"She read the character bios one by one until she reached her own—and realized it had more details than she’d ever shared. The final line changed as she stared with creeping dread: she’s about to notice she's being watched."

You’ll get to know them quickly. They’ll get to know you slowly.

Residents of Duskwell have been here all for each of their lives. Versions come and go, but their presence in the town is constant, and inescapable.

As much as duskwell corrupts it preserves. we’ll never get better, we’ll never be the same.

The Redburn family have secretes, but the abuse isn’t one of them.

Beatrice “Bea” Redburn (36)

Role: Mother, homemaker, heart of the household

Tone: Stretched thin, quietly defiant

Vibe: A woman who smiles with her teeth clenched. Her hair always smells like woodsmoke or lavender, depending on the time of day. Some say she talks to the walls when no one's around.

Every night Bea locks each door three times—once for herself, once for her children, and once for the thing in the crawlspace. It always unlocks the last one.

Harold Redburn (42)

Role: Father, quiet enforcer of the family

Tone: Stoic, shadowed

Vibe: His love is real, but the way he learned to show it leaves bruises in the air. Worked the mines until they shut down, and never stopped digging.

Harold doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he always sets a place for his father at the table. One day, someone took the bread from that plate before he could sit down.

Martha Redburn (54) – "Ma"

Role: Harold’s mother, watcher of the children

Tone: Bitter, prophetic

Vibe: Hums lullabies in the original language, the one people spoke before fear had words. Her rocking chair creaks in rhythms only babies cry to.

“Your youngest is the kind one,” she whispered to Bea, brushing dust from the crib. “He won’t survive the house, but he’ll be remembered kindly.”

Mason Redburn (21) – "The Quiet Watcher"

Tone: Reserved, Observant, Haunted Mason keeps to himself but notices everything. He’s the kind of person who seems to already know what you’re going to say, even if he never says much in return. His room is lined with stacks of journals—half filled, half blank. Sometimes, Mason wakes up to find his journal pages filled in handwriting that isn't his. The entries describe things he hasn't done yet, and never end well.

Caleb Redburn (18) – "The Golden Son"

Tone: Conflicted, Charismatic, Repressed Caleb is everything his father wanted in a son—strong, athletic, confident. But behind that smile is a boy suffocating under expectations, knowing that no amount of touchdowns will make

his father accept who he really is.

He finally told his father the truth, and Harold just smiled and nodded. That night, Caleb dreamed of being buried alive—only to wake and find dirt under his fingernails.

June Redburn (15) – "The Liar"

Tone: Clever, Guarded, Manipulative June is sharp-tongued and smarter than she lets on. She keeps her true feelings buried beneath sarcasm, secrets, and whispered rumors she starts just to see how far they’ll spread.

June once told her friend she saw something crawling out of her closet at night. That friend stopped coming to school after a sleepover—and June insists she made the whole thing up.

Tess Redburn (12) – "The Mirror"

Tone: Thoughtful, Lonely, Becoming Tess is a trans girl who finds more safety in the woods and in old books than in her own home. She is constantly sketching strange places that don’t exist—yet.

Every time she draws a door, she dreams of it that night. Last week, she dreamed one opened… from the other side.

Elliot Redburn (9) – "The Knower"

Tone: Curious, Overlooked, Knowing Elliot is quiet, curious, and never seems afraid. He says he has an imaginary friend named “Thistle” who lives under the porch and knows what’s going to happen before it does.

Elliot told Bea not to drive to town today, but she didn’t listen. When the sheriff came to the door hours later, Elliot just nodded and said, “I told her.”

Sadie Redburn (6) – "The Screamer"

Tone: Sensitive, Unsettling, Intense Sadie has a scream that doesn’t match her size—shrill, piercing, and somehow… not quite human. She cries when it rains and smiles when people get hurt.

Last night, Sadie said “the rain’s not really water today.” The next morning, the garden was full of drowned birds.

Josie Redburn (3) – "The Parrot"

Tone: Innocent, Repetitive, Uncanny Josie repeats everything she hears, especially things no one said aloud. Sometimes she hums lullabies that haven’t been sung in the house for decades.

Josie whispered to Mason, “You should’ve saved him.” When he asked who, she said, “Daddy said not to say his name anymore.”

Baby Ivy (newborn) – "The Quiet One"

Tone: Serene, Wrong, Waiting Ivy rarely cries. The entire family agrees she’s almost too perfect—always watching, never blinking.

Bea heard Ivy cooing to herself over the baby monitor. The voice that answered her was much, much older.

The residents help, when Duskwell lets them.

Miss Sera Delman – "The Waitress"

Role: Liminal café worker, caretaker of echoes
Tone: Disoriented, Maternal, Trapped
Vibe: Her smile is warm and practiced, like the coffee that never cools. The clock above the counter ticks backwards when she blinks.

Sera refills the same cup of coffee seventeen times for a man who died in 1973. When she finally asks his name, he replies, “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

Mister Clyde Haver – "The Archivist"

Role: Keeper of records, fading historian
Tone: Quiet, Erased, Desperate
Vibe: Smells like old paper and rain. His office is full of books with no titles and mirrors that don’t reflect him.

Clyde rewrote a single sentence in the town charter and forgot his middle name. That night, the photo albums rearranged themselves—and none of them included his face.

Opal & Eli Vine – "The Twins That Aren’t"

Role: Siblings (?), timeline fractures
Tone: Discordant, Uncanny, Intertwined
Vibe: They finish each other's sentences, even when they’re in different rooms. They claim to share dreams—though sometimes one swears the other died years ago.

Eli swears Opal was never born, and Opal remembers watching Eli vanish in a mirror. Now they both wake up screaming the same name that doesn’t belong to either of them.

Lenny Gubb – "The Fixer"

Role: Maintenance man, decaying soul
Tone: Mechanical, Resigned, Hollow
Vibe: Oil-stained hands, eyes like burnt-out bulbs. Always muttering diagnostics under his breath—even when looking in the mirror.

Lenny tried to repair a leak in the boiler and found a heartbeat in the pipes. Now, the town calls him in for repairs he doesn’t remember performing—on machines that look like pieces of himself.

Ruthie Kale – "The Widow"

Role: Grieving wife, unwilling medium
Tone: Melancholic, Devoted, Unstable
Vibe: Dresses in black lace, speaks softly to the empty chair across from her. Her tea is always steeped too long, like she forgets she’s still waiting.

Ruthie heard her husband’s voice call her from the basement—years after they buried him closed-casket. She answered, and the voice wept with gratitude… in three different languages he never spoke.

Birdy Clatch – "The Letterbearer"

Role: Duskwell’s mail carrier, time-broken courier
Tone: Cheerful, Fractured, Burdened
Vibe: Wears too many scarves, each pocket stuffed with unmarked envelopes. She hums tunes no one taught her and delivers packages addressed to future dates.

Birdy opened a letter addressed in her own handwriting: “Do not deliver this until you forget who you were.”
She tried to burn it, but the ashes formed her name—and a return address that doesn’t exist.

Officer Dane Klem – "The Enforcer"

Role: Town sheriff, keeper of false order
Tone: Authoritative, Conflicted, Fraying
Vibe: Badge too polished, boots too clean. Has never drawn his gun, but keeps it loaded with bullets etched in names no longer spoken.

Dane arrested a boy for a crime that hadn’t happened yet. The boy smiled and said, “You’ll understand when it’s your turn.”

Father Isaac Pell – "The Mouthpiece"

Role: Preacher, vessel of the town
Tone: Righteous, Dissolving, Holy-in-the-wrong-way
Vibe: Always smells faintly of blood and candle wax. His sermons are beautiful until you hear them backward.

Isaac woke with scripture carved across his chest in bruises that spelled “Let There Be Flesh.” That Sunday, the church doors locked from the outside—and the congregation chanted in tongues no one claimed to know.

3. “The Gospel of Loops”

In Duskwell, time’s a skipping stone—

Each prayer you make you’ve always known.

He etched it along his ribs with a communion knife,

Then bled on the church steps and called it new life.

The Newcomer – "The Forgotten"

Role: Visitor, the audience surrogate
Tone: Disoriented, Curious, Dissolving
Vibe: Always a little damp, as if just rained on. Wears clothes they don’t remember putting on and finds photos they’re not in.

They came to Duskwell on a dare, but the roads keep looping and the sky is the wrong shade of memory. Last night, someone knocked and whispered, “Welcome back.”

Ellis Veidt – "The Observer"

Role: Chronicler, semi-aware resident
Tone: Analytical, Fractured, Spiraling
Vibe: Finger-stained with ink and ash. Keeps his notes in triplicate and no longer trusts mirrors to reflect his eyes.

Ellis wrote a field guide to Duskwell’s rules—until a chapter appeared he never drafted. It ends with his funeral, and the page number keeps changing.