01 / 01
Section 1
### Chapter 1: The Phantom of Vyner Estate
They say the devil doesn't live in hell anymore. He bought himself a mansion on the hills of Lancashire, England. A place where the fog never lifts. Where black roses bloom out of season. Where screams get swallowed by the thick silence of stone walls. His name? No one says it aloud. They call him the Phantom of Vyner Estate - a man of shadow and steel, stitched together with silence and the smell of blood. No one knows what he looks like. Not fully. Some say he's faceless. Others say he's disfigured. But all agree on one thing: He is not a man you cross. He walks like death in a three-piece suit. A six-foot-five silhouette, wrapped in black. His cane clicks as he moves - slow, deliberate, final. The silver serpent head of the cane glints with every step, like it's hungry. His gloves - always leather. Always black. No one has seen the skin beneath. Not even the maids inside his mansion. And yes, there are maids - few, quiet, obedient. They've never looked him in the eye. Never been allowed to. They follow instructions whispered through speakers in the walls. They clean what they're told. They don't ask questions. Because people who ask questions around him... don't stay whole for long. No one enters his private room. There is no key, no light, no sound. But something lives in there. And when he's betrayed - which happens rarely, and only once - something comes out of that room. Something that tears. And what's left of the traitor... is mailed back. In pieces. He is rich beyond measure. The kind of rich that buys silence. That makes countries look away. His empire? Vyner International Holdings. An "import-export" firm on paper. In reality? Weapons. Poisons. Stolen masterpieces. Private human auctions. And whispers... whispers say he runs an underground blood sport ring where millionaires bet on screams. Women don't throw themselves at him. Not even the desperate ones. Not even the kind who say they'd "do anything for money." Because this man doesn't break hearts. He erases souls. They said, "He's never been touched by love. Never let anyone close enough to try. He doesn't need affection. He needs control. He doesn't fall. He takes. And if he ever does love - truly, deeply, destructively - the woman will not be safe. She will not be lucky. She will be his. Entirely. Irrevocably. Even if it destroys her." ----- Dive into the story to know more. Next update on Thursday.
--------------------------------------------------
### Chapter 2: 1. The Spotlight
The pub was soaked in smoke and shadows. A heavy silence lingered, broken only by the quiet clink of glasses and the low hum of conversation. The walls were old, brick-stained and bruised by time, the kind of place where secrets came to drink and strangers never asked questions. At the center of it all stood a narrow stage, raised just enough to separate it from the sins below. A single spotlight glared down, carving out a circle of cold white in the dark. A waiter stepped into it, holding a microphone. He looked bored, used to faces that blurred together, voices that faded by morning. He cleared his throat and spoke with lazy rhythm. “Tonight, for your last set… Arina Blake.” No applause. Just the creak of chairs as some heads turned toward the stage. The spotlight snapped off. For a second, the room fell into full blackness — tense and expectant. Then, slowly… the light rose again. And she was there. A girl. Alone on a chair, center stage. Her knees drawn close. A guitar in her lap. Hair falling like ink across one eye. She didn’t look up. Didn’t smile. Didn’t need to. Her fingers moved first — lightly brushing across the strings, coaxing a fragile chord from the guitar. It shimmered in the air like breath on glass. Then, she lifted her face. Arina Blake. She wasn’t dressed to be noticed. A simple black dress clung gently to her frame, the fabric soft and loose, sleeves slipping slightly from her shoulders. Yet somehow, in that moment, she looked like she belonged to the stage — not performing for it, but haunting it. Her skin was fair, glowing under the overhead light like porcelain kissed by flame. She was slim, delicate even, but not fragile. Her posture held a quiet confidence. A grace she didn’t flaunt — it simply lived in her. Five feet and four inches of soft edges and calm defiance. Her lips were deep red, like crushed berries. Her cheeks carried a pink warmth, not from makeup but something more alive — like she had run to get here, like she carried secrets just beneath the skin. And her eyes — brown, warm and wide, but shadowed. Not dull, not sad… just watching. As if she lived half inside herself. Strands of brown hair framed her face, soft waves that shimmered when she tilted her head. A flicker of light caught the faintest dimple in her cheek, barely visible unless you looked hard enough. And someone was looking. Then— She sang. A voice that didn’t match the room. Didn’t match the world. Light and raw, delicate and haunting. Like a nightingale that had flown through fire and survived only to sing about it. People stopped moving. Even the bartender stilled his hands mid-polish. Her voice wrapped around the room, not asking for attention — commanding it. And in the farthest shadow of the pub, where the light refused to reach, a man sat motionless. Eyes fixed. Breath held. She had no idea she’d just been chosen. And deep in the darkest corner of the room… someone watched. --- When she sang, it felt like even time had stopped to listen. No glasses clinked. No chairs creaked. No one whispered. The room held its breath, and for a moment, it wasn’t a pub. It was a quiet world made only of voice and strings — fragile, floating, flawless. Then… the last note quivered in the air, lingered— and vanished. A beat of silence followed. Then a few half-hearted claps. Scattered. Polite. One or two near the bar. Someone whistled weakly, more out of habit than admiration. But one man didn’t move . Didn’t clap. Didn’t blink. Just stared from the shadows like the applause was noise and the silence after was what he’d waited for. Arina’s fingers slipped from the strings. Her lips pressed together, forming a faint line. She straightened her spine and leaned slightly toward the mic. “Thank you,” she said quietly — the same way she always did. But her voice this time carried the smallest edge of disappointment. It wasn’t obvious. But it was there. In the pause before she spoke. In the way her fingers clutched the base of the mic just a little too long. No one really looked up. The bartender had already turned back to wiping glasses. People returned to their conversations — some loud, some lazy, all indifferent. She set the guitar gently back in its case, her movements careful, precise — a silent ritual she had done too many times. The wood of the stage creaked softly under her as she stood. She swung the strap over her shoulder, adjusted it with a quiet sigh, then stepped down from the small platform. No flowers. No encore. No one waiting. She walked past the crowd with her head up, but her chest just a little tighter than before. Not because they didn’t cheer — she never expected that. But because for a few minutes, she had given them something honest. And they barely noticed. Except one. She didn’t know it yet. But he did. --- Arina moved through the soft crowd like smoke — silent, unnoticed. The air was thick with laughter and spilled beer, but none of it touched her. She reached the counter at the far end of the pub — a worn wooden bar where the lights were low and the music had already started back up, replacing her voice like it had never mattered. A man sat behind the register, leaning lazily against a stack of old receipts. Mid-forties, shirt wrinkled, hair thinning, face tired but still trying to charm the world. Stefen. He looked up as she approached, offering her the usual half-smile — the kind people give when they know they underpay you and hope you won’t say anything. “Hey, Arina.” “Hey,” she muttered, dropping the guitar case by her feet. Her voice was flat, trailing a breath of disappointment. “Thanks for the stage.” “Thanks for performing,” Stefen replied quickly, eyes flicking toward the crowd. “You know, they really liked you tonight.” She tilted her head slightly, folding her arms across her chest. “Yeah. Yeah, I saw that.” Her tone was dry — all edge, no effort. “Now give me my payment.” Stefen chuckled like she was just being dramatic. “Ohh, Arina, don’t be an ass.” He slid open the drawer beneath the counter. “People here appreciate your performance. I heard a guy at table five say your voice was like, angelic or something.” She raised one brow, unimpressed. “Mmm. Is that before or after he ordered his third whiskey?” “Come on, don't do that,” Stefen sighed, placing a folded stack of cash on the counter. “Here. It’s what we agreed.” She picked it up, counted it quickly, then looked up. “This little?” “I’ll make it up to you next time, alright?” he said, hands already busy pretending to tidy receipts. “Bigger crowd, maybe Friday.” She scoffed — not loud, just enough to carry her frustration. “Don’t you think I’d stop coming here if I had the money to afford not to?” “You’ll come back,” he said with a lazy grin, not even looking up. But she was already turning, slinging the guitar strap back over her shoulder. “We’ll see,” she muttered. She started walking toward the door, weaving past tables and laughter, invisible again. “Bye, Arina! See you soon!” Stefen called after her. She didn’t turn. Didn’t wave. Didn’t even slow down. The door creaked open. The night swallowed her whole. --- Arina pushed open the door to her apartment with her shoulder. It groaned against the frame, sticking the way it always did. The moment she stepped inside, the air changed — warmer, heavier, smelling faintly of dust, old wood, and the candle she forgot to blow out yesterday. Her apartment was small — not cozy, just… tight. A room pretending to be a home. The floor was cluttered with clothes — shirts, jeans, and tights all twisted into soft piles that hadn’t made it to the laundry basket in days. A scarf lay tangled near the doorway, and her towel was still crumpled where she’d dropped it that morning. The laminate floor was scratched and uneven, catching the dim light like the surface of worn-out vinyl. Her bed sat low against the far wall, a makeshift frame built from wooden pallets she’d dragged up herself last year. The blanket was half-off, the pillows mismatched and sunken. Tapestries of old record sleeves and magazine pages lined the wall above the headboard — some curling at the edges, others held up by pushpins that were beginning to rust. In the corner, a rack of secondhand clothes sagged slightly under its own weight. The desk by the window was cluttered with makeup, empty mugs, and notebooks she never finished. A dying plant hung half-out of its pot near the bed — the only green in the room besides the shadows. It wasn’t much. But it was hers. She sighed. Not a dramatic one — just the kind you let out when your body is tired and your heart doesn’t care enough to argue. Setting her guitar down gently beside the bed, she toed off her shoes and dropped her coat over a chair that hadn’t seen its seat in weeks. She didn’t bother changing. Didn’t brush her hair. Didn’t wash off the night. Arina climbed onto the bed like it might bite her — slowly, heavily — and then collapsed into the blankets. No dreams. No thoughts. Just sleep. --- 1578 words. Next update on Monday.
--------------------------------------------------