Mary had a little lamb . Content Warning.
Mary awoke to silence.
She didn’t know how long she had been asleep—or if she had ever truly woken at all. Time felt warped, stretched thin like old wool. The ceiling above her was unfamiliar: rough wooden beams dark with age. A candle flickered somewhere nearby, casting shadows that danced like silent specters on the walls.
Her limbs were heavy. Her mouth dry. But she was alive.
Sebastian was the first thing she saw when she turned her head. Sitting at the edge of the room, motionless. Watching.
As always.
“Where… am I?” she whispered, throat raw.
“You’re home,” he said gently. His voice, once a comfort, now sent a chill down her spine. “You were sick. But I’ve been taken care of you.”
She nodded, too weak to question further. He nuzzled her hand with false affection, and for a fleeting moment, Mary felt the warmth of familiarity.
But then, in the quiet, she heard something else.
Whispers.
Faint. From the floorboards below.
She tried to sit up, but her body refused. Her mind, however, began to unravel the knots. There were flashes—fragments of a forest clearing, a red cloak, blood on snow. A woman screaming. A voice, too deep to belong to any lamb, whispering:
“She doesn’t need to know.”
Mary began to weep, quietly. And Sebastian pressed closer, as if comforting her.
But she noticed something.
The smell.
Not of earth or hay. Not of farm life or woodsmoke.
It was the coppery scent of blood.
Mary’s gaze drifted across the room. In the corner, beneath a cloth, was something lumpy. A shape she couldn’t define. She blinked hard, and when she opened her eyes again, the cloth was gone.
Empty space.
No trace.
Her mind must be playing tricks on her. That’s what Sebastian told her.
“You’re remembering things that didn’t happen,” he said calmly, almost pitying. “Trauma creates shadows. I’m here to keep them away.”
She nodded, trying to believe him. But every night, when the candle burned low and the shadows grew long, the whispers returned.
And they weren’t in her head.
They came from beneath the floor.
