The House at the End of the Lane

Shrouded in the mists of the Oregon coast, the town of Aisling whispers of secrets as old as the whispering pines themselves.  When Clara Hayes inherits her estranged aunt's Victorian estate—a gothic relic at the end of a neglected lane—she hopes it will be a sanctuary, a place to mend the growing rift between her and her teenage son, David, after the sudden death of her husband.  But the house offers no solace, only shadows and echoes of a hidden history.
With every renovation, Clara unearths not just dust, but fragments of a dark legacy.  A brittle map, hidden within a dusty trunk, sparks a desperate search for a vanished barn, a structure consumed by a mysterious fire decades ago, a fire that coincided with the disappearance of several Aisling residents and her aunt's enigmatic demise. While Clara seeks answers, David is drawn to the unsettling stillness of the surrounding woods, his silence mirroring his mother's unspoken fears.
The Orrs, whose property borders the estate, watch Clara’s every move. Andrew Orr, the family patriarch, radiates a quiet menace, while his son, Justin, a troubled artist, finds solace in David's quiet pain. A fragile friendship blossoms in the shadows of their shared burdens, but the Orrs' secrets run deeper than Clara could ever imagine.
At the local library, Clara finds an unlikely ally in Kathleen Castillo, a descendant of one of the missing. Together they unravel a history steeped in darkness, revealing Clara’s aunt not as a victim, but as a guardian, tasked with containing a terrifying power bound to the land.
As Clara delves deeper, the whispers turn to screams. The house reveals its secrets: hidden passages, cryptic symbols, and a locked diary filled with desperate scrawls.  Anonymous threats escalate to terrifying manifestations. The idyllic sanctuary becomes a claustrophobic prison.  Then, David vanishes into the whispering woods, swallowed by the very force Clara seeks to understand.
Clara’s search for her son becomes a desperate race against time. Guided by her aunt’s cryptic instructions and her own burgeoning connection to the land’s power, Clara must confront a terrifying truth: to save David, she must embrace the very force that threatens to consume him.  She must choose between succumbing to an ancient evil or wielding its power, a power she never knew she possessed.  The truth, when it finally emerges, will shatter everything.