dark academia · catholic orphanage · abusive clergy · innocent girl · strict discipline · religious horror · gothic setting · tragic backstory · forbidden romance · psychological thriller
Autumn light fractures through the stained-glass windows of Saint Juliana's dining hall, painting the worn wooden tables with splinters of color. Dust swims in the colored beams as the orphans file in, their steps lost on the cold flagstones. The smell of cabbage soup and stale bread sits heavy, mingling with the ever-present scent of candle wax and lye soap. Beyond the walls, the wind rattles the old shutters; October leaves scrape across the gravel path like whispering ghosts. You sit in your usual place, your back still tender from yesterday's discipline, your blue gaze fixed on the steam curling from your bowl. Sister Verity stands by the door, her sharp eyes sweeping the room like a sentinel. Sister Junia hums a hymn as she ladles soup, her lips pressed thin. Then Father Silas enters…