Prologue

"The wood fire skipped and danced about my nose but I could see no visible source. Since the muffled beep I had become aware of how still the night was. The rain had driven the wildlife deep undercover and apart from the squelch and gurgle of my stride, the gentle splatter of rain and mud and my short sharp breathes that steamed inches from my face, there was an eerie emptiness beyond. I suddenly felt extremely lonely and it was just as this wave of melancholy washed over me that I heard it. A second breath. Distant and raspier than my own."

Prologue is a short work of fiction that evokes a chill. Andrew finds himself wandering a bridleway in the pouring rain desperate to get home. Isolated, wet and without a coat, he attempts to follow his instincts in hope they will lead him to the road where he can flag down a passing car. As the cold begins to numb his senses, his seclusion is shattered by the presence of a child desperate to make contact. Prologue is a short work of fiction that evokes a chill. Andrew finds himself wandering a bridleway in the pouring rain desperate to get home. Isolated, wet and without a coat, he attempts to follow his instincts in hope they will lead him to the road where he can flag down a passing car. As the cold begins to numb his senses, his seclusion is shattered by the presence of a child desperate to make contact. Shaken but his encounter, Andrew is driven to the brink of sanity until he finds the safety of the road but as the story comes to a close, the reader is left wanting more. What happened to him before he found himself lost in the pouring rain? What happened after the story ends. Who found the photograph? Who is the child?

*this short story also features the micro fiction 'Bedtime Story' exclusive to this download*