Hollow Bend

Mara Elwood, a woman who returns to Hollow Bend after seventeen years, drawn by a cryptic letter from her mother begging her to "burn her" instead of allowing her to be buried. When Mara arrives for her mother's funeral, she finds herself pulled into the town's dark, oppressive secrets—secrets that span generations and are rooted in the very soil of the land. As Mara unravels the mystery of her mother's warnings, she discovers the Granger field at the heart of the town, a place where the earth itself seems to pulse with life. Hollow Bend, once a quiet, empty town, has become something far more sinister. People who live there no longer dream. The shadows twist in unnatural ways, and the town itself seems to bend reality. The soil is alive, shifting, waiting—an ancient force that has been dormant for years, but is now growing, spreading its roots beneath the town, consuming everything in its path. The town's people are caught in a slow unraveling. The boundary between the living and the dead becomes blurred as buildings and people vanish, one by one. Mara realizes that the town and its inhabitants are not just victims of a curse, but part of a much larger, darker design. The field itself is a mouth, a wound in the earth that hungers for something—something that has always been tied to Mara and those like her. As the dirt begins to stir, and the town begins to fade into a shadow of its former self, Mara must confront the truth about her past, her mother's cryptic warnings, and the entity that has been waiting beneath Hollow Bend for generations. In the end, Hollow Bend doesn't die—it changes. It becomes something more, something alive. And it will continue to grow, reaching out for anyone who dares to cross its path. Hollow Bend is a chilling exploration of memory, fear, and the terrifying things that lie just beneath the surface of the world we think we know. A place where the past never truly leaves, and the earth itself carries a secret that could consume everything. And someday, it might grow enough to reach you.