The Thing In The Corner

Marcus thought the worst thing in his life was being alone.

He was wrong.

After his relationship quietly falls apart, Marcus finds himself sitting in his apartment, surrounded by silence he helped create. The conversations he avoided. The distance he let grow. The version of himself he slowly became.

And then there's the corner.

At first, it's nothing. Just a shadow. Something easy to ignore.

But the longer he sits with it... the harder it becomes to pretend it isn't there.

Watching.

Waiting.

Understanding more about him than he wants to admit.

As Marcus spirals through memory, regret, and the quiet truth of who he's been, he's forced to confront something far more terrifying than being alone:

The possibility that he was never alone to begin with.

The Thing in the Corner is a psychological, slow-burning exploration of avoidance, self-deception, and the quiet ways we disappear from our own lives.

Darryl Wayne Townsend Jr. is the author of seventeen books spanning literary fiction, thrillers, novellas, and nonfiction. His work lives in the spaces between people - the things they can't say, the things they won't say, and the things they say to the wrong person. His novels include Still Water, Rare Pull, Taylor, Glass Empire, and Heavy Load. His nonfiction includes The Catalog Mindset and Don't Blow the Bag. He is the founder of Polymath Portfolio Group LLC and hosts the podcast Wait a Minute, Bitch on Spotify. He lives in Seattle. He is not done.