Brooke Beretta May 2026

Seven hundred thousand dollars was more than she'd made in the last three years combined. It was the kind of money that meant she could stop taking commissions for a while, maybe even buy that derelict firehouse in Portland she'd been eyeing. But it was also the kind of money that came with strings attached—strings that could strangle you if you weren't careful.

Silas believes the house will open a door to something he calls the "True World"—a place of pure potential, where thought becomes matter and matter becomes thought. The Order believes that if they can open the door and step through, they will become like gods. brooke beretta

She noticed it on the fourth night, coming back from the portable toilet she'd set up in the garden. The carved faces—dozens of them, remember—had always looked vaguely tormented. But now some of them were smiling. Not all, just a few, and the smiles were wrong. Too wide. Too many teeth. Seven hundred thousand dollars was more than she'd