The storm that had battered the coastline slowly subsided and although the wind and rain had finally relented, evidence of its activities remained in the form of puddles along the chalk paths that littered the countryside.  As the dying winds finally allowed the the heavy clouds to part the moonlight desperately tried to break through the forbidding gloom and a thin, feeble light shone down from the brooding night skies casting it's meagre beams onto a small stone building tucked away in the corner of an otherwise deserted field.

Despite its best efforts, the light was still too weak to have any real effect and so darkness continued to envelope the decaying room, its suffocating nothingness seeping into every corner.  Too deep for shadows, the voids contained an eerie inky blackness that sucked all light from the surroundings leaving nothing for the eyes to see which only ensured that the monsters of the imagination had ample places to lurk, and to grow.

After what seemed like an eternity of fruitless effort, the moonlight's persistence paid off and thin beams of watery light finally managed to find their way onto the crumbling brickwork.  Broken and missing mortar had created sanctuaries for various insects that had sought shelter from the recent deluge, ivy had taken hold on one corner and a piece of broken gutter still dripped, its contents not quite yet depleted.

Had anyone been there to look, a glance jut a little further upwards would have revealed a grubby window set into the gable end wall just beneath a crooked chimney stack that miraculously still defied gravity.  Rain drops had raced their way down the glass, smearing the grime that had almost but not quite blocked their downwards progress.  It was through this window that light finally forced it's way into the room beyond revealing not only the form of a petite female figure blindfolded and shackled to a decrepit bed, but also the outline of much larger individual moving purposefully towards her, the moonlight glinting along the knife blade that was held in it's raised hand...

To be continued