Other Children

Seventeen years after leaving Cutter's Hollow, Arden returns to settle her late mother's affairs and confront the childhood memories she tried to leave behind.Waiting inside the old house is a box with a warning written in her mother's hand:Do not open until the first frost.Then a local child speaks of offerings left in the forest for the Other Children. Bare footprints begin circling the house. Small figures watch from beyond the windows. And Arden remembers a childhood game played beneath an ancient cedar—a game involving ribbons, whispered names, and gifts for children no one was supposed to see.As winter closes around Cutter's Hollow, Arden discovers that her family's connection to the forest stretches back generations. Some promises cannot be forgotten. Some debts are inherited. And some children never find their way home.The Other Children is an atmospheric tale of supernatural and folk horror about buried memories, generational secrets, and a small town that has learned to fear the first frost.Length: 16 pages