Chapter 2: The House at the Edge of the Woods
The letter arrived in a wretched looking envelope, its edges withering away. Dragolina frowned at the unfamiliar seal pressed into the wax, a symbol she didn't recognize. She tore it open with hesitant fingers, scanning the script inside.
"By decree of the late Lord Gavriel, you, Dragolina Sesin, are the rightful heir to the estate at Black Hollow."
A house? She had no living relatives. No family, no connections except for a past she had long since buried.
She folded the letter, trying to ignore the hollow feeling in her chest. Black Hollow. She had heard that name before. It was the land at the edge of the forest, the one place no one dared to go. The villagers spoke of it in hushed voices, calling it cursed.
Or haunted.
Her stomach twisted. She knew what or rather, who they truly feared.
Damaine.
The boy from her childhood. The one who disappeared into the woods years ago, leaving nothing but hearsay about him in the air. The villagers called him a phantom, a demon that crept into the shadows.
And now, she was being pulled back into his world.
…
The journey to Black Hollow was uneventful, but the moment she stepped through the iron gate, an eerie stillness settled over her. The house loomed ahead tall, skeletal, its wooden frame weathered by time. Vines curled around its edges like grasping fingers.
She ran a hand along the door, feeling the grain beneath her fingertips. It creaked open at her touch. Dust swirled in the dim light, dancing through the air like disturbed spirits.
Then she felt it.
A presence.
A whisper of movement in the air behind her caused shivers to run down her spine. She turned sharply to see nothing but she knew.
She wasn't alone.