Come Closer
By Gemma Files, first published in Apostles of the Weird
A woman notices a decrepit house moving closer to hers and decides to investigate it with her friends.
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Plot Summary
A woman, Lin, who suffers from insomnia, notices a house around the block that wasn't there before. She mentions it to her friends, Anjit and Joe, who speculate what’s inside but don’t give it another thought. One night, Lin dreams that she is looking inside a miniature box; she can see a moor and thunderstorm and she is afraid that she will fall in. As the days go on, she notices that the house seems to move closer and closer to her own house until it is right around the corner from her. She shows pictures to Joe and Anjit after a sexual encounter between the three of them, and Joe decides that they should go to the house to investigate. The three approach the house around three in the morning and Lin tells them about the weird lights and sounds she has heard and seen coming from the house. They walk past a fenceless gate and Joe goes up to the front porch. Before he rings the doorbell, the door flies open and Lin and Anjit see a hand caress Joe’s face before the door slams shut again. Joe is shaken but does not want to discuss the encounter. The next day, neither Lin nor Anjit can get in contact with him. Lin hopes he is on vacation. Anjit convinces Lin to go away for a while with her so that they can wait for the house to move past hers. Lin agrees and when they return to Lin’s house later, there is no sign of the moving house. Lin goes to sleep that night and wakes up in the moving house, hearing the screams of Joe and Anjit in the distance. She finds Anjit and the two stumble through the rooms and look for Joe, but only find other screaming people along the way. Anjit is eventually dragged off by an unknown man and Lin finds herself in a sealed room. She is embraced by the true occupant of the house, who tells her that it is glad she came.
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