The Shadows Trilogy by Paul Kane

jumbled as before, but strangely they were louder in volume. And as I listened, sat behind the desk in Lynch’s still-warm leather chair, they separated - becoming individual - each one giving me instructions.

I tried to resist their demands, gritting my teeth until I thought I would pass out. But my efforts were in vain. I had to obey them, do as they commanded. Taking the ink pen in my hand, I reached for a fresh sheet of paper and began to write. To my surprise the words flowed easily: sentences, paragraphs, soon pages of prose, all in Lynch’s old fashioned handwriting.

And the more I wrote, the more I became aware of the things from upstairs flocking to my desk, converging there and gathering around my body. The voices were telling me exactly what to put down, I knew that, yet I felt some part of me was actually contributing to the story. All my life I’d wanted to write horror like Lynch, and now I was - exactly like him. The elation was at once substituted for pure terror, though, as I read the content of the tale I’d committed to paper... *** Since that first night I’ve uncovered more of the secrets of this place, and the thought of what I’ve become appals me. I’ve managed to piece it all together, what has happened, what has been happening here for the last two centuries.

They leave me virtually alone in the day you see, my new masters, so I’ve had plenty of time to conduct research in the vast library here.

What Lynch failed to tell me about the French architects who constructed this house was that they were both members of a universal group called ‘The Order of the Shadows’ - devotees of the black arts who follow what is known as the left-hand path.

They needed an isolated spot, not just because they failed to fit in on these shores, but also to keep their bloodthirsty activities a secret. Rituals they used to call up unfathomable things in the dead of night. Things that remain here to this day.

Sir Horace Fenshaw had been the first writer to encounter the men, and in exchange for ideas for his narratives, in effect his fame, he gave them - 13 -