The Phantom's Lullaby

Prologue: The Whispering Manor

The village of Ashbourne had long forgotten the dark history of the old Thornton Manor. Once a grand estate, it now stood as a derelict shell, its windows shattered and doors twisted from decades of neglect. The townsfolk avoided it, claiming the house sang at night—a melody so sorrowful it brought tears to the eyes of anyone unfortunate enough to hear it.

For Mia Carter, the legend was irresistible. As a freelance paranormal investigator, she had explored haunted places before, but nothing compared to the mystery surrounding Thornton Manor. Its original owner, Eliza Thornton, was said to have gone mad after her son drowned in the nearby river. The night she took her own life, the manor began to sing.

Armed with her camera, audio recorder, and a relentless curiosity, Mia made her way to the manor just as dusk painted the sky in hues of crimson and violet.

Chapter One: The Haunting Melody

The air inside was cold and stale, thick with the scent of decay. Every creak of the floorboards echoed through the empty halls. Mia’s flashlight flickered, the darkness clawing at the edges of the light.

She set up her recorder in the grand hall, a place once filled with laughter and warmth. Now, only the groans of the house and the faint rustle of leaves pressing against broken windows remained.

Then she heard it. A soft, mournful lullaby drifting through the air, like fingers gently tracing her spine. Mia’s blood turned to ice.

She pressed her recorder to her chest, her breathing shallow. The melody grew louder, accompanied by the faintest of whispers. Words she could barely make out.

“Come... home...”

Chapter Two: Voices from the Dark

Driven by both terror and fascination, Mia followed the sound. Her footsteps were slow, deliberate. The music seemed to guide her through twisting corridors until she reached the nursery—a room left untouched by time.

A child's broken toys lay scattered across the floor. The wallpaper, once colorful and bright, now peeled away like dead skin. Mia’s eyes fell upon a crib, draped in dust and shadow.

Her recorder trembled in her hand as the melody swelled, wrapping itself around her like a cold embrace.

“Find me...”

The voice was that of a child. Fragile. Desperate.

Chapter Three: The Revelation

Mia spent hours inside the manor, piecing together clues from Eliza Thornton’s fragmented journal. The woman had been obsessed with finding a way to reunite with her son. Rituals, incantations—madness scribbled in ink and blood.

But the truth was simpler. Eliza had never left. Neither had her son.

The lullaby wasn’t meant to harm. It was a plea. A desperate call from a mother searching for her child.

Mia felt the house tremble, its sorrow pulsing through the walls like a heartbeat.

Chapter Four: The Release

Mia stood in the nursery, her voice breaking as she whispered to the darkness. "He's not here. He's gone."

The melody faltered, twisted into a wail of grief so powerful it nearly drove Mia to her knees. But then, silence.

The air grew warmer. The darkness seemed less oppressive. The house, at long last, was free.

As Mia stepped outside, the dawn painted the world in gold. The haunting was over.

Or so she thought.