Before the eighth century
The Pagan Sacred Ground
Long before a Christian church stood at [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88), the clearing and its burial ground had been sacred to the people who lived there. Later Christians would build on the old place of worship, laying one religious claim directly over another.
That buried history becomes crucial when the modern church seems to lose its spiritual character and the field beside it begins drawing crowds toward the twisted oak.
Around 770
The Church at Banefelde
A grant of land endowed a church at Banefelde, the settlement later known as [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88). The records suggest that [St. Joseph’s Church](entity:location-recall-location-st-joseph-s-church-7fbf932f6d28) may have been built over the earlier pagan sanctuary and its burial ground.
Centuries of religious change would gather around this site, giving the village a history older and more layered than its unremarkable modern reputation suggests.
Early fifteenth century
The Lost Village
A mysterious sickness struck the small settlement around St. Peter’s at Stapley, killing most of its inhabitants. The survivors’ houses were eventually destroyed, leaving the church and manor estate isolated from the community that had once surrounded them.
The remote church would later preserve an old chest removed from [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88), along with the papers that explain the buried connection between the two places.
1540
The Estate Changes Hands
During the [Dissolution of the Monasteries](entity:time-recall-time-d3250072850e), the Crown transferred [Stapley Manor](entity:location-recall-location-b3c81348033d) and its estate to Richard Staffon. Under [Mary Tudor](entity:character-recall-character-mary-tudor-9399f3541f18), Staffon and his family were driven into exile, and the property passed to Sir John Woolgar, a wealthy supporter of the [Catholic Church](entity:organization-recall-organization-catholic-church-7dfe4f6d7f50).
The Woolgar family’s influence would shape the fate of [Thomas Woolgar](entity:character-recall-character-thomas-woolgar-f34759da6d11), a young priest whose concealed crimes and account of a murdered nun became central to the modern catastrophe.
Mid-sixteenth century
Einor Arrives at Banfield
Sister [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) was sent to assist at [St. Joseph’s Church](entity:location-recall-location-st-joseph-s-church-7fbf932f6d28), where the young priest [Thomas Woolgar](entity:character-recall-character-thomas-woolgar-f34759da6d11) served. She impressed the villagers with her medical knowledge and apparent ability to diagnose and heal the sick; her piety toward Mary made her seem especially holy.
Woolgar became fascinated by Einor’s learning and presence. What looked to the parish like saintly benevolence concealed a powerful will and a destructive appetite.
After Einor’s arrival
Woolgar’s Surrender
When Woolgar fell ill, [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) cared for him, and their relationship turned into a secret, consuming affair. In his later chronicle, Woolgar describes sexual acts, degrading rituals, and his increasing conviction that Einor could dominate his will.
He also records that she continued to heal people and cultivate public reverence. Her apparent goodness became a source of power and cover, while Woolgar grew weaker and more deeply implicated.
During Woolgar’s affair with Einor
The Missing Children
Three children disappeared from the district. Woolgar’s account admits that he helped [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) kill them and silence their cries, then conceal their bodies; his descriptions reveal a priest who was both an accomplice and a man attempting to excuse himself.
The murders were the concealed horror beneath Einor’s public image as a healer. Their buried consequences would return when Alice’s power began to reproduce the old pattern of reverence, fear, and death.
Later in the same period
The Prioress Is Poisoned
[Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) planned to poison the prioress slowly with arsenic compounds, intending to make the older woman’s decline appear natural while Einor continued to act as her devoted attendant. The prioress nevertheless learned of the sexual scandal and the novice [Rosemund](entity:character-recall-character-rosemund-67401df3a663)’s involvement.
Woolgar confessed part of his own wrongdoing but concealed the children’s murders. His self-serving confession helped redirect suspicion onto Einor and laid the groundwork for a violent public reckoning.
When Alice is four
Alice Loses Hearing and Speech
After an ordinary childhood illness, [Alice Pagett](entity:character-recall-character-alice-pagett-a48d071bed1b) became deaf and mute. Doctors found no clear damage to her ears or vocal cords and eventually considered the condition psychological, but the loss shaped her life and left her withdrawn from other children.
Her mother raised her in the Catholic faith, and Alice grew especially attached to the statue of Mary at [St. Joseph’s Church](entity:location-recall-location-st-joseph-s-church-7fbf932f6d28). That devotion later became intertwined with the visions and the extraordinary changes in her health.
Two weeks before Fenn finds her
Alice’s Repeated Drawings
Alice began repeatedly drawing a woman-like figure in white, surrounded by yellow and sometimes blue. One picture stood apart, rendered in red and black, but neither her mother nor [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) could interpret the images.
The drawings echoed the statue Alice loved, yet their repetition unsettled Father Andrew Hagan rather than reassuring him. They suggested that something had taken hold of the child before she could explain it in words.
Two weeks before Fenn’s nighttime encounter
Alice Goes to the Oak
Alice slipped from home and crossed the churchyard into the field, where she knelt before the solitary oak. [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) found her smiling at something no one else could see; when Molly questioned her afterward, Alice seemed unable to explain why she had gone there.
The incident became the first known sign of the recurring pull between Alice and the tree. Her family tried to treat it as an isolated episode until she returned to the field again.
A cold night shortly before the first Sunday Mass
Fenn Finds Alice
Driving home after a dull assignment and several drinks, [Gerry Fenn](entity:character-recall-character-gerry-fenn-ca6655c66a24) nearly struck a small figure running across the road. He followed her through the churchyard and over the wall, where he found Alice kneeling before the oak and staring into the darkness.
When he touched her, Alice said, “She’s so beautiful,” then collapsed. Fenn carried her to [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a), not yet understanding why a deaf-mute child had spoken to him.
The same night
The Child Speaks
At the presbytery, [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) identified Alice and told Fenn she had been deaf and mute for seven years. Fenn insisted that she had spoken clearly, but no one else had heard her say anything, and the doctor found no immediate medical crisis.
Alice’s parents arrived and took her home. Father Andrew Hagan’s alarm at Fenn’s account suggested that the priest already knew the girl’s night journeys were not new.
The morning after Fenn finds Alice
Hagan Feels the Dark
[Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) stood in the rain watching the oak and remembered the terrible loneliness that had overtaken him after Alice’s latest episode. His faith and daily ministry had once steadied him, but now even the church seemed to offer less comfort.
He recognized Alice’s drawings as resembling the statue of Mary and felt no relief at solving their subject. The priest’s foreboding deepened as he sensed that the visions had unsettled the spiritual life of St. Joseph’s itself.
The day after the nighttime encounter
The Story Is Rejected
Fenn wrote up his encounter as a striking supernatural story and took it to his editor, [Frank Aitken](entity:character-recall-character-frank-aitken-06fbd81189cc). Aitken rejected it: the account depended on Fenn’s word alone, and Fenn had a history of embellishing or failing to check unusual stories.
Fenn remained convinced that Alice had spoken, but he had no independent confirmation. The newsroom’s dismissal sharpened his frustration and helped turn the event into a private investigation as well as a possible career-making scoop.
The day after the rejected story
Sue Is Invited to Mass
Fenn told [Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664) about Alice and the field. Sue was skeptical of his vision language, but she recognized that the girl’s history made the words difficult to explain; she also disclosed that she had once been Catholic and had drifted away from the Church.
Fenn asked Sue to attend Mass with him. Their relationship was affectionate but unsettled, and his invitation brought together his curiosity about the story and his wish to keep her close.
The first Sunday after Fenn’s encounter
Alice Leaves the Mass
During Mass, Alice rose from the pew where Molly sat and walked toward the church exit with a distant, joyful expression. Other children slipped away after her, while their parents and the congregation slowly realized that the girl was leading them out.
[Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) and Fenn followed the children over the wall into the field. The children gathered before the oak, smiling, praying, or laughing at something invisible to the adults.
The same Sunday
Alice Announces a Message
As the adults tried to retrieve the children, Alice spoke aloud again. She said the Lady in White wanted them to return because she had a message for everyone, then identified the figure as the Immaculate Conception.
Molly rushed to embrace her, and the crowd heard Alice despite the surrounding commotion. Her words transformed a baffling private episode into a public religious claim.
The day after Alice’s first public vision
The Cure Is Confirmed
At the hospital, specialists confirmed that Alice could hear and speak. Her earlier condition appeared to have no physical cause, leading doctors to describe it as psychosomatic rather than to call the recovery a medical miracle.
Alice repeated that a shimmering woman in white had identified herself as the Immaculate Conception and promised a message. The Courier’s coverage made the incident a regional story and introduced the name “[The Banfield Miracle](entity:expression-recall-expression-the-banfield-mirac-1089d08bb9e4).”
The first days after Alice’s cure
Banfield Sees a Business Chance
[George Southworth](entity:character-recall-character-george-southworth-650240b2628c) and [Rodney Tucker](entity:character-recall-character-rodney-tucker-99f044b17a49) recognized that news of Alice’s vision might draw visitors to [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88), a village suffering economic decline. They proposed promoting the incident and expanding businesses, lodging, and development if the interest lasted.
They approached Fenn about sustaining the story, even offering to cover expenses. Fenn refused to promise coverage on their terms, but their plan exposed the commercial hopes gathering around Alice’s claim.
The first days after Alice’s cure
Caines Orders Caution
[Bishop Caines](entity:character-recall-character-bishop-caines-5e9eb1c43ae3) questioned [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) about Alice’s claimed apparition and the sudden recovery. He reviewed the Church’s demanding standards for recognizing a miraculous cure and insisted that no judgment could be made without evidence and time.
Father Andrew Hagan worried that Alice’s personality seemed changed and that the church felt spiritually wrong. Bishop Caines told him to avoid the press and wait, believing the public excitement would soon fade.
The Sunday after Alice’s cure
The First Pilgrims Gather
A growing stream of sick people, relatives, worshipers, and curious visitors made their way to St. Joseph’s. [Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664) felt renewed compassion and trust in the church, while Fenn interpreted the crowd’s hopes as a mixture of faith, hysteria, and desperation.
The contrast between their responses began to strain their relationship. Fenn also saw that the village’s growing attention could become a source of both spiritual renewal and exploitation.
Sunday the 28th
Alice’s Second Gathering
A much larger crowd filled the church grounds after rumors spread that Alice would return to the oak. [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) had asked Molly to keep her away, but Alice appeared in the field, and hundreds of people gathered around her.
Fenn photographed the scene and saw the child’s joyful trance spread through the crowd. Alice spoke of the Lady’s message, and the adults watched the children as though a visitation were about to begin again.
Sunday the 28th
The Field Healings
A strange wind swept the field, then stopped as Alice rose several inches above the grass. After she descended, people with genuine conditions began to improve: a child’s warts faded, a girl’s uncontrolled movements ceased, a man’s cataracts cleared, and a crippled boy stood and walked with help.
The gathering experienced the changes as miracles, while Fenn could only watch the evidence and wonder what force linked Alice to the crowd. The event turned a local curiosity into a national and international phenomenon.
The morning after the field healings
The Lambs Are Lost
The farmer Riordan found that his pregnant sheep had suffered catastrophic losses. Their lambs and several mothers were dead, despite being in a distant part of the field during the gathering.
The unexplained deaths complicated the idea that Alice’s appearances brought only benevolence. The field’s astonishing healings now had a shadowed consequence that no one could comfortably fit into the story of a simple miracle.
The days after the second gathering
The Church Investigates
The Church began organizing medical scrutiny of the reported cures, consulting the patients’ doctors and planning an independent inquiry. [Bishop Caines](entity:character-recall-character-bishop-caines-5e9eb1c43ae3) wanted to control the situation before crowds and public belief outran the Church’s ability to respond.
The proposed investigation distinguished medical inexplicability from proof of divine intervention. Meanwhile, the village’s merchants and officials were already preparing for a lasting pilgrimage trade.
After the second gathering
The Field Is Purchased
The Church reached an agreement to purchase the field where Alice had appeared and the healings had occurred. [Bishop Caines](entity:character-recall-character-bishop-caines-5e9eb1c43ae3) publicly emphasized investigation and caution, but the decision also made room for the crowds that had already begun arriving.
The purchase strengthened the Church’s practical control over the site while helping establish it as a destination. Fenn saw the gap between official restraint and the accelerating machinery of publicity and development.
A night shortly after Alice’s cure
Molly Finds the Game Running
Molly woke to the familiar electronic sounds of Alice’s game, but found Alice asleep and the device switched off on a dresser across the room. She could not explain how she had heard it playing or how it might have stopped without waking the child.
The small domestic mystery disturbed Molly at a moment when she was trying to understand the miraculous recovery. It hinted that strange effects were occurring around Alice even away from the field.
After the second gathering
Fenn and Sue Separate
Fenn’s reporting emphasized the spectacle and possible hysteria, while [Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664) believed the events had restored something meaningful in people. She withdrew from him, unable to reconcile her renewed faith with his apparent indifference and career ambition.
The break left Fenn lonely and angry, but he could not dismiss the events entirely. His personal life became entangled with the question of whether he could remain a detached observer.
The weeks after the first healings
Alice Is Kept at the Convent
With the press and visitors surrounding [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88), Alice and Molly were moved to the convent for privacy. Alice hated the confinement and wanted to return to the church and the oak; her mother, increasingly devoted to the events, struggled to protect her from incessant questions.
Alice’s apparent serenity and detachment deepened, while a small extra nipple on her side began to itch and grow. That physical detail would later connect her to the folklore surrounding [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa).
Several weeks after the first cure
The Press Conference
[Bishop Caines](entity:character-recall-character-bishop-caines-5e9eb1c43ae3) and [Monsignor Delgard](entity:character-recall-character-monsignor-delgard-1c2e4dd24528) faced reporters and described the medical process without declaring any cure miraculous. [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a), visibly deteriorating, struggled to explain his own unease and was pressed about his brief earlier assignment at Hollingbourne.
The Church acknowledged the public’s interest while trying to manage it. The questions about Father Andrew Hagan’s past and his worsening health foreshadowed that the danger was not limited to the crowds or the field.
The Sunday after the press conference
Alice Rejects Communion
At a private Mass in the convent, Alice approached [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) to receive Communion. After taking the Host, she began retching and vomited on the floor and the priest’s robes.
The violent rejection unsettled the clergy and the invited witnesses. It made Alice’s condition seem less like a straightforward blessing and left Father Andrew Hagan more frightened of what was taking place around her.
That evening
Hagan Chokes at Dinner
At a private dinner, [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) became convinced that a piece of meat was expanding in his throat. Fenn and [Monsignor Delgard](entity:character-recall-character-monsignor-delgard-1c2e4dd24528) tried to help him, but the priest convulsed, struggled for breath, and died.
The postmortem attributed his death to a heart attack and found no obstruction large enough to explain Fenn’s experience. Fenn could not forget the apparent choking, while Monsignor Delgard believed something had drained Father Andrew Hagan’s strength long before his final crisis.
After Hagan’s funeral
The Church Feels Empty
[Monsignor Delgard](entity:character-recall-character-monsignor-delgard-1c2e4dd24528) told Fenn that [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) had been afraid of what was happening to St. Joseph’s. The church no longer offered the priest the usual peace of an empty sanctuary; it seemed spiritually depleted, and Hagan’s vitality had steadily ebbed.
Delgard asked Fenn to investigate the church, the village, and Alice’s family. Fenn agreed to search for a historical connection, even though the assignment sounded to him like the beginning of an unprovable ghost story.
After Father Andrew Hagan’s death
The Madonna Cracks
The statue of Mary in [St. Joseph’s Church](entity:location-recall-location-st-joseph-s-church-7fbf932f6d28), once marked by only a faint hairline, had become covered in jagged cracks. Its face seemed distorted into an obscene, hostile expression, and Fenn recoiled from it.
The damage could not be explained as ordinary aging over so short a period. The statue’s transformation strengthened Delgard’s belief that something had taken hold of the church and that Alice’s miracles were inseparable from a darker force.
During Fenn’s investigation
Nancy Offers a Partnership
[Nancy Shelbeck](entity:character-recall-character-nancy-shelbeck-42595d7a8b5a), a [Washington Post](entity:organization-recall-organization-d155585e30ba) reporter, offered to collaborate with Fenn in exchange for access and a share of the story. Fenn refused a formal partnership but agreed to help her when he could, keeping the most sensitive parts of his research to himself.
Their professional bargain quickly became intimate, even as Fenn remained emotionally attached to [Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664). [Nancy](entity:character-recall-character-nancy-371993dde326)’s own encounter with the supernatural would soon make the research more than a journalistic exercise.
During the same week
Nancy Finds the Old Chest
Working from Fenn’s notes, [Nancy](entity:character-recall-character-nancy-371993dde326) traced the missing church chest to [St. Peter’s Church at Stapley](entity:location-recall-location-dd79bfc5ca61). She found the heavy, three-locked chest in a side chapel and realized that its contents might contain the records Fenn needed.
As she searched the church for keys, she sensed another presence and found a hooded figure in a secluded pew. Its appearance was not that of a living nun, and Nancy fled in terror.
The following Sunday
Fenn Meets the Moving Madonna
Fenn entered the crypt beneath [St. Joseph’s Church](entity:location-recall-location-st-joseph-s-church-7fbf932f6d28) to search for the lost chest. Among broken religious statues, he found a figure of Mary that seemed to become animate and draw him toward its face; the light failed, and the statues toppled onto him.
[Nancy](entity:character-recall-character-nancy-371993dde326) reached him and helped him out of the crypt. Fenn could not decide whether terror and darkness had distorted what he saw, but the encounter left him shaken and gave Delgard another reason to believe the church was under assault.
That same day
The Burned Nun Attacks
At St. Peter’s, Fenn opened the old chest with permission from the parish priest and found the missing sixteenth-century records. A storm battered the church as a charred, hooded figure appeared and seemed to attack him with burning touches and unseen blows.
Fenn escaped into the grounds and found [Nancy](entity:character-recall-character-nancy-371993dde326) hiding nearby, badly traumatized by the same burned apparition. Their experiences connected the old chest, [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa)’s execution, and the modern terror gathering around Alice.
That night
Woolgar’s Chronicle Is Read
[Monsignor Delgard](entity:character-recall-character-monsignor-delgard-1c2e4dd24528) translated [Thomas Woolgar](entity:character-recall-character-thomas-woolgar-f34759da6d11)’s hidden chronicle and discovered the priest’s account of [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa)’s healings, sexual control over him, the murdered children, and her execution. Woolgar believed Einor was more than a witch and that her power could act beyond death.
The chronicle linked the old violence to the present through the field, the oak, religious fervor, and the people who had sinned or helped create Alice’s circumstances. Delgard concluded that Alice might be the vessel through which Einor’s force had returned.
That night
Delgard Is Killed
While Delgard prayed alone in [St. Joseph’s Church](entity:location-recall-location-st-joseph-s-church-7fbf932f6d28), the cracked statue of Mary broke apart. Stone fragments exploded across the sanctuary and tore into the monsignor, killing him.
Fenn entered in time to see Delgard’s body and a small black-clad figure that vanished from the church. The deaths of [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) and Delgard confirmed for Fenn that the church’s spiritual emptiness was bound to a real and lethal presence.
After Delgard’s death
The Chronicle Explains the Curse
Fenn read Delgard’s translation and learned that [Thomas Woolgar](entity:character-recall-character-thomas-woolgar-f34759da6d11) had helped the villagers torture and burn [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) after she was accused of killing children. Einor cursed the mob and its descendants as she died; Woolgar later hid his confession in the chest sent to St. Peter’s.
The account suggested that Alice’s extra nipple, sleep-speech, and connection to the oak echoed Einor’s life. Fenn feared that the miracle story was a disguise for the return of a vengeful force, but he could not persuade Church leaders to believe him.
During her confinement at the convent
Alice Speaks in Her Sleep
[Mother Marie-Claire](entity:character-recall-character-mother-marie-claire-26fb424bce36) and another nun heard Alice speaking in her sleep with an archaic accent and language unlike her ordinary speech. The words were sexual and unchildlike, and included references to a priest and to forbidden desire.
The drawings Alice made at the convent became increasingly obscene, portraying the same female figure. The evidence suggested that Alice was not simply reliving a holy vision but was being overtaken by the history and appetite of someone else.
A night at the convent
The Cat Nurses Alice
[Mother Marie-Claire](entity:character-recall-character-mother-marie-claire-26fb424bce36) found a cat suckling at the extra nipple on Alice’s sleeping body. The incident recalled the old folklore in which a witch’s familiar fed from a supernumerary nipple and carried out its mistress’s bidding.
Delgard had already learned of the detail before his death, and Fenn saw it as another link between Alice and [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa). The apparent miracle child now bore a physical mark associated with the very evil the village had once believed it destroyed.
The night before the final pilgrimage service
Molly Confesses the Conception
Molly told [Monsignor Delgard](entity:character-recall-character-monsignor-delgard-1c2e4dd24528), before his death, that Alice had been conceived during her encounter with Leonard in the field beside [St. Joseph’s Church](entity:location-recall-location-st-joseph-s-church-7fbf932f6d28). She had hidden the exact location from [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a) and now feared that the field’s new sacred status made her old sin significant.
Delgard tried to reassure her, but the confession intensified his suspicion that Alice’s origins tied her to the ground where [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) had been executed. The field’s history and the child’s conception converged in his mind as a possible catalyst for the curse.
During the pilgrimage boom
Tucker Attacks Paula
As [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88) prospered, [Paula](entity:character-recall-character-paula-88c80122f9c7) demanded a meaningful stake in [Rodney Tucker](entity:character-recall-character-rodney-tucker-99f044b17a49)’s business rather than remaining his mistress and employee. [Tucker](entity:character-recall-character-tucker-a14ba8644b14) refused, and when she threatened to tell his wife about their affair, he gripped her throat and nearly strangled her.
He released her in alarm when he realized what he was doing. The episode revealed how the commercial excitement surrounding the shrine was feeding private greed and violence as well as public devotion.
The weeks before the final service
The Shrine Becomes a Business
[Southworth](entity:character-recall-character-southworth-a018eacea178) expanded his plans for hotels, shops, bus tours, and property holdings as pilgrims flooded [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88). [Tucker](entity:character-recall-character-tucker-a14ba8644b14) expected to profit from a larger supermarket, while traders quickly sold improvised religious souvenirs bearing Alice’s image.
The Church also prepared the field for regular services, even while publicly urging caution. The site’s transformation from pasture to shrine made the motives of businesspeople, clerics, and pilgrims increasingly difficult to separate.
The Sunday before the final public service
The Private Mass Turns Violent
At a carefully controlled Mass, Alice again approached Communion but violently vomited the Host. [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a)’s illness and fear were already severe, and the incident sharpened his opposition to bringing Alice back to St. Joseph’s.
[Bishop Caines](entity:character-recall-character-bishop-caines-5e9eb1c43ae3) and [Southworth](entity:character-recall-character-southworth-a018eacea178) continued discussing the shrine’s organization and publicity. Father Andrew Hagan could not make them understand his sense that the church was spiritually emptied and that Alice’s return would bring danger.
The days before Black Sunday
The Final Mass Is Prepared
The field was equipped with an enlarged altar, seating, lights, and sound systems for a candlelight procession and open-air Mass. Alice was to attend despite her fragility, and the Church accepted her wish for a service honoring the dead priests and anticipating a promised revelation.
Fenn tried to stop the ceremony after reading Woolgar’s account, but the bishop dismissed him as a sensationalist. Thousands of people, including the ill and desperate, traveled to [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88), turning the event into an immense test of public faith.
Black Sunday evening
The Pilgrims Fill the Field
More than twenty thousand people converged on the shrine, crowding the field and surrounding roads. The sick arrived hoping for cures, while merchants, journalists, clergy, and the merely curious sought their own reasons to be present.
Fenn felt the charged atmosphere and saw that the crowd’s shared expectation was becoming a force in itself. He found [Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664) and [Ben](entity:character-recall-character-ben-964df7d0a5ee) among the worshipers and urged Sue to leave, warning that something terrible was about to happen.
During the final service
Fenn Warns Sue
Fenn told [Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664) that Alice was connected to the deaths, the fire, and the evil described in Woolgar’s chronicle. Sue resisted his explanation, but finally agreed to leave with [Ben](entity:character-recall-character-ben-964df7d0a5ee) when he begged her to trust him.
Before they could escape, the procession entered the field and the crowd’s attention fixed on Alice. Fenn’s warning had come too late to remove them from the unfolding event, though Sue’s decision would later help them survive.
During the third hymn on Black Sunday
Wilkes Shoots Alice
As Alice rose and began to levitate above the platform, [Wilkes](entity:character-recall-character-wilkes-4b89a8f64319) walked down the aisle with a German Luger concealed beneath his clothing. He fired four shots into her before the crowd understood what he was doing.
Alice fell in a spreading pool of blood. The congregation stood stunned, then surged against Wilkes and beat him with uncontrolled fury, while the violence shattered the service’s reverent order.
Immediately after Alice is shot
The Healings Recede
As Alice lay motionless, the people she had healed began to lose their recoveries. The girl’s movement disorder returned, the boy’s legs failed, a blind man’s sight clouded, and other illnesses reappeared with terrible speed.
The reversals made the cures seem dependent on Alice’s continued power rather than permanent recoveries. Fenn’s own strength returned as the crowd’s shared weakness broke, and he moved to reach the platform.
Moments after the shooting
Alice Rises Again
While Fenn struggled toward the altar, Alice began to stir and rose from the platform despite her wounds. Her face changed into a burned, distorted figure, and she addressed Molly as [Rosemund](entity:character-recall-character-rosemund-67401df3a663) before insisting that she was not that woman.
The figure revealed that Alice’s body had become the vessel for [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa)’s return. The miraculous child and the avenging revenant occupied the same small form, turning the crowd’s hope into terror.
Immediately after Alice rises
The Crowd Is Torn Apart
The field shook and the crowd stampeded toward the exits. Lights exploded, equipment failed, and people were crushed beneath the rush; many others fell while trying to carry the sick and disabled through the surging mass.
The terror spread beyond the field, where vehicles and communications failed. The gathering that had come to witness a miracle became a disaster, with hundreds killed or injured as fear and crowd pressure overwhelmed any organized response.
During the Black Sunday disaster
The Earth Opens
A jagged fissure split the pilgrimage field and widened toward the altar. Figures and hands seemed to rise from the darkness below, while the ground also tore open beneath the church and its old structure began to crack apart.
Those who had treated the field as harmless sacred ground now fled from a place that appeared to expose the dead and the underworld. The curse had expanded from a personal haunting into a catastrophe affecting the whole congregation.
At the burning altar
Fenn Faces Einor
[Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) appeared to Fenn as a beautiful young woman before revealing her charred, corpse-like form. She declared that he would witness her vengeance and become part of it, while the field continued to split and the crowd’s fear fed her power.
Fenn felt himself drawn into her presence and could not escape by strength alone. The voices of the dead priests urged him to resist and pray, forcing him to seek an answer beyond his old cynicism.
At the height of the disaster
The Lady Appears
A bright radiance formed at the base of the oak, and Fenn saw a figure within it. The sight filled him with a different fear, but the priests’ voices urged him to pray, and he closed his eyes before opening them again to face the light.
[Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa) recoiled from the presence. The vision offered a counterforce to the fear and evil consuming the field, though Fenn could not determine whether it was the Virgin, a supernatural intervention, or another experience shaped by the crowd’s mind.
Moments later
The Oak Burns
Lightning struck the twisted oak, exposing its rotten interior and the parasites living within it. A second strike set the tree ablaze, and the old structure began to fall toward the altar.
[Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664) and [Ben](entity:character-recall-character-ben-964df7d0a5ee) pulled Fenn away as the burning tree crushed the platform and engulfed [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa). The tremors stopped, the crowd’s screams subsided, and rain began to fall over the ruined shrine.
After the fire and tremors
The Pilgrimage Ends
The disaster left 158 people dead and many more injured. Several of Alice’s earlier patients lost their recoveries, while investigators and the press offered conflicting explanations involving storms, mass hysteria, paranormal power, or sabotage.
Molly, Alice, [Father Andrew Hagan](entity:character-recall-character-father-andrew-hagan-ce126c968f5a), [Monsignor Delgard](entity:character-recall-character-monsignor-delgard-1c2e4dd24528), [Bishop Caines](entity:character-recall-character-bishop-caines-5e9eb1c43ae3), and many pilgrims were dead. [Southworth](entity:character-recall-character-southworth-a018eacea178) survived but remained traumatized, and the shrine that had promised [Banfield](entity:location-recall-location-banfield-b47dfd3d6a88) a new future was destroyed.
A week after Black Sunday
The Buried Skeleton
Excavators found the burned skeleton of a small person beneath the roots of the fallen oak. Its bones were twisted and broken, suggesting that the old execution and the modern events were connected, although the remains could not provide a complete explanation.
The discovery strengthened Fenn’s belief that [Einor](entity:character-recall-character-einor-92d738681caa)’s history had resurfaced, but the evidence remained open to interpretation. The final truth of Alice’s identity, Molly’s possible connection to [Rosemund](entity:character-recall-character-rosemund-67401df3a663), and the mechanics of the curse remained unresolved.
Several weeks after Black Sunday
Fenn Leaves Journalism
Fenn resigned from the Courier and refused offers from larger newspapers, unwilling to convert the catastrophe into another sensational story. He declined [Nancy](entity:character-recall-character-nancy-371993dde326)’s attempt to secure him a lucrative position and kept his account private.
He considered writing the full history one day, but believed the truth would have to be presented as fiction to be believed. The experience had unsettled his skepticism and left him searching for a way to understand what he had witnessed.
Several weeks after Black Sunday
Fenn Joins Sue and Ben
Fenn waited in his car while [Sue](entity:character-recall-character-sue-9a7fd5613664) and [Ben](entity:character-recall-character-ben-964df7d0a5ee) went toward a [Brighton](entity:location-recall-location-brighton-198006e5b23f) church. He thought about the competing explanations for the disaster, the dead, and the fleeting light beside the oak, including Ben’s report of a beautiful woman in white.
The unanswered vision troubled him more than the horrors he could name. He left the car and joined Sue and Ben, entering the church with them rather than remaining outside as a detached observer.
