Before she was queen of whispers,
before the attic crowned her with silence,
Annora was simply a girl the house couldn't forget.
She came to Dorma like so many before her—
dragged by circumstance, half-packed grief in her eyes,
and a mother who disappeared behind locked doors.
The house had been sleeping then.
Not dead.
Just waiting.
It was Annora who woke it.
Not with words.
With attention.
She heard it first on the second night.
A sound beneath the floorboards of her bedroom—
Not.