The Courtesies We Keep
In Black Hollow, a small kindness is never forgotten; not by neighbors, and not by the thing that walks in the fog. The village slips from uneasy quiet into something far darker: livestock vanish without a trace, children sing a rhyme that should never be spoken indoors, and a hidden crypt is uncovered beneath the chapel's shadow. The villagers call it misfortune. Father Brenner calls it coincidence.
By the time they understand, the doors have already been opened.
A slow-burn gothic horror of debt, invitation, and the danger of good manners when they shouldn't be given.