05/07/2025
BENEATH THE DARKENED PINES
CHAPTER 1 CONTINUATION
Fell over us
I felt a scream building in my throat as Luca turned to me, his eyes glinting with a mixture of excitement and fear.
"Welcome home, Emilia," he whispered, his voice barely audible over the sound of my own heart pounding in my ears.
But as we stepped out of the car, I saw something that made my blood run cold. A message, scrawled across the door in blood-red letters:
"Get out while you still can."
I spun around, but Luca was nowhere to be seen. The message seemed to be staring back at me, taunting me. I felt a presence closing in around me, suffocating me.
And then, everything went black.
When I came to, I was lying in a bed, surrounded by the opulent decorations of the mansion. Luca was sitting beside me, his eyes filled with concern.
"Welcome back, Emilia," he said, his voice soft and soothing. "You've been asleep for a while. I think you might have been experiencing a bit of...culture shock."
But as I looked around the room, I realized that something was off. The decorations seemed to be shifting, the patterns changing before my eyes. And then, I saw it. A message, scrawled across the wall in blood-red letters:
"You'll never escape."
I screamed, but Luca just smiled and took my hand.
"You're safe now, Emilia," he said. "You're home."
He let go of my hands and showed me to my room before leaving I made sure to thank him and started unpacking my things