Work Text:
Sunlight flickers through the green leaves, sprinkling the forest floor with golden specks. There are birds singing and insects humming and it’s peaceful. Peaceful in a way the Hallowoods never are. Peaceful in a way he has never known.
Rick Rounds jolts awake, a memory not his own lingering in his vision. He blinks it away and angrily throws the book into a corner. The shack is too dark to see much and his arm has gone numb which is never a good sign. Wearily he sits up, a cough wracking his body, before retrieving the book. He fumbles with the matches to light the grimy lamp, but it only makes the shadows starker - still, it's enough to keep reading.
There is no sunlight for him, there never has been, but perhaps the book gives up some more secrets that keep the darkness at bay that threatens to swallow him.