text: This is an idea I had this morning, I haven't read though it yet but it is the set up of a much longer short story than I've written before. **Castle Stalker** The bell tolled 12, thus marking the second day of my solitary confinement in uncles secluded estate, I haven’t a clue why I didn’t invite anyone to come here to keep me company, this place was boring as hell. Although disturbingly breath-taking, the 14th century castle sat upon its own island surrounded by a prison of deep blue water. The castle was originally gifted to King James to be used as a hunting lodge and I am unsure of how it came into my uncle’s possession. He’d moved here after his divorce and retirement citing escaping the hustle and bustle of Edenborough as his reason for departing. The whole family thought he’d gone mad, who in their right mind would want to live in such a desolate place, no neighbours, no shops, it was to some degree my idea of hell. But this was the place I had to call home for now at least, while sorting through his estate, you see last month the haggard old bastard had finally kicked the bucket, and not in the nicest of ways. No one was really surprised considering the letters aunt Gem received from him got more and more incoherent before eventually ceasing. Left it a month or two before deciding to make a visit, when Aunt Gem finally turned up she’d found him butt naked, face down in the bath tub, we’d come to the conclusion that he’d had enough and decided to drown himself. What a way to go out! I couldn’t think of anything worse, imagine, your last moments as your lungs filled with air, fighting the urge to come up and breath, to wonder what dark thoughts must be going through a man’s mind to commit such an action. Me and Uncle Josh never really had much of a relationship after he moved here, he never really had much of a relationship with anyone after, life ruined him. I remember back when I was a kid, we’d always visit him in Edenborough and have the best time. He was so kind, the entertainer of the family, you know, one of those people that seems to derive the pleasure of life from making other people laugh. He was full of tremendous one liners. I remember this one he always used to say about a penguin. Anyway, it went like this a penguin takes his car to the shop and the mechanic says it'll take about an hour for him to check it. While he waits, the penguin goes to an ice cream shop and orders a big sundae to pass the time. The penguin isn't the neatest eater, and he ends up covered in melted ice cream. When he returns to the shop, the mechanic takes one look at him and says, "Looks like you blew a seal." "No," the penguin insists, "it's just ice cream." To me it was as if he’d died a long time ago, I hadn’t even seen him in the last five years, even when I did, he was a shell of the man he was before, it’s strange when that happens, like the former personality had died only to be replaced by a strange withered old man, he’d aged terribly since the move both mentally and physically. I believe it’s because we’re supposed to be social beings, not those isolated from the tribe, with no interaction, that sort of thing could really change a man.