The Dust Healers

Harmony Creek, nestled in the Appalachian foothills, was once a town whose heart beat with the rhythm of the Black Ridge Mine.  But the mountain, once a provider, turned predator, leaving behind a ghost town choked by dust and despair. Into this silence drifted Harper Nix, a former nurse haunted by the mining accident that claimed her younger sister, seeking solace in the town’s shared grief.
One sweltering afternoon, a cryptic symbol on her sister's geological map leads Harper deep into the abandoned mine. There, bathed in an ethereal emerald glow, she discovers a hidden spring, its waters pulsing with an inexplicable healing power.  The ache in Harper's hands, a constant reminder of her loss, recedes.  Word spreads like wildfire, and Harmony Creek stirs back to life.  The trembling hands of Jeffrey Day, the mine foreman burdened by survivor’s guilt, find solace. Lauren Vazquez, a widowed mother struggling to provide, feels her chronic pain melt away. Even old Michael Williamson, his body ravaged by years underground, feels a flicker of youthful vigor return.
But renewed hope brings a new kind of darkness. Charismatic preacher Father Micah declares the spring a divine miracle, his fervent sermons igniting religious fervor and weaving a tapestry of faith around the town's fragile resurgence.  Harper, tethered to her scientific background, secretly analyzes the water, uncovering a chilling truth: the healing is real, but so is the hidden danger.  A rare mineral, potent and restorative, also carries the potential for devastating long-term consequences.
Her dilemma intensifies with the arrival of her estranged father, Silas, drawn to Harmony Creek by whispers of miracles. The spring seems to breathe new life into him, making him a devout follower of Father Micah.  Torn between her scientific conscience and her desire to protect her father and the town, Harper finds herself trapped.  As the spring's flow dwindles, mirroring the town's finite reserves of hope, Father Micah's sermons become increasingly apocalyptic, his rhetoric fueling a desperate zealotry. Harmony Creek, once united, fractures into factions — the devout believers and the doubters.
Can Harper reveal the truth before blind faith consumes them all? Or will the dust, once a symbol of their despair, become the shroud of their destruction?