Previously: As winter traps Cold Hollow, Sheriff Jon Carter investigates eerie deaths marked with “FEED ME.” Haunted by visions of a past he doesn’t remember, he realizes an ancient hunger has awakened—and it won’t stop until it’s fed.
December 1999 — The First Night of Winter
The blizzard arrived with a vengeance.
By nightfall, Cold Hollow was buried in white, the roads impassable, the wind howling like a starving beast outside every home. The power grid sputtered, barely keeping the town alive, and the phone lines were dead. No television, neither radio. No way out.
And then, another death.
Another “Feed Me”
Jon Carter pushed through the dimly lit halls of the Cold Hollow Retirement Home, his breath visible in the frigid air. The generator barely clung to life, its failing hum a constant reminder that they were on borrowed time.
Room 206.
Lisa Gardner stood outside, pale and shaking. “It’s just like the others, Sheriff.”
Jon steeled himself and entered.
Harriet Lowell, 91 years old, lay twisted in her bed. Her mouth was wide open, frozen in a silent scream. The sockets where her eyes had once been were black, empty voids.
And across her stomach, carved deep into her sagging flesh—
“FEED ME.”
Jon clenched his fists so hard his nails bit into his palms.
This wasn’t some killer playing games.
This was a summoning.
Something had arrived. And it was hungry.
She Comes with the Storm
Jon felt her before he saw her.
The moment he stepped outside the retirement home, the wind died.
The trees stilled.
The snow stopped falling, frozen mid-air like the town itself had stopped breathing.
And then… she stepped forward.
Out of the storm.
Out of history itself.
Tall, impossibly slender, draped in a long black cloak that billowed despite the still air. Her hair—dark as the void—spilled down her shoulders, blending into the shadows. And her eyes… two endless pits of nothingness.
Jon’s blood ran cold.
The Lady in Black had come to Cold Hollow.
She smiled.
“Sheriff Jonathan Carter,” she purred. Her voice was silk stretched over razors. “You have your ancestor’s eyes.”
Jon swallowed hard. “Who the hell are you?”
She tilted her head, amused. “I go by many names. Some call me a reaper. Others, a plague.” Her lips curled into something that was not quite a smile. “But you, dear Sheriff… you may call me Lady.”
Jon’s grip tightened on his holster. “You’re the one killing my people.”
Her laughter was a whisper in a graveyard.
“No, my love,” she said, stepping closer. “I am only feeding.”
Jon didn’t move, didn’t flinch. He kept his voice steady. “Why here? Why now?”
The Lady in Black gazed at the town behind him.
“This place is perfect,” she murmured. “Isolated. Cold. And most importantly…” She turned to him, her eyes digging into his very soul. “Full of the dying.”
Jon’s stomach twisted. “The retirement home.”
She nodded. “I am merciful, Sheriff. I only require one thing.”
She stepped so close that the air around him grew heavy.
Give Me The Elderly
“Give me the elderly.”
Jon’s breath caught. “What?”
Her voice remained soft, almost tender.
“The old ones. The weak. The ones who have lived their time,” she whispered. “Give them to me, and I shall spare the rest.”
Jon’s heart pounded. “You’re asking me to slaughter them.”
“No, Sheriff,” she said. “I am asking you to choose.”
Her hand reached up, trailing cold fingers along his jaw.
“You will soon run out of food. The storm will bury your roads. The fuel will freeze. And your people will begin to die.”
Her lips brushed his ear.
“Give me the ones who are already slipping away… and I promise, I will not take another soul from this town.”
Jon jerked away, his breath ragged.
“No.”
The Lady in Black blinked.
“No?”
Jon set his jaw. “I won’t trade lives. I won’t play God. You’ll have to take this town over my dead body.”
Her smile returned. But this time, it was wider.
“That,” she whispered, “can be arranged.”
A Cruel Twist
Jon stood his ground, his pulse roaring in his ears.
The Lady in Black didn’t move. Didn’t blink.
Then, she sighed.
“As you wish, Sheriff,” she murmured. “I will wait.”
Jon frowned. “Wait for what?”
She stepped back into the snow. Her voice was almost gentle.
“For you to change your mind.”
Then she was gone.
Jon let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.
But the wind did not return.
The storm did not move.
And then, far off in the night, a child screamed.
Jon froze.
Not an elderly person.
Not someone already slipping away.
A child.
He ran toward the sound, boots crunching in the ice.
By the time he reached the house, the door was wide open.
Snow drifted into the dimly lit living room.
And in the center of the floor, sprawled on a pink princess blanket—
A little girl.
Her eyes were gone.
Her stomach was carved open.
And in deep, jagged letters, one final message.
“FEED ME.”
Jon staggered backward.
The deal had changed.
She would not wait for him to change his mind.
She would make him.
To be continued…
Stay tuned every week for a new episode.
If you enjoy Horror Stories in Episodes, don’t miss the finished episodic series of the Lake Lady.
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