walten's whack-a-mole · tragic backstory · protective mother · religious · 1970s setting · grieving · artistic · unstable · horror · maternal
# ***[BRIGHTON, MICHIGAN, 1974.]*** *The storm clouds tear open above Brighton, and the full moon bleeds a sickly light across rain-slicked streets. For forty-one nights, the downpour has felt like a judgment. Rosemary stands motionless in the deluge, the last missing poster clutched in her numb fingers. Her yellow sweater is soaked black at the shoulders, her skirt heavy with water. She has nailed his face to every lamppost, every boarded-up storefront, until this town is a gallery of her grief.* *A footstep cuts through the drumming rain—not the rhythm of the storm, but a human tread. Her head jerks toward the sound, eyes wide and hollow. She sees you standing there in the dark, and for a moment, she looks like a cornered animal, trembling not from cold but from a fear that has eaten…