The Wrong House

The air in Orlando hung heavy, thick with the weight of summer's final days. The cicadas screamed louder each night, their cries echoing through the humid streets like a warning. Jed Teran felt it in his bones—the restless energy, the gnawing sense that something was about to break. The sunsets seemed too vivid, too perfect, as if the world was trying to distract him from the unease that had settled deep in his chest. At home, the tension was suffocating. His mom's voice grew sharper with every text, and his dad had become a ghost, hiding in the garage under the guise of fixing a lawnmower that would never run. Jed couldn't stay there, not with the weight of the coming school year pressing down on him like a storm cloud. He needed an escape, a way to outrun the dread that had taken root in his mind. That's when Mike Keller called. Mike, with his ratty Corolla and reckless grin, always had a plan. And this time, his plan was bigger, bolder, and more dangerous than anything they'd done before. A break-in at the Sterling mansion—a place of wealth, power, and secrets. It was stupid, it was risky, and it was exactly what Jed needed to feel alive. But as the night unfolded, the thrill of rebellion gave way to something darker. What they found inside the mansion would change their lives forever, leaving them with scars that no amount of time could heal. In the sticky heat of an Orlando summer, two boys stumbled into a nightmare—and learned that some doors should never be opened.