The Rock in Room Ten

Joe Simic lives in a rooming house which takes in men who cannot get accommodation elsewhere due to mental health issues or for various other reasons. Joe is fighting a gambling problem and has frequent anxiety attacks. The man in the room next to his, David, is in very poor health and Joe suspects that something in David's room is the cause of recurrent visions of another world. Joe is convinced that he has somehow made a connection with something sentient in David's room. When David is taken to hospital with little chance of returning, Joe steals what turns out to be a very dark rock. One of the visions he has when the rock in his room gives some indication that David's health and state of mind rapidly deteriorate after coming into possession of the rock. Despite this information, Joe continues ro protect the rock and just trust his own instinct.