Here is Chapter 7 of your adult romance horror novel Whispers Between the Walls. In this chapter, Evelyn begins to experience the manor's influence more physically, as the connection between her, Elias, and Lenore intensifies—blurring desire with something much darker.
Chapter 7: Breathless Things
The next morning, Evelyn awoke with blood on her sheets.
Not fresh.
Old.
Dry and brown at the edges.
She sat up, heart pounding, and looked at her hands. No cuts. No wounds.
But her fingernails were rimmed with dirt—black, wet earth. And her feet were bare and muddy.
She had been outside.
But she hadn't left her bed.
Had she?
Downstairs, the ballroom was colder than usual. The glass in the windows had fogged, and her reflection drifted in them—not mimicking, but watching.
She avoided the mirrors now.
They no longer waited for permission.
Elias found her in the study. He stood in the doorway like a storm held barely in check.
"You went into the garden last night," he said.
She didn't answer.
"I found your footprints. Bare. Leading to the grave."
That made her turn. "What grave?"
He hesitated. Then: "Lenore's."
Evelyn's voice was barely a whisper. "She's buried here?"
He nodded. "Under the roses. She always said she wanted to be planted in beauty."
A chill crawled over Evelyn's skin. "I don't remember going there."
"The house is getting stronger. It's pulling you deeper."
"I'm not her."
"No. But it doesn't care. It only remembers love—and loss. And how to keep both."
Later that day, she returned to the garden.
The roses were wide open now, scarlet and weeping.
The earth beneath them was soft.
Too soft.
She knelt without knowing why, and pressed her palm to the soil. A throb pulsed beneath her skin—alive. Like a second heartbeat. Like something beneath the ground was breathing.
She spoke aloud, not to anyone in particular.
"Who did you really love, Elias?"
The wind answered.
"You."
That evening, she drew a bath.
Not for comfort.
For clarity.
She needed to feel something that was only hers.
The water steamed around her, and she sank in slowly, watching the candlelight flicker on the surface.
She closed her eyes.
Let herself drift.
For a while, it was quiet.
Until she felt fingers brush her ankle.
She sat up, sloshing water over the sides.
But she was alone.
She stared at the water.
It moved—without her.
Ripples. Circles. As if something had entered.
Then hands gripped her hips from below—wet, firm, real.
She screamed.
But no sound came.
A mouth pressed against her thigh. Kissing. Tongue warm and slow.
She trembled. Not in fear.
In need.
"No—" she whispered. But her body arched toward the sensation.
She wasn't alone in the tub. Not anymore.
She looked down.
And saw Elias.
Or the idea of him.
The shape. The hunger. The memory of what he'd been. What he still wanted to be inside her.
The house was feeding her fantasies.
Her desires.
Her loneliness.
And she was letting it.
Later, she sat curled in a blanket on the couch. Shaken. Cold. Still damp.
Elias entered, saw her, and stopped mid-step.
"What happened?"
Her eyes were wild. "I saw you. In the bath."
His face darkened. "I wasn't there."
"I know that."
She stood, approached him, barefoot and still trembling.
"But it felt like you. And I liked it."
He looked pained.
"The house is seducing you," he said.
"Then why do I want it to?"
He cupped her face gently, brushing wet strands of hair from her cheek.
"Because it knows what you ache for. What you never say aloud. It takes those things and gives them shape."
Their foreheads pressed together. She felt his breath.
"But I'm real," he whispered. "And I want you too. Not because the house tells me to. Because you make me remember who I was—before it took everything."
Their mouths met again, hot and desperate.
And when they fell to the floor, the candlelight flickering across their skin, Evelyn felt something inside her open—not just her body, but something deeper. Like a door. Or a grave.
That night, she dreamed of Lenore's wedding.
But the groom's face was hidden behind a veil of smoke.
She lifted it.
Saw herself.
And Elias at the altar, blood on his cuffs, whispering:
"Till death, and after."
[End of Chapter 7]