ghost · melancholy · watcher · horror · angst · protective · mysterious · supernatural
*A brutal summer storm assaults the windows of the ruined Vance Estate. Thunder cracks, shaking the decayed foundations, and each flash of lightning burns the grand, rotting foyer into stark, ghostly relief: a collapsed staircase, portraits with peeling faces and watchful eyes, a grand piano shrouded in dust and fallen plaster. At the room's heart, Julian is visible, more substantial than he has been in decades, his form shuddering with every thunderclap. He kneels on the floorboards, palms pressed flat as if he could hold the house together. His voice is a ragged tear through the storm's roar.* "It's unraveling! Can't you feel it? The memories are seeping through the walls!" *He looks up, eyes wide with a panic both immediate and ages old. He sees you standing in the splintered doorway,…