<strong>“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have walked the paths of mystery and stared into the heart of darkness. From those murky depths I have risen, but I fear I did not come back alone. No my friends, I must depart to cage this dreadful spirit. I can only hope that it has not followed me here…”</strong><br/><br/>The words hung upon the air, the menace and black intent apparent to all. Blazing eyes spun out over those in attendance, hooking and enchanting them, each believing they stared deep into their own, perhaps further still, perhaps staring into their souls. The tension and fear within the room was palpable, boarding on sheer terror.<br/><br/>The black cloak billowed out, seeming to encompass the whole room within it’s shadow. Suddenly from within it a dense smoke and mist poured out, the stage obscured, half of the theatre hidden from view. There were screams now, shrill shrieks as they feared what would come. Two red eyes balefully stared out from upon the stage, their rage and fury apparent to all. An otherworldly growl came from the stage, eliciting yet more screams. Flames reared up from the front, mere feet from the nearest audience members, sending them scrambling back. More flames came from the aisles, and then from the back of the hall, the audience surrounded by a ring of fire. The lights plunged out, only the roaring fires giving illumination, the baleful eyes still glaring out. More shouts as a form could be made out through the smoke, an inhuman shape materialising through the mist. Light flooded the stage, the silhouette of the shape there for all to see. Then the cloaked man’s silhouette appeared again, seemingly a sword in his hands as he plunged it into the beast. It growled once more, although it had a piteous tone to it now. The flames died, disappearing as suddenly as they came and smoke billowed up again, hiding the stage from view.<br/><br/>And the lights came back on, the smoke drifting away, the stage empty, only a smell of sulphur hinting at that which had just passed. The audience sat in shock, before the first peels of applause began to ring out, the audience standing and applauding into the vacant space.<br/><br/>Outside in his backstage room, David de Sabre let the cloak flutter to the stand, another performance successfully completed as there was a knock on the door…<br/>