The road in front of her went on forever, twisting through the misted hills like a route that led nowhere. Lena clamped her hands around the steering wheel and stared down the small trail that wound its way through the thick, oppressive mist. Just as she thought her history would be, the community behind her had disappeared, engulfed by the fog. She convinced herself that withdrawing from society, severing connections with everyone, and hiding someplace where nobody could find her was the appropriate course of action.
But Lena knew that the past wasn't that easy, even as she turned to leave this world behind.
The mansion was calling to her. An ancient, dilapidated estate, abandoned over time, situated on the periphery of an unidentified town. It was a place with a past as sinister as the dark secrets she carried, and she had read about it years before. It had been there all along, awaiting, like a shadowy presence on the fringe of her recollection, until she was forced to run to it at last.
Her chest constricted more as she approached the estate. She had drowned in the burden of what she couldn't forget and spent far too much time concealing from herself. She would be able to hide out at the mansion. She wouldn't have to deal with the spirits of the people, the inquiries she would never respond to, or the demands of the outside world here, the people she loved the most.
As the mansion appeared in the dim, cloudy sky, the sound of gravel crunching beneath her tires was audible. The windows peered out like empty eyes, black and hollow, while Ivy climbed up the cracked walls of stone. This location was broken, just like she was, and Lena found a tiny bit of comfort in that.
She came here to put away her past rather than to let it to disappear into the shadows of the home. She was overcome with the sensation that the past would never truly leave her, though, even as she got out of her car and entered the chilly outdoors.
Lena was nearly able to hear the echoing sounds of all she had been leaving behind in the eerie whisper of the wind howling through the woods. Everything she made an effort to ignore. A little fear filled her chest as she stepped through the door and into the dilapidated halls of the estate.
Regardless of her distance, the specters of her history would perpetually pursue her.
And they were going to wait for her here in this mansion.
YOU ARE READING
The Haunting of his Shadow
Mystery / ThrillerThe story revolves around Lena, a woman who has spent years hiding from her past and lives alone in an old, decaying mansion on the outskirts of a small, eerie town. She encounters Damien, a man with his own dark secrets, and their relationship grow...
