Return of ELOWEN

PART I — RETURN TO ELOWEN

Chapter 1: The Funeral Fog

Evelyn Blake returns to Elowen to bury her grandmother. The villagers avoid her. She sees a girl watching her from the trees—barefoot, silent, eyes too old for The Cottage on Hollow Bend

Evelyn inherits a decaying cottage by the river. Inside: herbal jars, old books, and a locked chest. The air smells like damp earth and something older The River Doesn’t Forget

A child drowns. It's the first death in five years. Locals call it “the cycle returning.” Evelyn finds a note written in her grandmother’s hand: “Don’t let it take you. 

Evelyn explores the woods and finds a massive, twisted willow at the river bend. Runes are carved deep into the bark. A voice whispers: “Alara’s blood returns.”

The Silence of Clara Wren

A mute girl, Clara, begins leaving Evelyn cryptic drawings: a woman drowning, a red moon, a lantern floating down the river. She’s trying to say something… but what?

 THE CURSE AWAKENING 

 Thornmere’s Pact

Evelyn discovers letters and diary pages hidden in the cottage walls. Alara Blake—her great-great-grandmother—made a blood pact with a river spirit in 1832. The price: a Blake woman every generation.

Noah’s Secrets

Noah Fenwick, Evelyn’s childhood friend (now constable), admits his father helped cover up drownings. Evelyn confronts him—and he confesses her mother’s death was no accident.

: The Festival of Reeds

The villagers hold an annual festival to "appease the water." Beneath the music and dancing lies fear. Lanterns are released into the river... and one floats back upstream.

---The Lantern Bride

Maeve tells Evelyn the truth: Alara didn’t die naturally—she was taken by the river. Each “chosen” woman becomes a bride to the spirit. Some resist. Some beg for it.

Blood in the Basin

Clara disappears. Her shoes are found near the river. Evelyn dreams of being underwater, held by hands made of water lilies and bone. She wakes with mud on her feet.

THE RIVER CLAIMS

 The Ritual Book

Evelyn unlocks the chest and finds Alara’s ritual book. It speaks of a binding spell that can stop the curse—if performed under a blood moon by The Gathering Fog

As the blood moon approaches, the river swells unnaturally. Locals begin to panic. Some want to exile Evelyn, believing she’s cursed. Maeve urges her to run. Evelyn rehe Spirit’s Voice

Evelyn performs a summoning. The spirit appears—not monstrous, but sorrowful. It tells her: “I was made by grief. I do not forget.” It shows her visions of every Blake woman it has claimed.

The Binding

Evelyn chooses to take her ancestor’s place. The ritual begins in the willow grove. She is pulled beneath the river—but instead of death, she becomes the new guardian of Thornmere.

Keeper of the River

Weeks later, Clara begins to speak again. The river runs clear. But at dusk, locals swear they see a red-haired woman standing in the water, watching. Protecting. Or warning

🌀 Themes & Mood

Generational trauma

Feminine power and sacrifice