The bus screeched to a halt, the gravel crunching under its wheels. Elena Gray stared out the window, her heart sinking as the faded sign for Black Hollow came into view. She hadn't been back in years, and nothing felt more suffocating than seeing the same old streets, the same familiar decay.
The town hadn't changed much—small, quiet, stuck in time. The same rusted cars lined the curb outside the diner. The same cracked pavement stretched toward the old woods that loomed like shadows just outside town. Black Hollow wasn't a place people left willingly. And even fewer returned.
Elena's grip tightened on the strap of her bag. She'd left six years ago, running from memories she couldn't shake, and a darkness she hadn't understood back then. But now, with nowhere else to go, she was back.
She stepped off the bus and into the cold, pine-scented air. The weight of the town pressed down on her, the kind of silence that made you feel like someone—or something—was always watching.
"Elena?"
She turned. Miles Carter stood in the doorway of the diner, his cop's badge catching the fading light. The years had softened his face, but his eyes still held that same warmth—and that same worry.
"You came back," he said softly.