Previously: The General’s Return, Sheriff Jon Carter discovers the horrifying truth—the Lady in Black has summoned General Elias Monroe, now a demonic force bound to her will. As Cold Hollow mourns a child’s death, the true war for the town begins.
Cold Hollow, Vermont — December 1999
Sheriff Jon Carter drove back to town through a silence so thick it felt alive. The snow had stopped falling, but the sky remained an oppressive gray, the clouds swollen with the threat of more. The town was wrapped in a cocoon of cold and fear—trapped in a waking nightmare.
He couldn’t shake the image of General Elias Monroe emerging from the shadows like a demon from hell. His face—Jon’s face in those war-torn visions—twisted, corrupted, eternal.
And the Lady in Black, with her serpent’s tongue and abyssal eyes, watching him with hunger and amusement.
They weren’t just haunting Cold Hollow. They had claimed it.
And it was time Jon learned why.
The Forgotten Past
Jon returned to the Cold Hollow Historical Society, a narrow, dusty building beside Maggie’s Diner that no one had visited in years.
He flipped through old census records, birth registries, Civil War rosters, anything that could link Monroe to the town.
That’s when he found it.
A birth record from 1827.
Elias Monroe, born in Cold Hollow, Vermont.
Mother: Margaret Monroe, deceased during childbirth.
Father: Unknown.
Next to the name, scrawled in faded red ink, was something older than the ink itself.
A symbol.
Circular. Sharp. Twisting inward like a black spiral.
Jon flipped to another book—“Vermont Superstitions & Buried Histories”—and found it again.
“The Mark of Binding—used to seal a pact between this world and the next. Often burned into the earth when a cursed soul is born. Said to mark the child of both man… and something else.”
Jon’s blood went cold.
Cold Hollow had been cursed from the very beginning.
The moment Elias Monroe was born, the town had been claimed—its fate forever tied to the dark deal that brought him into the world.
No wonder the Lady in Black had returned here.
This wasn’t just where it began.
It was hers.
The Vision
Exhausted and reeling, Jon collapsed into a chair in his office. His body ached, but his mind refused to rest.
Then the air shifted.
The room dimmed.
And the walls began to whisper.
Jon gasped as the world around him blurred, twisted—then cracked open like glass.
He wasn’t in the office anymore.
He was standing in a candlelit room lined with stone, an altar before him.
And behind it stood a man—young, trembling, eyes wild.
Elias Monroe.
Only… not as the General. Not yet.
A baby screamed in the background.
A woman—blood-soaked, lifeless—lay on the bed.
And in front of Elias stood her.
The Lady in Black.
But younger. Still terrifying. Still unnatural.
She held out a hand.
The Mark of Binding.
“You asked for power,” she whispered. “I ask only for the boy.”
Elias trembled. “He’s my son.”
She smiled. “He’s our son.”
Jon’s breath caught.
Our son.
The baby. Born of a mortal and a demon.
The Lady in Black didn’t arrive after Elias was broken by war.
She had been with him from the start.
She had created him.
The vision burned brighter, the candles flaring.
Jon turned toward the altar—and saw the spiral symbol etched in the stone, glowing faintly.
The Origin
The Mark of Binding.
And then a voice—soft, old, familiar—whispered in his ear:
“Only blood can break the curse. His blood. The first blood.”
Jon stumbled back into the real world, gasping.
The candlelight was gone. The room was dark and quiet.
But he knew now.
Elias Monroe wasn’t just a cursed man.
He was the origin.
And the only way to stop him—
Was to find his bloodline.
There was a descendant.
Somewhere in Cold Hollow.
And if Jon could find them…
He could break the curse.
And destroy them both.
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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