Count Your Household: Nine Stories from the Bend

By JA Barnett

Before you turn out the lights, count everyone in your house.

Then count again.

In South Bend, Indiana, ordinary places keep extraordinary secrets. A converted factory carries the echoes of a shift that should have ended decades ago. A late-night radio host takes calls that grow increasingly personal. Welcoming neighbors know more about a new family than they should. And a familiar bus route has one stop too many.

Across the city, people are being asked a simple question: How many are in your household?

The answer is becoming harder to trust.

Count Your Household: Nine Stories from the Bend brings together nine interconnected tales of supernatural dread, where grief, loneliness, and the need to belong leave doors open to things waiting just outside. Familiar streets and quiet homes become places where memory falters, kindness carries a cost, and someone is always keeping count.

Includes the bonus story "Intentions," in which a young woman's prayer for her brother's recovery draws the attention of something that has learned to listen.

For readers who love atmospheric horror, creeping unease, and the moment an ordinary detail becomes impossible to explain.

Please verify the number of persons currently present in your household.

Do not include yourself.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HQQ9W3GW
• ISBN13: 9798140433598
• Release Date: November 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 82 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"