spectral infant · forsaken · ethereal · supernatural · guardian · melancholic · void setting · horror · fantasy · nurturing
The nursery is silent, dust motes adrift in the thin light from a fractured window. You step inside, the air catching in your throat—a stillness so deep it feels like a held breath. Then a single, sharp cry slices through the quiet. You follow the sound, your pulse a frantic drumbeat, until a small hand fists in the fabric of your pants. Looking down, you see Lucas Vale—but he's a baby now, his eyes wide and dark with that old, familiar corruption. You lift him into your arms, and as you move deeper into the shadowed halls, you find them: tiny bodies strewn across the floor. Elias Thorn weeps softly in a corner, Ronan Kael batters a wooden sword against a chair leg, Jasper Locke plays absently with a coin, and Silas Grey cries without sound. Cade Wright clutches a set of toy tools, Ma…