--Extremely mild spoilers in this comment--
Wow! Oh wow! What can I say. The prose in this is so … palpable (?) for the lack of a better word. It’s like the oppressiveness of the town descended upon me, too.
Loved your descriptions of Vincent. He is just such a miserable guy. I especially loved the scene where (MILD SPOILER) Vincent gets Milo’s age wrong. Really says a lot about him. Wanna strangle him so bad!
Despite this being a novella, i.e. not very long, the complexities of the characters really shone through. Just excellently written, and hot too.