Hollow Kingdom / Season 1, Episode 9
Descent into Darkness
Eleanor’s fingers trembled as she gripped the lantern, the glass slick with the damp of her own sweat. The east wing’s air clung to her skin, heavy with the stench of mould and something sweeter, sharper, like rusted iron left to fester. The staircase before them descended into a maw of shadow, each step warped by time, the wood groaning under some unseen weight. Margot stood a pace ahead, her breath shallow, her artist’s hands twitching as if sketching invisible horrors in the air. The painting—damn that painting—loomed in Eleanor’s mind, the figure on these very steps, faceless yet familiar, a prophecy Margot swore she’d drawn before they’d even set foot back in Ashworth Hall. “You don’t hear it?” Margot whispered, her voice brittle, snapping Eleanor from her spiralling thoughts. “It’s… it’s down there. Like a heartbeat. Like it’s waiting.” Eleanor tightened her jaw, the lantern’s weak flicker casting their silhouettes against the peeling wallpaper—flowers once gold, now grey, curling inward as if shrinking from what lay below. “I hear nothing,” she lied, though her ears strained against the silence, catching the faint, rhythmic creak of the house settling. Or was it something else? She wouldn’t give Margot the satisfaction of doubt. Not yet. “You’re letting your imagination run riot. We’ve been over this. It’s just a house. Old, neglected,...