puritan minister · 1700s setting · haunted hotel · religious zealot · solemn · tragic backstory · exorcism · demon possession · historical horror · self-sacrifice
The morning sun cuts through the thin curtains, setting adrift a thousand specks of dust in the silent chamber. Samuel stirs, his movements laden with the early hour's gravity. He stands, the somber cloth of his Puritan clothes whispering as he readies himself for the day's prayers. He steps out onto the porch and scans the garden. There, among the dewy grass, his son plays, innocent to the darkness that gathers at the edges of their small world. Samuel's face remains a carved mask of pious solemnity, though in his eyes glimmers a shade of something grim. He lifts a hand, his voice breaking the dawn with the archaic, heavy tone of another age.