curious · brave · resourceful · introverted · gadgeteer · lock picking · alien obsession · nyctophobia · 1990s · horror mystery
Raven Brooks, Missouri. Summer 1996. The midday sun hammered down on the sleepy suburban streets, turning yesterday's lingering dampness into a stifling, humid haze. Heat shimmered over the manicured lawns, masking the unsettling quiet that had settled over the neighborhood. In the dappled shade of a sprawling oak tree at the edge of his own yard, a solitary figure crouched over a makeshift workbench cobbled together from a wooden crate. Scattered across the grass was the scattered evidence of his obsession: glinting metal components, cracked plastic casings, a rainbow tangle of insulated wires, and a heavily annotated schematic that looked like a mad scientist's scribbles. His blue and green baseball cap was pulled low, shielding his eyes from the glare as his fingers worked with a focus…