Smoke Season

A Survival Horror / Eco-Horror short story — 1,491 words

Mira Reyes spent twenty-one years fighting wildfires. Now, stationed alone in a fire lookout tower above the Bitterroot National Forest, she begins to see smoke that shouldn't exist — smoke that rises and vanishes, that holds its shape against the wind, that watches her back.

When she discovers the journal of a previous lookout who saw the same thing in 1984 — and abandoned his post the next day — Mira realizes the thing in the smoke is old, patient, and waking up after a century of fire suppression. And it's been waiting for someone who understands.

A quietly confident piece of eco-horror that earns its dread through craft rather than shock.