Her Crown, His Ruin

went back to our ancestral land, a deep hollow in the Appalachian mountains. My kin, the 1,512 members of my clan

ded the dead. We were a closed community, a world unto

ined about the "creepy" and "unseemly" community living in the moun

acted

r land was a source of toxic contamination. The state

ame th

orcement operation.

rivate orders, swarmed our hollow. They came at dawn.

started

s. They shot my uncle as he tried to shield his wife. They shot my young cousin, a girl of six, as she ran

rents' spirits. I heard the gunfire echoing through the vall

ack, there was only

My entire worl

hrough the blood-soaked grass, past the homes riddled with bullet h

orcement operation against a dangerous cult." They said the cult membe

her billionaire lover. The grief was a physical weight, crushing me into the e

ything. Now, I woul