PROLOGUE

A dark and gloomy villa stood in the middle of the barren landscape, hidden from sight by a perched hedge. It was phenomenal and spectacular, but it makes it appear to have succumbed to a sullen and ominous atmosphere, both inside and out. A lanky hedge and gnarled shrubs give off the impression that the house has indeed been overlooked. The rainstorm seeping from the sewer pipes made the place appear miserable and dispirited. Needless to say, the house appeared razed to the ground and devoid of life.

The house was made of rune stone that had been smeared darker in spots by downpours, sending it an insidious demeanor even during the day. The window frames were all padlocked and bricked up in steel frames and woods, as if what was inside would have been too grotesque to see, trying to give the impression that someone must have attempted to prevent something horrible from escaping.

People have claimed that the residence was plagued by the witch who died there, but there has been no tangible evidence to substantiate their claims. It was even widely speculated that the villa was venomous and mowed down the leaves of trees that come into direct contact with its concrete pillars. People also construed a terrifying presumption that whoever tries to enter the house will never make it out alive because there is something inside that you would never dare to see with your very own eyes. Whatever was real or not, it was unmistakably foreshadowing, exponentially cold and savage at a hundredth of a thousand glances.

With dark humor swarming my thoughts, I hesitated for a moment, then tried to hold my breath as I lightly knocked on the front door and pinned my ears through it, waiting to hear whether there was any disconcerting presence or sinister noises from the inside, as the people in the village had repeatedly told about. But all I could hear was my heart thumping vigorously and steadily.

I let out a deep sigh of relief, preceded by a burst of muffled laughter and a dumbfounded shake of my head. I could never really believe I had bothered to listen to what the villagers had to say about this specific place.

Moreover, I gripped the handle and tried to open the door, which created a creaking noise due to its old age. At a given moment, I was warmly welcomed by a damp and stale odor that flared up my nostrils in an instant. My gaze ventured around the place and I came to the realization that my apartment could very well fit seamlessly inside the humongous villa. A dark and dreary stairway can be noticed in the dimly lit hallway. Regardless of the fact that it has already been neglected over the years, the house may well have been marvelous in its earlier years.

I have just seen a grand chandelier attached from the ceiling with ruptured strings of crystals. The floor panels had been stripped away, while there were cracks in the floorboards, as well as broken glasses scattered on the floor. The wall art had scraped off, and there were holes in the wall surfaces, with spiders graciously sailing around the dust and cobwebs on the torn window shades. My attention was drawn to vintage portraits and masterpieces, which were almost barely discernible by dirt and grime.

I began taking a cautious stride forward while manually trying to calculate the floorboard's sturdiness. Then, with my bare fingers, I slowly and carefully brushed away the cobwebs obscuring the portrait, enabling me to see what the photo had to say.

It was a photo of a woman and a child, theoretically a mother and daughter. With her brown and wavy hair, the woman strongly resembles a Goddess of Beauty intricately crafted in the form of a human. But there was just something disturbing and unnerving about her gaze that made the strands on my shoulders and the back of my neck stand on end.

The daughter was also exquisite, much like her mother and they both have the same hair color and texture. Her brown and wavy hair is swept excellently on her shoulders, and her ocean blue eyes seem very vast and virtuous, and her face resembles an angel. Her fine, crimson lips were curved in a crooked smile that cheers you up just by taking a close look at it.

I was still totally immersed in the portrait when I became conscious of the fact that someone had been watching me intently and was just about to grab me from behind, with all the tingling sensation I have started to feel. I inspected behind my back and found hardly anything. As a result, I burst out crying with laughter when a cold and frosty puff of breath on my ears brought me to a complete standstill. A cold chill tousled through the hairs on the back of my neck and filtered down my spine, prompting me to spin around and make it back towards the front of the door when my eyes were drawn into something I had not really noticed previously.

A dazzling porcelain doll sat competently on a rocking chair, facing my direction. She initially appeared to be expensive and visually striking, as if she has a million bolts of charm and glamour lurking beneath her smile. Her ocean-blue eyes have depths of innocence in them, and it seemed as though an inevitable gravity was dragging me in to explore those vast sets of orbs.

I was so distracted by how the doll's elegance had held me chained up that I did not even notice the entrance to the villa slamming completely shut until I realized it. I stumbled through it, but I was completely blown shocked when I started hearing a melodic line being hummed ominously from behind my back, causing my head to instinctively flip toward its direction. My mouth dropped open, and my eyes widened in sheer terror, and my body started to shrivel up in fear and panic, as my heart pummeled vociferously. I was screaming with tears in my eyes as I hammered violently on the door, while the humming continued. But it was already too late, as I was trapped and barricaded, now and forever.