Chapter 1
THE BLACK BELL
Chapter One — The Thirteenth Ring
At 2:13 in the morning, Elias Vale woke to the sound of a church bell.
BOOM.
His eyes opened.
For several seconds, he remained perfectly still beneath his blanket.
The room was dark.
Moonlight slipped through a narrow gap between the curtains and painted a pale line across the wooden floor.
Elias listened.
Nothing.
Then—
BOOM.
The second strike rolled through the house.
He sat upright.
His heart had begun beating faster.
St. Bartholomew's Catholic Church stood almost a mile away, on the highest hill overlooking the town of Veyra.
Its bell had not rung in years.
Elias knew that because his father had told him so.
The bell tower had been locked since before Elias was born. The old mechanism had supposedly rusted away, and nobody had bothered to repair it.
Yet there was no mistaking that sound.
A church bell.
Deep.
Heavy.
Almost impossibly deep.
BOOM.
The third strike.
Elias looked at the digital clock beside his bed.
2:13 A.M.
He reached for his phone.
No signal.
He frowned.
Veyra's network was unreliable, but there was normally at least one bar.
He refreshed the screen.
Nothing.
Across the room, his younger sister slept beneath a thick blanket.
"Mara?"
She didn't move.
Elias waited.
The fourth bell sounded.
BOOM.
Then something scraped downstairs.
Elias stopped breathing.
Scrape.
A chair.
He was certain of it.
He looked at Mara again.
She was still asleep.
Another scrape came from below.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Elias climbed out of bed.
The floor was cold beneath his feet.
He took one step toward the bedroom door.
Then stopped.
There was water on the floor.
A small puddle beside his bed.
He stared at it.
The window was closed.
The ceiling was dry.
There was no reason for water to be there.
Elias crouched and touched it.
Cold.
It smelled like wet earth.
He stood.
That was when he saw the footprints.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Wet footprints crossed the wooden floor.
They began at the bedroom door.
They came toward him.
And stopped beside his bed.
There were no footprints going back.
Elias slowly backed away.
The fifth bell rang.
BOOM.
He looked toward the door.
The handle moved.
Once.
Then stopped.
"Mara."
His sister opened her eyes.
She looked at him.
"What?"
"Are you awake?"
"Yes."
"Did you hear that?"
Mara sat up.
She listened.
The sixth bell sounded.
BOOM.
Her face changed.
"Don't count them."
Elias frowned.
"Why?"
Mara pulled the blanket closer around herself.
"Because Daddy said never to count them."
"What did Dad say?"
She hesitated.
Then whispered:
"If it reaches thirteen, don't open the door."
Elias stared at her.
"Why?"
Mara didn't answer.
The seventh bell sounded.
BOOM.
The walls seemed to tremble.
Elias walked toward the window.
He pulled the curtain aside.
St. Bartholomew's church stood against the night sky.
Its bell tower was black.
No lights.
No movement.
Yet the bell was ringing.
The eighth strike came.
BOOM.
Then the ninth.
BOOM.
Elias stepped away from the window.
Something was wrong.
The sound didn't seem to be coming from the church anymore.
It sounded as if the bell were somewhere much closer.
Perhaps inside the house.
He turned toward the bedroom door.
It was open.
He was certain he had closed it.
The hallway beyond was completely dark.
Mara whispered:
"Elias."
"What?"
"Someone is standing there."
He looked.
At first he saw nothing.
Then his eyes adjusted.
A figure stood at the far end of the hallway.
Tall.
Motionless.
Its body seemed to absorb the little moonlight that entered through the windows.
Elias couldn't see its face.
"Who's there?"
The figure didn't answer.
The tenth bell rang.
BOOM.
The figure slowly lifted one arm.
It pointed toward the window.
Elias turned.
Nothing.
When he looked back, the hallway was empty.
"Mara?"
She was crying.
The eleventh bell rang.
BOOM.
Elias grabbed her hand.
"Stay with me."
The twelfth bell sounded.
BOOM.
Then silence.
Absolute silence.
No wind.
No insects.
No distant vehicles.
Even the house seemed to have stopped breathing.
Elias waited.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Then Mara whispered:
"Elias..."
"What?"
"Look at the window."
He turned.
A face was pressed against the glass.
Elias couldn't move.
It was his face.
His exact face.
Same dark hair.
Same eyes.
Same small scar above his eyebrow.
The thing outside smiled.
Mara screamed.
The face raised one finger and placed it against its lips.
Shhh.
Then the thirteenth bell rang.
BOOOOOOOOOOM.
Every light in Veyra went out.
Elias stumbled backward.
The face disappeared.
Something crashed downstairs.
Mara grabbed his arm.
"What was that?"
"I don't know."
Another sound came from beneath them.
A slow scratching.
Scratch.
Silence.
Scratch.
Silence.
Then a voice whispered through the floorboards.
A man's voice.
Old.
Dry.
Almost amused.
"He has returned."
Elias stared at the floor.
Mara began crying.
"What does that mean?" he whispered.
Before she could answer, the bedroom door slammed shut.
BANG!
Elias rushed toward it.
He grabbed the handle.
Locked.
He pulled harder.
Nothing.
Then footsteps sounded in the hallway.
One.
Two.
Three.
Slowly approaching.
They stopped directly outside the bedroom.
Silence.
Then came a knock.
Knock.
Another.
Knock.
Then a third.
Knock.
Mara buried her face against Elias's shoulder.
A woman's voice came from behind the door.
"Eli?"
Elias froze.
It was his mother's voice.
His mother had been dead for four years.
"Eli, open the door."
Elias closed his eyes.
He remembered her voice.
Her laugh.
The way she used to sing while preparing breakfast.
But something was wrong.
His mother had never called him Elias.
She had always called him Eli.
The voice came again.
"My son."
Elias's eyes filled with tears.
Mara whispered:
"Don't answer."
The thing outside knocked again.
"Eli."
Elias stepped away from the door.
"I'm here."
Mara grabbed his hand.
"No!"
The voice outside became silent.
Then it laughed.
Not his mother's laugh.
Something deeper.
Something ancient.
The bedroom temperature dropped.
Frost appeared on the window.
Then a sentence was whispered directly beside Elias's ear.
"You shouldn't have answered."
Elias spun around.
Nobody was there.
Mara screamed.
And the bedroom door slowly opened.
---
At the same moment, nearly a mile away, Father Adrian Vale was kneeling alone inside St. Bartholomew's Catholic Church.
The church was normally peaceful at night.
The sanctuary contained only the soft glow of the sanctuary lamp.
The altar stood beneath a large wooden crucifix.
Rows of empty pews disappeared into darkness.
Father Adrian had been praying when the thirteenth bell rang.
He hadn't moved since.
He knew what it meant.
Twenty-seven years ago, he had heard that bell once before.
He had been a young priest then.
And someone had died.
Father Adrian stood.
His knees felt weak.
He walked slowly from the sacristy into the sanctuary.
The church was empty.
Or so he thought.
A drop of water landed on the stone floor.
Then another.
Father Adrian looked down.
Wet footprints crossed the center aisle.
They began at the main entrance.
They passed the baptismal font.
Passed the confessional.
Passed the first row of pews.
And stopped directly in front of the altar.
Father Adrian's breathing became shallow.
There were no footprints leading back.
He reached beneath his shirt and touched the small crucifix around his neck.
"Lord, have mercy."
A sound came from the bell tower.
Not a ring.
A whisper.
Father Adrian looked upward.
Then someone knocked on the church's main doors.
Three times.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Father Adrian didn't move.
The doors opened.
A boy stood outside.
Barefoot.
Soaked with rain.
His clothes were covered in black mud.
Father Adrian stared at him.
He knew that face.
He had seen it once before.
Twenty-seven years ago.
In a coffin.
The boy smiled.
"Good evening, Father."
Father Adrian couldn't speak.
The boy stepped into the church.
"You remember me."
The priest's hand tightened around his crucifix.
"You died."
The boy's smile widened.
"I know."
The sanctuary lamp suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the church.
Then the boy whispered:
"But tonight, Father, I came back for what you buried."
Somewhere beneath the church, something enormous moved.
And the Black Bell began to ring again.
BOOM.
