Every day, Billy Mathers cuts through the same empty lot on his way home from school. But today, the lot isn't empty. An old, rotting house stands where there was nothing yesterday—its windows black, its walls breathing shadows. Billy knows better than to go near it… until he sees his stolen bike inside. He steps through the door to get it back. And steps straight into a nightmare that’s been waiting just for him.
This was an immensely effective and chilling novella. The initial setup focuses on the series of exploits to get the kid to the house, his complete confusion at why it’s at the location when there’s been nothing about it until then, and the different experiences taking place when he gets inside, offering up some chilling ideas that play out. The slow-building reveal about the intent and purpose behind the house’s intentions and reasoning for being, even if the particulars are hinted at in the context of the story, helps to make the various encounters within disorienting and far more chilling as the nightmare logic employed here comes to the forefront of the interactions focused on keeping him trapped in different scenarios before he gets preyed upon. It’s quick, easy, and quite chilling for what it is.
4.5/5
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