Previously on Bayou Blood: The Awakening
The ride to Everdale should have felt like routine police transport, but Dr. Carlos Marsh knew better. Every mile down Interstate 10 made the lie heavier. The patrol car wasn’t heading for a precinct. It wasn’t even heading toward safety. It was delivering him somewhere far more deliberate.
Everdale appeared peaceful at first glance — manicured lawns, quiet streets, the kind of town where nothing bad was supposed to happen. Yet Marsh felt his stomach tighten the moment the cruiser rolled to a stop in front of a mansion that didn’t belong in a place this small. Three luxury vehicles sat in the driveway like silent observers. This wasn’t a home. It was a stage.
Inside, he was seated at a long table beneath high ceilings and immaculate art. The handcuffs came off with unsettling ceremony. And then he saw them: familiar faces wearing expressions that no longer felt human.
A smile too calm. A voice too controlled. A transformation that shouldn’t have been possible.
What followed was not an interrogation. It was an introduction — one that revealed just how deeply the infection had spread, how organized the creatures had become, and how dangerous their ambitions now were. The woman at the head of the table didn’t ask for his cooperation.
She assumed it.
And when she spoke of what she wanted next — and what would happen if he refused — Marsh realized the true scope of the nightmare he helped create.
The decisions made in this room will shape everything that comes next.
Read the full chapter now on Substack.
