A shrouded image of the damp and decrepit streets of Victorian Era London emerges. It is all Hallow's Eve, 1889 and the witching hours are upon the city.
We catch faint whisperings, rumors of the dark tremblings of the populous...
Thus begins a recollection of that cursed evening's occurrences, rituals, and the horrors that await within.
These are the Victorian Night Tales...
CHAPTER TWO: Darkened Alleyways
Meandering through the wretched, grotesque streets of the London slums, Constable Norman Willows felt afraid. It couldn't just be superstition he knew... but he felt something. A feeling so evil lurking in the air. He continued his search for a child who'd gone missing in the outskirts of the city.
Thunder began bellowing and he struggled through the crowds of the deranged and insane. He knew there was wickedness afoot.
He kept hearing the creeks, and pattering of rain, crackling of thunder as he trudged forward in the mud and sludge. Faces smirking and staring at him through the darkness all around.. Just eerie beings looking to stir trouble.
He found himself hastening his pace only to end up in the heart of that storm. That's when he saw it...
CHAPTER THREE: Abandoned Orphanage
Constable Norman Willows was an organized, firm skeptic. He didn't believe in the supernatural and he too often found himself pursuing logical truths over man's questioning of the heavens, but that night.. he had felt fear.
He stared into that old building when the rain had stopped right upon his entrance, as if the spirits were greeting him...
He continued onward, calling out the missing child's name.. 'Rose!' ... 'Rose!'
The air was silent other than the creeks of the house and billowing of the wind.
He felt the lonesome cold wind remind him of the children who once played there, but above all, the harsh lives and pity he felt for this lost child and the many children who were once at that dilapidated place.
He heard their voices calling to him...
They sang a ghostly tune. perfectly in tune with one another.
He had never felt more afraid in his life, and a chill ran down him, piercing his skepticism of the supernatural.
'Rose!! Where are you!?'... he called desperately..
At long last, he saw her... A ghastly image of a young girl with her eyes missing. She waved at him slowly as the wind howled..
Losing his nerve, Constable Willows left that place as so many others had.
Because who could stay in a house of so much pain and suffering but those who now haunt it....?
CHAPTER FOUR: Waltz of Ambiguity
Finding himself back in the city, Constable Norman Willows heard music near a refined wealthy manor. He continued here seeking refuge from what has been a horrific evening.
Little did he know, that the horrors were just beginning.
The music playing felt filled with jollity but yet highly eccentric, as if something was wrong..
As he explored the ballroom, he came into contact with one Dr. Henry Jekyll there. The gentleman explaining his genius scientific experiments.
He continued looking around in a desperate hope that the girl he had seen was indeed his imagination and that Rose was still alive. He had to find out for sure.. Though, the ghost beared a striking resemblance to her.
As the music continued, Willows noticed the guests drinking an odd beverage and saw the entire ballroom dancing to perpetually insane sounding music.
Suddenly, the music intensified and Willows noticed he wasn't drinking punch... he was drinking blood.
When he turned, he could no longer see Henry Jekyll standing there, and knew something was amiss.
The guests then turned and bared what looked like fangs.
Having barely escaped what has been the most terrifying evening of his life, Constable Norman Willows ended his shift and left for home. He never found Rose, but he felt as if her presence loomed over him that dreadful evening..
Meanwhile.... in the dark labs of scientific alchemy, a sorcery was emerging.
Dr. Henry Jekyll was about to stumble upon what would be his greatest and most horrific creation - The monster inside himself..
CHAPTER SIX: The Clock Tower
Trudging through the city once more, Constable Norman Willows was trembling in the cold, rain drenched streets of London and could feel all of the evils of the world watching him.
He heard the bells of the clock tower in the distance as he pressed on.
He needed to find her.. the missing girl. Rose was all he cared about now. It was beyond his sense of duty that compelled him now, it was his sense of survival and sanity.
He was running out of ideas, and could hear those dreadful strikes of the Clock, signaling his emerging madness.
The Bells seemed to accelerate as the wind howled.
He had no choice but to attempt to find the missing girl and simultaneously find his sanity.
When the bells stopped, on his doorstep, he saw her again. It was Rose. Calling out to her that she'd now been found, Rose called back to him!
She replied 'Father! Is that you?'
She was her daughter and alive and well, and he embraced the child.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Victorian Night Tales
Constable Norman Willows awoke in a sweat. He looked out his window and saw Big Ben, that Clock Tower with his resonating bell.
He stammered in his dark room from a nightmare that night, where evil had run rampant in his thoughts.
He turned from his bedside, and looked at a photo of his long lost daughter Rose, and felt a tear down his cheek as he kissed her goodnight.
The wind howled and leaves rustled violently outside.
He knew he was never able to let her go. Losing her was the hardest thing that had ever happened to him and the photo and that image of her waving was all that remained of Rose Willows.
He couldn't help but feel a chill, so he pulled up his covers.
Somehow he felt warmer, having had a chance to see his daughter again. Even if it was for one night.. He could feel her with him as he slept, accompanying the moonlight and the Clock Tower facing his room.
He went back to sleep, feeling fear once more but also the love of his departed daughter.
That night twas a night of torment, and wretched evils. An evening of the bizarre and the wicked.
The supernatural & paranormal.
The waking & dreaming.
A recollection of the Victorian Night Tales.
credits
released November 15, 2019
Music Composed & Produced by Thomas J. Peters
Produced & Recorded Using Cubase Pro 10.
Instrument Libraries & Samples Used:
EW Hollywood Strings, EW Hollywood Orchestral Woodwinds, Percussion, & Brass, EW Symphonic Orchestra, Spitfire Symphonic Strings, Cinematic Studio Strings, Cinesamples Cineperc & Cinebrass, Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2.5
Public Domain Sound FX / Freesound.org - Contributors:
01. Pale Fog Over London, 1889
Howling wolf.wav (for the Promotional Campaign)
Among the sprawling reach of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California, professional composer Thomas J. Peters
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