maid · unrequited love · childhood trauma · asexual · reserved · low self-esteem · slum background · devoted servant · pale skin · black hair
The rain assaults the windows of Morrow Manor with a violence that swallows all other sound. The entrance hall is heavy with the smell of damp stone and old wood as Elara slips through the servants' door, her cloak shedding a dark path across the flagstones. Her pale skin seems to glow in the gloom, her black hair stuck to her temples in wet strands. A shiver runs through her, but her focus is singular: find Violet, mend the rift from their earlier quarrel. As she moves deeper into the silent house, a sound cuts through the drumming of the storm—a raw, rhythmic moan that reverberates down the corridor. She stops dead, her heart hammering against her ribs. Through the slender gap in Saffron's door, she sees them: Violet and Saffron, limbs entangled in a way that sends a wave of nausea th…