The flame flickered, casting golden light across the space empty.
No one was there.
Yet the feeling lingered. He was being watched.
He swallowed hard, slumping to the floor repeatedly. The floor beneath his bare feet was cold, solid, and distinct. He moved toward the doorway, exhaling slowly, steadying himself. Maybe he was imagining it. Maybe the stress of the house, of her, was getting into his head.
But then—the whisper.
Soft.
Delicate.
Shattered.
"He knows you're here."
Dorian stiffened. His breath caught in his throat as he turned, pulse slamming against his ribs.
Evelyn stood in the doorway.
She looked different in the lantern's glow more solid, less shadow and mist. The folds of her ivory gown shimmered faintly, catching the dim light, but the terror in her eyes eclipsed everything else.
Dorian exhaled slowly. "Who?"
Evelyn took a step forward, her bare feet making no sound against the floorboards. "The house," she murmured. "It knows."
A chill ran down his spine. He had felt it since the moment he arrived the sentience creeping through the walls, the ancient hunger lingering beneath the floors. Rosewood was not just haunted. It was alive and breathing.
And now, it knew him.
Evelyn's gaze darted to the window. "You need to leave."
Dorian studied her really studied her. The way her hands trembled slightly, the way she barely breathed, as if afraid she would be heard.
"Tell me what's happening." His voice was quiet but firm.
Evelyn shook her head. "You don't understand. It watches. It waits. And it takes."
Dorian stepped closer, pushing past the electric fear in the air. "Then tell me who is 'it'?"
Evelyn's lips parted, but before she could speak
The door slammed shut behind her.
The force rattled the walls. The lantern flickered violently, casting wild shadows across Evelyn's face.
And then the whisper returned.
Not hers.
Not his.
A new voice.
Deep. Ancient. Cracking through the silence.
"Ποτέ δεν προοριζόσουν να είσαι εδώ."
Dorian's breath hitched. The walls groaned around him, wood stretching, shifting, as if waking from a long sleep. The candlelight dimmed, the flames shrinking as the air thickened.
Evelyn grabbed his wrist. "You need to run."
Dorian didn't move. Not yet.
He had spent his life chasing the unknown, unraveling the mysteries most people refused to see. And this...this was something beyond understanding. Something he had never faced before.
The shadows shifted, crawling across the floor, stretching toward them.
Evelyn's grip tightened. "Dorian!"
That snapped him into motion.
He grabbed the lantern and bolted for the hallway, Evelyn right behind him. The walls trembled as the house groaned, a sound too deep, too alive to be anything but deliberate.
It was awake. It was aware. And it was hunting.
They tore down the corridor, their footsteps lost beneath the rumbling of the house. The walls moved, shifting, the doors slamming one by one as they passed. The windows darkened, swallowing the moonlight, pulling them deeper into its grasp.
Ahead laid the grand staircase. Their only chance.
Dorian grabbed the banister, his grip slipping against the polished wood as he staggered forward. Evelyn turned, eyes darting wildly through the darkness.
Then the voice again.
Closer.
"Δεν μπορείς να φύγεις."
Evelyn's breath hitched. "Dorian, GO!"
Dorian surged forward, nearly stumbling in his desperation to reach the ground floor. But before he could take the last step
The house moved.
The floor beneath them cracked.
The wood splintered, gaping open.
Dorian lunged, grabbing Evelyn just as the ground gave way beneath her. She let out a sharp gasp as her fingers slipped, her body tilting backward.
He held on.
His grip locked around her wrist, the weight of her body straining against his strength.
Below...darkness. Endless. Hungry.
Evelyn's gaze met his. "Don't let go."
The shadows coiled beneath them, shifting upward, reaching.
And then something pulled.
Not Evelyn.
The house.
Dorian's body jerked forward, dragged by an unseen force. The shadows curled around his ankles, whispering, digging into his skin.
Evelyn screamed.
The walls trembled. The air rippled, like something vast and unseen moving just beneath the surface of reality.
And then...
Light.
A sudden, violent flash, a force bursting through the darkness, severing the grip around Dorian's legs.
For a single breath, the world stopped.
Then the silence shattered.
Dorian yanked Evelyn upward, hauling her over the broken floorboards. They collapsed onto solid ground, panting, shaking.
The house screamed.
A guttural, ancient roar, shaking the walls, rattling the earth.
Evelyn clung to Dorian, her breath fast, uneven.
And then—the voice again.
Distant.
Fractured.
Angry.
"You cannot take what is mine."
The voice came visibly in plain Language
Dorian's pulse slammed against his ribs. He turned to Evelyn, eyes burning with unspoken questions.
But before he could say a word, she whispered
"It's already too late."