Part 4: That Creepy Village - Horror Story

The prior part - Part 3: That Creepy Village - Horror Story

It all started after I extinguished my cigarette and closed the balcony door behind me. I had a strange fixation about keeping windows and doors shut while I slept. That night, I decided to do a little digging online about a village I had visited earlier that day. What I uncovered left me both intrigued and deeply unsettled. The creepy village, now abandoned according to old newspaper clippings, seemed far from the lively place I had walked through just hours ago. What I discovered next about this mysterious village would change everything. A strange man, a deadly past, and secrets buried for decades began to unfold before my eyes.

The Eerie Discovery of a Village Lost in Time

As I sat in my dimly lit room, an old laptop humming on my desk, I began my search. The village I had visited earlier in the day had left me with an unshakable sense of curiosity. My father had given me this laptop years ago, a relic from his workplace, and it still worked well enough to satisfy my late-night curiosity.

Typing the village's name into Google, I was met with an underwhelming amount of results. Most of what I found were old articles, some dating back decades. There was hardly any new information, but what I did find was enough to stir my imagination. One article stood out: “Two Villages Ravaged by Disease in the Region.” The headline was chilling, and despite the slightly altered names, it was clear these villages were the same as the ones I had visited.

Clicking on the article, I read that over 450 people had died in three months due to a mysterious illness. The remaining families had fled, leaving the village lonely and abandoned. But how could this be? I had just been there, and it wasn’t abandoned at all. People were living there, including a shepherd I had spoken to, who now seemed to hold a central piece of this puzzle.

A Photograph from the Past

The deeper I dove into the search results, the more I realized how strange this situation was. One image, in particular, sent a chill down my spine. It was a photograph of a shepherd, taken during the outbreak in the early 1980s. As I stared at it, my mind raced. Could it be him? The shepherd I saw in the village that day was identical to the man in the photograph—same face, same piercing eyes. But how could that be? Nearly 40 years had passed since the article was published, yet this man hadn’t aged a day.

The more I thought about it, the more unsettling it became. By all logic, he should have shown some signs of aging—graying hair, wrinkles, something. But there was nothing. The man in the photograph was a mirror image of the one I had seen. This wasn’t just a strange coincidence. Something much more mysterious was at play in this village.

The Cryptic Interview and a Deadly Secret

Continuing my research, I found an old interview with the shepherd conducted by a journalist. The interview was strange, almost cryptic. The shepherd dismissed the idea of the disease that had supposedly ravaged the village. “They weren’t killed by illness,” he claimed. “It’s all a lie spread by the government. Those people were punished for their greed, for meddling in things they shouldn’t have. Those who ran will be found eventually.”

Reading those words made my skin crawl. This man was adamant that the deaths weren’t due to any illness, but rather some curse or retribution. His words hinted at something darker lurking beneath the surface, something not covered in the other articles. All the mainstream reports chalked the tragedy up to disease, yet here was one lone shepherd, unbothered by the passing of time, claiming that something far more sinister had happened.

The Journalist’s Mysterious Fate

Intrigued, I searched for more information about the journalist who had conducted the interview. According to a brief obituary I found, he had passed away just two years ago. The cause of death was not mentioned, but given the strange circumstances surrounding the village, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was somehow connected.

My mind was spinning with questions. Why had only one source published the shepherd’s version of events? Why did every other article focus solely on the illness? And most disturbingly, how was the shepherd still alive, unchanged by the passage of time?

Returning to the Village: Seeking Answers

I couldn’t just leave it at that. Sleep was out of the question, and by the time the clock struck four, I had made up my mind. I needed to go back to the village. The curiosity, the need for answers, it all drove me out of bed and into my car. I didn’t even tell my family; I just grabbed my keys and left. As the sun began to rise, I found myself on the road, heading back toward the village that now held so many unanswered questions.

What was the real story behind the deaths in that village? Was the shepherd hiding something, or was he, in fact, telling the truth about the so-called illness being a cover-up? And most importantly, how had he managed to stay the same after all these years?

Facing the Truth

When I finally arrived at the village, it felt eerily different than it had the day before. The once familiar roads seemed foreign, and the air carried a weight that hadn’t been there before. I retraced my steps from the day before, searching for the shepherd. The village itself was quiet, almost too quiet. Eventually, I found him, standing in the same spot as the day before, tending to his sheep as if nothing had changed.

I approached him cautiously, not entirely sure what to expect. His eyes met mine, and I could feel the weight of his gaze. For a moment, time seemed to stand still. I wanted to ask him so many things, but the words caught in my throat. Instead, he spoke first, his voice calm yet filled with something that sent a shiver down my spine. “You shouldn’t have come back,” he said.

To be continued...