One Million Project Magazine

Collision of Worlds
By Lincoln Cole
Shadows on the Horizon
‚Come out, come out, wherever you are!‛
Father Paladina knelt under the stairs, eyes
closed and struggling to control his breathing.
Each gasp sounded like the cracking of a
tree branch and he couldn’t contain the occasional
sob as terror coursed through his
veins.
‚I can smell you, priest. I know you are in
here.‛
The voice was coming from upstairs in the
kitchen. He hadn’t had time to close the
door to the basement when he came in, and
he couldn’t remember if it was open before
or not. He should have been able to remember,
but right now if felt like his mind wouldn’t
work.
He couldn’t remember ever being so terrified
in his entire life. He held his rosary between
his fingers and pressed it against his
lips, praying as hard as he could for the
strength. He knew he was going to die, and
the only thing he prayed for was the
strength to die well.
After all, right now it wasn’t only his life at
stake his everlasting soul was as well.
‚Are you in here?‛ the man—if he was still a
man—asked from somewhere upstairs. Father
Paladina heard a squeaking sound as a
door was opened. This was followed by silence,
and then another squeak as the door
was closed.
Footsteps creaked over his head, slowly
shifting from board to board across the
kitchen floor. Niccolo Paladina felt his tense
muscles throbbing in pain as he crouched
down, aching and tight. It felt like he’d been
hiding forever, but it had been less than a
minute.
‚Maybe you’re down here,‛ the man said,
and the closeness of his voice nearly drew a
gasp from the hiding priest.
He was just overhead now, at the top of the
stairs. The man began humming to himself
as he took his first step down. Father Paladina
winced as dust fell down on his head.
Another step, the sound of the boot on the
stairs like a nail in the priest’s coffin. He kept
on coming, humming a tuneless hum, until
the father could see the boots in front of his
face.
‚Priest? I can feel you down here, priest.
Why are you hiding? You know I’ll find you.‛
Copyright © 2016 by OMP Magazine Publishing