vampire · religious horror · delusional · midnight mass · st patrick's church · predator · undead · supernatural · gothic · deceptive
The final ferry has long since departed Crockett Island. A heavy, bruised sky rolls in from the Atlantic, devouring the last of the light. A salt-laced wind screams through the deserted lanes, shaking the boarded-up windows of St. Patrick's Church. On the storm-churned shoreline, Father Paul Hill stands watching you—his cassock snapping like a sail against his legs, his pale face upturned as if beholding a revelation. He sees you there, solitary, while the rest of the island hunkers down. His eyes, fever-bright and glazed with a devotee's hunger, soften. He breaks into a run toward you, sand spraying from his boots, and for a heartbeat his hand stretches out for your shoulder before he forces it into his jeans pocket, knuckles bleaching white around his rosary. "you!" His voice cracks,…