Until The Shadows Keep Us Together

CHAPTER 1 — The Arrival "If you are reading this, the lake has already chosen you." My name is Eva. And I swear, I have never been to Blackwood Estate before. Then why did the gates open for me? Rain was hammering the car roof like it wanted to break inside. Lightning tore the sky open for one second, and in that second, I saw it. A mansion made of black stone. Broken windows. Vines crawling over it like veins. And a lake behind it. Black. Still. Wrong. "Adrian, turn the car around. Right now." Adrian didn't look at me. His hands were too tight on the steering wheel. His knuckles were white. "We can't." "Why not? We were just going for a weekend trip! Where did this place even come from?" "Because..." He finally looked at me, and for the first time in two years, I didn't recognize my own boyfriend's eyes. There was fear in them. Real fear. "This house called me here, Eva. In my dreams. Every night for a month." My heart stopped. "You never told me that." "I know. Because if I told you I was dreaming about a dead woman in a white dress, you would have left me." I wanted to laugh. I wanted to tell him he was being dramatic. But I couldn't. Because for the last three nights, I had been dreaming about the same house too. I just never told him. Before I could answer, the headlights hit an old wooden sign. *BLACKWOOD ESTATE* The iron gates were rusted, covered in vines. Locked. "I don't like this," I whispered. My hands were shaking. "Adrian, something is very wrong here. My chest feels heavy, like I can't breathe." Adrian stepped out into the rain. He didn't even touch the gate. CREEEAAAK... It opened. On its own. Slowly. Like it had been waiting for us. "Adrian..." My voice was shaking. "Gates don't open like that. Tell me you saw that too." "Get back in the car," he said. His voice was low, almost a whisper. "No. I'm not leaving you alone here." We drove inside. And the second our car crossed the line — *CRASH!* The gates slammed shut behind us. So hard the whole car shook. The sound echoed through the trees like a scream. "Did you do that?" I screamed. "No!" He was pale now. "Eva, I swear I didn't. I didn't touch anything." My phone had no signal. No network. Just a blank screen staring back at me. "Adrian, my phone is dead. Is yours working?" He didn't answer. He was staring at his phone screen. His face had gone completely white. "Adrian? What is it?" He turned the phone slowly towards me. On his lock screen, there was a photo. A girl in a white dress. Long black hair. Pale skin. Standing in front of this exact mansion. "Who is that?" I asked, my throat dry. "That's the woman from my dreams," he said. "I took this screenshot last night. But Eva... I have never taken this photo. I don't know how it got into my phone." I felt cold all over. The girl in the photo looked like me. Exactly like me. Only her eyes were empty. We got out. The front door of the mansion was already open. Waiting. "Don't go inside," I grabbed his hand. "Please, Adrian. Let's just stay in the car till morning." He looked at me, and his voice broke. "Eva, if I don't go inside tonight, I think I'm going to die. These dreams... they are killing me. Every night I wake up screaming your name, and my pillow is wet, like I have been crying in my sleep." That was the moment I understood. He didn't bring me here for a trip. He brought me here because he was scared to die alone. We stepped inside. Dust. Silence. And hundreds of portraits staring at us. The air inside was cold. Too cold. Like the house was breathing winter. Then I saw her. A girl in a white dress. Long black hair. Pale skin. Eyes that felt... alive. My breath caught. She looked like me. Exactly like me. I walked closer. My legs were moving on their own. The plaque below said: *Evelyn Blackwood — 1923* "Evelyn..." I whispered her name without thinking. And the whole mansion answered. A sharp pain stabbed my head. A whisper, right in my ear, like someone crying for a hundred years. _"Don't leave me again..."_ "Eva! Eva!" Adrian was shaking me. "What happened? You just froze! Your eyes went blank for a second!" I couldn't speak. Because for one impossible second, the girl in the portrait had blinked. I saw it. I swear I saw it. Then — *BANG!* From upstairs. Something had fallen. Or someone had pushed it. "Stay behind me," Adrian said. We ran up the creaking stairs. At the end of the hallway, one door was half-open. Inside, there was nothing. Just an old wooden table. And on it — a bright red umbrella. Brand new. Still wet. As if someone had just kept it there for us. As if someone knew we were coming. I ran to the window. Across the lake, in the pouring rain, a woman was standing. White dress. Long black hair. Holding a bright red umbrella. And smiling at me. I blinked. She was gone. That night, I couldn't sleep. I stood at the window, staring at the lake. The rain had stopped, but the lake was still black. "Still thinking about her?" Adrian wrapped his arms around me from behind. He was trying to sound brave, but I could feel his heart beating too fast against my back. "Adrian, tell me the truth. Why did you really bring me here?" He went silent for a long time. Then he whispered, "Because in every dream, you are already here. You are the one standing in the lake. You are holding her umbrella." My blood went cold. "That's not funny." "I'm not joking, Eva. In my dream, you wear her dress. You hold her umbrella. And you call my name from the lake." Tap. Tap. Tap. We both froze. On the glass, from the _outside_, a wet handprint was slowly appearing. We were on the second floor. No one could be there. No ladder. No balcony. Nothing. Then letters started writing themselves on the foggy glass, one by one, by invisible fingers. *YOU CAME BACK.* I turned to Adrian, tears in my eyes. "Adrian, I have never been here before! I swear! I don't even know this place!" He looked at the handprint, then at me, and his voice was barely a whisper. "Then why does this house know your name, Eva?" And outside, across the black lake, the woman in the white dress was smiling again. She had waited 100 years for me to come back. ---