A Legacy of Fear — Roberto Santiago

Lila always felt something lurked beneath the surface of Red Ridge. Her town's uncanny luck in a harsh world was more curse than blessing. When her grandmother vanishes into the shadowed heart of the ancient forest bordering the village, the whispers Lila spent her life ignoring gain a terrifying truth. A monstrous pact fuels their prosperity, each generation paying the price in whispered disappearances and hushed-up sacrifices. Lila, inheritor of this chilling legacy, refuses to be the next offering. Driven by fear and defiance, she breaks the silence, igniting a desperate rebellion. But breaking the pact means facing unimaginable creatures, the lingering darkness that poisoned Red Ridge long before the monsters crawled from under the mountain. A Legacy of Fear unravels the true cost of easy living, a chilling exploration of how far communities will go for a taste of unnatural prosperity, of how easily a haven of safety can transform into a monstrous trap of their own design.