The duvet of dark and threatening clouds was disturbed as the first glimpse of moonlight shone through the trees that encircled many of the houses. They were dead with dark trunks and thin branches and glazed each window; stained and shattered, every window representing the life of those who had once lived there. I approached a cottage with a wrought iron gate barring my passage, each spike wrapped with old vines that gave the place a dejected look. A wall of overwhelming scent hit me, piles of rubbish resembled rotting animal carcasses onto which thousands of flies were drawn to, like a beacon of light.
The sky was navy blue as the sun sank beneath the horizon; the door opened with a creak. A pungent odour filled my nostrils mixed in with a whiff of stale tobacco that shrivelled my taste buds. The door directly opened into a small sitting room. Layer upon layer of dust lined every inch of the room, hiding the layers of secrets and darkness whilst cobwebs infested every corner like a chronic disease. The furniture veiled the sofas like a dress; ants were crawling, scrounging, searching for everything and anything, scurrying past me out into freedom. Feeling queasy, I left this spider infested hole and moved away from the dark cottages and towards the church. The hazel frame of the church door had a corner missing, and the wrought iron door knocker had been eroded with rust and the centuries of decay had faded the once harsh gold colour.
In the shadow of the church lay a cemetery. Darkness set in as the bone chilling wind howled, creating sounds like the whispers of those who lay beneath the ground. All around, the numerous dead were kept company by the stone gargoyles that perched comfortably in the blackness of the sky as stone angels peered down at you as if to keep you away or perhaps to invite you in. There were no flowers. Instead in their place, a bed of thorns, sticks and dismay.
I saw above me what looked like a balcony protruding from the church roof, conveniently a long ladder snaked its way up to it. I climbed. My hands bitter cold. I stood looking out across this small village, the small cottages and the few shops seemed to have been wiped away except from memory although a kind of spirit still seemed to linger. The village looked relatively small, cradled like a baby in the arms of the surrounding hills. I stood, shivering, until night lay with me and the moon struggled to penetrate the canopy above. The leaves were unyielding, hanging on firm in the sudden chill that succeeded sunset. The sounds of unseen creatures and the sound of the creeping dead chilled me to the bone as I slowly breathed in the dark mustiness, the earth laden chill filled by nostrils, burning my insides.
Darkness had fully set in now, only the waning glimmer of light from the moon illuminated my path out of the village. I walked out down the treaded gravel road and up back into the hills from whence I came. Feeling empty with a wretch inside my stomach, I looked back. Only the thin rays of moonlight illuminated the village, it made me sorrowful to know that this was once a thriving village now turned into desolate consummation of filth and misery.
