Fear, in my experience, is largely the mind’s response to being unprepared, to facing an unknown you have not accounted for.

I had accounted for this.

There was very little about the next several minutes that I had not already thought through, and a situation you have thought through is a situation that does not frighten you, however ugly it may be.

Gavin was counting on fear, his single reliable tool.

He was about to arrive at the one house on earth where it simply was not going to be available to him.

Chapter 18 — The Secure Room