The Bleating in the Hollow

A Ridge Horror Novel — Book One

Something is taking the livestock.

Then people begin to vanish.

In the isolated Appalachian town of Hollow Creek, strange sounds echo through the ridge at night — distant, distorted bleating that no animal should make. When bloodless carcasses are found in the woods, and a local hunter disappears without a trace, the community blames predators.

Nora knows better.

Drawn back to her family's abandoned cabin by a growing sense of unease, she begins uncovering fragments of forgotten folklore — stories of an ancient presence bound beneath the land, sustained by bloodlines and silence. As the town dismisses the warnings and fear turns inward, Nora realizes the hollow isn't just haunted.

It's hungry.

And it's waking up.

As hallucinations spread, reality bends, and the boundary between the natural and unnatural begins to tear, Nora is forced to confront a truth far more dangerous than any creature: the land itself has been restrained for generations — and something has been using Hollow Creek as a seal.

Breaking that seal could save lives.

Keeping it intact may doom them all.

Slow-burning, atmospheric, and rooted in Appalachian folklore, The Bleating in the Hollow is the first installment in a supernatural horror trilogy about ancient land forces, inherited guilt, and what happens when the ground beneath us decides it's done being quiet.