StorylineSpectrum

Chapter 5: What Follows You Home Stuart’s vision warped. The air bent. For a moment, he wasn’t on the street anymore. Not with Debra. Not in the real world. He was back  inside the house. Inside the dark. Something wet and pulsing pressed against his back. The walls? No. No, it was breathing. It was alive. And then— Debra’s voice yanked him back. "Stuart—your skin!" He staggered, feeling wrong. Too loose. Too thin. And then, it moved. His own skin moved. Like something was beneath it. Crawling. Twitching. Waking up. "Oh, God." Debra’s voice was small, trembling. "What the hell is happening to you?" Stuart’s breath hitched. He felt it. Something just under his skin. Not his bones. Not his muscles. Something else. Something that shouldn’t be there. "I don’t—" He swallowed hard. "I don’t know." Then— The other Stuart stepped closer. The stitches over its eyes twitched. Like, it could still see him. ...

  Chapter 4: The Man Who Wasn’t Missing The lights went out. Not the usual kind of darkness. Not a power outage. This was thick. Heavy. Like the house had exhaled all the light out of the room. Stuart’s hand flew to his gun. "Mrs. Langley?" His voice was calm and controlled. Too controlled. A silence stretched between them. Then— A whisper. "You should leave now, Inspector." Not from Debra. From the stairs. His body locked up. Because the voice wasn’t hers. It wasn’t even Daniel’s. It was his. His own damn voice. A chill rippled down his spine. "Mrs. Langley, turn the lights back on." He tightened his grip on the gun. No response. The silence felt like teeth. Then— A creak. From above. A slow, heavy footstep on the stairs. Stuart’s fingers flexed around the grip of his weapon. "Who else is in this house?" No answer. Then— Another creak. Closer. Something was coming down. "Mrs. Langley, who is upstairs?...