But he took a step towards him and hugged him.
Daniel was watching.
Then Stoyan pushed them to the shaft.
"Go!"
They were getting on as the ground beneath them trembled.
The Guardians didn't pursue them.
They stood in the tunnels and watched the lights go out.
Some were crying.
Some were smiling.
Some just fell apart in the shadows.
When Daniel came out of the hood under the coffin, he began to brighten.
The rain had stopped.
The cemetery was empty.
Only the wet finger, the open tomb and the gray sky.
Boris came out after him.
He fell to his knees to the grave.
Daniel hugged him.
Then a voice was heard from the path.
"Danny?"
His mother.
She stood under an umbrella, with a coat on the nightgown. She had been looking for her son all night.
When she saw Boris, the umbrella fell out of her hand.
She didn't shout.
He didn't cry right away.
He just walked towards him.
Slowly.
It was as if he was afraid that if he moved too fast, the vision would disappear.
Boris looked at her.
"Mila.
Then she fell apart.
He fell into his arms, crying and repeating his name.
Daniel stood next to them.
He looked at the open grave.
The lid under the coffin slowly closed itself.
There was no light coming from below.
There was no sound.
There were no voices.
Just silence.
Months later, Stoyan's grave was closed again.
But there was no body under the tombstone.
Just a small metal box.
Inside, Daniel put his grandfather's watch, an old photo of the family and the note that had started it all.
“Don’t let the secret remain buried.”
Boris was slowly returning to life.
There were gaps in memory. Sometimes he would wake up at night and ask why it was so quiet. Sometimes he searched for his old phone, which he had not existed for fifteen years.
But he remembered the most important thing.
His son's name.
His wife's face.
The smell of their home.
Daniel failed to forgive Stoyan immediately.
Maybe he would never have forgiven completely.
But he found out that his grandfather wasn't a monster.
He was a scared man who made a terrible choice, thinking that this is how he defended his family.
And sometimes the scariest secrets are not hidden underground.
Sometimes they are hidden in the people we love.
Disklamer: This is an entirely fictional art story with elements of mystery and horror. Names, characters, places and events do not describe real persons or cases.
