Ondine (working title) is more than anything, a haunted house story. I started writing it in junior year of university and despite other responsibilities and total rewrites the main plot has persisted. It's not in my goals or wheelhouse to become a published writer, so I decided I'd put chapters out here on my own website to satisfy that urge. (And make it easier for my select few friends to read my stuff if they want. Hello you!!)
This story contains dark themes as well as scenes of general horror and unease. Parts of the plot will include surrealistic or paranoiac writing; you're the best arbiter of what's too much for you. Grotesque or detailed depictions of violence will always be precluded by a content warning at the top of the link.
Ondine is historical fiction/horror that takes place at the tail end of the 1920's and into the 1930's in a fictional middle-American town. On a cold November night, an unexpected message alerts Leo Blackburn of her aunt's death. Going back to her family's generational home in W--, she discovers that the strange nature of that message is just one of several strange happenings since the loss. Her childhood home has taken on a menace and mystery that it never had while she lived there, at least that Leo can remember. A visitor from Europe who claims to be a dear friend of her deceased aunt, hidden messages falling out of bookshelves, tacit silence from the rest of her family... a dripping noise that can't be sourced to any one part of the house. All these make up a bigger picture that Leo is uncovering corner by corner, despite her fears that she may not like what she finds.