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As I walked past the abandoned church, its spire standing out against the overcast sky, snowflakes drifted silently, muffling the world in an eerie stillness. The wooden boards nailed haphazardly across the broken windows were dusted with frost, their edges curling with age. Then, from deep within the decaying structure, a mysterious sound arose; low at first, like a distant whisper carried on the icy wind, before swelling into a chorus of wailing voices. Their anguished cries twisted through the falling snow, their tones pleading, desperate. A chill far colder than winter crept through me as the voices warped into something almost intelligible, a fragmented lament echoing through the desolation.
Weekly prompt: Mysterious
From the archives . . . Photo captured January 31, 2008.
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@lisl: I definitely wanted to go in, but there was a chain link fence surrounding the church to prohibit entry. Perhaps someone got in, but then couldn't get out?
@Stephen: I agree. There was another view of this church that I shot showing the rear of the church that had a white wall, chain link fencing that surrounded the church and a rose window that was boarded up that would have been a great candidate for B&W. But this view (above) had more boarded up windows.
@Gérard Flayol: Or a photographer who trespassed and then couldn't get out? :-)
@Jypyä Pop: The Chicago archdiocese went on a huge campaign to build new parishes throughout the Chicagoland area in the late 1990's. New churches were built in areas that didn't need them, so people transferred from the older churches to the newer churches, leaving the older ones with declining membership.