"The Last Letter"
1. The rain fell steadily over Hollow Hill.
2. It always rained here, especially in November.
3. Clara adjusted her coat, clutching the yellowed envelope.
4. The letter had no return address.
5. Only her name, handwritten in fading ink.
6. Clara Elridge.
7. No one had called her that in years.
8. Not since she left this town behind.
9. She stood before the gates of the Elridge estate.
10.Rusted iron, creaking in the wind.
11.The house beyond was a silhouette of memory.
12.Windows boarded, ivy strangling the stone.
13.Yet one light flickered upstairs.
14.Impossible—no one lived here.
15.She stepped inside.
16.Floorboards moaned beneath her boots.
17.Dust clouded every breath.
18.Familiar furniture, now ghosts of themselves.
19.And silence.
20.A silence that listened.
21.She opened the envelope.
22.Inside: a single sheet of paper.
23.Ink the color of dried blood.
24."Come home. I'm waiting. —Father"
25.Her heart clenched.
26.Father had died fifteen years ago.
27.A fire.
28.A scream.
29.A locked door she couldn’t open.
30.And a girl who ran.
31.But guilt follows.
32.She climbed the stairs, slowly.
33.Each step heavier than the last.
34.A chill crept up her spine.
35.She reached the study.
36.The door was ajar.
37.Light bled through the crack.
38.She pushed it open.
39.A fire roared in the hearth.
40.The chair beside it rocked.
41.Empty—at first.
42.Then a voice.
43."You've returned."
44.It was him.
45.Pale, translucent, eyes hollow with longing.
46."You were just a child."
47.Clara's lips trembled.
48."I couldn’t save you."
49.He nodded.
50."But I saved something for you."
51.He pointed to the desk.
52.A locked drawer she never dared open.
53.She approached.
54.It clicked open on touch.
55.Inside: an old key and a locket.
56.She opened the locket.
57.Her mother's face smiled back.
58.A secret room.
59.A diary.
60.Hidden truths.
61.Her father hadn’t died in the fire.
62.He’d faked his death.
63.To protect her.
64.From what?
65.The diary told of a curse.
66.Passed through bloodlines.
67.Madness.
68.Fire.
69.Loss.
70.Clara traced the handwriting.
71.Her mother's final entry:
72."If Clara reads this, it’s begun again."
73.She closed the book.
74.Looked at the specter.
75."What do I do?"
76.He pointed to the mirror.
77.Her reflection flickered.
78.Flames danced behind her eyes.
79."It’s inside me," she whispered.
80.He stepped forward.
81."You must choose."
82.A knife appeared in his ghostly hand.
83.She took it.
84.The fire within surged.
85.Her breath came in gasps.
86.She raised the blade—
87.But not to her throat.
88.To the mirror.
89.It shattered.
90.The house groaned.
91.The fire died.
92.The ghost faded.
93.She collapsed to her knees.
94.Dawn touched the windowpanes.
95.For the first time in years.
96.The rain had stopped.
97.Clara stood.
98.She wasn’t cursed.
99.She was free.
100. And she walked away.
