The Keeper

1947, Marietta Wilkes died in the upstairs bedroom of her Charleston home, hemorrhaging after childbirth, her eyes fixed on a door her husband never came through in time. No bodies were ever recovered.

In 2025, Olivia and Brent Parker buy the house on Aldrich Road for a price that should have raised questions. Olivia is fourteen weeks pregnant after a devastating miscarriage, and the wide pine floors and heavy silence feel like something she has been waiting for her whole life. They empty their savings. They move in.

The letters begin arriving the following week. Formal. Calligraphic. Signed by something that calls itself the Keeper of 124 Aldrich. They know about the pregnancy before anyone should. They speak of Olivia's child as already claimed. They count down to a moment the Parkers don't yet understand.

The house has been waiting a long time.

It knows how to be patient.