First timer

Previously

…Steeling myself, I stepped through the opening, into the waiting darkness. The stone ground shut behind me with a final, echoing thud, plunging me into absolute blackness. The lantern, my only source of light, flickered wildly, casting grotesque shadows that danced and writhed on unseen walls. The whispers intensified, no longer just murmurs but a cacophony of anguish, a symphony of pain that threatened to shatter my sanity. I was in the chamber. The heart of the house. And I was utterly, terrifyingly alone, with only the echoes of a tragedy and the growing certainty that I had just walked into a trap from which there might be no escape.