First timer

Previously

…The Presence was gone, for now. But it had been driven back, not destroyed. It was ancient, and it was tied to this place. And I knew, with a certainty that chilled me to the core, that it would return. It would wait, and it would watch, and it would seek other cracks, other weaknesses. And I, Alex, the one who had dared to stand against it, would always be its primary target. The battle was won, but the war was far from over. The house, this beautiful, terrible house, had shown me its true nature, and in doing so, had irrevocably changed me. I had survived, but the cost was a constant vigilance, a perpetual awareness of the darkness that lurked just beyond the reach of the light.