Augustine James was as mundane of a wealthy person as one could be. She had no greater aspirations, no strange hobbies, and no deeper thoughts, but she did have a small circle of friends with whom she gossiped over tea every day. When she turned eighteen, her parents gave her a huge mansion right below the hills of a nearby village as a birthday present, knowing that she no longer wanted to spend time with them. Absolutely delighted, Augustine notified her friends of this news immediately, and they all went to the villa not even a day after she had received it.

The manor was nothing short of marvellous. It was the perfect residence for her, a fanatic of Victorian aesthetics. The walls, white as a daisy, did not fail to bring a smile to her face. There were many floors and many roofs, all of them being triangular and composed of dark blue bricks, reminding her of ancient castles. The windows, all arched, had their glass painted over with drawings of butterflies and roses. The building itself was surrounded by a large garden that included a marble fountain, tons of jovial trees whose leaves all glistened like emeralds, as well as all sorts of flowers, some of which she knew and some of which she did not know. However, in spite of how beautiful it seemed, things quickly started to go awry.

After spending a whole day exploring the house and the not-very-populated area around it, they went to bed. Augustine's friends slept well, but she could not do so. She spent all night turning around in bed, immensely disturbed by the winds of cold that threw the branches of the nearby trees at her window, opening the windows constantly. Her head was momentarily invaded by peculiar and unknown voices every few hours. To top it all off, an annoyingly bright light burned through her eyes all the way from the other side of the hills, a light that, by all accounts, should have not been there, and especially not then. Something called her name, tempting her to slowly walk out of the bedroom window - because she was on the bottom floor, of course - and venture towards the source of the strange light. But she did not care enough to be tempted so easily. She shrugged it off as a mere byproduct of her weird and tired nightly imagination and went back to sleep.

When she woke up at seven o'clock the following morning, the same as everyone else, she looked like she came out of a flood. Her male friends, Felix and Heathcliff respectively, did not seem to notice, but her confidante, Desdemona, knew everything about her closest friend, and thus her heart could not help but be engulfed with concern. After breakfast was over with, she pulled Augustine aside and forced her onto the chair right next to her, not at all being able to ignore it anymore.

"Hey, Desdemona," Augustine said through yawns. "What's the matter? Why do you look so stressed? Everything's fine, just as it always was."

Desdemona began aggressively shaking her. "Stop hiding things from me! I know that there is something you refuse to tell me, but I'm your best friend, so you should be able to have faith in me! No matter what happens, I will always be there to help you, and do not think otherwise! Just tell me now!"

Augustine pushed her away, surrendering to the sobs that she had desperately tried to hide. "Fine, I will tell you. The night before was utterly terrible for me. I saw strange sights and heard strange noises and I could sense horrid thoughts that were not mine that told me to go to the source of a light that was not there before and that light was on the other side on the hill and..."

Desdemona patted her on the shoulders right after she began sobbing so much that she could not talk anymore. "It's fine, Augustine. Everything's fine, trust me. The weather's strange here this time of year, you have yet to adjust to new circumstances, you were tired, and it's just the old cathedral that's responsible for the light. We could even go explore it together. Don't think about it anymore and enjoy your stay here. Your life here's going to be great, trust me."

Augustine smiled brightly at her. "Thank you very much. I will enjoy myself. I'm sure that everything's going to be so much better from now on."

Nothing became better. In fact, it became far worse. During the day, Augustine was completely happy while enjoying the spoils of her vast fortune with her friends, but during the night, she could not sleep. The wind and the branches and the voices came back every night, calling her to the cathedral, and every night, she found it harder and harder to ignore the call. It took a toll on her physical and mental state. Her friends were starting to become more and more worried, but they could not do anything, just as she could not do anything herself. It all became even more serious on one fateful night.

In the beginning, everything seemed to be exactly the same as it was before. She was able to ignore the call of the otherworldly forces that haunted her, even if it was difficult. But then, the atmosphere - the natural and the mental one - began to change. The wind and the branches began to sway in the rhythm of a brilliant, supernatural song that fully pleased her ears, the voices whispering into her ear like a passionate lover, making her desire the vicinity of the cathedral, no matter what it brought. Her sole purpose in life at that moment was to go there.

Completely unaware of what was going on around her, she peacefully walked out of her bedroom window, arriving at the cathedral in thirty minutes' time, no one having noticed anything. The place was magnificent, seeming to have been built centuries ago, its walls golden as a trophy, its navy-blue triangular roof piercing through the stormy clouds like a mighty spear, its oaken shelves stacked with thick tomes of ancient knowledge, its torches casting powerful fires around the place, its cherry wood desks full of papers and quills that were sorted but seemed as if they were not, a beautiful mess. She began reading the book that was already opened and placed on the desk, her eyes wide open, thinking of nothing but the lovely yellowed pages that smelled like home.

The words, written in an ancient dead language, brought back horrible memories. It was no language any human had ever heard of, but to her mind, it did not matter, for it was somehow able to understand everything instantly. Her brain was consuming terrible knowledge that made her blood race like a swift river and her heart beat like a drum, realising the constraints of her privilege not only as a spoiled wealthy heir, but also as a human being who had never before known the horrors of the cosmos. There were many places humans were never supposed to venture and many fickle alien creatures who, if they wanted to, could spell doom for mankind forevermore, the same as she might doom a bug with her boot. She had never before been prepared for the life of a regular rational, down-to-earth person. How was she supposed to have been prepared for this?!

Having lost herself in the cathedral and not knowing the way back to her mansion, for she had been led there only by magic in the first place, she ran wherever her legs led her on instinct. However, it was to no avail, as all doors and windows began closing as they noticed her wanting to leave. She wept and screamed on top of her lungs for help, silenced by a cold hand whose slender fingers shut her mouth tight, dragged along the floor. Desperate, she looked at the person. She could not recognise their face, but, due to their robes, she assumed it was the priest. Before she could do anything, he dropped her to the floor, commencing his monologue:

"My dear Augustine James, it seems that I, Priest Ambrose Horace of the Shadow Cathedral, have taught you your lesson. I am a sorcerer who has lived for centuries, the confidante of the Eldritch Gods, who have helped me acquaint myself with the many faults and weaknesses of humankind. You see, I was just like you when I was your age, but now, my existence is so much better that I have chosen to change myself. You may see my power as a curse, but it is better to live in the shadows than to not truly live at all. Besides, you do not have to live like me if you do not want to. You can simply stop being a spoiled wealthy heir who is not aware of anything outside of her privileged bubble and acknowledge that not only is pure hedonism not a sustainable foundation for your existence, but also that you, as well as everyone else, are a mere speck of dust compared to all the eldritch beings out there. Now, you can end your life, or you can begin it anew. The choice is yours."