This is a continuation of my old project, a thriller based on real life experience. Please read the previous chapters before proceeding.
Silent Night (Prologue)
Silent Night (Part I)
Silent Night (Part II)
Excerpt from the previous chapter:
” … something tragic happened in the chapel, but of what nature, nobody knows for sure.
All of a sudden, the silent night was rudely invaded. Metals clanged loudly against each other, the cruel rattling reverberated throughout the empty school.
“The chained gate!” she panicked. “
Part III

Images of uneasiness flashed past her one by one.
“Who could have shook the gate thusly?” She wondered in panic.
She tried to make haste, to rush to the gate and to check the furious rattle.
However, she hesitated. As the night temperature drop significantly all of a sudden, the noise of rattling chain that sounded distant seem to get nearer and nearer, so near that she could imagine the invisible intruder listening to her every intake of breath, every skip of hearbeat.
Seconds passed. She wanted to run, but she couldn’t. It was as if a supernatural force held onto her, rooting her into the place she currently stood at — in front of the band room.
The intruder bears malice akin to a fiery beast trying to free itself from the shackles that imprisoned it.
Beads or perspiration formed on her forehead. The struggle of the invisible intruder pounded painfully in her mind. Frightfulness strucked her like it never did before. She was paralyzed, trapped, rendered useless by the fear brought forth by the invisible intruder that broke the silence so viciously.
It was as if the intruder yearns for a witness, or a listener in this case, for, in a split moment which seems to feel like an eternity to her, she felt her a presence that beckons to no one but to her, pleading, silently pleading her to listen to the tale, the tale of the silent night never spoken to anyone.
The shackles broke. The intruder’s struggle quiesced. He was no longer imprisoned by the shackles that stole his freedom. He was free.
Alas!

Dragging along the broken shackles, he took his steps, slowly, painfully, with invisible legs grimed and bloodied by the long, torturous prisoner years, not unlike a child learning his first steps.
The severed chain that used to bound his feet trailed uselessly as the invisible intruder explored, searching, slowly searching, of something unknown to her, yet it was something she knew that he couldn’t find forever.
And he left, silent regret hanging in the midnight air, leaving behind echoes along the hollow corridors and the empty stairs.