In the quiet town of Ashfield, children's drawings predict murders before they happen. And the clock is ticking toward the next one.Third-grade teacher Sarah Chen thought she'd found the perfect small town to start her career until her students began drawing disturbing images during art class. A hanging body at the Victorian house. A figure fallen from the water tower. Violent scenes in places they see every day.When Sarah discovers these aren't just dark imaginations but prophetic warnings, she uncovers a conspiracy that has operated in silence for over a century. Every seventy-three years, Ashfield pays a terrible price for its prosperity: twenty-three children sacrificed to an ancient evil living beneath the town.The drawings aren't predictions. They're confessions from the dead, crying out through the hands of the living.With only days before the next massacre, Sarah must decipher cryptic artwork, evade corrupt authorities, and protect her students from a town willing to murder its own children. But the creature in the mine feeds on more than death; it gorges on fear itself, and it's been preparing these children for weeks, marinating them in terror.To save them, Sarah will have to face an impossible choice: trust that courage can overcome an entity that has never been defeated, or watch her classroom become the next generation of victims in Ashfield's blood-soaked bargain.Some debts are written in crayon. Others are paid in screams."A chilling exploration of institutional evil and the extraordinary courage of ordinary people. Ashfield Children grabs you from the first drawing and doesn't let go until the final, devastating choice."Contains intense scenes of psychological horror, child endangerment, ritual violence, and supernatural terror. Recommended for mature readers.