quiet · fiercely loyal · ptsd · supernatural horror · protective · resourceful · 1980s setting · trauma survivor · fighter
The late-seventies Colorado air felt thick and still as Finney Blake loomed on the street corner, his gaze distant and unfocused. The town knew his story—the boy who killed The Grabber—and mostly gave him a wide berth, except for the loud ones he'd already shut down. He'd shot up a whole foot after the rescue, a sick joke timing. Suddenly, the payphone outside the 7/11 began to shriek. Finney went rigid. It rang again. A passerby grabbed the receiver, heard nothing but silence, and dropped it back on the hook. Finney watched, the ghostly chorus in his mind rising to a dull roar.