Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her first poem The Men they could have been published in summer 2024 in the Whitburn Gala Programme. Additionally, Eva has recently completed her first poetry manuscript and is eager to get published while she also works on her novel The Corpse Road.

Fallen woman, wandering in the quiet of the night,
Befallen hardships in pursuit of sweet delights,
Trodden upon in mankind's hateful path,
The fallen fruit, bearing witness to the most wretched humans' wrath.
There is no rest tonight;
In the silence of the night.

Carnivorous beasts, grunting in feverous mischief,
Snatching at her purity and stealing away like a devilish thief.
Half paid, near starved,
Her path is carved,

The night goes on
Soon fading into the sun, gone,
She takes her earnings to ponder away.
She will not linger in this world today.
Life is sold for pleasure
And now, returning home, she hides her only treasure;
Her gaping red eyes fixated as she stows away on a voyage to forbidden lands.

Under a spell, she abandons her body,
Heart racing, mind pacing, lost in a cacophony.
Blinding darkness invades,
Flashes of light taunt in a parade.
Sweetened, to sour,
The spell, now a poison,
Oh, how quickly it overpowers.
Nauseous, back to reality she joins again.

A ghost with a body,
She throws up the contents of her life more and more each time.
There is little left of her.
She’s a vessel without a captain,
A drink without the drunkard,
A woman too deep in the storm inside to recognise the calling of her name
As her body gives in and her mind becomes a shipwreck.