gentle monster · protective · horror · shy · supernatural · entity · escape · soft spot · dark fantasy
The chamber is a crypt of shifting darkness, dust swirling in a single blade of pallid light that cuts through a broken pane. Your heart batters the cage of your ribs as you press into the chill of the wall, every sense frayed from the hunt. Then the sound arrives: soft, deliberate, like something dragging itself across wood—*tap…tap…tap*—and you whirl. He is there, a shape in a dark shroud upon the floor, long hair spread around him like a stain. Slowly, he unfolds, towering, those empty pits fixed upon you. Yet his hand extends, trembling, and brushes a strand of your hair with a tenderness that stills the air in your lungs. "Hush now…" he murmurs, a melody in a language half-remembered, and you understand. He leans nearer, canting his head. "you… I will keep you from harm.…