At His Lordship's Request

by Theresa Donnelly

The garden overgrown with bloodroot and wolf's bane shivered under a lifeless moon. The front door opened into a hall reeking of sulphur and melancholy. Candles cast shadows onto damp walls. Floorboards creaked underfoot.

He continued to the back room: placed the box beneath the mirror on the mantelpiece. Repayment he was told for the Mayor's miraculous recovery. Curiosity gripped him. Nervously, he lifted the lid: found the box.....empty. Suddenly he saw the cloaked reflection behind him: felt icy hands on his neck.

Outside, the wail of a banshee: a silver comb in hand, in the other, a shroud. 

Bio
 
Theresa Donnelly is an Irish/Canadian poet who spends her time between Waterville, Co. Kerry and Brooklin, Ontario. Her work has been widely published on both sides of the Atlantic. She is the author of two poetry books, Moon Witch and Other Scary Poems and Recurrence of Blue. Growing up in Dublin, the city of Dracula’s Bram Stoker definitely influenced and fed her appetite for the macabre www.theresadonnelly.com