The Downward Spiral of Adam Keir

The Downward Spiral of Adam Keir: A novel is a short slice of life dramatic suspense novel about an average man whose average life spirals rapidly out of control.

The Downward Spiral of Adam Keir The cover of the story.
Date started	August 2nd, 2017
Date first released	August 20th, 2017
Last updated	December 28th, 2017 (Chapter 26) December 22nd, 2017 (FicFun) December 26th, 2017 (Other platforms)
Date completed	December 28th, 2017 (Rough)
Rating	Teen
Chapters	26
Word Count	70937
EPUB/PDF Download	Unavailable
Previous in Timeline	Webshadow (2017)
Next in Timeline	Optionally Distorted (2018)

Description

A married man, 34-year-old Adam Keir lives in Chicago and works in a pawn shop with his best friend. On the side, he makes surreal videos. But recently, he's been the victim of a spell of artist's block. Neither his wife nor his friend are able to help get his creative juices flowing again, and he begins to lose hope in ever returning to his hobby.
Then, one day, he meets 19-year-old super-fan, Evangeline Thompson. Her support and apparent crush on him re-ignite his dwindling imagination, but his conflicted feelings about her growing obsession with him quickly twist it out of control. Not too soon after, he finds himself unable to tell what's real and what isn't. Just as he begins to think that things can't possibly get any worse, he begins to realize that Evangeline might not be wrong when she insists that her obsession with him is mutual …

A short slice of life dramatic suspense novel by Noëlle McHenry about an average man whose average life spirals rapidly out of control.

Characters (in order of appearance)

Adam Keir (First Appearance: Chapter 1)
Larisa Keir (First Appearance: Chapter 1)
Jesse Waller (First Appearance: Chapter 1)
Evangeline Thompson (First Appearance: Chapter 2)
Tylor Sherman (referenced in Chapter 3)
Terrence Lyndon (referenced in Chapter 3)
Dr. Terry Frost (First Appearance: Chapter 14)
Dana Frost (First Appearance: Chapter 15)
Eric Dane (First Appearance: Chapter 24)

Summary

Chapter 1

Adam has pulled an all-nighter working on a new video, about a married man being lured in and eaten alive by a spider-faced woman, but doesn't like what he's come up with and scraps it. His wife, Larisa, enters and checks on him. He complains to her about getting nothing done, and then she leaves for work. Shortly after she leaves, Adam goes downstairs and makes himself a bagel and some coffee. He sees a skeleton fishing in a lake of pollution (his coffee), and the skeleton fishes out a limbless baby and feeds it octopus tentacles. Disturbed, Adam shakes the idea out of his head.

He heads to work at Waller's Pawn Shop, where his best friend, Jesse, is waiting for him. Jesse is rocking out to "I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight" by Cutting Crew. Adam dismisses him and heads into the bathroom to change into his work t-shirt. His phone dings, and he sees that he has a new Twitter follower. He decides to turn his phone to silent, and before turning it off sees that he has a new follower on a lot of his social media accounts. He returns to Jesse, who is no longer singing.

Jesse asks how Adam has been doing in terms of productivity, and Adam confesses that he still has artist's block and that what few ideas he has, he deems too insane. When Jesse compliments this, Adam complains that he doesn't like his videos to not have meanings. In response, Jesse questions the meaning of his last video, which featured a disturbing "man-child thing" dancing in a burnt-down house to "I'm So Excited" by the Pointer Sisters. Adam tells him that the video was meant to represent humanity's retained childlike innocence, but then seems uncertain. Jesse tells him to do something along those lines again, since the video got good reception, but Adam comments on the reception likely being due to the song rather than the video itself.

Adam reminisces about how he met Jesse in middle school, as they were classmates and both got sent to the principal's office (Jesse for insulting a teacher, Adam for laughing). He then thinks about how Jesse has never had a girlfriend for more than a week, and how Jesse always avoids the subject of his love life. He admits to himself that, deep down, he considers the fact that Jesse may secretly be in love with another man, who may or may not be him, but that he will never mention this or allow himself to dwell on it, since Jesse seems to be strangely friendly with Larisa. Conveniently, Jesse then asks how Larisa is doing with her accounting job, and Adam tells him that he hasn't heard any complaints from her. Jesse likes a selfie that Larisa has been posted on Facebook, then gives it a "Love" reaction while telling Adam that he's jealous. Adam corrects him, telling him that he's envious, not jealous. Jesse quips that he's both, and Adam has no response.

A customer calls and Jesse answers. Being asked about a guitar, Jesse walks over to the instrument section of the shop, and then into the storage area. Meanwhile, Adam rests his head on his arms and finds himself daydreaming about a woman in the cab of a subway train. A man enters and sits beside her. She is nervous. He asks her if she thinks the weather is nice, and she says no. They are both silent. Then, she opens her mouth to ask something, but Adam is then awoken by Jesse asking if he's asleep on the job again. He assures that he's awake, and only thinking. Jesse tells him that a customer is coming to pick up a Rickenbacker 330/12, and Adam, not knowing what this is, casually accepts the information. Jesse insists that it's a big deal, but when Adam fails to understand that, he growls to himself and returns to the storage area.

Chapter 2

The customer arrives and is wearing a polo shirt and shorts. Adam wants to remark that he's dressed lightly for October, but doesn't. The customer is disappointed that the Rickenbacker 330/12 isn't a Fireglo, but is instead a Mapleglo. Noticing Jesse's silence, Adam steps in to defend it despite not knowing the difference and not caring. The two of them insist that the guitar is well worth it, and the customer tries it out. Impressed, the customer asks how much the guitar is, and Jesse tells him that it's $2,500. Adam shoots him a disturbed look, but doesn't argue about the price. The customer is stunned by the price and agrees to pay, then leaves. Once alone with Jesse, Adam asks incredulously why he made the man pay so much, and Jesse remarks that the price was a bargain. Adam insists that he feels guilty about making someone pay so much money for anything, and Jesse calls him a miser, but also reveals that he recently bought a mini-fridge for no reason, but that he's going to keep it rather than add it to the shop's inventory anyway. Adam says that if he's a miser by Jesse's standards, then Jesse is a hoarder to his.

Adam returns home to discover that Larisa is home early from work, and that she's cooked beef steaks. The kitchen is lit romantically with candles, her hair is curled, and she's wearing a black dress. Adam suddenly feels as though he's dressed too casually. She beckons him into the dining room, and he asks what the occasion is. She answers that it's been a while since they had a date night as she pours him some wine. Adam realizes that she wants to have sex with him, but he's not in the mood—instead, he wants to go upstairs and brainstorm. Yet he realizes that he's trapped with her, and that if he denies her, she'll probably get angry with him, preventing him from working anyway. She asks him if something's the matter and he says no. Aggressively, he eats his steak, and she notices, but doesn't say anything.

Adam begins to speak, to confess that he doesn't want her tonight, but hesitates and instead asks her for the salt. She reminds him that she isn't a stranger, and he thinks to himself that it would be easier if she were. Understanding, she asks him if he'd rather work tonight, and he says yes. Disappointed rather than angry, she requests that he at least finish dinner first. As she cleans up after dinner, he follows her into the kitchen and awkwardly kisses her on the cheek before thanking her.

Halfway up the stairs, Adam stops to listen, and hears Larisa call someone. She asks to see them, and arranges a meeting before hanging up. Adam then quietly makes his way back to his office. He finds himself less disturbed by the idea of Larisa having an affair than he is by the realization that he doesn't care whether she is or not. Fifteen minutes later, Larisa enters and excuses herself, telling him that she has work that she forgot to do. He lets her go.

To get his mind off of Larisa, he checks his Twitter, and sees that he has a lot of notifications. A girl named Evangeline has followed him and liked, commented on, and retweeted all of his tweets. He wonders if she's a bot when he notices that she sent him a direct message, but all it is is her letting him know that she lives in the same city as him and that she's fallen in love with him and his work. Confused, he examines her profile and notices that she's 19. He looks at her profile picture and realizes that she thinks she's very pretty. He has to scold himself out of finding her attractive, by reminding himself that he's 34, and accounts this to his lack of sleep. When he deems her to be a seemingly-real person and not a bot, he decides to reply to her message. She responds back immediately, excited that he replied. After he replies again, she ends her next message by telling him that she loves him. He is perturbed by her casual usage of the phrase, and doesn't reply. After checking all of his other social media accounts, and noticing that she's done the same things there as well, he decides that it would be in his best interest not to work, but to sleep instead.

Chapter 3

Adam dreams about the woman on the train. She opens her mouth to speak, and asks the man beside her if he knows the train's destination. He assures her that he does, but tells her that it's "no concern of [hers]". Feeling unsafe, she glances into her purse, at the gun in it, and wonders if she could get away with shooting him, or if she was just paranoid. A new man enters the compartment, this one wearing a burlap sack over his head. In his right hand, he holds a fire axe.

Adam wakes up and tries to turn off his alarm, but realizes that it's actually his cellphone ringing. He answers the call, from Jesse, and is invited to go grocery shopping, since it's Sunday, the day of the week that they have off. Adam agrees. Jesse tells him that he's outside and honks the horn of his car—Adam hears it even from the bedroom. He warns Adam that it's cold and rainy outside. Adam hangs up and gets dressed. He puts on a leather jacket because of Jesse's warning. As he approaches the car, Jesse quotes a scene from Titanic, and after getting into the passenger seat, Adam calls him an idiot. Adam is quiet for most of the first part of the drive, during which Jesse hums the Mission Impossible theme to himself. Adam then notices the rosary that Jesse has tied to the rearview mirror. When he comments that Jesse is agnostic, Jesse asks if he needs to be religious to have Jesus hanging in his car. He flicks the crucifix, with a metal figure of Jesus on it, on the end of the rosary, and he says that he finds it comical. Adam complains that having an image of Christ in the car just to flick it borders on sacrilege, and Jesse shrugs it off. As they approach train tracks, Adam nearly remembers his dream, but is interrupted by Jesse playing "Cherry Pie" by Warrant.

At the store, Jesse excuses himself to withdraw money from an ATM. Adam lingers nearby and examines a fruit stand, where he finds an apple placed in the bananas. He takes a picture of it and posts it on Twitter, amused by it. Evangeline comments on it, revealing that it was her doing, and then she direct messages him, telling him that she was at that same store just a half an hour ago. Adam isn't sure if he can believe it, and he asks her if she really placed the apple there, to which she replies that she does it all the time. Adam then wonders if he's simply never noticed the apple misplacement before. Evangeline says that she will come to meet him if he's still there and, scared suddenly, Adam lies and says that he just left. He wonders why he's so afraid of her, considering how young she is. Jesse returns.

Back in the car, on the way back to Adam's house, Jesse plays "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard and asks Adam if he remembers the time he bet he could beat Eric Dane in an arm wrestle. Adam remembers that it occurred during a party in 2013 held by Jesse's friend, Tylor Sherman, that Jesse dragged him to. He recalls that Tylor left the party with someone halfway through, and how he presumed that they left to have sex. Half an hour later, Jesse, drunk, insisted that he could beat bodybuilder Eric Dane, acquaintance to Adam and also at the party, in an arm wrestle. Adam considered asking Eric to go easy on Jesse, but decided against it out of morbid curiosity at what would happen. He answers Jesse at last by saying that he remembers that Eric broke Jesse's arm and that he had to drive him to the hospital. Jesse gripes that he's a moron while drunk, and Adam points out that he's always a moron. Jesse complains that Adam didn't even try to stop him, to which Adam counters that Jesse sounded confident. Jesse, amused, punches Adam's shoulder and calls him a dick. As they come up on the train tracks again, Adam finally remembers his dream, and he jolts back with a gasp. Jesse asks him if he's all right, to which he replies that he might finally have an idea for a video.

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Story Links

Archive of Our Own

Concept Arts

Trivia

Takes place in Chicago, Illinois.

_d shortnovel

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