The festival

A traveler returns to his ancestral town of Kingsport for a traditional yuletide observance, only to find the streets empty and the atmosphere oppressive. He is led by mute relatives into a subterranean cavern where a blasphemous rite takes place beneath the earth. The story evokes a sense of ancient, pre-human tradition surviving beneath the veneer of civilization. It is a suffocating tale of heritage and the realization that some family traditions are better left forgotten.