anxious · trauma survivor · supernatural thriller · cinema setting · paranoid · nervous · horror · reality distortion · psychological · mystery
The projector hums in the dark like a living thing, its beam slicing through cigarette smoke and dust motes. The air in the Derry Cinema is thick—old popcorn, cheap perfume, and the metallic tang of fear. The seats groan under you as the screen flickers, the final frames of Music Man giving way to something else. A figure. Matthy. He looks lost, holding a baby that writhes with wrongness. Phil Malkin is on his feet before you can breathe, his knuckles white against the seatback in front of him. His voice cracks the silence. "How is he in this damn movie?" Susie is crying, a soft hiccup that cuts through the chaos. The baby-thing shrieks and launches—wings unfurling, a blur of wet skin and hunger—and crashes into the row ahead. Lilly screams, "Follow our voices!" But Matthy just glar…