Beneath a quiet, picturesque mountain town lies a secret society — the Crimson Table — a centuries-old cult of cannibals hidden in plain sight. Every ten years, they select a "Harvest" — a group of outsiders who disappear without a trace. But this year, one of the chosen is not so easy to digest.

Main Characters:

Emma Voss, a forensic anthropologist drawn to the town by ancient skeletal remains found in a collapsed cave.

Mayor Gideon Hurst, the charismatic leader of the town who secretly leads the Crimson Table.

Noah Kade, a local hunter with a tragic past who has spent years gathering proof of the cult.

Elias, a boy born into the society who begins to question everything.



The bones shouldn't have been that clean.

Emma Voss crouched in the shadowed cave, her gloved fingers brushing over the smooth curvature of a human femur. It was pale, polished. Not by time — by hands. Scrape marks trailed along the shaft, microscopic yet unmistakable.

This was no burial site.

“This doesn't look prehistoric,” she muttered, her breath fogging in the cold air. She snapped photos with her phone, each flash revealing more than she wanted to see — a partial skull with the jaw sawed clean off, ribs snapped like dry twigs.

“Emma?” a voice called from outside. It was Officer Wren, the one who had guided her up here. “Sun’s going down. You might wanna pack up.”

She stared deeper into the tunnel, where the air grew warmer instead of colder. A faint sound echoed — not wind, not water. A low, rhythmic thump. Like footsteps. Or drums.

Emma stood. “I’ll be right there,” she lied.

She followed the sound.

And the mountain swallowed her whole.


---

The wind howled through the trees like a dying scream.


Emma met Noah just after dusk, where the chapel's crumbling graveyard kissed the edge of the woods. Headstones leaned like crooked teeth in the half-light, most of the names eroded away by time and indifference. Only one grave stood new — a pale marble slab, still too clean.


Noah was already there, hands in his pockets, eyes fixed on the grave.


Emma read the inscription and felt her stomach knot.


"She was my sister," Noah said, voice distant. "Sixteen. Sweet. Smarter than me, by a mile. She didn't belong here any more than you do."


Emma looked at him carefully. "What happened to her?"


He didn't answer right away. The silence stretched so long she thought he wouldn't speak at all.


Noah turned, face carved with rage. "Ten years ago, I found out the truth — what the Feast really was. My family… my own father was part of it. The Kade name goes back to the Founding. We were born to sit at the Table."


"When I found out Emily had been picked, I tried to stop it. I threatened them. I begged. I fought my father. And they beat me bloody and locked me in the old smokehouse outside town."


"I listened to them feast through the walls."


Emma couldn't speak. Her throat was too tight.


"When I escaped," he said, "it was already done. They burned the leftovers. They held a prayer service. And they put up that headstone to make it look official. But no one… no one said a thing. Not even the ones who knew."


Emma felt her fists clench. "Why didn't you run? Expose them?"


"I tried. Went to the state troopers. But Duskwind Hollow… it protects itself. The power lines, the radios, the records — all go dark when someone starts digging. Anyone who asks too many questions either vanishes, or comes back different."


He looked at her. "Because I'm going to destroy them. Every last one. But I need proof. And I need help. I can't take them alone."


She hesitated, then reached into her coat and pulled out the copied page from the library's journal — the list with nine names, and the empty tenth.


"You weren't supposed to see this," he said quietly. "Now you're part of it."


"Then we burn it down together," she said. "Whatever it takes."


Because in Duskwind Hollow, good intentions meant nothing.


Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: A Hunter’s Truth