Dancing boastful shadows surrounded the area. They pranced and bounded around in shades of obsidian and blotched grey; each movement graceful and yet rambunctious. Other shadows glanced around with a bored look upon their faces, almost sour with disgust. But all of them created a symphony of voices--some light in tone, some dark; some older and ragged, some harmonious and young. Harsh laughter and boisterous shouts surrounded the area. It was quite a lot concentrated in one place. All things collided into a loud mass of noise but some things could be heard. 

‘’Must be a good day for The Lord.’’

‘’Yes! Yes! A good day.’’

‘’We may feast today.’’

‘’Lets try to catch a glimpse…’’

‘’Yes! A glimpse of My Lord.’’

In the city’s centre there was even more life and sound. Stalls of varying kinds lay out around the area, covered in deep and rich colours which belonged to Their Lord. The hues and shades of black, silver and purple which covered all the city centre added colour to the locale and yet seemed to drain colour as well, since the stalls and many of the side posts were covered in satin and a sheer material. Many eerie and orange hued lanterns set out upon the sky, drifting and held together with crimson strings, lacing together to cordon in the sides of the streets, joining the various tolls, bridges and arches on which people might pass. It was obvious that the area was just as rambunctious as the people and the gothic overtones were evident in the architecture and design. This city was harsh and the smell of death was a scent with which those who resided here were quite familiar. Petrichor also surrounded the inhabitants–a not altogether pleasant scent, but not an unpleasant one either.

The recalcitrant people who resided here had skin tones of purples, reds, blues and whites, and ranged from young to old. Some had beautiful skin as perfect as marble or stone while others showed flashes of cracks and dying broken flesh where their robes did not cover.  All covered in dark colours, some with excessive and flamboyant makeup to cover the decaying flesh and others in simple contrite attire. It was not clear whether the inhabitants were living or deceased. Perhaps they were something in between. Whatever they were, they roamed as the breath and life of the city. A city which never truly stood still. 

‘’Come, buy the most precious jewels,’’ a young bespectacled man spoke, standing at what appeared to be a rather cheap and quickly thrown together stall. Fake jewels and crystals of all kinds surrounded him as he gestured, face grim with a strained smile. He looked stressed and in a hurry and kept checking over his shoulder. 

‘’As if!’’ someone yelled back, laughing and gesturing toward the stall as they loosely bumped into their neighbouring friend. Their ashen face was almost shedding, and their dishevelled robes were a black opaque mess of ripped cloth and harried fabric. His companion was much the same, with small silver horns on his enlarged head which seemed to have been sharpened to a fine point.

Another snide snicker rang out as someone sneered toward the stall. 

‘’If the lord don’t shop ‘ere, I’m sure as hell not,’’ he spoke through a guffawing laugh, spit falling from his cracked mouth as he made a disrespectful gesture of ‘go away.’ The jeweller's visage look on, defeated. 

A properly attired perfume stall sat further down the path. The smells of its many concoctions were almost overwhelming and overpowering even with the air flowing through the city. An older admonishing lady sat behind the counter, her hair greying as it fell past her shoulders. Dark robes made her almost witch-like in appearance, as she remained sat behind the stall. She grinned, her teeth a crooked yellow row. 

“You fine young lads should try a perfume for your lady,” she croaked at the men passing by. Her hoarse voice was weathered with age and use. The woman appeared to be missing an eye, and the black hole, ghastly to look at directly, darkened her already fearsome features. 

“I think ya should mind your own business lady,” one of the men chucked toward her. “This stuff stinks,” the other muttered, scornfully. He held his nose in the air and made an exaggerated motion of wafting the smell away as he followed his companion. They both laughed. She eyed them angrily, her smile withering away as she watched them take their leave. 

Finally, at the end of the road, there was a shabby stall selling food. A butcher’s block. It barely looked sanitary. Racks of meat and whole fish could be seen. A large, oafish and grisled man manned this well established station and he did nothing but glare at the two as they passed. They simply glared back.

Both men seemed to lengthen their stride, trying to appear taller than they were. It was clear the two thought they were better than everyone here. They carried themselves as though they were important and noble, despite their state of attire and lack of manners proving otherwise. 

The two continued on laughing and bantering with one another. Most in this town could be considered rude, but surely these two were unproportionally inappropriate. The true problem was, in a place such as this, being polite often got one nowhere and surely being rude was the only way to get by. Or at least, that's what some of the locals would tell a passerby if one was brave enough to ask. 

Reaching the end of the town square, that was all that seemed to be of the city. If it were not in the town centre it simply did not exist. There was however, a quiet end of the path and one place where even these two delinquents wouldn’t dare go near. A foreboding sense of ominous danger surrounded the area. Darkness crept in as the two huddled closer together. As the two got close they shivered, though it was not cold. 

“This place gives me the creeps,” one of the men muttered, crossing his arms in an attempt to close in on himself. For the first time the man made himself smaller, appearing, for the moment, his age. All of his faux confidence seemed to be blown away with the howling wind as he was struck into awed silence.

“Let's turn back,” the other responded, slowing in his step. A full body shiver raked through him as he eyed the dark twisting shadows which were too close to where he was standing. It was like a thousand sets of piercing eyes were always watching and tracking whoever got close enough. They almost seemed alive.

The two young men quickly turned on their heel and left, not wanting to be in the area any longer. It seemed as though most wouldn’t venture toward this part of town. Nor was this a spot to dilly-dally in. The silence was deafening and in direct contrast to the boisterous and lively city centre.

Here an extravagant manor could be found and stood at the absence of chaos. It laid among the careening shadows and an odd almost magical darkness that seemed to surround the locale. Made from a dark granite stone and blackened oak, it stood tall, though no one dared to go near it in some unspoken faith held vow. It would, after all, be rather disrespectful to intrude on someone else's territory. And this, was clearly the territory to someone of great importance. 

The silver accents on the ebony coloured walls stood out among the darkness like flashy ornamentation. The dancing shadows almost beckoned for wary travellers to go inside. It was big. Bigger than the other resident buildings found throughout the city, overwhelming in its size and structure. 

Above hung the moon, and the deep twilight sky could not shine through the surrounding trees due to their dense nature, making it impossible in the darkness to see what was growing there. Impossible to sense what madness lurked beyond the void…

Among the heckling shadows and the impenetrable darkness stood a lone figure cloaked in black. They appeared small, though no other details could be made out other than their stature. They seemed comfortable in the abyss, the darkness, and appeared to be watching, looking out for anything that may intrude. A pair of crimson red eyes could be seen in the impending darkness near the figure, almost glowing as they stared out toward the black, facing the same space as the other. These eyes were not human, yet they did not appear to be a threat. Not yet anyway… They simply stared; a brightness in the dark, a warning for those who may notice. Next to those eyes the figure was slight, wind causing the minimalist of movements of the dark hooded cloak to be seen from the shadows with a thousand eyes. It appeared that even within the silence of the manor, there was life.