Hallowed Ground

• Tawanda Mugwendere, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

Father Hope is walking towards the church door, whistling to himself. All of a sudden, he hears a faint stream in the distance, He turns to face the churchyard at once, to look for any danger, He sees nothing. He then runs down the side of the church; where he sees two girls. One struggling, the other is calm. The calm girl turns at the sound of Father wove, her hair is tangled, her face is pale, her hands are blood soaked and cut. She drops Annie. While Father Hope drops to the floor in shock. Her eyes are as black as the eyes of the devil. She resumes strangling the weak, vulnerable girl. Taking all her life away in a grasp of her neck. The girl falls to the floor, silent, dead.
The next morning Father Hope is awoken by a loud repetitive knocking on the door. He panics and runs to the door. It is only Mrs Higgles. He opens the door, his nerves getting the better of him. The woman walks into the hallowed church, she greets Father Hope. Father Hope begins to feel faint. He collapses
Later that morning, Father Hope awakes again, this time in his bed in the vicarage across the street from the churchyard. He no longer feels the safety of the church grasping onto him. He looks outside, there's nothing to be seen. A crash echoes through the house, Father Hope jumps to his feet. Fully dressed, he prances down the old wooden stairs, he sees Mrs Higgles washing the pots from the previous morning. She greets him, asks of his well-being, then leaves the vicarage for her noon stroll through the town. Suddenly, a twig snapped behind him. Out crawled Mrs Higgles, her long, grey hair is tangled and stained with blood. Father runs frantically to her rescue. He sees a figure standing in the trees of the wood behind the church yard.
A few hours had passed. A group of people, all in black, gathered out in the churchyard. They said their farewells to Mrs Higgles. They then turned to Father Hope, who recited the Lords Prayer as the coffin lowered into the cold, soggy ground on which she died. In the afternoon, Father Hope took a stroll, Mrs Higgles usual route, down the old lane, through to the woods and down to the clearing. Hardly knowing what he was doing, he sat on a log in the clearing, and looked at the ground. The exact spot where the young girl lost her innocent life. The body was gone. The blood remained.
Father Hope carries on with his stroll, but the night is creeping behind him. The trees are getting restless and the spirit responsible for all the tragedies is awoken. Father Hope calls his colleague from the next village and the two priests make their way to the clearing in the woods. Father opens a bible and performs an exorcism. A demonic spirit appears through the trees.