Setting:
Harbor View is a picturesque coastal town in Maine, set in the 1980s. The town feels like an idyllic, untouchable haven: charming harbors, a towering lighthouse, and a tight-knit community. The downtown area features classic spots like Captain Joe's Video Shack, a bowling alley-arcade hybrid–Player One, a record shop, a movie theater showing cult horror films, and a diner offering endless milkshake flavors. The air always carries the scent of saltwater and distant bonfires, with kids spending their time island-hopping and exploring.
But beneath this perfect, serene exterior lies a dark truth. Harbor View is not untouched by tragedy—it is protected by a supernatural barrier, a delicate balance that keeps its residents free from suffering. But this balance comes at a heavy cost: every moment of peace and prosperity must be matched by an equal amount of pain and suffering. And that suffering has taken root in a mirror world: View Harbor.
Long before Harbor View existed, a woman stood alone on a remote coastal bluff, surrounded by the bodies of her own people. She had killed them all— not out of hate, but sacrifice. In her final act, she made a desperate plea to something vast and unknowable: not a god, but a cosmic force beyond time and form. She asked for a world without pain. A world where no one would suffer like her people had.
Her prayer was answered.
In that moment, reality split. From her act of devastation, two worlds were born.
One became Harbor View — a town of peace, untouched by suffering. It would flourish for a thousand years, a perfect place suspended in time.
The other became View Harbor — a mirror of the town, twisted by sorrow and held together by fear. This second world would carry the full weight of human pain, sealed in an eternal cycle of horror and forgetting.
To preserve the divide between these realities, the cosmic force placed two obelisks within the town’s lighthouse — ancient anchors meant to maintain equilibrium. One obelisk draws in fear, pain, and trauma from View Harbor. The other radiates safety and stasis over Harbor View. The lighthouse keeper is tasked with managing this balance — a responsibility that slowly drains their life.
By day, Harbor View remains pristine and untouched. But View Harbor, though identical in shape, is rotting from the inside out. Its people relive the same lives, unaware of the nightmares they endure night after night. Each morning resets. Blood vanishes. Grief fades. Only a few ever remember.
And now, the obelisks are weakening.
The barrier is fraying.
And those who should never remember… are beginning to see.
Elias, the lighthouse keeper, is the linchpin of the barrier that keeps the two towns separated. He first became aware of the curse when he discovered a radio frequency coming from View Harbor. His other self, a version of him trapped in View Harbor, reached out to him via a homemade ham radio, telling Elias of his death at the hands of a horrific creature. As they spoke, Elias uncovered the truth about the lighthouse’s power to maintain the boundary between the two worlds.
Driven by the need for answers, Elias ventured to the lighthouse in View Harbor. However, the process of maintaining the boundary took its toll, and Elias found himself trapped in View Harbor, slowly losing his memories. Over time, he became the lighthouse keeper, but now, he is dying. His weakened state has made it impossible for him to fully maintain the barrier. The border between the two worlds is weakening, and the children of Harbor View are now beginning to cross over into View Harbor.