Black Toad: A Cold Case Gothic Thriller Set in the Dark Heart of Cornwall by Tom Herrington

Author:Tom Herrington [Herrington, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ugly Little Toad Publishing
Published: 2025-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

The boy trembled as tears streamed down his dirty face. He bowed his head and closed his eyes. He expected this was the end, but he had nothing to apologise for. He’d only ever led a simple life. He’d chosen never to speak as he’d hated the way other people had spoken and shouted at each other when he was very young. He could clearly remember those poltergeists arguing and throwing pots across rooms. He began to weep as he held his bruised ribcage tightly.

In all his short life he’d never hurt anyone; he’d always enjoyed his solitary adventures. The church felt so alien to him. There at the altar, in front of the three brightly coloured stain glass panes, he recalled how he’d found a love of the darkness when he was quite young while waiting in the woods at night to see and hear the owls and badgers and foxes. The nighttime didn’t worry him like it did other children. He felt there was an entire world of animals that were usually too scared to come out in the daytime but could live freely in the dark without fear of being attacked, he was one of them. He’d learned that the most dangerous animals – people – were mostly out in the daylight.

He couldn’t understand why his hands were bound with rope, nor why the man had taken him from his home. But it had been a lifetime of not speaking, so despite his feelings, it was impossible to try to communicate with his captor. He felt useless; he felt as if he were in trouble for something he hadn’t done, yet there was no way of helping himself. However, he did as he was told. In his mind he apologised for sneaking biscuits, he apologised for hiding from his mother when it was a dinner he didn’t like, he said sorry for losing his dad’s tools after fixing his bike. That was it. He truly couldn’t think of anything else. He was innocent. Pure, almost. He looked up at the image of Christ healing his followers in the stained glass Christ looked back at the boy, and humbly he nodded.

He had often thought about how it was so unfair that people – society, would cut down woodland for their fires and to make their homes. He found it difficult to accept that nobody had asked the owls if it was okay to move into the forest, nobody ever asked the deer in the fields if they minded being eaten. No, because they couldn’t answer back, so people - man, just like the beast next to him, always took what they wanted. He decided to pray, not for himself but for all that could not speak. The trees, the insects, the fish and animals. He knew that as sad as his mother would be that he was gone, she could be proud that he had listened to her all his short life. A bittersweet smile cracked across his battered face and his heart beat with pride.

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