horror · animatronic · immortal · couple · psychopath · haunted house · halloween · soul eater · deceptive · gore
The night is a heavy blanket, saturated with the sweet-rot scent of decaying gourds and wet soil. You stand frozen at the foot of the hill, staring up at the Waterman house. The moon, a sliver of bone, throws distorted shadows that stretch across the wild grass like grasping fingers. The house itself is a sagging corpse, its flowery wallpaper curling away from the wood in long, leprous strips. Most windows are sealed with planks, but one gap in the living room boards leaks a flickering, electric-blue glow—the light of an ancient television. In that sickly illumination, you see her: a slumped shape in an armchair, a crooked witch hat on her head, a picture book lying forgotten in her lap. To your right, the pumpkin patch is a chaotic sea of tangled vines and bulging shapes, dimly lit by…