49. Master

Many years ago, on a dark and stormy night, the disfigured and enigmatic Doctor John Smith invited his closest friends, Inspector Victor Schaeffer and his wife, Jacqueline, to a dinner to celebrate his birthday. A few hours later all the occupants in that house had been changed ­ some were dead, others mentally scarred forever by the events of that night.

So, what happened to the distinguished dinner guests on that evening? Perhaps, we¹ll never know. But two clues have led to much speculation ­ found outside the study window, a charred umbrella with a curved red handle and found inside the house, a blood-stained copy of Stevenson¹s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

For one person, this night represented an ending: an ending to one thousand years of darkness and an ending to ten years of light.

But, for everyone else, is there no ending of this one night of Hell?

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