Faylake(not a final title) - [Original Story] / Pt. 3

It felt like hours have passed before Hamond's thoughts sorted themselves back into order and he finally got the ability to think and move once again. He left the bathroom and sat back at his desk, pale as a ghost with the look of terror on his face. The next two hours have passed by and all he did was sit in his office chair and think. He thought about his parents and his village that the could barely remember, about why he keeps on seeing his dead father everywhere and most of all he questioned his sanity. He wanted to believe that his mind is playing tricks on him, but everything seemed way too real, especially now, when this entity spoke for the first time, Seeing things that aren't there because of stress and dissatisfaction made sense, but seeing and hearing them when absolutely nothing is wrong didn't make any. And what about Faylake, even if there is a tiniest possibility that what he saw and heard was real, why would his deceased father talk about Faylake. The only think that made sense to Hamond is that maybe some part of his father's soul still roams the Earth because he wasn't buried and didn't find peace. He read about those things in several books but didn't think much of it, it always felt like complete bullshit to him, until now. Right now he would've probably believed in anything after what he had just witnessed. So maybe finding his father's bones and making a grave for him would fix things he thought, but then again, doing that would be near to impossible. Besides the obvious reason of looking for someone's bones thirty years after their passing, there was another problem, he had no idea how to even reach Faylake. After the disastrous plague three decades ago, nobody dared going near that place for a very long time. Nobody knew what the virus really is, there was never a single survivor the contracted it and got cured and everybody was scared to go anywhere near that village. Faylake was already a hard to reach place with only one road leading in and out of the village and it was one of those awful dirt roads where many vehicles crashed. Basically, only few people from the village owned a car and even ever left Faylake. The rest, including Hamond's parents, Bernard and Lucy Miles, hadn't gone out of the village ever, not once in their lives. They didn't need to. Everything that was needed, like food and supplies were delivered to the village's outskirts and picked up by the village elders, mainly because those who brought the supplies never wanted to go all the way down to the village center. This was because the final couple of hundred meters of the dirt road passed through a thick forest and were very steep. Now, thirty years later, that entire area is surrounded by a dense forest, trees grew in the middle of the road for miles which caused the village to become unreachable by any means other than walking for the last fifteen miles or more. People avoided that place for so long, that nowadays it is thought to be haunted. Some have tried to reach it several times, some failed to get anywhere near it and others never returned.

Before he knew it, his work time was over and he could clock out and go home. Once again Hamond felt desperate, he didn't know what to do and he couldn't make up with having to see his disfigured father over and over again for god knows how long. Countless things crossed his mind, including doing drugs or even suicide. Of course neither of those things felt like a normal or rational solution and he was helpless, like an abandoned child, without a clear way to make everything better. Right now he decided to just go home and talk to Susie, he just really needed someone to listen, other than his psychiatrist. That's when it came to him, he completely forgot about the promise he made to his wife. On his way home he dialed one of their favorite restaurants and made a reservation, a table for two, with candles and flowers. If a romantic dinner with his beloved wife couldn't take his mind of off things, nothing could.

Later that evening Hamond and his wife were seated at the window-side table with a candle flickering between them. The staff of “La Cabane Royale” really knew how to fulfill their customers every desire. A bottle of somewhat expensive French wine and two well-done steaks were brought to their table in a record time. Although the thought of everything that happened that day didn’t completely leave Hamond’s head, he knew better than to bring it up and ruin such a perfect evening. Instead he locked the dark thoughts away and gave his full attention to Susie. Hours went by and the two love birds did nothing but talk, remembering the past and their beautiful youth and making plans for an even more wonderful future. The romantic night finally came to an end when the restaurant was about to close so Susie and Hamomd decided to take a cab home instead of walking as they were both very eager to get into bed. After an amazing time in the sheets, they cuddled themselves to sleep.

The feeling of peaceful resting didn’t last very long for poor Hamond as a familiar cold feeling overtook him only a few minutes after he fell asleep. It felt like one of his reoccurring nightmares, only this time something was different. He saw the ghastly image of his dead father looking back at him as usual, but when tried to scream, force himself to wake up, nothing of sorts happened. Instead, the darkness hovering over him started to clear out just enough for Hamond to see the area around him. Although the area was nowhere clear enough he could make out a path leading to some houses which without a doubt resembled Faylake. Being preoccupied with frantically looking in the distance, trying to make sense of what was happening he almost didn’t realize that his father’s figure was slowly closing the distance between them. Bernard’s body moved in an extremely unnatural way, gliding a few inches above ground without twitching a single limb. Hamond was frozen from fear, he wanted to turn around and run away, but he just couldn’t. He was destined to just stand there and wait to see what was going to happen. His father’s face was now no more than two meters away, eyes as red as blood, staring directly at him. Bernard struggled to open his mouth and speak, but eventually he managed to utter:”Come. Help. Faylake.” Upon finishing the sentence, his body turned away and glided down the dark path leading to the village center. Hamond stood speechless and just as he was about to move forward to follow his father, a thick black fog surrounded him and plunged him into darkness. He could feel the slow loss of his conscious as he drifted back into sleep.

Start reading from the beginning at pt.1