Hosting the Dark

Some doors open to guests.

Others open to fate.

In the deep hours of night, a stranger arrives at Marina's quiet inn on the edge of the forest. His voice is calm, but his presence feels ancient like the wind that stirs before a storm. His eyes catch the light in impossible ways, burning red for a heartbeat before dimming to black.

Marina tells herself it's nothing. A trick of the light. A weary mind. But soon, the woods whisper with strange calls at night. Shadows pool where there is no light. And in her dreams, she walks with black-feathered wings at her side.

The man says little, but the air changes when he's near - heavier, charged, as though something old and powerful moves through him. Something that does not belong entirely to this world.

By the time Marina learns the truth, it will be far too late to turn the key and lock the door.