The Welcoming

Mike Holderfield uproots his family to a farmhouse in the Appalachian hamlet of Harshaw, expecting quiet roads and mountain air—not a community with rituals carved into its children's skin. His fifteen-year-old daughter Katie comes home from a bonfire with a burn mark she won't explain, and when Mike digs deeper, he discovers a tradition that binds outsiders through pain, fire, and something far worse than belonging. The mountain families want Katie. They say she's being honored. Mike knows the truth tastes like ash.