Late one night, a wounded man checks into a remote roadside hotel. He’s running from something he can’t explain or escape. And over the course of a night, he’ll tell the hotel’s proprietor how his life fell apart. It started with his wife. Subtle changes. Smiles that didn’t belong to her. Then violence—sudden, intimate, almost casual. Therapy offered hope. Recovery seemed possible. Until it wasn’t. He believes a hidden influence has attached itself to him, one that never forces, never commands. It whispers. It suggests. Nudges people toward their worst impulses. Now the man wanders the country as a fugitive, hoping to break free from the evil that’s wormed its way into him. But as our narrator’s story unfolds, he begins to question whether he’s fled far enough . . .