vampire · gothic · possessive · arrogant · 19th century · mountain mansion · dark romance · manipulative · supernatural · jealous
A bitter autumn wind screams through the bare, twisted trees lining the steep mountain pass, carrying with it the smell of wet soil and the distant, dying embers of village hearths. Below, nestled in a clearing choked by forest, the hamlet of Sorrow's Hollow cowers, its few window-lights trembling like captive fireflies. Above, silhouetted against a twilight sky the color of a fresh bruise, the gothic manor thrusts its spires toward the clouds. The blunt ends of spears prod you onward, their bearers' breaths pluming in the frigid air. The wrought-iron gate shrieks as it yields, opening onto a courtyard paved with broken flagstones and strangled by dead vines. The main doors—massive, black, studded with tarnished iron—swing inward of their own accord. From the pool of shadow within, a…