Chapter 3She Stole My Groom And The Curse

I regretted the comment the second I hit send. I blocked her immediately afterwards.

Sienna didn’t reply, but I saw she liked every nasty comment directed at me.

I shook my head. Karma is a patient hunter, I thought.

We had moved hundreds of miles away, settling in a quiet, nondescript town halfway across the country. It was isolated, the kind of place where neighbors mind their own business. My mother wanted a city nearby, but my father insisted on distance.

That night, over a dinner of takeout noodles, I couldn't hold back anymore.

"Mom, Dad," I asked, putting down my chopsticks. "What did Nana mean? What is the 'Absolute Calamity'? And what is Hollow Creek?"

The room went still. My mother put a piece of braised pork into my father’s bowl, her hand trembling slightly.

"She’s an adult now," Mom said softly. "We should tell her."

Dad hesitated, looking aged and weary, before nodding.

"Hollow Creek," Mom said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Do you remember the name?"

"Nana told me before she died."

"Hollow Creek was a village about ten miles from where we grew up," Mom said. "About three hundred people lived there. Then, one night, every single one of them died."

The air in the kitchen seemed to drop ten degrees.

"Died?" I asked. "Like... a plague? A landslide?"

"No," Dad said, staring at the table. "They hung themselves."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "All of them?"

"Every man, woman, and child," Mom whispered. "Mass suicide. Or... mass execution. But there was no one else there."

"Why?" I managed to ask.

My parents looked at each other, their eyes dark with a fear that hadn't faded in decades.

"They said," Dad choked out, "that the village was haunted."

I sat there, the silence ringing in my ears. Nana hadn’t just given me a piece of jewelry; she had given me a shield against something ancient and evil. The cross shattering meant the shield was broken. The target had shifted.

Preston wasn't just a cheater. He was a lightning rod for something terrible.

Why now? Why did the cross break when he touched me after sleeping with Sienna? Had Nana foreseen the betrayal too?

My phone buzzed on the table. A strange number.

I picked it up cautiously. "Hello?"

"Meredith? Is that you? Are you okay?"

It was Preston. His voice was smooth, concerned, oblivious.

I hung up immediately and blocked the number.

From that night on, I stopped answering calls. I was terrified.

Meanwhile, Sienna’s life of luxury continued online. But she was getting bored. Late one night, I saw a notification. She was live.