Some say she’s a demon. Others claim she’s Isabel, the forgotten daughter of La Llorona. I call her Candle Face because of her charred features, but those who speak of her rarely agree on what she really is.

Candle Face Chronicles is the backbone of Branching Plot Books. These aren’t just stories. They’re leads, timelines, and questions I still don’t have answers to. Readers aren’t just reading, they’re taking part in real paranormal investigations to help me answer those questions.

My name is Arthur Mills, and I’m the author and founder of Branching Plot Books, established in 2012. From the beginning, my goal has been to create books that do more than tell a story, they ask something of the reader. Every title in the Branching Plot Books catalog is designed to leave room for interpretation, challenge assumptions, and make the reader an active part of the experience.

I launched Branching Plot Books in 2012, but life pulled me away. Years later, after retiring from the Army and returning to my home state of Texas, I decided to bring it back. My plan was simple: to keep exploring interactive storytelling and reader interpretation. That was the whole point of Branching Plot Books.

Then I started investigating Candle Face.

She was the antagonist in my memoir, The Empty Lot Next Door, inspired by my own childhood. I wanted to find out who - or what - she really was. That’s when the screams started.

The dreams came next. Then, eventually, visitations from real spirits. Names. Places. Pleas for help. I later learned the voices belong to her victims, lost souls trying to be heard. They want my help, and the help of my readers, to locate their bodies and identify Candle Face’s followers who killed for her.

Thanks to readers and podcast listeners, as of May 2025, nine lost souls out of 45 may have been identified.

I never set out to become a spiritual conduit. And I didn’t want to confuse readers who follow Branching Plot Books for its literary focus. So I created Candle Face Chronicles to keep the work separate. One for sticking to the roots of reader interaction. One for focusing on my investigation into Candle Face.

But over time, I realized I had a deeper connection to this than I first understood.

I’m one of the few people who survived her. I gave her the name Candle Face when I was a child. I never expected she would follow me into adulthood, or that I would still be dealing with the damage she left behind. Maybe that history is part of why I was chosen.

For a while, I kept the two separate. But the more the lost souls came to me, the more I realized this was never meant to be a side project. It fits too well. Candle Face Chronicles doesn’t break the mission of Branching Plot Books, it fulfills it. Reader interaction. Reader interpretation. Real consequences. That’s what Candle Face demands. And maybe that’s why she chose me.

Maybe I was chosen because of my past as an investigator. Or maybe because I’m an award-winning author. But I have a different theory.

Candle Face doesn’t just want to be remembered, she wants others to help spread her word. And maybe that’s why I was the one they reached out to.

Because I built something that invites readers in. And Candle Face noticed. Or maybe she sent them to me as part of some sick game.

Now, I record what I’m shown. I follow where the investigation flows. And I ask readers like you to help finish the work left behind by those who can’t finish it themselves.