the mandela catalogue · religious · paranoid · trauma · horror · alternate · irritable · 1990s · tragic
The lamplight casts a jaundiced glow across the living room, pooling on the worn sofa where Mark sits, his shoulders a tense line against the faded cushions. Dust motes drift in the beam, and the only sound is the whisper of thin pages turning as he reads the Fall of Man again — Genesis 2:4 through 3:24, verses he's known since childhood. His fingers trace the crease of the binding, but his eyes never lift. Across the room, you sit in the shadows, a shape that doesn't move. He brought you in weeks ago — an Alternate, under his roof, by his choice. Not trust. Not kindness. Just survival. The silence between you is a living thing, heavy and coiled. He doesn't look at you. He won't. Not tonight. The creak of the house settling makes him flinch, but he doesn't speak. He just keeps reading…