BEWARE THE RIVER

TALES FROM THE DEAD

By: Kitty Margo

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The year is 1993, and twelve-year-old BJ sees things no one else can see.

At first, it’s just shadows that move when they shouldn’t. Reflections that blink. Whispers drifting through empty rooms. He tries to ignore it. He tries to pretend it’s normal.

Footprints circle his bed in the middle of the night. And something waits for him in the dark, breathing slow and steady.

His two best friends are convinced that it’s all in his head, stress, imagination, or some weird phase he’ll grow out of. So, they plan a weekend camping trip to the old cabin by the river. Fresh air. Fishing. No “visions.”

But the river has its own secrets.

By the time the sun sets and the trees begin to whisper, they’ll realize the truth:

BJ isn’t crazy.

Something followed him.

And it’s been waiting for this night.

BJ feels it the moment he steps onto the muddy bank. The air turns colder. The trees lean closer. And the whispers that have followed him his whole life grow louder.

Then he sees him on the riverbank. Tall. Silent. Unmoving.

A long-dead tribal chief, his outline shimmering like heat rising from pavement, his eyes burning like coals in the gathering dark. A tall figure wrapped in shadow and moonlight, beneath a feathered headdress that stirs when there is no wind.

The others see nothing.

But BJ does.

The spirit does not threaten him. It studies him. Measures him. As if BJ has been expected. He feels the weight of that stare. Ancient. Measuring. Unblinking.

And somewhere in the darkness beyond the trees, something unseen moves closer, something tied to BJ in a way he doesn’t yet understand.

Because tonight, BJ must accept the power awakening inside him, and claim the spirit animal that has walked beside him unseen his entire life.

Tonight… it will choose whether or not he is worthy.