Two minutes of the most noose-tightening fiction you’ll ever read in your life.
Chapter Ten of SEETHINGS III is a chilling study in patience, predation, and the slow tightening of a psychological noose.
Sandra cancels her planned date with Mitchell, claiming a stomach bug. After her violent encounter with Dennis in Chapter 9, she retreats into isolation—two weeks of work–home loops, skipped meals, dark rooms, and evasive conversations. Her trauma is palpable, and Mitchell listens to every moment of it through the hacked microphone inside her laptop.
Sandra’s mother eventually forces her way into the silence, discovering a daughter who hasn’t just fallen apart—she’s imploded. Mitchell, still listening from his office while talking to prospective photography clients, waits for Sandra to reveal the truth, but she doesn’t. Instead, her mother mistakenly attributes the emotional collapse to “female troubles,” and Sandra allows it. The lie becomes a convenient shield.
Meanwhile, Mitchell juggles a phone call from a chaotic bride-to-be, delivering one of the novel’s most unsettling scenes of dual conversations: a deranged killer navigating professional small talk while eavesdropping on his future victim’s psychological breakdown. His call escalates into a dark, unsolicited lecture about celibacy, sacrifice, and sexual compatibility—revealing his bitterness toward his own sexless marriage and the twisted logic that fuels his crimes.
But the real revelation is Mitchell’s restraint. Where most predators would rush in, Mitchell waits. He studies Sandra’s lies, her mother’s assumptions, her behavioural patterns. He needs her pliable, isolated, and emotionally fractured—and Dennis’ assault has advanced his timeline more than he could’ve hoped.
By the end of the chapter, Sandra is raw, unstable, and unknowingly positioned exactly where Mitchell wants her. He gives her two more days. Then she’s his.
If you crave psychological thrillers where danger grows quietly, methodically, and with terrifying precision, SEETHINGS III is waiting for you. Available now at SMASHWORDS.COM.
–Michael (Dark Fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)
Love, lust, and lies collide on land and water. A temptress, a faithful wife, and a photographer haunted by shadows drift into a world of seduction, betrayal, and control.
Marriages unravel, secrets surface, and civility dissolves into primal instinct. Nothing is safe. No one is innocent.
eBook is available for instant download by clicking here.
SEETHINGS (first in the series) is downloadable and free for a limited time, here.
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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