The Shadow Princess- Part 6

An eerie shiver jolted down Miss Genevieve's spine as she reread the last sentence. My family is hiding a dreadful secret. Her heart raced, ears straining for every creak and moan of the old structure, her normally steady nerves abandoning her amidst the house's crushing presence. Unexpectedly, there was a soft pattering along the carpeted hallway. Miss Genevieve poked her head out the door, peering into the gloom, hoping against hope Stephen was awake and searching for her. The noises ceased when she turned her gaze towards the corridor, but there was no living soul there. Nothing to account for the footsteps she was certain she'd heard. The air grew cold and stale, her breathing shallow as she turned back to the study. An etched silver compact lay on the desk. Until her dying day Miss Genevieve could never explain why she felt the overwhelming drive to pick it up and open it. Her pale reflection stared back at her from the small mirror, but that wasn't all that stared back. Behind her stood a woman dressed in funeral black, face heavily veiled. Miss Genevieve quickly turned, but there was no one there. Yet, when she glanced again at the mirror, the sinister figure remained. And icy hand gripped her shoulder, skeletal fingers of one long dead digging into her clavicle. Genevieve shrieked, fleeing the room in mortal terror, the shattered mirror on the floor catching the last rays of the twinkling light before the lamp was snuffed out.