Chương 240: Chapter 240
The town of Crofton was quiet, unnaturally so. Most people had long since grown used to the oppressive stillness that hung over it, like a thick fog that no one could see but all could feel. Something was wrong, though, something none of them could place. It had been years now since the first rumors began to swirl about the angel.
It started with a woman named Sarah, a housewife who had recently lost her daughter in an accident. Desperate for answers, she sought out the Angel of Curses, a mysterious figure that promised relief for the broken-hearted. He was a Fallen Angel, they said, cursed to walk among the living, forever pretending to help humanity while manipulating them toward his own ruinous desires. No one knew for sure where he came from, but his help was always offered with a promise: for every curse lifted, another took its place.
Sarah, grief-stricken and fragile, had ignored the whispers. She needed something to hold on to, something to bring her peace. And so, she found herself at the crossroads in the woods just beyond the edge of town, staring at the crumbling stone altar. It was here that the angel would appear, with eyes like pits and a smile that felt too wide for a human face. She had read about him, heard the warnings, but the promise of seeing her daughter again blinded her to the danger. She wanted a reunion, a chance to hold her child once more.
But when she met the angel, it wasn't the reunion she sought. Instead, she found herself locked in a twisted bargain. The angel's presence filled her with an eerie calm, an unnatural peace. His voice was soothing, like a lullaby, even though he didn't speak a word. He reached out with a hand that looked too cold, too pale, to belong to anything human. It brushed against her cheek like a forgotten memory.
"You grieve," he said, his voice like silk, "and yet you wish for your daughter to return. I can grant that, Sarah. All you need to do is let me lift the curse from your soul."
In her sorrow, she didn't hesitate. She nodded, and with that nod, her life began to unravel.
The angel's help wasn't the healing she expected. The curse he lifted was the grief she carried, but in its place, something far darker took root. Her once-dear memories of her daughter began to twist, the love she had for the girl turning into something that gnawed at her insides, something that demanded more and more. Her daughter returned, yes—but she wasn't the same. The girl was hollow, empty, her eyes no longer reflecting the love Sarah once felt.
And with the return of her daughter came the whispers—first faint, then louder. Whispers of others who had sought the angel's help, who had found themselves trapped, their lives falling apart as they unknowingly helped the angel complete his plans. The cursed, the broken, the desperate—they were all pawns in his game.
It wasn't long before Sarah's house was filled with the cries of children she could not see, the faces of the lost she had failed to save. The angel had twisted her mind, her soul, until she could no longer tell the difference between reality and madness. Her daughter, now more monster than child, roamed the halls, her laughter echoing like the screams of those who had given their souls in exchange for his cursed favor.
The angel of Curses was never far, always lurking in the corners of Sarah's life, watching her crumble from within. But it wasn't just her. The town, too, began to fall under the spell of the fallen being. Crofton changed after Sarah's encounter with the angel. People didn't just lose their loved ones or their minds—they lost their very selves, as if the angel was peeling away their identities, replacing them with something more sinister.
And so, it was that Nathan, a young man who had heard the stories and dismissed them as superstition, found himself standing at the edge of the forest. His younger sister, Grace, had disappeared. The police had searched for days, but no trace of her remained. Nathan, frantic and losing hope, sought out the Angel of Curses.
He had heard the whispers—rumors about a deal, a price that would never truly be paid until it was too late. But Grace had been his only family, and Nathan was certain that if he could just find her, he could bring her back. He wasn't afraid. Or at least, he told himself he wasn't.
The altar appeared as it had for so many before him, a crumbling reminder of forgotten promises. There, in the dead of night, Nathan waited.
The air felt too cold, too still. There was no sound, no movement, as if the world itself had frozen in anticipation. And then, when he least expected it, the angel appeared. His figure was tall, impossibly tall, his skin pale like marble, his wings jagged and broken, as though they had once been part of something divine. His eyes were hollow, black pits that seemed to stretch into eternity.
"You seek to find her," the angel said, his voice low and calm. "Your sister, Grace. She has been lost, yes. I can bring her back."
Nathan's heart raced, and for a moment, he thought he might collapse. He could feel the pull of the angel's words, as if they were sinking into his very bones, the promise of Grace's return a beacon in the suffocating darkness.
"I'll do anything," Nathan said, his voice breaking. "Please, just bring her back."
The angel smiled, a cruel, wide grin that stretched too far across his face, exposing teeth that were far too sharp. "Anything, you say? You know what that means, Nathan."
But Nathan didn't care. He couldn't think of the cost, not now. He just wanted Grace back.
"Good," the angel purred. "Then the deal is struck."
Nathan felt a sharp pain in his chest, like a thousand needles had pierced his skin. He fell to his knees, clutching at his heart, gasping for breath. The world spun, and for a moment, he thought he might die on that cold altar.
When he opened his eyes again, Grace stood before him. But she wasn't the Grace he had remembered. Her eyes were hollow, her smile too wide, too empty. She didn't speak. She didn't need to. The deal had been made.
The angel had kept his promise—but at what cost?
Nathan couldn't see it at first, the horrors creeping in around him. It wasn't until Grace reached for him, her cold hand pressing against his face, that he realized the truth. His sister was gone. The girl before him was just a shell, an imitation.
As the hours passed, Nathan's world began to crumble, piece by piece. People he had known all his life began to fall into despair. The angel's curse had taken hold. There were no more pleas for help, no more requests for salvation. Only silence, suffocating and final.
And then, one by one, the people of Crofton began to vanish. Those who had dared to accept the angel's help had become like Sarah: broken, twisted, empty. Their lives had become nothing more than a series of actions taken to further the angel's dark plans, and they never even realized it until it was far too late.
Nathan's mind shattered as he watched the town burn from within. His sister's hollow eyes haunted him, her cold hand still reaching for him in his nightmares.
And the Angel of Curses, ever patient, stood in the shadows, smiling.
The last thing Nathan felt before his mind completely unraveled was the softest caress of a cold hand on his cheek.
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