Gray's Cozy Nook

Iron bars painted against a lavender night sky, protectively guarding what lay within its embrace. A manor with windows dressed in stark darkness loomed from behind, neither candle, shadow, or ghostly soul stirred from behind the glass. It’s only visitor, was the moon that dared to dance against the panes, trying to coax the sleeping sins that lay within its domain.

For anyone who managed to find the estate, they would see a mansion that was past it’s prime, a beaten relic of something that belonged in the late 1700s. However, that was if, you were a normal human who couldn’t see past the magic protective veil that made the Ten’no Dormitory look like some horrific haunted house. Kyori Ten’no looked at the large Victorian style home, to her  it stood proudly in the night, harboring many secrets within it’s hold.

Lots and lots of deadly secrets at that. Loose strands of raspberry chocolate tendrils tickled her cheeks as she tucked the loose strands back over her ears. It had been a decade since she last stepped foot onto the grounds, albeit, she never thought she would ever do so again. Not after the …

“Don’t think about it,” she ordered herself. There was no point in rehashing old memories, especially from this place. She pulled the lapels of her rain coat, autumn had come faster and was nipping at her flesh. Teasing her skin with lascivious intent to come undone, like hell she would allow that though.

The heels of her boots clicked against the cement pavement as she carefully made her way to the front door and pulled the skeleton key from her pocket. Kyori looked at the key in her hand, the golden piece of metal glowed under the moon, the crest of her family branded into the key wards. Such a powerful family she came from, and also a quite dangerous one, she thought to herself as she pushed the key into the door.

Kyori narrowed her eyes as a panel opened to the right of her, the mouth of a familiar gargoyle peering up to her as it’s white fangs eagerly awaited her blood. Lifting her right hand over the mouth of the beast, she pressed her index finger against the lowest canine and felt blood begin to seep from the tip. Red slid down the creatures throat, and a low humming noise began to resonate all around her as the house slowly flickered to life.

The giant door that held the key in it’s grasp began to clank and whir as Kyori reached for the key and twisted it to the right, three times until a click sounded.

“So time consuming,” she muttered as she turned the key only a quarter backwards and shoved it further into the lock. Chains grated and a moaning emitted from the door, lowering itself down into the bottom of the floor and allowing her entrance.

“Show time.”