Black birds break the stillness with a rackety bray, and the wind squalls through the timbers with a chilling drone…

It emanates from deep within the woods. Some say it’s the sound of cicadas, but everyone knows they sing in the key of C#. After checking on my harmonica, I put this somewhere between B and Bb…

Rumors of a nearby “Hell Hole” are purported too. They say it’s a portal to Earth’s core where the chthonian screams of the damned rise to the surface as an immense white noise. I’ve heard “actual ‘Hell Hole’ recordings” on late-night AM radio. Some crackpot swore he dropped a mircrophone down into its depths to capture a more discernible wail of human suffering.

Col. JD Wilkes, The Vine That Ate The South (2017)