The Banshee: A Song in the Dark

Book

The Banshee: A Song in the Dark by O.Bugger

Darkness crawls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood. To terrorise your neighbour's wood.

An ancient scholar, Jack Sun of Nevereverland, once wrote a ballad with those thrilling words.

He was obviously warning of the Banshee. The Keening Lady. The Beantsihde. The Cyhyraithe.

She of the voice that freezes the heart of the hearer. She whose shrill song pierces crystal and reduces bone to dust.

Sightings of the Banshee are rare, but they do happen to those who stepped into Toughwood and slept in what they thought was the relative safety of the ruins of Cronwell Keep.

In an excerpt from the diary of the adventurer, Ma Shetty, the Banshee is described thus...

"As the blood moon sat, like a giant bloodshot eye behind the crooked black tower, the wind suddenly rose in noise and fever.

As I huddled against the broken wall, pulling my cape closer to me against the ethereal maelstrom, I heard a cry from below the Keep.

I adjusted my eyes against the dark, saw a faint glow passing the crumbling arched windows, and heard a haunting song.

A voice, dreamlike and distant, lamenting the moon and filled with regret and sorrow. A voice grasped at my soul and burrowed into my mind like a worm.

I did not see the singer, as I had screamed and ran from that place. I ran until my lungs burst, and Toughwood was long behind me.

The song never left my head until this day, and as I write, I look up at the moon and play with the tip of my knife, wondering if I can burrow into my mind too."