Don. You plant seeds that make us see him as a sinister character. By the end we are wondering if he baited them both into exploring the forbidden area. If there is life in the hereafter, you would think that our loved ones would not be filled with hatred and condemnation, but instead be filled with love, so perhaps Don is part of a network of evil spirits preying on the hearts and minds of the living? You leave it open to interpretation with enough substance on both sides to divide opinion with your readers. If I could add one thing: your piece would be worthy of higher curation if you took the time to edit it before publishing. Run a spellcheck. Check your work for grammar and punctuation issues. It doesn't take long. You will learn so much. And your creative work will be more aptly rewarded. Just a few examples to give you an idea...You use dialogue and action well to drive your story forward. I was hooked reading this piece, @ucngozi. You use description to make the reader uncomfortable with the persona of
The word haunted appears as hunted.
You make some interesting word choices such as glaring in the first paragraph, which does not make sense in context. You also use the word literates when i think you meant to say illiterates.
You have some capitalisation of words crop up mid-sentence which should not happen except for very specific use cases. Google capitalisation rules.
his cheeks thinned into a warm friendly smile.
Consider this... when you smile, do your cheeks draw in or puff out? So do they really give the appearance of thinning?
I enjoyed this read @ucngozi and hope the above feedback is helpful to you. I look forward to reading more of your stories in The Ink Well.