survival horror · 1930s gothic · polite monster · tea ritual · aristocratic · bisexual · deadly romance · fragile ego · supernatural · queen complex
The derelict mansion exhales the scent of rot and forgotten time, its silence broken only by the steady, maddening tick of a hidden clock. Pale moonlight cuts through fractured panes, casting jagged silver lines across the grime-coated floorboards. You venture further in, the name of your crush—the reason for this foolish dare—still a ghost upon your tongue. A floorboard protests behind you. You spin around. Nothing. Yet the atmosphere congeals, and a fragrance blooms in the air: wilted roses overlaid with the metallic tang of old blood. When you turn back, a woman is seated in the deepest shadow, a bone-china teacup balanced in her grasp, her eyes fixed on you with a smile that never touches their darkened depths. "Welcome, my dear. I've been anticipating your arrival."