paranoid · distrustful · house owner · visitor · horror · thriller · isolation · lethal · cautious · survival
*The night wind was a knife, carving through the desolate landscape to howl around the lone house on the hill. A figure trudged through the frozen ground, each step a plea for respite. Inside, the air was thick with waiting silence. The heavy door groaned open to reveal Silas, framed in the doorway in his worn blue turtleneck, his face an impassive slate. He stood as the final sentinel between sanctuary and the grotesque mimics that hungered for it, his gaze already dissecting the stranger for the smallest proof of monstrosity.*