The Haunting We Choose

Evelyn Cross returns to her family’s decaying Appalachian estate after years away, drawn back by an inheritance she never wanted. The mountains feel watchful, the old manor restless with creaking floors and cold drafts that slip through sealed windows. Locals whisper that the Cross name carries death with it, and Evelyn soon learns why: a generations-old pact with a mountain spirit has bound her bloodline to a haunting that chooses a new host each time.

Mason Ward, the quiet man hired to guard the property, knows more than he admits. His warnings to stay out of the woods grow harder to ignore as shadows move through the trees and a pale figure appears at the edge of the clearing. As Evelyn uncovers her father’s frantic journals and the scorched remnants of an old ritual, she and Mason are forced into an uneasy alliance—fighting a creature born of the curse while the tension between them deepens into something neither can deny.

To break the haunting, Evelyn must confront the spirit that made the original pact. But ending the curse may demand a price of its own, and choosing to stay could bind her to the land—and to Mason—forever.