[Finish the Tale contest] Part 2. Who were the villagers? And what did they know?

I started writing a new story for the Finish the Tale contest.

Here is how the previous part finished:

And the farther people moved away from their shadows, the worse they began to feel. Yet no one could leave the village.

Who were the villagers? And what did they know?

On the outskirts of a large city, several families lived. At first glance, they seemed like the most ordinary people, living calm and steady lives. They went to work on weekdays, walked in the park on weekends, and talked among themselves. They laughed, celebrated, and sometimes felt sad. But they never left the boundaries of their village. They always looked at the newcomers with hope.

Tourists and visitors who came to change their surroundings never stayed long. As soon as they crossed the village border, they were overcome by a strange feeling. Some had nightmares at night. Others couldn’t sleep at all. So they left. But once they departed, they forgot everything that had happened there - as if they had never been in the village at all.

And so the Festival of Shadows, held every year, always felt like it was happening for the first time. No one suspected that they had already been there the year before - until night fell upon the village and the shadows appeared. In truth, the village itself lured people from all over the country on that particular day. Even those who had never heard of the festival somehow found their way there.

And only then did they remember the villagers. They had seen them before… more than once. And they remembered the story the village elder had told them the year before - and the year before that.

To be continued…

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