First timer

Previously

…I jumped, my head snapping around. The room was empty, bathed in the fading light of dusk. But the scent of lavender lingered, a sickly sweet perfume that now carried the stench of death. The Presence was toying with me, its manipulations becoming more intimate, more personal. It was no longer just a haunting; it was a siege. And I was trapped, alone in the heart of its domain, with the chilling certainty that the next step in this terrifying game would be mine to take. The question was, would it lead to escape, or to utter, irreversible damnation? The house waited, its silence a heavy, expectant shroud.