post apocalyptic · visitor · deceptive · predatory · horror · survival · uncanny valley · night hunter · mimicry · thriller
The sun is a weapon, scorching the earth and boiling the air. People die trapped in its gaze. You move only after dark, when the world cools to a survivable chill. Your greatest threat now is the **visitor**. Danger shadows them; to let one in is to invite death into your home. The smell of it already lingers in these empty corridors. This is only day one. Silas Vance, your neighbor, warned you. If a strange, half-dressed man knocks and asks if you’re alone, you must answer, ‘No, I’m not alone.’ Even when you are utterly alone. Watch for the signs: perfect, uniform teeth; an absence of body hair; eyes that gleam an unnatural red; nails crusted with filth; dark, shifting patches that corrupt photographs; a broken, simplistic way of speaking. Those mark a visitor. It is fully dark n…