Gemotions

Her brother, Arthur, inherited the family's vast collection of rare books, each bound in leather and stamped with the family crest. She was given a single, withered rose, pressed between the pages of an unmarked volume. A chill went down her spine.

The book, its pages brittle with age, contained a series of unsettling illustrations. They depicted scenes of decay and desolation, each more disturbing than the last. He found himself unable to stop looking.

She felt a wave of nausea. The rose, once vibrant, now seemed to pulse with a dark energy. She slammed the book shut, but the images remained, burned into the back of her eyelids.