Am I cursed or did I become the curse?

  I do not know the answer to that question that has been lingering in my mind, keeping me awake during my darkest moments.

  Why did it even happen? Why me?

  I probably don't make any sense to you, but I will try to help you understand.

  Where do I begin?

  Hmmmm....

  Probably at the beginning, but where is it...

  Ah, I will tell you about my village's famous cave.

  The cave that gives this small town most of its money, by being a tourist spot.

  It is not that well known, but for the real seekers it is here.

  And it so happens that there are still quite a lot of those real seekers.

  During summer almost everyone you will see here is a tourist, well also because there aren't that many locals.

  I can't really call myself a local either, I moved here when I had just finished school.

  I actually come from a city from around 2 hours away by car.

  I really miss that time, the time when I still had my freedom and strong will.

  When I still had the feeling of adventure in me.

  I'm not sure when it all started to change, but if I had to guess just the moving part was already a grave mistake.

  I regret it, I really do.

  Every night I keep wondering 'What if...', but that is even more useless.

  Well continuing with my story, the cave is most famous for its beautiful system and mystic history.

  It is said that it used to be home to a sorcerer. One very powerful and whom met an unfortunate end.

  He was said to have been killed in his own home in a very strange manner.

  No one knows why or how, but it certainly did happen.

  Not just the archaeological findings show it, but I know it.

  I have in fact seen him and have had a conversation with him.

  Now I do have a clue about what happened.

  J-just stop it and listen, for now this is what it is.

  I'm telling you all this for a reason, so please just bear with me.

  Okay, so when I moved here, not everything was this bad yet.

  When I moved here, with my naivete, I thought it would be the place of my dreams.

  That is what it was in the beginning, but after a while it became a living nightmare.

  I bought my first house here.

  I learned how to drive here.

  There are just so many memories here.

  I befriended the locals rather quickly, thanks to my appreciation of culture and history.

  It was of course an old town and most of the people who live... sorry I mean lived here where the elderly.

  I always loved to listen to their stories.

  But unfortunately,

  that is all lost now.

  Again I really don't know everything that happened, but from what I gathered: People have been getting more and more annoyed about me. For my city attitude, like locking my doors in a safe town or my friends from out of town staying over.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  At least, thats what I think happened...

  All this they never told me, building up their irritation. Making it way worse than everything actually was.

  Then one day they decided that it was enough, and basically went on a manhunt for me.

  All of this was rather bizarre, I did not expect it at all. It was almost like they were possessed, like they thought I was the devil himself.

  Their anger poured down on me like a heavy storm.

  There was more anger, that didn't all have to do with me. They seemed to have combined everything and pushed it onto me.

  I had to flee.

  I ran for my life and tried to leave town.

  I couldn't get through any of the entrances of the town, there were people looking for me everywhere.

  So I hid in the caves, in the hope that they would stop their searching.

  I locked myself into what used to be the sorcerer's home and hid in a dark corner.

  After just a few minutes they found out where I was and were trying to break down the door.

  Panicking, I looked around the room to find a better hiding spot.

  Then through the banging of the door I heard a voice behind me.

  "Here... over here... You can hide... You can be save."

  At first I didn't see it, the sound came from a small butterfly sitting on the carpet.

  Without thinking I removed the old carpet to find a secret well-hidden hatch.

  Quickly I went in making sure they couldn't see that the carpet had been moved.

  As I went into the dark and dusty room, I could hear some of my former friends and neighbors burst into the room.

  I could hear them stomp on the floor, looking frantically for me. Breaking part of their precious museum.

  Were they still them? I wondered leaning against the cold wall's and unknown objects that filled the room.

  The air in that room was different, how long had it been since someone last had been there?

  Could it have been years or even centuries?

  But how? This room wasn't even so hard to find?

  I sat down when I heard them leave the room upstairs. Quietly, so I wouldn't alert them.

  After a while I suddenly heard the voice again, speaking softly: "Are you okay?" asking with the much needed kindness in his voice.

  I shook my head and buried it in my hands.

  "We are alike." It continued.

  I whispered a thank you, feeling warm tears gently roll down my face.

  All of the things that happened have just been too much for one day.

  We remained silent for a while, until I felt a little better: "Are you the sorcerer?"

  A cold breeze blew in my face.

  "I have never been a sorcerer." The voice answered.

  "Sorry, that is the only thing I ever hear about this place. If I may, why are you still here?"

  "I can't leave until my job here is done, until I have helped someone like me... I have waited for so long."

  Unsure of what to say I decided to remain quiet.

  "The villagers can make you disappear, you know. They do that to most outsiders that end up staying too long."

  I just nod.

  "Do you want to end up like that?"

  "No, preferably not."

  "All right, then I will help you."

  I could feel a cold hand touch mine and then I never heard the voice again.

  Softly I called out for him, but he never answered again.

  By the time that I decided to leave, it had gotten so cold and quiet. I couldn't hear anything from outside anymore.

  The commotion outside had completely stopped, but it got strange when I finally got outside I couldn't even hear the birds.

  So carefully I went and as quiet as a mouse I slipped out of the cave.

  It had already gotten dark outside.

  The wind blew in my face, still a bit warm for the beginning of autumn.

  For the first time that day I felt pretty good, now I can finally leave this terrible place.

  But of course all that hope was short lived.

  I couldn't leave town.

  No matter how hard I dried.

  It was as if someone had built an invisible wall around the whole thing.

  And since then... I am still stuck here.

  After a while of trying until I was too tired I gave up.

  But the weird thing was, that no one tried to hunt me down again.

  Had they given up too?

  When I had gathered up some energy, I decided to see what was going on.

  I was even more surprised when I finally noticed that no one moved anymore.

  All of them just stood, like they were frozen in time.

  Like a bunch of dolls left after a child had to do something else or got bored.

  On closer inspection, I found out that they did all still breathe, but there was something strange with their eyes.

  All of them had these strange green-colored eyes.

  Since I wasn't sure if they could wake up I hid myself in the library until the morning came.

  I woke up the next morning from the sun, there still wasn't any noise outside and when I checked all the townspeople all still stood where I had left them the previous night.

  I have never been more confused and it was worrying me, I was not like them and did not wish for them to die. Even if they did want me to.

  Worried I went by them all, they were all covered in morning dew and ice cold, but still breathing and their hearts still beat.

  The first thing I did after was to return to the library, but the search was fruitless. There aren't many books about the history of the town nor this thing I decided to call a curse.

  Not only did the library's books have little to say, the internet was down too.

  So I am stuck with no way of contacting the outside world.

  Outside I tried to talk to one of them.

  I asked what he was doing.

  No answer.

  I asked if this was some kind of joke.

  No answer.

  I asked if I could do something for him.

  Again no answer.

  Stressed out and angry at the man ignoring me I yelled at him.

  I begged him to please just do something, to show that he was still alive.

  He moved his head.

  That's all.

  He had moved it to look in my direction.

  Nothing more, nothing less.

  I wasn't sure if I had imagined it so I asked him if he could point to the nearest building.

  He did.

  Although it was a bit robotic and obviously lacking humanity and individuality.

  Then I asked him to go back to his house.

  And again he did, meanwhile I followed him.

  When we arrived he just stood in front of the door.

  It was like one of those old zombie stories, they did nothing if I didn't tell me to do something.

  All of this was very shocking to me.

  Suddenly I had all this responsibility.

  Suddenly I had to care for an entire town in which I actually really didn't want to be.

  Stuck with them.

  Stuck with a bunch of brain dead corpses.

  I used to have hope for them, but little by little I lost that.

  Days went by, where I tried to keep them all alive and well. Telling them everything they needed to do in order to stay alive.

  But today someone still died.

  I wonder if there will be a day when I have to bury more than one.

  When I have to bury the rest of town, while I will be left all alone.

  I guess that when you curse someone, you mostly have to live with the pain yourself of having done something as terrible as that.

  Now, have you written it all down? All that I have told you? Then people might find this message and know what happened.

  Just nod if you did.