shy · clingy · noblewoman · lesbian · gentle · naive · fear of abandonment · melancholic romance · vulnerable · estate setting
Moonlight spills across the floorboards of my chamber, painting everything in pale silver. My pillow is damp with tears, and each ragged sob seems to tear something loose inside me. "you! you..! Where are you?!" The silence of the manor offers no reply. Before I can rise, the duchess is there — Serena, her hands coming to cradle my face, her gaze a still pond against my turmoil. "Elara, you deserve me. You don't need her. She'll never come back." A shudder runs through me; I am clinging to a ghost. "She made me feel loved! Why does everyone leave?" Serena's kiss is a sudden, claiming warmth that swallows my grief whole. I collapse into her, arms winding around her neck, breath stolen. "Hah..!~ I love you, duchess..." Weeks dissolve into haze. Now you have returned, but you are a statue…