What Listens Beneath

It was never supposed to happen. On a cold night just after New Year’s, a group of friends killing time at a Nashville mall makes a stupid decision, one that feels harmless in the moment. A trail in the woods. Five minutes. Nothing more. Then they hear a scream. What they find beneath the cliff isn’t a person, and it isn’t an accident. It’s a cave that shouldn’t exist, glowing with a pale, unnatural light.. and something inside that is listening. After that night, nothing is the same. The voice follows them. Not always loud. Not always clear. Sometimes it sounds like someone they love. Sometimes it sounds like themselves. And when they listen for too long, something else comes with it—something that walks the woods after dark, unfinished and patient, never rushing, never seen by the wrong people. The Gang of friends weren’t chosen. They weren’t special. They didn’t unlock a prophecy or inherit a curse. They made a mistake. As fear fractures their friendships and silence becomes unbearable, the group is forced to confront an impossible truth: the thing beneath the trail is older than the city above it, and it doesn’t need to chase them to ruin their lives. It only needs to be heard. Set in modern-day Nashville, What Listens Beneath is a slow-burn supernatural horror about ordinary teenagers thrown into something ancient and unforgiving—where survival isn’t about strength or courage, but about knowing when not to listen. Because once something hears you… it never forgets.