Chapter 190: Darkest hours of the night
A deluge of rain poured down on the Storm Castle as ominous clouds growled in the sky, preventing Emily from falling asleep. With the burning fireplace as the only source of light in the room, she peered at it from beneath her blanket. The night was stormier than the previous two days of her stay, almost as if testing her courage against the enveloping darkness within the room.
The curtains remained drawn, concealing the window through which intermittent lightning flashes attempted to cast eerie shadows from the objects in her room, seemingly menacing her.
As thunder struck nearby, Emily’s heart swelled with unease. She whispered to herself,
"Maybe I should go look for the candles." Over an hour had passed since she had settled into bed, and the relentless rain showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.
Emily pushed the blanket away from her body and climbed out of the bed. She made her way towards the door, her hand reaching for the doorknob and turning it. As she stepped into the corridor, she observed the dimly lit passage being occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning outside the windows, only to be plunged back into darkness moments later.
Emily’s bare feet carried her away from her room, leading her in the direction of the stairs. Silently, her feet padded down the steps, the faint creaks muffled by the relentless storm outside. Yet her ears caught the haunting music that floated through the air like ghosts of departed souls.
A few dimly burning candles cast a soft glow as she made her way towards the location of the piano. Her hair was loosely tied with a small ribbon, and her nightdress was covered by a robe. Eventually, she arrived at the source of the soul-stirring music.
As Emily finally reached the room, she noticed that the door had been left slightly ajar. Peering inside, she caught sight of a small candle sitting on top of the piano, before which sat Raylen.
His head was slightly bowed, his eyes closed, something she could discern due to the candlelight casting a glow upon his face. She noticed how passionately his hands danced across the keys, their rhythm in tune with the pace of her anxious heart.
Emily watched Raylen from a distance, her hand gripping the wall next to her for support. She had never seen him in this state of intense concentration, as if he were pouring his very soul into his performance. With each higher note he played, the tumultuous clouds outside grew even more violent. There was something profoundly heartbreaking about the piece of music he was currently playing.
When Raylen’s fingers came to a halt, and his gaze shifted towards the door, Emily quickly hid herself behind the wall. For some inexplicable reason, it felt wrong to listen, as if she were intruding upon an intimate secret buried deep within the sands of time. Abandoning the idea of finding candles, she quickly ran back to her room, her rapid footsteps masked by the thunderous roars of the stormy clouds.