Shadow At The Manor

The carriage lurched, its wheels crunching on the gravel driveway, a sound swallowed by the oppressive silence of the surrounding woods. A thick, clinging mist obscured Blackwood Manor, shrouding it in an ethereal, almost malevolent glow. Elara, peering through the fogged window, saw only glimpses of the house – towering gothic spires, shadowed eaves, and an expanse of dark, brooding stone. It was a structure that seemed to breathe, a living entity pulsating with an unnerving energy. Fear, cold and sharp, pierced her heart. This wasn’t the welcoming haven she had imagined. This was a prison veiled in beauty.