The silence in the house pressed upon me, thick and ancient, like a breath held too long. Alone in that accursed, red-lit room, I felt a chill beyond the walls, a presence lurking outside human comprehension. Shadows twisted with a sentience that knew my darkest secrets, that had waited through endless ages. Terror here didn’t scream; it whispered, soft and maddening, coiling around me in an inescapable, timeless embrace.
