BlazeRavenwolf
For siblings Alex and Maya, it was supposed to be a simple road trip to their grandparents' house-one last taste of freedom for Alex before university, one last boring car ride for Maya. But when their car dies on a lonely, forgotten B-road with no phone signal, their journey takes a terrifying detour. Their only hope is a quaint village on an old wooden sign: Havenwood. At first, it seems like a miracle-a picture-perfect town of cobblestone streets and friendly, welcoming locals, a peaceful haven untouched by the modern world.
But the perfection is a mask. The welcome is a little too wide, the smiles a little too fixed. And the entire valley is shrouded in an unnatural, deathly silence. Their attempts to leave are futile. Every road out of Havenwood mysteriously loops back to the town square, a disorienting, impossible trap. With no way to contact the outside world, a chilling realization dawns: their breakdown wasn't an accident, it was an invitation. The townspeople are not hosts; they are keepers. And they have a simple, terrifying message: once you arrive in Havenwood, you are welcome to stay. Forever.
The true horror of Havenwood isn't its roads, but its insidious influence. The town has a way of making you forget-your home, your memories, the person you used to be. As Alex finds himself seduced by the town's placid, stress-free existence, his own identity beginning to fray, it falls to Maya to be the anchor for their past. She must fight against a creeping mental fog that threatens to erase them completely and turn them into another pair of smiling, empty-eyed residents. To escape, they must uncover the ancient secret at the heart of the town's idyllic facade. But how do you escape a prison that convinces you it's a paradise? And if they manage to break free, what parts of themselves will they be forced to leave behind?