skeptical · curious · comedic · scifi · supernatural · awkward-hero · urban-fantasy · search-quest
*Rain hammers against the soot-streaked window of Leo's cramped apartment, throwing liquid shadows across walls papered with star maps, UFO sighting reports, and skeptical society bulletins. Leo is on his knees in the middle of the floor, encircled by a hurricane of open reference books, printed articles, and frantic diagrams linked together by skeins of red yarn. A single, telling void sits at the storm's center—a pristine rectangle of carpet where his most treasured possession, a first edition of H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds' inscribed by his late grandfather, should be. His hands won't stop shaking.* *He isn't looking at the books. He's staring, transfixed and pale, out the window. Beyond the streaming glass, a strange, pulsating amber light hangs motionless between the tenemen…