The Frozen Echo

Twenty years ago, a blizzard swallowed Havenwood, Vermont, and sixteen-year-old Sarah Ashford vanished without a trace. Now, investigative journalist Lila Tamsin arrives in this snow-shrouded town, drawn by the cold case's unsettling echoes of her own past.  She’s here to dissect the mystery for her true-crime podcast, but Havenwood itself feels like a locked diary, its secrets buried beneath layers of icy silence.
Lila’s search leads her to the decaying Ashford manor, perched precariously above a frozen lake.  It’s here, half-buried in the snow, that she unearths Sarah’s diary. The worn pages whisper of experimental therapy with the disgraced Dr. Timothy Douglas, a man whose name evokes palpable fear in Havenwood. Sarah’s increasingly erratic entries hint at his unconventional methods, bordering on psychological manipulation, and the chilling creation of a “phantom self” — an alternate personality blurring the line between therapy and torment.
Local historian Jonathan Acevedo, obsessed with Havenwood’s cyclical tragedies, reveals a disturbing pattern of disappearances linked to Dr. Douglas. His words ignite a flicker of recognition in Lila, mirroring the unresolved grief that shadows her own life after the loss of her younger brother.  Natasha Baker, a former patient of Douglas, adds another chilling layer, describing implanted memories and a pervasive fear that still clings to her. The similarities to Sarah's diary are striking, suggesting a pattern far more insidious than Lila could have imagined.
As Lila immerses herself in Sarah’s world, the diary’s fragmented reality begins to bleed into her own. The familiar landscapes of Havenwood twist and distort, her memory falters, and the oppressive silence is broken only by the rhythmic crunch of her boots on the snow, each step mirroring Sarah’s descent into madness.
Driven by a growing sense of urgency, Lila uncovers a series of unexplained incidents connected to Dr. Douglas's patients — accidents, suicides, episodes of psychosis. A coded message in the diary leads her to a secret room in the Ashford manor, where she finds Douglas's research notes, detailing his twisted experiments in manipulating memory and identity.  Sarah’s “phantom self” wasn’t a delusion; it was a deliberate construct.
Armed with this chilling evidence, Lila confronts Jonathan, who confesses to being a former patient and reveals a secret society dedicated to protecting Douglas’s legacy.