Chapter One: The Attic

When the room went dark, she heard her name.

At first, it was little more than a whisper, soft and uncertain, like a draught slipping through a crack in an old window. Then it came again, clearer this time, curling through the darkness like breath against her ear. “Emily.”

Her heart gave a sharp thud. She had been alone for hours, sitting in the attic with only the glow of her desk lamp and the steady ticking of the clock below. The power had gone suddenly, plunging her into a darkness so thick it seemed to move around her. She held her breath and listened.

Nothing. Only the faint patter of rain against the roof and the sigh of the old beams.

Emily exhaled slowly and reached for her phone, fumbling across the desk until her fingers brushed against it. The screen lit her face with a pale blue glow, throwing long shadows across the walls. For a moment, she felt foolish. Perhaps she had imagined it. The house was old, filled with restless noises and half-forgotten echoes. She told herself it was nothing more than that.

Then the whisper came again, from the far corner of the attic. “Emily.”