The 13th Step

For as long as he can remember, he has counted everything—the ticks of clocks, the tiles on the floor, the stairs leading down into the dark. Twelve steps. Always twelve. Except for the one time there were thirteen. That was thirty years ago. His sister went down with him. She never came back. The 13th Step is a quiet horror story about memory, obsession, and the thin places hidden inside ordinary homes. It asks what it means to prepare for something that cannot be understood, and what it costs to believe that the past is still reachable—if you're willing to step into the dark one more time. Because hell doesn't always open beneath the earth. Sometimes, it's already under your house.