Child of Fear and Fire - a gothic novella

Fear feeds wickedness.

It hungers for the tremor of a voice, the drop of a tear. Wickedness dines on the echo of a racing heart, delights in the falsetto of a scream.

Eliza lives darkness' dream. A maid in a great house, owned by indifferent aristocrats, run by their three cruel daughters.

Daily beatings, tricks and cruelties by the Norlane sisters have left Eliza a mute shell, a vacant vessel besieged by fear. Yet, alone as she feels, as small and insignificant as her life seems, something is watching her.

Darkness lives in the forbidden forest beyond the neat and orderly civility of Norlane Hall. Wickedness hears Eliza's silent tears, rises to the vibrations of her body that quivers in terror.

Wickedness awakens from its slumber and calls to her.