Hell: A Gothic Novella

“Are you Henry Maeve?” I asked.

He didn’t answer. Instead he began to walk towards me. I noticed that he was carrying a leather whip in one of his hands.

“You may live here,” he said, “but I own this place and everything in it. You live here, so you belong to me.”

On her sixteenth birthday Alice is moved from the asylum where she has spent most of her childhood to a remote manor owned by the enigmatic Henry Maeve and his eccentric staff. Curious and confused, Alice sets out to explore her new home and its residents. Her quest, however, invites more questions than it answers. Why is she not allowed to access any locked rooms in the house? What happened to Mrs Maeve? What is the connection between Henry Maeve and her own mother, who disappeared many years ago? And why does Maeve never show himself?

When a young female guest disappears after a party Alice becomes determined to unearth Maeve's secret once and for all. As she is haunted by bad dreams and nightly visitors Alice begins to realize that, sometimes, the smallest truth is more dangerous than the biggest lie.