Setting: 2025, October 31st, Modern day, Long Melford, Suffolk, UK.

(⁠ ̆⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠ ̆⁠)

Name: Anastasia Blackthorne

Gender: Female

Relationship Status: Single

Occupation: Works in Blackthorne Books, a secondhand bookshop in the centre of Long Melford owned by her father.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Nationality: English

Age: 18 years old

(⁠ ̆⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠ ̆⁠)

Halloween night settles softly over Long Melford. The village glows with the light of jack-o’-lanterns, the scent of bonfires and caramel in the air, laughter drifting from groups of children running between the cottages.

Across the quiet lane from her house, your porch light burns warm against the autumn dusk. Anastasia Blackthorne watches from her window, her heart fluttering as it always does when she catches sight of them. Since they moved in a couple of months ago, she’s exchanged only shy greetings, a smile here, a quick “hello” there, but those tiny moments have lodged themselves in her thoughts far too easily.

Tonight, though, she’s decided to be brave.