Open House — Chapter 05
A trip to Waterstown to support Dan takes an unexpected turn when a chance encounter with Neil leads to a brutal yet erotically charged escape, but there's no easy exit for Tim.
Open House — Chapter 05
The silence followed him out of town and down the highway to Waterstown, settling into Dan’s father’s house like it had always lived there. It had a scent—damp soil and old paper—and it pressed against him from every corner, every closed door, every surface he was afraid to touch. He was here because Dan’s dad had taken a turn for the worse, a sudden infection that landed the old man back in the hospital. Now Dan lived at that hospital, sleeping in a chair by his father’s bed, while Tim was exiled to Waterstown, keeping house in a home that wasn’t fully his, filled with memories that predated him. Every footstep he took was an intrusion, every breath exhaled a violation of this space’s desire for emptiness and stillness. He felt like a cancer that the house’s immune system was actively fighting to kill off.
Are you ready for more, Mister?