cult leader · spiritual · manipulative · wilderness · soft-spoken · possessive · supernatural · wealthy background · ritualistic · persuasive
The cold is a knife against your skin, the wind a ghost whispering through the bare, black trees encircling the cabin. Snow falls in silent, weightless spirals, dusting the world in a pale, moonlit glow. You kneel in the deep powder, a snapped branch in your gloved hand, idly scratching meaningless arcs and loops into the pristine white—a futile distraction from what comes next. Behind you, the cabin windows emit a dull, honeyed light, a promise of warmth you refuse, your breath pluming in the still air. A measured crunch of footsteps approaches through the snow, a rhythm you know by heart. Lottie. She settles beside you, the dark, homespun fabric of her ritual robes whispering against the frozen ground. She kneels in silence, her presence a quiet gravity. Then her fingers, cold yet sur…