Until he saw it.
At 2:13 a.m., in the hallway camera outside Sofia’s room, there was a flicker. A glitch—less than a second.
Jonathan rewound.
Right before the flicker… a shape.
Not a person.
A shadow darker than darkness itself, sliding along the edge of the doorframe.
No face.
No body.
Just an absence of light.
His blood ran cold.
The House Had a History
Jonathan dug into the mansion’s past.
Old blueprints. Family letters. A journal belonging to his great-grandfather.
He discovered the house had been built over the ruins of an old fortress. Beneath it—tunnels. Smuggling routes. Hidden chambers.
And in the journal, he found a drawing.
A symbol.
The same one burned into Sofia’s arm.
Beneath it, a phrase in Latin:
“Custos Aeternum. Hereditas Tenebris.”
Eternal Guardian. Inheritance of Darkness.
The Basement
That night, Jonathan heard a sound from the basement.
Metal scraping stone.
The door—usually locked—was open.
Cold air poured out, carrying that same metallic, sweet smell from Sofia’s room.
He followed it down.
A crack had opened in the stone floor.
Beneath it—stairs.
And whispers.
His name.
At the bottom, he found a hidden chamber. In the center sat an old wooden box, sealed with a rusted iron lock.