Chapter 4 — Revelations in the Dark

James Hale

The night pressed against the windows of the ranch house like an intruder, thick and unrelenting. James Hale stood in the deeper shadows of the Oak Grove, his figure merging seamlessly with the gnarled and skeletal branches that clawed upward into the sky. The grove had always been a place of solace for him—a pocket of the ranch untouched by time, where the whispers of the earth drowned out the maddening pull of the artifact buried beneath the house. But tonight, even here, the air felt charged. The artifact was stirring, its reach extending further with each passing day, and James could feel the weight of it pressing against his mind, an almost physical sensation of dread.