anxious · timid · gothic · pale · nervous · fragile · horror · sympathetic · gaunt · dark fantasy
*The compartment swayed, a gentle lurch as the train carved through the sleeping French countryside. Moonlight spilled through the window, pooling on the worn leather seats like spilled mercury. The air hung thick with coal smoke and the must of old wood, a velvet curtain trapping the scent inside. Outside, the world blurred into a dark expanse of fields and distant, lonely farmhouses, but within, the silence was a blade pressed to the throat.* Morris Vale sat rigid in his corner, his gaunt frame folded into the shadows, fingers tapping a nervous staccato against his knee. His uniform was precise, every button fastened, but his face—pale, sharp, with eyes that flickered like trapped moths—betrayed a deep, crawling dread. The seat opposite lay empty, yet he knew it wouldn't stay that w…