The Moongleam house was an old house with strange architecture, half-Colonial and half-Victorian in design. Sitting at the end of Stepes Rod, it was one of the oldest houses in Gallows Spire.
For young Yllana, and many others in town, the house carried with it an air of mystery. What nobody else realized was how unusual and difficult life was in the old house.
Old as it was, the house was in a constant state of disrepair. Yllana was used to nights of sleep to the sound of rainwater catching in pots from the leaky roof, of how the shutters creaked in the wind. The dining room room had warped boards jutting out like a mound and the old attached greenhouse was constantly overgrown.
Longtime residents of Gallows Spire called the Moongleam house the town's yearly tribute to Halloween. Which was somewhat fitting given the family's unusual practices.
Yllana had learned about the plants and herbs of nature from her grandmother. Her father had taught her about the stars, and her mother unusual trinkets. Her aunts and cousins would come visit at the house at least four times a year for great gatherings, and when the house was so filled with people there was the unsaid risk of the house toppling over if too many people were on the upper floor at once.
Yes, Yllana's life had been an unusual one, but that came it its own benefits. She had never feared the dark, and knew the backwoods and quiet, hidden places of Gallows Spire even more than her wayward roaming friends. She had read a great many old books and was an avid reader, most of the library dedicated to occult history and dark romances. If anything, her family encouraged her to find the unknown and Yllana always kept her mind open.
Just after dawn, Yllana crept up to the attic tower in her nightdress. The highest point of the house, the floors buckled heavily in warning against too many climbing this high, but Yllana loved seeing the morning from here given the tower's immense stained glass window. It was a spiraling, exquisite piece that looked something like a broken clock or the orbits of the planets, only the glass was cracking.
Still, from up here Yllana could see all of Gallows Spire over the tops of the trees in the woods surrounding the house. As she watched the sun rise in the east, over the rolling hills of fall foliage and grand bluff, the span of the southern neighborhood could be seen. Towards the center of town more regulated, square and larger buildings could be seen, such as the town hall, library, and the church spire could be seen. Towards the north, the sprawl went up one of the hills, and where the distant treelike broke the fields opened to some of Gallows Spire's old farms.
Yllana had lived here all her life, and the town of Gallows Spire was more than a living town for her. It had its own secrets, especially around Halloween, and this holiday more than ever Yllana vowed to discover them
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