Chapter 7 - The Thirteenth Name
The creature crossed the ruined nave in one impossible stride.
Emma threw herself sideways.
Its fingers struck the stone floor where she had been standing. The impact left five black grooves through the tile.
Lucas grabbed Emma by the jacket and pulled her behind a pew.
"Why you?"
"Apparently my family has excellent traditions!"
Another pew exploded behind them.
Nora fired twice.
The bullets vanished into the creature's chest without slowing it.
Emily stood in the center aisle, untouched by the floodwater.
"The lantern!" she shouted. "Open it!"
Emma looked down.
The old pumpkin lantern had a tiny latch under its base.
She snapped it open.
A folded piece of oilskin dropped into her palm.
Not paper.
A page torn from a church ledger.
The writing was faded but readable.
October 31, 1886.
Twelve names.
At the bottom, separated by a heavy line, was a thirteenth:
ABIGAIL VALE - DELIVERED ALIVE.
Lucas read over her shoulder.
"Delivered to who?"
Miriam Holloway crawled toward the side door.
Emily pointed at her.
"Ask Miriam."
Emma shouted, "Delivered to who?"
Miriam kept moving.
Nora stepped into her path.
"You heard her."
Miriam looked at the creature.
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"Then say it."
"To the bellkeeper."
The creature stopped.
Every wet head inside its cracked face turned toward Miriam.
Lucas whispered, "Bad word choice."
Miriam's voice trembled.
"The church sexton, Ephraim Pike, found Abigail in the tunnel. She told him the others were alive behind the locked cellar door. He could have opened it from the outside."
Emily's eyes hardened.
"He didn't."
Miriam shook her head. "The water was too high."
"He didn't," Emily repeated.
Nora understood first.
"He let twelve children drown."
"To save one," Miriam said.
"No," Lucas said. "Why would one child matter more?"
Emma looked down at the ledger.
Beside Abigail's name was a symbol: a small bell inside a circle.
She raised the page.
"Because Abigail's family owned the church."
Miriam said nothing.
The answer was enough.
The story Ravenwood had told for 140 years was backwards.
There had been no supernatural bargain that demanded a child.
There had been twelve abandoned children and one protected child.
A crime became a legend.
The legend became an excuse.
And every generation added another crime to preserve it.
The creature's split face opened.
"NAME US."
Emma stared at the twelve names on the ledger.
Mary Bell.
Samuel Crane.
Ruth Dalton.
Henry Pike.
Clara Moss.
Jonah Reed.
Lucas grabbed her arm.
"Reed?"
His face went pale.
The fifth name from the bottom was ELIAS REED.
His family too.
Emily stepped closer.
"They weren't monsters when they died. Ravenwood made them one."
The church bell began moving overhead.
Not ringing yet.
Swinging.
Each arc pulled the creature upward, stretching it toward the ceiling.
Miriam screamed, "The bell is calling it! We have to name a child before the lower strike!"
Emma looked at the ledger.
"No. We name the dead."
She shouted the first name.
"Mary Bell!"
The blue flames flickered.
A small shape peeled away from the creature's shoulder.
A girl, translucent and dripping, fell to her knees on the church floor.
Emma shouted another.
"Samuel Crane!"
A boy separated from its ribs.
Lucas understood.
He took the ledger.
"Ruth Dalton! Henry Pike! Clara Moss!"
With each name, the towering body shrank.
The black cloth collapsed inward.
Children appeared around the nave, confused, frightened, still dressed in 1886 clothes.
Miriam screamed at Pastor Kent.
"Stop them!"
The pastor hesitated.
Then he lunged for the ledger.
Nora struck him with the revolver grip.
He dropped.
"Keep reading!"
Lucas read faster.
"Jonah Reed! Elias Reed! Margaret Sloan!"
Emma took the page back.
Two names remained.
"Beatrice Cole!"
Another child emerged.
The creature was now man-sized, its split face narrowing.
One name remained.
Emma opened her mouth.
Emma slowed before the final two names. The children who had separated from the creature were no longer staring at her. They were looking around the church as if trying to recognize a place remembered from a nightmare.
One little boy touched the edge of a broken pew. "This wasn't here," he whispered.
A girl beside him pointed toward the altar. "The door was there."
Nora followed her finger. Behind the altar tapestry was a section of stone that did not match the rest of the wall.
Lucas saw it too. "The original cellar entrance. They sealed it."
Miriam said, "Stop listening to them."
The girl looked at her. "You listened when your father told you to hold Emily."
Miriam recoiled as if struck.
Emma realized the names were doing more than weakening the creature. Each spoken name restored a memory that the combined thing had blurred together. Facts were returning in pieces - who had stood where, which doors existed, who had given orders.
That was what the Bell Committee feared most. Not a flood. Witnesses.
Emma lifted the ledger again. "One more."
Miriam lunged.
The ledger tore itself in half.
The final name disappeared beneath a wash of black water.
Miriam was holding the other half.
She had ripped it from Emma's hand.
"Enough."
She backed toward the stairway leading to the bell tower.
"You don't understand what happens if the final name is spoken."
Emily stared at her.
"You mean they remember who locked the door."
Miriam's face went white.
She turned and ran up the tower stairs.
The bell above them swung harder.
Tick. Tick. Tick... tick.
The clock face visible through the shattered church window snapped to 12:23.
Seven minutes remained.
The half-formed creature looked at Emma.
Its many voices had become one child's voice.
"Find my name."
Emma looked up the tower.
Miriam had it.
Lucas gathered the children closer to the altar, instinctively shielding them even though they were dead. One of them stared at his modern sneakers with solemn curiosity. The tiny, ordinary gesture made the church's horror feel sharper. These had been children with favorite things, arguments, chores, and birthdays before adults compressed them into a warning story.
Then Noah screamed from behind the altar.
May you like
A festival volunteer had grabbed him.
On the boy's wrist, the black number 12 began to glow blue.
