The Legend of the Vanished Village

The village of Eldridge was a cradle of mystery hidden amidst the rainy vapor and twisted pathways through the mountains. Fables grew abundant of the charming little village, with people alive and hearty, only for one day to hear that it must have never existed because in a single night it all mysteriously disappeared from sight. People living in the town of Westhaven nearby had described a presence, an absence of light and sound that had come and devoured Eldridge.

Anna, who was only nine years old and beginning to emerge a historian in her own right because of the stories she collected about what had been destroyed with the village. Chilling stories her grandmother had related about Eldridge — how it had been a fairly prosperous little town up until one horrible night when the entire place just melded into the earth — came back to haunt her. Driven by the mystery, Anna wanted to find out what the legend was hiding. With only her grandmothers old leather map, the journal she’s scribbled in many nights, and a flashlight, she ventured into the forest of their village.

The way — weed-choked and narrow, its arthritic branches trying to entangle her dress like twisted fingers were yanking her back. The shadows danced within the tree-line and she shivered with an impending sense of dread. As she walked into the forest, the fog grew denser and swallowed her whole. But Anna, led by an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, marched on.

Anna had been trudging for hours through the thick woods when she found a clearing. The ghostly ruins of Eldridge loomed before Darci, unmoving and half-hidden by the roaring mist. Rearranged moments before collapse, ancient stone houses stood alongside the cobbled streets, windows blown out and doors hanging from single hinges. Stepping into the village, the air was thick with the stench of soil and rot; a chill ran down her spine. It was like. stepping into a world no one bothered to remember with time halted in pendant.

Excited and a little bit scared, Anna walked around what was left of the village. The only sound was the loud rustle of leaves and a distant crow call. In the street on her walk home, she saw weird symbols etched into the stones that seemed to throb, some instincts made them as old as time itself. We had never heard them but they felt eerily familiar.

In the middle of the village there existed an ancient well, its stone was weathered through with age. Anna went to it and looked down into the black.Edit It was inky black water and all you could see were shadows. She knelt next to the well and ran her fingers along the etched dedications engraved in the rocky ridges. A breeze blew through the clearing, faint with sound yet clearly spoken. “Help us….”

Anna sat up, startled, and looked around. A cold streak wrapped around her, and something innate told her she was not by herself. Under the increasingly strange eyes, she shrugged it off and retrieved her journal from her carry-on then started making notes. The symbols, the whispers and the suffocating quiet all suggested that something monumental had happened at this place.

With a mission to go in further, Anna headed towards the largest building left standing in Eldridge—a once grand church that laid in waste. The door was ajar, part of the structure crumbling around it, and she paused before stepping into the dwelling. The room felt thick, like the walls themselves clung to broken echoes of those who had sung praises within them. In the dim light, dust particles floated like twinkling fireflies that danced in, around and between the faded pews and shattered stained glass.

She noticed other symbols scratched into the wall as she picked her way carefully through the sanctuary. All at once, her flashlight began to flicker and an icy chill filled the air. Shadows were moving at the edge of her vision, and she thought she could hear whispered words: laughter, prayers and something else more sinister.

“Who are you?” “Anna,” she called hesitantly, her voice unsteady.

There was no response, only what sounded like a shuffling movement behind her. Whirling about, she briefly saw a hooded figure before it disappeared into the darkness. Her heart was racing as she stepped back, ready to run away but something there made her stand in place instead—a huge misery that wrapped from the figure. Anna squinted through the thinning mist and saw a woman standing in front of her; an ashy face, eyes darkened with grief.

The voice of the woman yelled at them, filled with a mix of panic and desperation, “SAVE US!” “Lost…adrift in the fringes of existence…”

“What happened to you?” Anna asked back, for her fear slipped into compassion.

The villiage was cursed, she whispered. We dared to challenge the rites of old, and thought we could tame the shadows for our purposes. We went seeking wealth, but instead we have sought death. The darkness cloaked us the night we disappeared.

WE WILL BE STUCK TO THIS PLACE AND WE'LL NEVER COULD GET OUT.

Anna was filled with empathy. “How can I help you?”

The woman spoke, her form shifting like candlelight, “To lift the curse, you must perform the ritual we could not. ""You are to call upon the guardians of the woods and beg their pardon.

Anna stopped and took a deep breath, she felt an inner fire awaken inside of her. “Tell me what to do.”

The woman pointed Anna to the remains of village and walked her to a row of magnificent trees just outside Eldridge—a grove that could only be called sacred—gnarled roots had wormed through the decaying earth as fingers searching for a feeble light. In the middle of the grove, rested a circle of stones shabby, moss covered—where once ceremonies were performed.

At twilight, Anna collected wildflowers, herbs and the small gifts she found strewn all around the village. The closer they got to the porch, the longer the shadows became and the more electrified the air felt. Spreading out the things in a stone circle, she remembered the woman telling her what to do and could not help but think as fear mingled with hope in her pounding heart.

With everything set, Anna exhaled loudly before calling the guardians. “Forgive us spirits of the forest! In the presence of ancient ways we pray for Eldridge souls. Let them be free of their suffering!

The wind cackled around her, the female fizzling with restraint. The shadows turned into something real, circling around her as the villagers began to appear before them, their faces twisted with want and desperation. And the woman stood among them like a vision for hope.

Now as Anna chanted the ancient words of the ritual, the shadows came together and spun upwards into a maelstrom directly above the rock circle. Suddenly, a brilliant light erupted from the middle of it, stilling all around it and dispelling the darkness. The villagers sought it, with their arms reaching into the light, their faces full of thanksgiving.

The stream of tears rolling down her cheeks, the woman said: “Thank you. “You have set us free.”

And then with a final burst of light, it covered the grove and the villagers began to disappear, melting away into the air like mist. A warmth washed over Anna, peace settled in her heart.

Grateful echoes of the villager voices haunted her last whispers. “We are free… thank you…”

As light grew dimmer and shadows retreat, Anna staggered onto her knees, heaving for breath but was satisfied with what had been achieved. The Village of Eldridge would never come back, but people in the know would talk about it, and squirm uneasily at its story about how vengeance was no better than abuse, if not worse.

So Mia could pass back through the now-silent village with a lighter heart than when she had come. As the fog lifted, and the land that had kept its secret for so long was splayed out in beauty. She would take the stories of Eldridge with her, keeping alive the voices of the past.