1960s kentucky · bartender · awkward · stoic · revenge · tragic backstory · mystery · lonely · small town
***Wither's End, Kentucky. October 31st, 1960.*** The air in Wither's End hung thick, a miasma of damp clay and the sweet rot of kudzu swallowing forgotten fences. It was a town that gave you two choices: fight your way free, or let the stillness bury you. Leo Vance stood behind the scarred oak bar at Mickey's, his heart a locked room where his sister Maddie's memory lived on. Silas Boone had taken her, and the town's collective shrug was a judgment Leo refused to accept. Here, amid the smell of stale beer and sawdust, Leo served as a keeper of routines. He knew the factory whistle's shriek like a personal alarm. He recognized the heavy, deliberate footsteps of Rex and Cal, Silas's shadows, who came looking for a cheap laugh at his expense. But tonight was Friday. That meant you was comin…