The rivers haven't been safe since the graveyard got flooded. The bodies that were dug out to be moved to higher consecrated ground wore the same look of pure terror on their faces, regardless of their age and state of decomposition.
It was the strangest thing but of course the church took it to be a sign of something or other. Pastor Bessups said that it was a clear display of His will and that we must change our environmental stance, rejecting all modern pollutants and reverting to the more traditional lifestyle.
Pastor Kowalski said that He was definitely telling us that our community wasn't attending church enough. Though his congregation was mostly the village several miles down he felt that his opinion must be voiced to further save us from our sinful lives and save him from holding the record for smallest congregation.
Religion aside, the common folk didn't regard it as an act of God, they regarded it as an act of local malicious intent. The few among them who has "the gift" as they called it claimed to have seen the faces of their loved ones in the rivers nearby, their translucent arms reaching out and grasping at air.
At first this in itself seemed like little more than harmless superstition, just something the public told themselves to keep the fear at bay and push all blame to something too intangible to touch but real enough to make them feel better. In this case they claimed the river had claimed all the souls from the dead, leaving them to float in the purgatorial flow of the River Leam and all it lead to.
This would have been harmless but for the fact that whole coteries of tourists were found clogging local weirs, their water-logged faces all the same picture of terror as the church bodies. The police called it mass hysteria fuelled by local superstition and were clueless as to how it should be prevented.
Meanwhile the villagers kept clear of all natural water sources and wore heavy iron shoes so they'd be harder to drag under.
It was the strangest thing but of course the church took it to be a sign of something or other. Pastor Bessups said that it was a clear display of His will and that we must change our environmental stance, rejecting all modern pollutants and reverting to the more traditional lifestyle.
Pastor Kowalski said that He was definitely telling us that our community wasn't attending church enough. Though his congregation was mostly the village several miles down he felt that his opinion must be voiced to further save us from our sinful lives and save him from holding the record for smallest congregation.
Religion aside, the common folk didn't regard it as an act of God, they regarded it as an act of local malicious intent. The few among them who has "the gift" as they called it claimed to have seen the faces of their loved ones in the rivers nearby, their translucent arms reaching out and grasping at air.
At first this in itself seemed like little more than harmless superstition, just something the public told themselves to keep the fear at bay and push all blame to something too intangible to touch but real enough to make them feel better. In this case they claimed the river had claimed all the souls from the dead, leaving them to float in the purgatorial flow of the River Leam and all it lead to.
This would have been harmless but for the fact that whole coteries of tourists were found clogging local weirs, their water-logged faces all the same picture of terror as the church bodies. The police called it mass hysteria fuelled by local superstition and were clueless as to how it should be prevented.
Meanwhile the villagers kept clear of all natural water sources and wore heavy iron shoes so they'd be harder to drag under.
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