THE HAUNTING OF WILDERS RIDGE

bustling with life, it now felt like a forgotten dream, its streets swallowed by time and overgrowth. What was once a

years, not since that night-the night she and her family fled, the night her father vanished without a trace. The town had always be

torian home on the edge of town. With it came a strange request: "Co

eeling like something important was missing, she couldn't

ad, the weight of the town's silence pressing in on her. The air smelled of damp earth

ers faded and crooked. The front door creaked as she pushed it open, her heart pounding in her chest. Inside, the scent

rs, followed by the unmist

asn't alone. But who could it be? T

fted down the staircase. "

of Wilder's Ridge. A curse, a dark force hidden beneath the town's idyllic surface. She'd always felt like an outsider in this place-like

s silence hanging heavily in the air as th

oughts into words. "I'm supposed to stop all of this? A power that's been hidd

re always meant to inherit the burden of this legacy, Mara. I thought I could shield you from it. Keep you safe. But the Stone is no lo

ever imagined that the unease she felt had something to do with an ancient power buried beneath her feet. T

realization dawned on her. "How do you know

, pacing across the room with a heavy sigh. His footsteps ech

want you to be burdened with the same fate that I was forced to carry. But it's too late now. The Stone has been calling to you

rifying. The weight of the responsibility that had suddenly been thrust upon her felt impossible to carry. Her father, wh

ir, her legs shaky, but her resolve growing stronger with each passing moment. "I don'

ok out a small key from his pocket, turning it in the lock, and then pulled out an ancient, weathered box.

yet glowing faintly in the dim light. It pulsed with an energy that seemed

town. It was buried here centuries ago, hidden away because of its potential for destruction. It calls

efore, in hushed whispers, in old legends passed down by the townsfolk. I

above a whisper. The glowing crystal seemed almost s

. It corrupts everything it touches, shaping the town and its people. It feeds on the very land itself. That's why

in time, with no sense of progress, no sense of change. People lived here, and they died here, and everything seemed to remain the s

ng slightly. "You're the one who knows all this. Why wait un

hing in his eyes that Mara couldn't place-regret, perhaps, or fear of his

not something that can be destroyed easily. It needed someone with the strength of will, someone who could

termination began to kindle inside her. She had always believed that her purpose in life was to find something greater than the

ecome something far

oftly in the room. The Stone was more than just an object-it was an ancient

the fear rising in her chest. "But I will. If this town, if my family, is

ight had been lifted from him. "I knew you had the strength. But remember, M

would be fraught with danger, with obstacles she could not yet comprehend. But she had no ch

over the town below. In the distance, the hills loomed d

ney had