Description

She took the ranger job to disappear—but something already wears her name tag

Faye Kellerman flees to Montana’s remote Bridger Plateau as a fire-watch ranger, forty-three miles from civilization and her abusive ex-husband’s surveillance. She wants complete invisibility. She can’t have safety—because three rangers before her quit suddenly, leaving gear and final paychecks behind.

Supply driver Gill Otsuka becomes her only human contact, delivering weekly provisions and unexpected friendship. He wants to protect the haunted woman who flinches at sudden sounds. He can’t have answers—because Faye’s reality is unraveling faster than she can document it.

Past mile marker eighteen, Faye’s radio dies and the forest doesn’t make sense. She finds ritual instructions taped in the utility shed—what to do when you see the woman in forestry uniform standing in the treeline. The one wearing your name tag. The previous rangers didn’t quit. They were replaced.

Now Faye has until the new moon to escape, but her ex is closing in through employment records. Stay and lose herself to the forest entity. Run and lose herself to him. Her only chance requires violating every fire safety protocol during peak season—and trusting Gill with a plan that could burn everything down.

This Backcountry Survival Horror includes:

• Isolated wilderness setting that becomes a character
• Slow-burn dread and psychological terror
• Found ritual instructions with impossible choices
• Unreliable safety nets and corrupted authority
• Final girl who breaks all the rules

Dark tone—perfect for fans of Paul Tremblay, Grady Hendrix, and Alma Katsu.

How This Manuscript Was Created

This first draft has been generated and refined through a 7-pass professional editing pipeline:

1. First Draft — chapter-by-chapter writing using the codex and outline
2. Developmental Assessment — whole-manuscript review for plot, structure, character arcs, pacing
3. Apply Dev Notes — per-chapter revision addressing the developmental review
4. Line Edit — sentence-level prose, dialogue, and voice polish per chapter
5. Continuity Audit — full-manuscript consistency check (names, timeline, codex alignment)
6. Apply Continuity Fixes — per-chapter corrections from the audit
7. Proofread — final per-chapter polish for typos, grammar, and lingering issues

Manuscript Details

• Word Count: 42,544 words
• Length Category: Novella (17500-40000 words)
• Chapters: 12
• Genre: Horror
• Subgenre: Backcountry Survival Horror
• Heat Level: N/A
• Tone: Dark
• POV: Single POV, 1st Person, Past tense
• Tropes: Final girl, isolated setting, slow-burn dread, unreliable safety net, found ritual instructions
• Hero: Gill
• Heroine: Faye