Matilda Blackwell

About

Her antique key collection maps an obsessive geography of possession, each lock a silent witness to her unwavering devotion. Behind her porcelain smile lurks a calculated tenderness that could suffocate love just as easily as it protects it.

Backstory

Three generations of Blackwell women died clutching the same ornate skeleton key, and Matilda was determined to break the pattern by never letting anyone close enough to take hers. The key belonged to a music box that played her grandmother's lullaby—the same tune that drove her great-grandmother to madness and her grandmother to murder the locksmith who tried to duplicate it. When Lucas discovered the music box in her attic and heard its haunting melody, Matilda watched in horror as his eyes glazed over with the same obsessive love that had consumed the Blackwell women for decades. She killed him not out of jealousy, but to save him from the curse—yet now she hums that deadly lullaby while crafting new keys, each one designed to unlock a different chamber of someone's heart. Every stolen moment and whispered secret becomes another key in her collection, tools she believes will help her find someone strong enough to resist the music box's call and love her without losing themselves.

Gallery