4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
The House at Midnight
Karl Jenkins returns to Luke Smith's house after dark, drawn by intuition he can't justify and questions he can't ignore. What begins as reconnaissance becomes obsession as he prowls the property, discovering a single imperfection in an otherwise sterile home. Sitting in his frozen car, ignoring Sarah's calls, Karl drifts between surveillance and memory—until a name from fifteen years ago resurfaces, connecting past violence to present disappearance.
The house is too clean. Too quiet. Too perfect.
Karl left the station hours ago with a plan to interview Luke Smith. Instead, he finds himself parked across the road in the bitter Tasmanian cold, watching windows that refuse to reveal anything. The bins overflow with rubbish that should have been taken out. The garden shows signs of neglect. Every room looks staged rather than lived in.
He investigates the property on foot, finding immaculate surfaces and deliberate absence—until a reddish smudge on the bedroom window breaks the pattern. The only imperfection in a house scrubbed of human trace.
Back in the car, Sarah's calls pile up unanswered. The dashboard clock ticks past midnight. And as Karl's mind drifts to Queensland and a bridge over Moggill Creek, two words resurface from a scrap of paper he thought he'd buried: Killerton Enterprises.
The past isn't buried. It's evidence.
