A man, chained and held captive in a root cellar for 20 years by a jealous husband, eventually escapes and sires a child. A little boy with the soul of a werewolf.
A lonely wife cheats. A brutal husband gets his revenge. A not-so-innocent stranger hears the root cellar door bang shut--and thus begins 20 years of indescribable horror, chained in total darkness, feeding on live rats and human flesh, becoming, himself, the nightmre creature that lurks within us all. He escapes the root cellar and rapes a young wife, siring a child. The boy seemed a perfectly normal child. But, unknown to his parents, something monstrous and unnatural is growing inside him--something he cannot control or understand---a dark secret which transforms him from a happy, contented young boy into a maddened beast, scouring the woodland in search of living prey. For inside the boy is a wild animal, clawing and clamoring to get out.
Excerpt
The darkened interior of the house was as silent as a tomb. Furniture and objects along the floor cast long, mingling shadows, their shapes lost in a general haze of deep greys and blacks.
The creature waited. Only his eyes moved, darting quickly along the floor from one side of the room to the other, searching for movement.
A large grey and brown rat scurried out from the shadows beside the fireplace and across the floor. When it paused momentarily near the mountainous pile of garbage to sniff at an empty tin can, the creature sprang, hands reaching out in front of him, fingers curled like hooks. Slightly off-balance when he leaped, the creature slid along the floor and collided with the mound of garbage, sending it scattering. The rat escaped easily and disappeared into the shadows again.
Pray for the light. Pray that you last that long. The Long Hour Before Light is a classic collection of Horror tales, re-mastered by Champagne Book Group
