The Black Heart of Evergreen County

In the quiet town of Evergreen, nestled deep in the heart of Oregon, nothing ever really happened—or so it seemed. The locals lived simple lives, untouched by the chaos of big cities. But behind the pine trees and the morning fog, Evergreen held a secret. A dark one.

It began on a chilly October evening when Emma Graves returned home after fifteen years. She left Evergreen after high school, escaping memories of a brother who vanished without a trace, and a mother who stopped speaking entirely after that day.

Emma, now a sharp investigative journalist in Chicago, came back only because her mother passed away. The funeral was small—barely ten people. Evergreen had changed, and yet not at all. The same Main Street diners, the same closed library with broken shutters, and the same silence when someone mentioned her brother, Luke.

On her second night back, Emma found an old wooden box in the attic. It was dusty and locked. Inside the lid, carved in shaky letters, were the words: “Black Heart.” No key, no note. Just a strange leather-bound diary and a Polaroid of Luke—dated two days after he vanished.

“How’s that even possible?” Emma whispered.

The diary told a story of secret gatherings in the woods, of a local legend known as the "Black Heart"—a spirit that protected Evergreen from outsiders, but punished traitors. It sounded like teenage fantasy, until Emma discovered her brother wasn’t the only one who went missing that year.

Five names. All gone. No investigations. No headlines.

Emma decided to follow the clues, leading her to Black Hollow, a section of forest fenced off decades ago. At the center, she found an old church, crumbling with age. Candles, still fresh, lined the altar.

Someone was still here.

A man stepped out of the shadows. “You should’ve never come back, Emma.”

It was Noah, her childhood best friend—now gaunt, with a strange black mark over his chest.

“You were one of them,” she whispered.

He nodded. “We were chosen. Luke fought it. That’s why he disappeared.”

Emma ran—but not far. She tripped on tree roots, and the forest swallowed her screams.

She woke up back in her childhood home, the diary gone. Everything back to normal. But as she opened her mirror cabinet, she saw a mark—black, heart-shaped—just above her own chest.

Evergreen had accepted her back.

But not as a visitor.

As one of them.

Genre: Mystery / Horror / Psychological Thriller

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