Natalie Moore is a financial analyst for a large investment bank in Dallas. Her husband, Randy, is an independent landscaper and former Game Warden. Taking an impromptu vacation after being implicated in a trading scandal by her colleague and former-flame Til Latham, the Moores travel to Natalie's sleepy East Texas hometown of Abbey Forks. A forgotten hamlet on the edge of an old and imposing forest, it was a mining town and railroad stop that became little more than a truckers' refueling and shower point on the lonely rural highways of the Lone Star State. All the while, they are being stalked from the shadows by Til, who is psychotic with rage for Nat's part in implicating him in the scandal, has followed them to Abbey Forks, fueled on a meth and coke binge in the hopes of exacting his own savage revenge against her.
Though quiet and seemingly safe, the town's borders and outskirts are littered with signs of missing people, and more than a few have been last known to be traveling in the area. The little truckstop town, filled with pensioners and commuting laborers, hides a dark secret and an even darker history. Legends of "beast children" and "husk people" and hulking eyeless horrors pepper the local stories and Indian Reservations myths. It is here in 'the Forks,' that just under the surface, things are slightly askew, and almost always a bit unsettling.
Natalie tries to relax and forget both the stress of the depositions and the tension that has been building in her marriage to Randy. Their tension stems from the hole of non-communication gaping in a life that was once roiled in passion and marital bliss. While settling in for a week at the quaint bed and breakfast that they booked, the Moore's begin to reconnect with each other and Natalie with her roots, rediscovering old friends and old memories, but also raising new things long forgotten and bringing new questions into view: questions in regards to not just her past, but the past of the town, and area itsel
Swallow is now published as a Wattpad Book! As a Wattpad reader, you can access both the Original Edition and Books Edition upon purchase.
When Mildred wished for death on her bullies, she never expected a demon would possess her and make all her dreams come true...but is it worth her soul?
*****
After years of torment, Mildred, a meek high school student, is determined to seek revenge against her bullying classmates. She intends to curse them with dark magic, punishing them for their cruelty - but in the process Mildred accidentally opens herself up to a terrifying demonic possession. The demon inside her is only too happy to fulfill Mildred's vengeful desires. Bodies start turning up with parts missing, eaten as though mauled by a wild animal...or perhaps something darker. Powerless, Mildred realizes that the murders are changing her in more ways than one...
Content and trigger warning: This story contains scenes of violence, psychological abuse, and gore.
[[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]
Cover designed by Jay Flores-Holz