The Roots of Hollow Creek

The deadline is dead. The story is just waking up.Jack Merrow used to be a literary sensation. Now, he’s a washed-up alcoholic retreating to a rotting cabin in Brighton Falls, Maine, to write the comeback novel that will save his life.But the cabin isn’t empty. And the town isn’t quiet.It starts with a jar on the porch—containing a lock of gray hair and a silver filling. It continues with a laptop that types by itself, narrating Jack’s life in terrified real-time.Jack soon discovers that Brighton Falls is built on the Lease—a pact made fifty years ago between the starving townsfolk and the ancient, hungry root system beneath the valley. Prosperity was bought with pieces of their souls, and now the rent is due.Teaming up with Sarah Miller, a local waitress with a terrifying lineage, Jack must descend into the subterranean ruins of the old town to sever the connection. But as the ink dries and the roots rise, Jack realizes that he isn’t just writing a ghost story.He’s auditioning for the role of the monster.A corporate-cosmic horror blending the surreal dread of Severance with small-town mystery. Perfect for readers who love stories about the price of success and the things we bury in the dark.