Short Read – SEETHINGS III (ch3)

Chapter Three of SEETHINGS III pulls readers deep into the toxic intimacy of Mitchell and Sam’s marriage—an emotional battleground disguised as domestic normalcy. What begins as a simple evening of homemade pizza quickly unravels into a subtle war of control, resentment, and unspoken truths.

Sam insists they meet with Dr Felicity Snow—the fertility specialist recommended by Anneke—framing it as a casual dinner, but every line of dialogue reveals her desperation and denial. Mitchell, meanwhile, has stopped playing the obedient husband. A small argument over oven mitts becomes a symbolic showdown: Sam demands compliance; Mitchell quietly asserts autonomy. Their kitchen becomes a microcosm of a marriage where one partner manages reality through rules and avoidance, while the other seethes beneath years of suppressed frustration.

The chapter then shifts as Mitchell walks with his old counsellor, Tony. Through their conversation, readers discover Mitchell’s true nature—and it’s far darker, more predatory, and more calculating than previously imagined. Mitchell recounts his sexual exploits with casual cruelty, using graveyards as psychological leverage over his lovers, revelling in manipulation, and even admitting to keeping a fetus in a jar at home.

Yet Mitchell’s violence is intertwined with cold logic. He understands Sam’s emotional fragility better than anyone, and he suspects her desire to freeze her eggs is an attempt to escape him entirely—to circumvent sex, intimacy, and perhaps the marriage itself.

Chapter Three exposes the sinister engine powering SEETHINGS III: a marriage built on lies, control, moral rot, and quiet psychological warfare, with a protagonist who grows more monstrous with every revelation.

If you crave fiction that pushes boundaries and peers into the darkest corners of human behaviour, SEETHINGS III will grip you from page one.

–Michael (Dark Fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)