Orphan Elixir

James Gallowbraid has been imprisoned longer than the Civil War has lasted and when finally released, he makes his way to a small village on a journey that seems rife with odd characters, pregnant women and men also named James. Born to a prostitute and possessed of a penchant for burning buildings, Gallowbraid seems unlikely to be the kind of man to confront the foreboding evil that he and the entire villages senses is lurking in the nearby woods. But when a pregnant woman vanishes from the hamlet and a gold-hunting expedition has James reuniting with a trusted old friend from his past, both men find themselves unwillingly facing a terror in the redwood depths of the forest that is more horrific than they ever imagined.