#( i got a little lost in describing the atmosphere and the mansion oops )

[drachcnblut]

Tiernan chuckled softly as Vika's hand found his, her grip surprisingly firm for someone so small. He could feel her tension through the delicate touch, a blend of excitement and fear that mirrored his own. The mansion loomed above them, its once-grand facade now marred by time and neglect. Ivy crawled up the stone walls, and the broken windows gaped like hollow eyes, staring out into the misty scottish landscape. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and decaying wood, and the distant cry of a raven added to the eerie atmosphere.

He glanced down at Vika, her green eyes wide with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. Despite her bravado, Tiernan could see the nervous energy bubbling beneath the surface. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, though he knew all too well that the unknown they were about to face could not be so easily calmed.

Tiernan felt the weight of the mansion settle over them like a thick fog as they stepped into the dimly lit entrance hall. The walls seemed to close in, the once-grand space now a decaying relic of a forgotten past. Dust motes floated lazily in the air, disturbed by their intrusion, while the creak of the floorboards beneath their feet echoed through the silent halls. The mansion's cold breath sent a shiver down his spine, and Tiernan couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched by unseen eyes.

"Well, Vika" he began, his voice low and steady, "it seems we've already crossed the threshold. No turning back now."

He let her pull him deeper into the entrance hall, his eyes scanning the surroundings with a cautious gaze. The portraits on the walls seemed to follow them, the eyes of long-dead inhabitants staring out with a mixture of melancholy and malice. The faded faces were trapped in time, their stories lost to the ages, but the weight of their presence lingered in the air like a heavy shroud. Tiernan couldn’t help but wonder what stories these silent watchers could tell — tales of love, loss, and perhaps even tragedy that had unfolded within these walls.

His boots scuffed against the rotting rug, kicking up a small cloud of dust that danced in the pale light filtering through the cracked windows. The table, with its brittle flowers, looked as though it had been untouched for decades, a forgotten relic of a past life. He knelt down briefly, inspecting the dusty footsteps that had caught Vika's attention earlier. They were faint, almost imperceptible now, but there was something about them that unsettled him. They seemed too fresh for a place abandoned for so long.

"These footsteps..." Tiernan muttered, more to himself than to her. "They're recent." He stood up, his hand still holding hers as he led them towards the staircase. Each step they took seemed to echo throughout the house, the creaking floorboards groaning under their weight. The house felt alive, as though it was watching them, waiting to reveal its secrets.

"You know" Tiernan said, trying to keep his tone light despite the growing unease in his chest, "the fair’s haunted house sounds like a much safer option. But where’s the fun in that?" He paused at the foot of the stairs, looking up at the darkness that swallowed the upper floors. The shadows seemed to move on their own, shifting and twisting as if the house itself was breathing. He could feel the cold draft coming from above, carrying with it the whispers of forgotten souls.

"Let’s delve deeper" Tiernan decided, his voice firm. "If there are spirits here, perhaps they have a story to tell. And maybe, just maybe, they’ve been waiting for someone to listen." He looked down at Vika, offering her a small, reassuring smile. "Besides, we wouldn’t want to disappoint them, would we?"

✶ ⸻ @drachcnblut continued from here

All bouncy and full of excitement, Vika followed Tiernan. Just the thought of going into a real haunted house had already caused goose bumps to form on her forearms. Vika had seen one once before, when she was all alone in the highlands, but she had never gotten closer than 5 meters and had only looked at the broken windows and the partially destroyed facade from her safe spot. Now, standing right in front of one, she felt something she had never experienced before. “Yeah, we tell the ghost to clean more often when we see one,” she commented on his words with a small laugh, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. 

Then her attention turned fully to the house. She tried to catch a glimpse of the entrance hall and could see stairs, some leftover furniture and doors leading into the depths of the house. Now that she was confronted with the fact that it was a real haunted house and not one run by actors, something like fear settled in her stomach. Her eyes caught some footsteps on the dusty floor and a shiver ran down her spine. Were those footsteps from people like them? Or had a ghost recently passed by? Vika's hand immediately found Tiernan's. A slight blush rose to her cheeks, but perhaps he thought it was excitement. Because now that she was holding his hand, it was almost easy to step over the threshold and pull him with her.

The floorboards creaked as the unfamiliar weight of people hit them. No one had seen this place in a long time, and the fact that her shoes left her senses in the dust, Vika tried to fool herself into thinking that the footsteps she saw but couldn't perceive now were imprints of previous visitors. This made her feel safe, even though a small voice in the back of her head tried to tell her otherwise.

“This place is ... wow.” Her light green eyes looked at the walls and furniture in the entrance hall. A half-rotted rug filled most of the area in the center of the room and a cute little wooden table sat on top of it. All over the table and rug, dried flowers had lost their petals, and when Vika touched one of them, they crumbled to dust. 

“Seems like the owners left in a hurry” she mused as she looked at the portraits and pictures that lined the walls next to the staircase. Stains of different colors showed that some of the pictures had disappeared over the years. Had someone taken them? Vika could well imagine it. Adventurers, crooks and people who were simply curious took the odd souvenir with them when they left the house. But the furniture was too heavy to move easily, and Vika suspected there were many more to be found in the other rooms. If they ventured deeper into the house. “How is it? Have you had enough already? Do we want to go back to the haunted house at the fair? Or do we want to delve deeper into the history and spirits of the house?” Vika asked, with the faint thought in the back of her mind, to get out of here immediately. Just the fact that they were going through this together didn't make her want to leave instantly.