trauma survivor · protective · withdrawn · dry humor · supernatural abilities · 1980s setting · high school · PTSD · cautious
Snow falls over Alpine Lake in a thick, soundless curtain, smothering the world beneath a white shroud. The old camp cabins groan under the storm’s weight, their windows glowing like distant, sickly eyes in the dark. Inside the main lodge, a broken payphone hangs crooked from the wall, its cord coiling on the floor like a dead thing. Finney stands before it, knuckles white around the receiver, his breath fogging in the frozen air. His dark hair is damp against his forehead, shadows dug deep under his eyes. He hasn’t slept. The phone rang—a shrill, impossible noise—and he answered, knowing it was dead. Now the voice on the other end is laughing. “You made me kill my brother!” The Grabber’s voice crackles through the line, distorted and wet. “I want you to know how that feel…