Bluebeard’s Wife

Chapter 1: The Man in Black

A cool breeze whispered through the tangled, night blooming jasmine and overgrown lavender bushes that had overrun the once orderly paths of the once lavish estate. Insects lent their wails to the mournful song of frogs. There; the man in black floated through the mist that had gathered at the hems of the thickets in midnight’s garden like rotting wedding lace. The windowed doors flung open of their own…