Hollow Manor

You wake in the dark of Hollow Manor, and the front door is locked.

Five keys stand between you and the night air — brass, iron, silver, oak, and the master key that no living hand should hold. Each one sleeps deeper in the house than the last, in a library that drinks sound, a dining room still set for guests who never left, a nursery where something sings to the walls.

She walks the halls. The Lady in Grey drifts room to room in her tattered burial gown, and the house tells her where you are. Run and your pounding feet carry down every corridor. Light your lantern and she sees the glow beneath the doors. Crouch low, keep to the walls, and if the cold comes — slip inside a wardrobe, hold your breath, and wait for the whispers to pass.

• Sneak or be taken — line-of-sight stalking with real hearing, sight cones, and a chase theme you'll learn to dread
• Hide like your life depends on it — four wardrobes across the manor, each with a slit to watch her through
• A mansion with a past — eight letters piece together the Hollow family's last winter, and what the house did with it
• Room-by-room escape — unlock each wing, wake what sleeps there, and find the master key where the child slept

Eight letters hidden. Five keys. One door. And she is very, very patient.