The Skin Collector

Episode 7: "The Ritual"

The whisper haunted Marc through the night. He slept in fragments, jolting awake with Clara’s name on his lips and the rustling of pine branches clawing at his window. When the sun finally bled through the slats, he was already up, pacing.

He needed answers. Real ones.

Marc began interviewing the remaining long-term campers—those who had known Clara back when the camp still held monthly “retreats.” Most of them were wary at first, disturbed by the murders, fearful of drawing attention. But once he mentioned Clara by name, something shifted.

“She was intense,” said Daniel, an older man with deep crow’s feet and a perpetually sun-pinked chest. They sat in front of his caravan, both nude, the morning light catching the steam of their coffee. “Charismatic in a... dangerous way.”

“Dangerous?”