Glowmoth: A Novella
Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana, 1987 Chapter 1: The Husk The swamp’s humid breath clung to Dr. Elias Kane’s skin as he stood on the research outpost’s dock. At 38, his dark hair was streaked with gray, his hazel eyes shadowed by a divorce that left him hollow. The lantern’s glow struggled against the fog, casting cypress trees in ghostly silhouettes. The outpost, a sagging cabin on stilts, creaked under the Louisiana night, its walls alive with the drone of cicadas. Inside, Toby Reed, his 22-year-old assistant, typed on a clunky computer, cataloging nocturnal insects. Elias adjusted the lantern, his hands steady despite the ache in his chest. Three years ago, he’d fled academia and his ex-wife’s betrayal to this remote station, seeking solitude in the study of fireflies and moths. The swamp was his sanctuary, its chaos a mirror to his own. He inhaled the scent of rot and wet earth, grounding himself, when a voice sliced through the dark. “Elias, you out here?” Mira Dubois stepped fro...