Call

Elias adjusted the grip on his worn leather suitcase, the afternoon sun casting long shadows as he turned for one last wave. His parents, standing in front of their quaint, brick home, waved back enthusiastically. A smile touched his lips, but his heart felt heavy. He was finally leaving for the city, for a new job, a new life.
Above them, unseen by all but those who were meant to see it, the word “CALL” hung in the purple-tinged sky, dripping with a crimson promise. It wasn’t a phone call they were expecting. It was a summons.
Elias had always felt the pull of the old house, a strange, quiet hum that vibrated through the floorboards at night. He had dismissed it as the house settling, or perhaps just his imagination. But the “call” was growing stronger, a siren song that promised something ancient and hungry.
As he walked down the road, his parents’ figures grew smaller. He felt a sudden, inexplicable urge to turn back, to run to them and tell them he’d stay. But the “call” intensified, a voice in his mind, clear as day: Keep walking.
He was just another soul answering the eternal summons that clung to that house, a fate sealed long before he was born. The smiles on his parents’ faces weren’t of joy, but of relief. They had successfully passed on their burden. This comic is part of the “ccmh comics” series.