Story 925: The Forsaken Gate

The moon loomed unnaturally large, bathing the twisted landscape in an eerie silver glow. The air smelled of wet decay and old parchment, and in the distance, a familiar howl sent a chill through their bones.

Mira, Draven, Zara, and Elias stood before a monstrous iron gate, its bars woven like skeletal fingers, reaching hungrily toward the sky. Beyond it, a dark mansion loomed—a cathedral of shadow and ruin.

"The Cursed Book led us here," Elias muttered, gripping his revolver. "That’s never a good sign."

Zara knelt, running a gloved hand over the ground, where a circle of rotting corpses lay facing the gate, their mouths gaping in silent terror.

"Whatever’s inside," she said, standing, "it doesn’t let people leave."

Mira clutched the book tighter. The pages fluttered, moved by an unseen force, until they settled on a single name, inked in blood-red script.

"The Forsaken Girl."

A sudden cry split the night—a child’s voice, faint yet piercing, as if carried on the wind.