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PROLOGUE
Lily's footsteps echoed in the vast entryway of the castle, the once grandiose space now a chaotic mix of vibrant and clashing colors. The ancient tapestries that once adorned the walls had in recent times been replaced with modern art pieces, the sharp angles and vivid hues making Lily uncomfortable. Since she had moved there, the history of the place was in the process of renovation, of being wiped from existence and replaced with eccentric designs her husband loved.
As she walked on the stone and marble floors, Lily could see fragments of the moonlight from the night sky catching the scaffolding, a monstrosity of its own, which climbed up the walls outside, casting long black shadows like fingers on the floor of the quiet castle.
As she wandered deeper into the castle's labyrinth of halls, rooms, and corridors, an eerie humming sound caught her attention. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once, sending a shiver down her spine. It was a noise she was not used to, certainly not at that time of night. She strained her ears, trying to pinpoint its origin. Was it the wind creeping through an open space due to all of the renovations? Machinery left on by accident by the workers, long since gone home for the night? It crossed Lily's mind that it seemed more malevolent than that.
"Thomas?" she called out, hoping her husband might be nearby. But her voice only echoed back at her, lost in the maze of rooms and hallways. A home she barely knew since their move from America, but one she felt did not appreciate her presence.
The strange noise continued to draw her in as she meandered through the castle. In one room, she caught glimpses of recent changes the decorators had carried out at her husband's behest. Some of the original stonework had been painted over with modern shapes and patterns like spirals, an odd addition which seemed almost sacrilegious. Lily wished they could just have enjoyed the castle for what it was, but her husband always believed that he had to leave a mark on a place.
The shadows around Lily seemed to grow with menace as she walked, and it felt as if the stones of the castle themselves were protesting, resisting the changes forced upon it.
She wondered if places had memories, or worse, intentions. And if the place had intentions, Lily, knowing quite well that was guilty of superstitious flights of fancy at the best of times, still worried that somehow the history of the castle itself might strike back at her and her husband for what they had done.
"Thomas? Darling?" she asked the night again, her voice wavering with unease as she continued through the castle.
She couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, that the humming sound was more than just an innocuous sound from a refrigerator unit or a generator left on by the workmen during the day. She tried to push her fears aside, telling herself it was simply an old pipe groaning within the aged walls.
"Where are you?" she whispered, her fingers brushing against the cool stone as she continued her search. The lack of response fueled a burning fear within, a growing sense of dread gnawing at her chest.
"Stop playing games, Thomas," she pleaded, knowing her husband's sometimes wicked sense of humor. "Answer me."
But almost-silence was all that greeted her, the insistent hum her only companion in the unsettling stillness. And though she didn't know what awaited her around each corner, she pressed on, a grim fear building inside of her with each step. Lily had hated being alone since she was a child. She had to find her husband in the darkness of the night, she refused to be alone with it.
Lily hesitated at the entrance to what should have been an old Victorian drawing room. The original wooden paneling lay in disarray, tossed aside haphazardly by the renovators before they'd left for the weekend. She sighed, regretting her decision not to retain any servants during the restoration process. At least that would have been company. The caretaker did live by in the nearest village, but he wasn't due to come around until the morning.
"Would've been nice to have a bit of company," she murmured, her voice barely audible above the persistent humming, which in places had become almost a howl.
Speaking to herself helped build the illusion that she had company, but a more dangerous type of company was what she feared most.
The sound seemed to be growing louder, beckoning her further into the castle.
As she stepped cautiously over the scattered debris, Lily found herself wishing they had stayed back in the US. Sure, it was her husband's dream to own an authentic English castle, but the isolation was beginning to take its toll on her nerves. How she missed her home where everything had made more sense to her.
Even if I were a ghost, I wouldn't want to stay here, she thought to herself with a shiver. For a moment, she wondered if the old stories about the castle being haunted were true.
She shook her head, trying to dispel the uneasy thoughts. It wasn't like her to get so easily spooked, but the eerie atmosphere and the unrelenting hum were getting under her skin.
"Get a grip, Lily," she whispered fiercely, clutching her arms for comfort. "It's just an old building, that's all."
But as she continued through the dimly lit corridors, her unease would not relent. A sense of being watched was beginning to cloud her mind, as though the darkness itself had eyes. And then, she stumbled upon something that made her blood run cold.
"Damn it!" she gasped, finding a window smashed, shards of glass littering the floor.
The broken window only fueled her fears – someone could have broken in. And with no one in the castle besides herself and her husband, the danger felt all too real. Lily began to fear that something had happened to Thomas.
She peered through the broken glass and saw that a piece of railing attached to the scaffolding had come loose, still hanging on by a worn piece of rope. It looked as though it had smashed the window, but Lily couldn't quite abandon the thought that human intervention was involved. That someone else was in the castle.
"Alright, think, Lily. What do you do now?" Her mind raced, considering her options.
Should she search for her husband, or go and phone the police? Her heart pounded in her chest as she weighed her choices. Then she imagined the police turning up in the middle of the night, looking at the scaffolding and chastising her for wasting police time. It would be embarrassing, and embarrassment was something Lily avoided like the plague. She had done this ever since she had been picked on at school as a young girl.
"This is silly," she decided, her voice wavering with determination. "There's no one else here but us."
Listening for a moment, Lily then followed the haunting howl, each step bringing her closer to whatever was making the noise.
An abrupt shift in the howl's pitch felt like a further warning. Just as she was about to dismiss it, her ears caught something worse – a scream. It pierced through the air like a siren, shrill and desperate. She froze, her breath hitching.
