Darkness Falling — Barbara Kevern

DOWN THE DARKENED HALL...

The candle cast a dim halo of light which penetrated only a few feet of darkness; it flickered, creating eerie shadows which seemed to move.

The person Patricia had encountered in the hallway had gone into her bedroom. She thought of searching the bedroom, but decided against it. Patricia made her way down the stairs slowly, calling out to the constable. He didn't answer, but at the foot of the stairs she cried out, startled, when a figure suddenly loomed near her. She had nearly dropped the candle and fled before she recognized the constable. He was standing in the middle of the hallway just outside the library.

Patricia took a deep breath to quiet her pounding heart as she stepped towards him. She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes wide with horror. She could neither move nor speak nor think. What she saw in the flickering yellow splotch of candlelight was so unimaginably horrendous that her brain simply refused to record the sickening sight.

Would she ever leave this house alive?