The House on the Beach and The Unicorn

Rob nodded. "Yeah, that's Latin. I'll need to do a search to figure out what it means, though, my Latin's no good. Too bad we don't get cell service here." He pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket and waved it with a rueful laugh before setting it on the edge of the desk.

Ann stepped around a pile of papers on the floor and reached for a book perched at the edge of one of the tables that lined the room. "Here's a Latin dictionary, maybe this will help." She reached past Guy to place it into Rob's waiting hands, and without a second thought Guy passed her the whistle so she could have a look.

Guy watched Rob search the dictionary, flipping the pages while mumbling quietly under his breath, and he thought about what they were doing, him and Rob and Ann. It had been a small moment, the trading of the objects, but it was moments like those that made Guy feel like maybe they really did belong together; the three of them, a well-oiled machine.
~Rob, Ann, and Guy in The House on The Beach

Rob has inherited his great-uncle's beach house. The old man was a serious scholar of early American cults, and Rob hopes the study in the old house's basement will contain what he needs to complete his PhD. He brings along his partners, former students Guy and Ann, for a little vacation so they can all get to know each other better without the day to day worries of work and city life. Of course, the holiday doesn't go as planned: Rob spends too much time in the basement, Ann becomes fascinated with the stones that litter the beach, and Guy slowly becomes unmoored.

Will Rob find what he needs to finish his dissertation? Will Ann figure out what's up with the stones? Will Guy remember his dreams? Inspired by Lovecraft and M. R. James with a heavy splash of queerness, The House on the Beach is a slow creep that will keep you on the edge of your seat up until the end.

Also included in this book is The Unicorn, a shorter, darker story about a couple and their third who come upon what may or may not be a unicorn. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't go well for them.

Content warnings: Both stories feature polyamorous triads in more or less toxic relationships. Both include sex scenes although the scenes aren't particularly graphic and all are consensual. There is a mention of BDSM in The House on The Beach. There is a mention of past murder in The Unicorn.

The cover photo is "Ocean storm near Cape Lookout - Dee Brausch," by the Oregon Department of Transportation, 29 September 2019. Released under CC:BY 2.0 License.

If you enjoy these stories, please visit the author online: Twitter @residualdreamin and residualdreams on Tumblr.

What people are saying about The House on the Beach:

"Incredible, and scary, and creepy"
"Chilling and haunting"
"The creepy vibe, the sense that we're almost, but not quite, understanding what is going on...and the ending fits perfectly."
"I'll need to read it again in the day light..."
"Unsettling and full of dread, building in a subtle pace until it's all too late and nothing can be undone."
"Surreal and heartbreakingly tragic."
"The darkness, the clacking of stones, the slow-building dread. Loved it!!!"

Dettagli