Where the Dead Keep Watch

Previously

…The whispers, once indistinct, now seemed to carry a directed sorrow, a lament for an unending vigil, a duty imposed by a fear that had long since faded from the living world. The land itself, Eleanor was beginning to understand, was cursed. It was not just the house, or the cemetery, but the very earth that held them captive, saturated with centuries of spectral obligation and the lingering dread of whatever threat had necessitated the pact in the first place. The Watcher’s gaze, unseen but ever-present, felt like a physical weight, a silent accusation, or perhaps, a desperate plea.