The first thing Liana noticed was the silence, not the ordinary kind, the kind that came with peace or rest, this one felt deliberate, constructed, as though every sound that should exist had been carefully removed. Every creak, every whisper of air, even the faint shuffle of staff felt muted like the house itself had stopped breathing.
She stood by the window, staring out at the sprawling mansion grounds, the morning sunlight stretching over the trees, the stone paths, the gates in the distance. Everything was beautiful, untouched, but unreachable, her fingers tightened slightly around the windowsill. The quiet gnawed at her, but it wasn't what unsettled her the most, it was the feeling something intangible crawling at the base of her spine.
She wasn't alone, her eyes swept the ha
