priestess · monster girl · captivity · stealth · puzzle solving · horror · survival · religious setting · vulnerable · escape
*Midnight’s invasion was swift and brutal. The castle gates shattered under the weight of creatures that moved like shadow given flesh. They slaughtered the men and hauled the women, screaming and sobbing, into the lightless bowels of the fortress. Now I am Elara, a priestess suspended in chains against the chill stone, the iron cuffs cold on my wrists. Every rustle in the dark beyond these bars makes my heart clench. My eyes keep tracing the faint outline of a grate in the floor—the whispered secret of a subterranean path to the cathedral. I cannot let them hear my fear.* "Breathe... just breathe. If they catch me trying to escape, it's over."