Episode 1: "The Hollow"
Opening Scene: The Woods at Night
A storm rages as Jenna and Ryan, a young couple, trek through the forest. Jenna's flashlight flickers, casting shadows that twist like living things.
Jenna: (nervous) Ryan, we're lost.
Ryan: (smirking) It's just a shortcut.
The wind carries a whisper—just their names. Jenna freezes. A shadowy figure stands ahead, motionless. Before they can react, the flashlight dies. Jenna's scream cuts to silence.
Scene 2: The Crime Scene
At dawn, Sheriff Marcus Hale surveys the bodies—arranged in a ritualistic pose, a spiral symbol carved into their chests. His deputy, Tom, looks shaken.
Deputy: (quietly) Fourth one this month. Same symbol.
Hale: (grim) Keep the reporters out.
His radio crackles: Detective Eleanor Graves—a specialist in occult crimes—has arrived.
Scene 3: Eleanor's Arrival
Eleanor drives into Black Hollow, a town suffocated by fog. Hale meets her at the station, tension thick.
Hale: You actually came.
Eleanor: (flat) My sister was the first victim.
She studies crime photos. The symbol triggers a memory—a cold case involving a cult.
Scene 4: The Morgue
Dr. Lila Cross examines the bodies.
Lila: No defensive wounds. The symbol's burned into their skin.
Eleanor: (sketching it) This cult's leader vanished years ago.
Scene 5: The Diner
Locals eye Eleanor with suspicion. Maggie, the waitress, warns her:
Maggie: Leave. This town's cursed.
Elias Crane, the historian, slips her a book: "The History of Black Hollow."
Scene 6: The Motel
Eleanor dreams of her sister's voice. She wakes to find the book open to the symbol—now scrawled in red ink: "The Veiled One is watching."
Episode 2: "The Pattern"
Opening Scene: Town Square
Maggie's body lies in the square, the symbol on her forehead. Hale and Eleanor arrive.
Hale: (gritting teeth) Not her.
Eleanor: (scanning) The killings follow a pattern—north, south, east, west.
Back at the station, Eleanor connects the victims: all descendants of founding families.
Scene 2: Guilt and Ghosts
Eleanor replays her last call with Clara, who'd begged to meet. A flicker in the mirror—Clara's ghost—vanishes as whispers taunt her.
Scene 3: The Photograph
In Maggie's diner, Eleanor finds an 1800s photo: a woman who looks like her. On the back: "The pact must be renewed."
Episode 3: "The Historian's Tale"
Opening Scene: Crane Mansion
The camera lingers on the exterior of Elias Crane's decaying mansion—gothic arches choked by ivy, windows like hollow eyes. Inside, dust motes swirl in the dim light as Elias, a gaunt man with ink-stained fingers, flips through a leather-bound tome.
Elias: (voice low) "In 1843, Black Hollow was dying. Crops withered, children sickened. Desperation makes men bold... or foolish."
He slides the book toward Eleanor, revealing a faded illustration: hooded figures standing in a circle, a shadowy entity at its center.
Eleanor: (tracing the symbol) "They traded lives for prosperity."
Elias: "Not just lives. Bloodlines. The Veiled One demands a descendant every generation. Your sister... wasn't random."
Hale's radio erupts—another body found at the old mill. Through the static, a deputy's voice wavers: "Sheriff, it's... it's like the others, but—" The transmission cuts off.
Scene 2: The Mob
The town square teems with angry locals. A woman hurls a rock at Eleanor, screaming: "You woke it up!" Hale shoves through the crowd, his badge glinting under the flickering streetlamp.
Hale: (gritted teeth) "Back off! She's here to help."
A man snarls: "Help? My boy's dead since she came!"
Eleanor spots Elias watching from a porch, his expression unreadable.
Episode 4: "The Pact"
Opening Scene: The Abandoned Church
Moonlight slices through broken stained glass as Eleanor and Hale creep down rotting pews. Chanting echoes from below—a hidden trapdoor leads to a cellar reeking of burnt sage.
Hooded figures kneel around the symbol, painted in what looks like rust. A masked leader raises a dagger—
Hale: (whispering) "That's Martha Hargrove. Runs the historical society."
Eleanor's boot snaps a floorboard. The chanting stops. The cultists turn in unison.
Martha: (smiling beneath her hood) "Detective Graves. We've been expecting you."
Hale grabs Eleanor's arm as candles snuff out. They flee upstairs, barely escaping, but snatch a journal left on the altar—its final pages torn away.
Episode 5: "The Sacrifice"
Scene 1: The Underground Chamber
Eleanor's flashlight reveals walls etched with names—Graves, Hale, Hargrove—each crossed out after a date. She presses a hand to the stone altar. A vision floods her mind:
—Snow pelts 19th-century Black Hollow. A woman who shares Eleanor's eyes slits her palm, dripping blood onto the symbol. "Save us," she begs the darkness.—
Hale: (shaking her) "Eleanor! You were... glowing."
He hesitates, then confesses: "My great-grandfather was their sheriff. He looked the other way."
Scene 2: The Deputy's Death
They find Deputy Tom's body posed like a saint in prayer, the note clutched in his stiff fingers. Hale's hands shake as he reads aloud: "The pact must be renewed."
Episode 6: "The Veiled One's Demand"
Elias's Study
Elias produces the missing pages from a hidden compartment. The ink is unnervingly fresh:
Elias: "To break the cycle, a willing sacrifice must take the Veiled One's mark—and live.* But no one's ever survived."*
Eleanor unbuttons her collar, revealing a faint spiral rash on her collarbone.
Eleanor: "It's already chosen me."
Episode 7: "The Gathering Storm"
The Town Riots
Storefronts burn. A child wails as a man swings a bat at a "Graves" headstone in the cemetery. Hale tackles Eleanor behind a crumbling wall.
Hale: "I lied to you. The cult promised no more deaths if they got you. I thought... I could control it."
Eleanor grips his wrist: "Help me fix this."
The Plan
Lila traces the lunar calendar: "The eclipse is when the Veiled One walks freely. We sever the pact then—or never."
Episode 8: "The Eclipse"
The Ritual
Descendants are chained in the chamber. Martha slits a teen's palm, her chant rising as the moon blacks out. Shadows detach from the walls.
Hale smashes through a stained-glass window, gun blazing. He frees Eleanor, but the Veiled One's form thickens—a swirling mass of smoke and reaching hands.
Hale: (yanking Eleanor back) "Run!"
Behind them, townspeople claw at their own eyes, screaming about "voices."
Episode 9: "The Sacrifice"
The Hospital
Lila stitches Hale's arm. Her voice is steady, but her hands tremble:
Lila: "The journal says the sacrifice must choose death—but the Veiled One can be tricked. Your blood can bind it instead."
Eleanor loads a syringe with her own blood. "Then let's end this."
Episode 10: "The Veiled One's Demand"
The Final Ritual
The chamber trembles. Eleanor carves the symbol into her palm, dripping blood onto the altar. The Veiled One shrieks—its form unraveling like thread.
Hale lunges as Martha strikes, taking the knife meant for Eleanor. He collapses, grinning through bloodied teeth: "Told you I'd help."
Aftermath
Dawn. The survivors huddle in the square. Eleanor presses Hale's badge into Lila's hands, then walks toward the woods.
From the trees, a whisper: "Ellllie..."
She doesn't look back.