Main Story

The house sat quiet in the woods, too still for how late it was. Rain tapped a steady rhythm on the roof while inside everything remained eerily motionless. In front of her, an upholstered chair faced the cold stone fireplace—empty save for the brass lamp with its heavy base resting on the side table beside it and house keys hanging from their hook.

To her left, the dark hall stretched toward the kitchen where knives waited in drawers and a back door led onto the porch. Behind her, the stairwell rose into shadowed depths. Jeane shifted in the chair facing the cold fireplace, fingers wrapping around the heavy brass lamp base as she felt the wrongness of the stillness pressing in.