Buried Truths

Chapter One: The Return to Harrison Creek

Elliot Carter stood at the edge of the town, staring down the fog-filled road that led into Harrison Creek. The winding hills of the Appalachian Mountains loomed in the distance, their outlines barely visible through the mist.

His chest tightened with every breath, the air heavy with the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves. The place was familiar and foreign all at once—nothing had changed, yet everything felt different.

He had left Harrison Creek behind years ago, escaping to New York City, pursuing a career that had kept him busy and distracted. He had tried to move on, tried to forget the past, the painful memories of his mother’s tragic death and Lily Rose’s haunting disappearance.

But now, his sick father ,the one he had been dreading for years—had drawn him back. Dr. Robert Carter, a revered surgeon and pillar of the town, was dying.

The weight of those words hung in the air, heavy as the mist. Elliot hadn’t spoken to his father in years, not since he’d left for the city to escape the suffocating grip of Harrison Creek. Yet now, despite all the distance he’d placed between himself and his father’s shadow, he had no choice but to return.

The small town had barely changed. The same rusted cars sat in front of the diner, the same faded flags hung from the porches of the old Victorian houses. Harrison Creek had always been stuck in time, as if frozen in some pre-industrial era.

The town looked as it always had—stagnant, quiet, and indifferent to the years that had passed. It was a place where people didn’t talk much, but when they did, they all spoke in hushed tones, as if each word carried the weight of centuries.

His car rumbled up the narrow, potholed road that led to the family home. As he neared the driveway, the old Victorian house came into view, its once-grand facade now weathered and decaying.

The house had once been a symbol of the town’s wealth and his family’s success, a place of warmth and laughter. Now, it was a hollow shell of its former self, left to rot with time. The windows were boarded up, and the yard had long been overtaken by creeping vines and overgrown grass.

The sight of it—the very house that had once been his sanctuary—left Elliot with a strange knot in his stomach. It was hard to reconcile this decaying ruin with the memories of childhood he’d tried to bury.

He parked the car, his heart beating a little faster as he stepped out into the cool, damp air. The wind picked up, rustling the leaves around him, the sound of it almost like a whisper—a voice from the past, beckoning him back.

He walked toward the front steps, his feet hesitant, the old wood creaking underfoot as if the house itself was groaning in anticipation of his arrival.

When he reached the door, he paused for a moment, his hand hovering over the tarnished brass knob. It was hard to believe that this was the same house where he had spent so many years of his life, the house where his mother had once lovingly cared for him, the house where his father had built his career.

Now, it felt like a tomb, a place of forgotten memories. He turned the knob, and the door creaked open with a groan, revealing the dark, empty interior.

The silence inside was suffocating, as though the house itself was holding its breath, waiting for him to step inside. The once-welcoming hallway was now shrouded in shadows. The air smelled of dust, mildew, and something older—something darker, a presence that seemed to have been lingering long before Elliot had returned.

The echoes of his childhood were still there, trapped in the walls, but they felt distant now, like they belonged to someone else.

He moved through the hallway, his footsteps slow and deliberate as he passed rooms that were once filled with life. The wallpaper, now faded and peeling, was still there. The familiar family portraits, their faces yellowed with age, stared down at him with lifeless eyes.

But it was the absence of his mother that hit him the hardest. He hadn’t thought about her in years, not in any real way. Her death, so sudden and violent, had cast a long shadow over his life, and he had buried his grief beneath the years of silence and separation. Now, as he stood in the house that had once been her domain, that grief resurfaced, raw and uninvited.

He continued deeper into the house, making his way toward the back, where the kitchen used to be. The memory of his mother cooking there, her laughter echoing as she sang along to the radio, felt like it belonged to another lifetime. Now, the kitchen was empty, cold. The once-vibrant colors had faded into the gray of neglect.

But Elliot didn’t have time to dwell on the past. His father was in the hospital now, and there was no time to waste. He had to find out the truth. Lily Rose. The girl he had once loved. The girl who had disappeared without a trace all those years ago. The case that had haunted Harrison Creek for a decade.

He knew the truth was still buried somewhere in this town, hidden beneath layers of lies, deceit, and fear. The town had been silent for years, but that silence wasn’t peace—it was a lie. Elliot had to dig deeper, past the whispers and half-truths, to find the answers that had been kept from him for so long.

Could he find the truth before it consumed him, just as it had consumed his father? And what would he discover about the man who had raised him—about the secrets his father had kept locked away all these years?