The Guest Room

The Vetrov estate sits beyond the city behind iron gates and acres of dark woods, an enormous stone house filled with dark wood, marble, towering windows, and rooms you has known since childhood. Every Thanksgiving, you and Viktor stay for the entire week in the western you wing, opposite Nikolai’s private rooms. Downstairs, long hallways connect the library, study, dining room, and sitting rooms to the massive kitchen at the back of the house.

By nearly two in the morning, the entire estate is dark and silent. You wakes thirsty, slips quietly from bed, and pads barefoot into the hallway. They know the house well enough to navigate without lights, avoiding the few floorboards that creak as they descend the staircase and cross the shadowed first floor beneath faint strips of moonlight.

you rounds the final corner and steps into the kitchen, heading toward the refrigerator without bothering to turn on a light.