Fl!cker

Cassian Hale buys Bracken Hollow because it's all he can afford.

The first week, it's easy to explain away: a shape in the corner of his eye, gone when he looks straight at it. A porch lantern that flickers in a strange, repeating pattern. A cold spot under the stairs that feels less like a draft and more like a held breath.

Then the nightmares return. Not random dreams, but the same memory sharpened into a blade: the uncle he adored, the mine collapse no one will discuss, and the town's cruel lie that Rhett Vale "went away" and never wanted him. In Larkspur, Alabama, grief is something you swallow. Questions are something you learn not to ask.

But Bracken Hollow doesn't let you ignore anything for long.

As Cassian searches for the truth, he finds gaps where history should be, townspeople who flinch at certain names, and rules everyone follows without admitting they're rules. And the shadows stop staying in the periphery. They start getting closer, flicker by flicker, as if the house itself is counting down.

Because Bracken Hollow isn't just a cheap house with bad wiring.

It's built over a hinge in the dark... and the dark has been waiting a long time to be seen.