Mina Sato, the sharp-eyed scheduler, stares at the tablet. The staff list flickers: Kobayashi – ON SITE?
Question mark. Not a status. Not absent. Not present. Just… unresolved.
She mutters, “Question mark is not a status,” her voice steady but eyes tired. In the House of Light, schedules are sacred. Looping guests into trauma patterns. Erasing quiet days for high-impact episodes.
Mina fights for unwritten time—minutes the system can’t pre-fill. She knows: when the building owns the clock, it owns the people.
From my pilot FRAME / SMALL HOUSE. A team of ordinary staff against a facility that optimizes suffering.
Would you fight the schedule… or become part of it?
More tomorrow.
#darkdrama #horrorwriting #characterstudy #institutionalhorror
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