Is the traveler the king? Right now it looks like someone random just arrived. It’s a typical arrival scene. If he’s the owner of the castle, maybe having the castle behind him while he kneels down holding his head works better, with a fallen crown on the ground? But I think it’s a story that’s very difficult to convey in a single image. As a pure arrival composition, the castle can be bigger and the personal smaller. Also, show the head of the horse otherwise he looks like a centaur.

As for composition I feel like you could zoom in a little, see attached. As for how "evil" it looks, your sky is really light. Perhaps try darkening the sky around the castle / darkening the castle and/or both and compare to see which one feels more "yikes!" Check out the attached castle images. Interestingly the sky around some of these is (sorta) lighter in order to show the castle more in silhouette. Darkness circles the castle, which is an interesting twist to my previous comment. The less you show the castle the scarier it will be. Leaves more to the imagination, the one that shows the castle surrounded by growth feels very inhospitable, so possibly having gnarly vegetation encroaching on the walls could give it some spooky punch. Also, positioning the castle above your main character, instead of side to side, could make it feel more intimidating.

As a recomendation, always try several ones. With each element of your story. Then you will have more options or at least the best ones as final thumbnails.

Hi Atharva. I think you can try to do it more in ruins, first of all. But, in both cases, if you destroy more the castle or let the overall arquitecture be there, try to make it more more ominous. Like making the shapes more as thornes and stinging shapes, . Right now, it gives me the idea of an ancient medieval castle, in the mountains and abandoned. But no more. May be there is something with the character that appears. Hope it helps, but it is a little late. Keep it up!