In the dark, the falling snow outside looked like ash. The flurries that spun around the ruddy polluted glass of the oil lamps became the warm colors of a shattered rainbow. They didn't have the inner brilliance of fireflies or the sinister playfulness of…

The house on the hill looked like an aged porn star. Enough work had been done to make it superficially attractive but the closer you got, the more you could see the lived in lines of time. Knowing windows watch relentlessly and people who have stared dee…