Elle hadn't told anyone about the manor. Not the truth, anyway.
The story on campus was that it was just a stupid dare, she'd gone in, gotten spooked by creaking doors and shadows, and run out screaming. That's what she let them believe. That's what she needed to believe.
Because the truth… the truth was harder to bury.
Still, Elle tried.
She buried it under textbooks, debates in philosophy class, study group chats, and the constant noise of real life.
She woke up at 6:00 a.m. sharp every morning. Brushed her teeth to the beat of a pop song. Styled her hair. Applied just enough mascara to frame her lashes. Pulled on her sweater, navy blue, her favorite and headed off to campus with her backpack snug over one shoulder.
From the outside, she looked like the kind of girl who had it all together. Nerdy-cute, always polite, always early to class. The girl who brought extra pens. The girl who kept her notes color-coded. The girl who could ace a statistics exam and still have time to bake brownies for the literature society.
But on the inside, she was unraveling.
---
Her roommate, Kemi, had noticed first.
"You've been weird lately," she said one Thursday morning, watching Elle attempt to pour coffee into a mug and completely miss.
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine. You're Elle Kane. You're Miss Star-Student. You don't miss mugs."
"I was distracted."
"By what?"
Elle hesitated. "Dreams."
Kemi raised a brow. "Nightmares?"
"Not exactly."
"Well, whatever it is, you need sleep. Your skin's getting dull."
Elle managed a soft laugh. "Thanks."
Kemi flopped onto the couch, still in her pajamas, hugging a pillow. "I'm serious. You're different lately. Quiet. Spacey. Haunted."
Elle looked up, startled.
"I meant it jokingly," Kemi added quickly. "But now that I hear it out loud…"
"I'm okay," Elle said again. "Just tired."
"Maybe you need to have a little fun. Go out. Let a hot boy ruin your life like the rest of us."
Elle turned away so her friend wouldn't see the flush in her cheeks.
If only Kemi knew.
---
Elle's days became a rhythm of routine:
Class. Library. Lunch. Lab. Study. Home. Repeat.
She had friends,Adara, who loved drama and always smelled like citrus; Yusuf, a soft-spoken med student with a hopeless crush on her; Kemi, wild and unpredictable, but fiercely loyal. She had everything a girl could ask for.
Except peace, she missed him.
At night, she dreamed of him again.
She dreamed of that manor, with its aching silence and stained-glass windows that wept light. Of the piano, still playing itself long after she left. Of his voice, low, immortal, impossible.
And of his eyes, dark like secrets she didn't want to know.
---
One Friday, she sat in the quad with her laptop on her thighs, half-writing an essay on metaphysical realism and half-watching the wind blow autumn leaves into spirals. A pair of guys were playing frisbee nearby. A group of law students argued about court judgments under the big tree. Normal. Perfectly normal.
Until she felt it again.
That pull.
Like a string tied to her ribs, tugging.
It made no sense.
She rubbed her chest lightly and tried to focus on her screen.
But then, her notebook, the one where she'd hidden the letter, fell from her backpack and hit the ground spine-first. It opened. And there it was.
That same piece of parchment.
"You left too soon."
She stared at it.
"You okay?" Yusuf had appeared beside her, holding a bottle of juice and looking concerned.
"Yeah. Yeah, sorry."
He handed her the drink. "You looked like you saw a ghost."
"Not a ghost," she muttered. "Just... a memory."
---
That night, she went out with her friends.
Kemi insisted. "We're getting you back in the land of the living."
They ended up at a small, dim-lit club off campus. The music was too loud, the drinks too sweet, and the air too warm with bodies pressed too close. Elle tried to smile. She tried to laugh. She even let Yusuf spin her on the dancefloor.
But she kept hearing Clair de Lune.
Not the bass-heavy remixes playing now, but the real thing. That aching, beautiful song, soft as moonlight and heavy with sorrow.
She shook it off.
Until she caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror, and for half a second, he was behind her.
Watching.
She spun.
Nothing.
Only a cracked soap dispenser and the sound of someone throwing up in the next stall.
"Enough," she whispered. "You're losing it."
---
The next morning, she texted Adara.
ELLE: You ever feel like something's… following you?
ADARA: OMG are you high
ELLE: No I mean it. Like a presence.
ADARA: Is this about the manor?
ELLE: …Maybe.
ADARA: Look. I know we all laughed about the dare. But I get it. That place was creepy. You don't have to keep pretending it didn't shake you.
ADARA: You wanna talk? I can bring doughnuts.
Elle smiled, despite herself.
Maybe she wasn't totally alone.
---
Weeks passed.
Elle aced two major assignments. Got nominated for a departmental award. Volunteered at the blood drive.
Even started tutoring a first-year girl who reminded her of her younger self, bright, anxious, eager to please.
She looked fine.
But the ache didn't leave.
She began sketching things in the margins of her notebooks. Old staircases. Shadowy corridors. Hands with too many fingers. And always, always those eyes.
She tried burning the letter once.
It didn't catch fire.
It just smoked, then curled in on itself like it was sleeping.
She tossed it into her drawer, heart thudding.
---
One night, Kemi brought up love.
"Ever been in love, Elle?"
They were on the rooftop of their dorm, sharing a box of fried chicken and watching stars blink into place.
Elle hesitated. "No."
But then she added, "Maybe."
"Wait—what?"
"It's hard to explain."
Kemi leaned forward, grinning. "Spill."
"There's… someone. I don't even know if he's real."
Kemi blinked. "Okay that's the most Elle response ever."
Elle laughed. But it was hollow.
"I think he's dangerous," she added softly.
Kemi stopped chewing. "Then stay away."
"I tried."
"Try harder."
Elle didn't answer.
Because every night now, she dreamed of the manor doors opening.
And each time, she stepped closer.
---
Her parents called once that week.
Her dad wanted to know how classes were going. Her mum reminded her to wear socks when it rained.
They sounded far away.
Like echoes from a life she used to know.
---
On a gray Sunday afternoon, Elle went to the library to return a book.
She wasn't planning to check out anything new.
But her hand drifted to the "Mythology" section.
She pulled out a battered volume on vampire folklore. Then one on liminal spaces. Then one titled Houses That Breathe: Haunted Architecture Across Europe.
She told herself it was just curiosity.
But when she flipped a page and saw a sketch of a manor that looked disturbingly familiar, her hands went cold.
---
The decision came slowly.
Not in a single moment.
But in a hundred tiny ones:
A song playing in the supermarket that reminded her of the salon.
A stranger's voice that sounded like his.
A dream where she woke up whispering his name into the dark.
She had a life.
Friends. Grades. Plans.
But something in her had changed.
She wasn't the same Elle who had walked into that house on a dare.
Now… she was walking back on purpose.
---
It was raining the night she returned.
Not a storm, just a whisper of water on the leaves, soft and steady.
She wore a coat and boots. Packed a flashlight. But left her phone behind.
This wasn't something she wanted to explain.
The woods welcomed her like an old secret.
And the manor, still broken, still waiting, loomed through the trees.
This time, the door opened before she touched it.
This time, she didn't hesitate.
She stepped inside.
The piano was playing again.
And he was waiting.
---
He stood by the window, same as before, a ghost painted in moonlight.
"You came back," he said again.
Elle didn't answer right away.
"I wanted to forget you," she said finally. "I tried."
"And yet?"
"I couldn't."
His expression didn't change. But something in the room shifted. The air thickened. The shadows leaned in.
"I don't belong here," she whispered.
"No," he said. "But that doesn't mean you're not needed."
She stepped closer. "By you?"
He nodded once.
"You shouldn't want me," she said.
"I didn't say I did."
Ouch.
But then he added, "I said I need you."
---
She swallowed hard. "Why?"
He hesitated.
Then softly, he said,
"Because the house isn't the only thing cursed."
He reached for her hand.
Took her into the deeper part of the manor, it was chilling and eerie but strangely comforting, he pulled her close, placed his hands on her cheeks, her face flushed, is her first kiss going to be from a vampire she thought, he gently stroked her hair and took the strands on her face back, and slowly their lips touched.
It was cold, soft and strangely she loved every part of it, she was going insane for sure but she didn't mind, she was drawn to him and didn't want it to end.