The last to go missing was a young boy who had never been accepted by his family, his community, or his church. He was raised by his grandparents after his mother supposedly left just weeks after his birth. Their home was cold and distant, filled with control. Love was never shown, and was extremely conditional. Every day reminded him that he did not belong anywhere. The only place that brought him any sense of peace was Cove Grove.

As a child, he often ran away there to escape, sleeping in the old Skeleton Barn and spending nights listening to the wind move through the trees. He always felt a strange presence in the Grove, something gentle and watchful. At first it frightened him, but as the years passed it became comforting. He later came to understand that this presence was a woman named Julia. She was quiet, kind, and deeply disturbed. Through her, he began to learn pieces of her story, and what she had been through in her life. The more he understood her, the more he recognized himself in her. They shared the same loneliness, the same grief, and the same longing to be seen. In her presence, he felt understood for the first time in his life.

When he grew older, he experienced love briefly with another boy, something real but short. The relationship ended quickly under the weight of social pressure, leaving him feeling more isolated than ever. Eventually, he returned to the Grove again, the only place that had ever truly felt like home.

In 2018, after years of rejection and emotional pain, he went back to the Grove one final time. That night, the air was still and heavy, and the trees were reverent. He walked to the river that feeds the pond inside the grove, and ended his life there.

After his death, it was said that a quiet figure began appearing around the Grove, often near the Skeleton Barn, or hiding behind trees. People started to refer to this presence as The Shadow of Cove Grove.

In death, the shadow found an old 1800’s paupers grave, and carved into a tree above it was a heart with his last name carved into it. He believed it had been carved as a tribute to him by the boy who once loved him, but it had been there long before him.. Inside the heart his last name was written in a foreign language, yet The Shadow could supernaturally read it as if he had always known how. It was as though he was meant to find it, meant to understand it.

His story is deeply tied to Cove Grove itself, his life and death now interwoven with the deep history of the land.. To him, the name carved in the heart was a message of love and belonging, one that made him feel remembered, but in reality.. it had seen many stories just like his..