Ever-Increasing Darkness: Fourteen

Chjristopher Orr lived in a stylish flat in Londn's Docklands. A few people, out late at night, saw a shadow flit between buildings, once leaping across an apparently impossible chasm. They shivered, examining themselves, guilty thoughts springing to mind, despite their best efforts to conceal them.

Christopher Orr was woken up by something landing on his balcony, just too heavy to be a cat. He sat up in bed, as the doors opened to admit a a shadowy figure.

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded angrily. "What do you mean by walking in here?"

"I am the Green Man," came the sinister reply. "And I mean to ask you a few questions. Why did you buy Tonn House?"

"I never heard about it," the man shot back rudely.

A strong hand took him by the throat.

"That's the wrong answer," the Green Man replied. "Do not lie to the Green Man, Christopher Orr. I know the truth. You must confirm it to me. Why did you buy Tonn House before selling it to your brother? What did you mean to do with the house?"

"We were going to turn it into a hotel," he told the implaccable figure in Green. "But the Council..."

"Again, you lie!" the Green Man's vice-like grip tightened on Orr's throat. "Maybe you think I am a fool, that I cannot kill you. But you are not my only source. And a corpse, properly presented, can open all sorts of mouths."

"Okay!" Orr screamed, terrified, "Okay! I'll tell you everything! Tonn House is built on an old Roman Mine, a mine that was closed because the Romans believed they had struck the entrance to hades itself! Doctor..."

He said no more. A gunshot split the still air. Orr pitched forward, then was still. The Green Man turned, drawing his guns. The gun spoke again, and the Green Man stumbled back, pitching over the balcony rail, into the unyielding night.