her face was pale, with dark circles under her eyes.
"State your name."
Damian commanded.
"Annabeth."
"Annabeth… Show me what happened."
Annabeth turned and led Damian. He followed her into the chapel.
All the girls sat together on the block-built benches; they giggled and laughed with each other until a nun who stood at the podium called them to order.
Father Partridge, a man in his 40s, young-looking and vibrant, stood on the podium.
The girls looked at him so strangely; this was their first time seeing a priest. They murmured amongst themselves.
"I'm sure you're all wandering… Who is this man?"
He finally spoke.
"I am Father Partridge, and I come from the Far East. Although my work there is half done, I was able to bless a couple of followers to continue on with my mission while I reach out to other places where my presence is much needed."
"When I look at all of you. I don't see children. I see beautiful young women who will carry the light of God and spread it onto the world." "That is your calling." "That is the gift the lord has bestowed upon each and every one of you."
"But… Sisters… There is an evil coming, a dark force that would corrupt the very light that our Lord God has blessed you with." "That is why I'm here. To make sure that doesn't happen."
"Together we will cast out every spirit of evil in this house of God…"
"Amen."
"AMEN"
All the girls in the chapel responded with hope.
When Father Partridge left the podium, the girls continued talking amongst themselves, but this time, their hearts were filled with joy. It was the first time a priest visited their orphanage home. To them, God has finally answered their prayers, and they thought good things would continue to happen from here onwards.
"It was our first time witnessing something like this. The light of God. For months, we prayed for a sign that God was watching over us. Father Partridge was that sign… Or so we thought."
Annabeth led Damian into a door, which opened to a library, the same one he and Elise had solved a puzzle to get out of.
The girls perused the library shelves and took out books.
Some girls ran and phased through Damian and Annabeth like they weren't there.
"We were taught how to read, but we only had one book, which we shared. But when Father Partridge came, he brought several books for us."
Annabeth saw herself with her 11 friends, reading one book.
"I and my close friends took a liking to one particular book, a tale of princesses who lived alone in a big castle. They cooked, cleaned and dined together. Father Partridge would tell us that dreams could become realities."
"Did he promise you that?"
"Not him… Something else."
Annabeth led Damian into another door, which opened to the girls in the washroom. One of them was vomiting and coughing up blood. There were over 15 girls in the room who came to see what was happening.
"It started with Rin. When we told the Sisters what was happening, they dismissed us and said it was another one of Rin's tricks." "Rin would always play pranks on all of us, including the sisters, but this time, she wasn't acting a fool." "It was hard to know what was happening because Rin could not speak; she's been that way since birth."
Rin was reckless; she couldn't scream. The only thing she made was murmuring noises. Rin pulled down her gown and revealed marks on her back.
"Then we thought that she got those marks as a result of a bad fall… Sooner, we came to realise that she was crying for help… And we were next."