[Finish the Tale contest] Part 3. The Curse of the Village of Shadows

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

Here is how the previous part finished:

And they remembered the story the village elder had told them the year before - and the year before that.

Who were the villagers? And what did they know?

Ten years ago, a tragedy struck the village. A very beautiful young woman disappeared. Everyone knew her - every resident, every dog. She was intelligent and beautiful, and she had many admirers. One of them was particularly persistent. He hardly left her side. Many considered him a maniac. So when the girl vanished, the entire village accused him of kidnapping her. They searched his house and every place he had been, but they never found her. The young man was thrown into a dungeon. He screamed that he had not kidnapped her. He begged them to listen.

Every night, a shadow passed by his cell. It never spoke to him at first. The person casting it was never visible. One day, the shadow said that if the people would listen to him, it would reveal who had truly abducted the girl.

After hearing this, the young man began to shout and call for the villagers. The guards came and beat him but refused to listen. Weeks passed. During that time, he grew weak. He could no longer move or eat. He simply lay there. A doctor said he did not have long to live. And only then did they grant the young man his final word.

He told them everything he knew about the girl’s disappearance and what the shadow had revealed to him. The villagers laughed and did not take his words seriously. But suddenly… night fell sharply over the town. Only a bright moon illuminated it. And in the moonlight, a shadow appeared.

The people were terrified.

The shadow spoke. It said the girl had been abducted by a man who had once visited the village. He had left traces behind - but they had vanished while the young man was imprisoned. The shadow said that because the villagers did not know how to listen, it would punish them with a curse. If within ten years they did not find the true kidnapper, the village would disappear forever, and only the shadows of its residents would remain.

And now the final year had come.

To be continued…

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