The vision snapped back to the present. Sarah was stumbling, grasping the mannequin for support. The bloodstain on the dress was gone. She looked at her finger. There was no cut.
Sarah brushed her hand against the velvet. A sharp, stinging sensation erupted on her finger. She gasped, pulling back, and watched a single drop of blood fall, landing perfectly on the white fabric of the dress. The world tilted. 18eighteen sarah
Then she understood. The house wasn't just wood and stone; it was a vessel, a keeper of a fractured legacy. The seventeen years of wandering were just a preamble; 18eighteen was when the haunting—or the heritage—began. The vision snapped back to the present
She wasn't in the attic anymore. The room was vibrant, filled with the scent of lavender and candlelight. She saw a girl—no, she was the girl—standing before a mirror, wearing the dress. It was 1906. She was looking at her own face, yet it was different, older in spirit. She felt a profound, aching love for someone named Elias, and a terrifying, cold fear of a man with eyes like shadowed glass. She looked at her finger
Sarah pushed the door open. Dust motes danced in the single shaft of sunlight piercing the gloom. She wasn't looking for treasure, just answers. Her life had been a series of foster homes, a montage of temporary faces, until the letter arrived, naming her the sole heir to this place.