a painting of a house in the woods at night

### **The Forgotten Room**In the small, quiet town of Raven’s Hollow, there stood an ancient boarding house at the edge of the woods. It was called *The Evergreen Inn*, though nothing about it had been green or alive for decades. The owner, an elderly woman named Mrs. Hargrove, rarely spoke of the house’s history, and most townsfolk avoided the place altogether.One autumn evening, a young traveler named Claire arrived at the inn. She was a backpacker, passing through on her way to the next town. Rain poured in sheets, and the roads were too treacherous to continue. Mrs. Hargrove reluctantly offered her a room, warning her not to wander upstairs. “The second floor is... unsafe,” Mrs. Hargrove said, her cloudy eyes avoiding Claire’s. “Stay on the ground level.”Claire nodded, though her curiosity burned. ---That night, as the storm raged, Claire found it impossible to sleep. The walls groaned with the wind, and faint creaks echoed from above. She dismissed them as the house settling, but her unease grew. At midn