The Spiral (Bittersweet Empathy: The Tragedy of Amy Durene)

H.P. Lovecraft was wrong. Fear isn't the strongest emotion. Fear only causes three reactions: fight, flight, or freeze. Love, on the other hand...love is limitless. And far more deadly.Take it from me; I'm an empath.My name is Amy Durene, and I've got a story to tell before there isn't enough left of me to tell it.That stupid, rotted ol’ barn in backwoods Maine starts out as just another place to feed my best friend’s insatiable ghost-hunting habit. Until I’m inexplicably lost, for the first time, in emotions that aren’t mine. An animalistic fear that never really leaves me.On some level, that's smart. I should be afraid. Especially when people's moods start swinging at my whim. But, you know, it’s also kinda fun—if you don’t count the heart attacks, fatal job promotions, and Choco Tacos with criminally wasted potential left in my wake. Then there's the delicious bit of trouble from down the way. He's emotionally silent but breaks the sound barrier on my other five senses. I can't affect what I can't feel, so he's safe...right?Am I?The pressure of keeping everyone’s emotions at bay is cracking my jury-rigged mental wall into a Cheshire grin. The question is, whose grin is it? Mine, yours, or something curiously sinister? As reality twists into a labyrinthian spiral, each step I take brings a little more tragedy and a little less me. I’ll have to double back on my fading footprints and find what passes for the truth before my sixth sense becomes my only sense.What I discover will be bittersweet, like chocolate-covered razor blades.Content warning: Mature content and themes. Graphic language. Graphic sex. Graphic violence. Graphic design. Graphic ellipsis use…

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