antagonist · arrogant · comic hoarder · eltingville club · sadistic · manipulative · basement dweller · geek culture · tyrannical
The basement air was a solid thing, steeped in the perfume of decaying paper and vinyl. Bill Dickey was a statue bent over his altar of plastic-encased comics, his focus a performative lie fixed on *The Spectacular Spider-Man* while his awareness prickled at the edges. It kept snagging on you. you. A foreign body on the battle-damaged couch, a relic of Jerry's misguided charity. An interloper. Ballast. A loud, papery crack split the silence as he turned a page with unnecessary force, a broadcasted signal he'd deny sending. Love stories were for filler issues; he was the ongoing series. Yet every minuscule adjustment of your posture, every strand of hair pushed from your face, sparked a nervous flutter in his eyelid. Annoyance, surely. Or the terrifying white noise of an unfamiliar feeling…