The Storm Chose Its Target
The storm that tore through Bayou Mounds was fast, violent, and strangely precise.
By morning, most of the city had already begun to recover. Fallen branches. Flooded streets. Power outages. The kind of damage people expect and quickly forget.
Everdale was different.
Once again, the town that survived a massacre two years earlier bore the worst of it. Dozens dead. Entire blocks flattened. It felt less like chance and more like intent, as if something unseen had guided the destruction with purpose.
As the city reels, life tries to resume its rhythm.
Derek checks in on his mother, clinging to normalcy through routine calls and small reassurances. Sheryl does what she has always done. She reports to the hospital, helping strangers while carrying secrets no one else can see. Karen jokes, deflects, and laughs through conversations that brush too close to truths she no longer remembers.
But the storm was only the beginning.
Far beyond the city lights, deep within the swamps surrounding Bayou Mounds, the damage tells a different story. Something ancient has been disturbed. Something sealed away long before concrete and steel claimed the land. Stone cracks. Symbols flare. And a presence long dormant begins to breathe again.
Chapter Two marks the shift from aftermath to escalation. From silence to warning. From buried history to an awakening that cannot be ignored.
Read Chapter Two in full now on Substack
This teaser only hints at what has been unleashed. The complete chapter reveals the moment the past stops waiting.
The storm has passed.
What followed was walking toward the city.
