Chapter 2— Buried Truth
The church was too quiet that night.
Pope Gabriel stood in the dim corridor, his breath shallow, knowing something terrible was coming. Brother Matthias had been trembling earlier, his fear visible in every word, every look. And fear—he knew—could make a person dangerous.
Elara felt it too. “He’s going to talk,” she whispered, her eyes fixed on the staircase leading to the lower crypts. “Even if he promised silence… he’ll break.”
Gabriel hated the truth of her words. Matthias was young, emotional, easily swayed. If he confessed to anyone in the clergy, the consequences would spread like fire. Their secret would burn the church to the ground.
A sudden echo rang out from the hallway.
A thud.
A muffled cry.
Then silence.
Gabriel and Elara exchanged a tense glance before rushing toward the sound. They found the doorway to the vestry half-open. Candlelight flickered inside, bending and stretching shadows along the walls.
On the ground lay Brother Matthias death .
Still.
Unmoving.
Eyes open but empty.
Elara covered her mouth with her hand, stunned but not screaming. Gabriel knelt beside him, checking for breath, for heartbeat—anything.
There was nothing, only silence ....
Whoever had struck him had done it fast, silent, and without hesitation.
“Elara…” Gabriel whispered. “Someone killed him.”
Before she could respond, a figure stepped out from behind the wardrobe—a familiar face twisted by fear and something darker.
Sister Miriam.
Her hands trembled, stained with dirt and sweat. “He was going to expose everything,” she said, voice hollow. “Not just you. He discovered the truth about the blood on the altar. And about me.”
Gabriel stared at her. He had always noticed the coldness beneath her piety, but he never imagined this.
“Elara, we need to leave,” he murmured.
But Miriam blocked the doorway. “No one can know what happened here. Not him. Not me. Not any of you.”
For a long moment, the three of them stood in a frozen triangle—Gabriel heavy with guilt, Elara bracing for danger, Miriam shaking but determined.
Finally, Gabriel spoke. “Help us. Help us bury him.”
Miriam blinked, surprised. “You… you’ll help me hide it?”
“If this gets out,” Elara said quietly, “they won’t just accuse you. They’ll accuse us. The entire church will crumble.”
A silent agreement settled between them—dark, heavy, inevitable.
Together, they lifted Matthias’s body. Gabriel carried the weight with shaking hands, Elara steadying him, Miriam leading them down the back stairwell into the crypt.
The cold air chilled their skin as they stepped into the oldest part of the cathedral, where stone graves lined the walls. Miriam pointed to a loose slab behind a forgotten pillar.
They laid him there.
No prayers.
No blessings.
No tears.
Only the heavy scrape of stone sealing the truth away.
When they emerged again into the sanctuary, the candles flickered violently, as if sensing the wrongness that had just been buried beneath them.
Elara looked at Gabriel. “There’s no turning back now he is a worthless
Pig, imagine Love... she said without caring who was there ..
Gabriel nodded, heart pounding with dread, confusion , and regret.
The church was no longer holy.
It was a graveyard of secrets and sins that are buried silent
and they had just added another.
...
