Listen to the haunting sound of the devil's own instrument. A sombre melody played just a bit too perfectly by ivory fingers. Sweep your gaze up the tall slender frame to dark curls that kiss a stark white shirt collar. Now glance up, just a little higher, mes amis, search out the well defined contours of my face until your eyes meet mine and glimpse into the darkness that consumes me.

Surprised? No, I did not die in the raging pyre beyond the gates of Paris. I lacked the courage to consign this impious body to the flames. This interminable existence should have ended centuries ago, but what better way to spite the god that turned his back on me than to carry on? I was overwhelmed by an ineffable desire to glory in this cursed life for as long as possible and to fall so far from grace that his light could never touch me again.

My life has been a dissonant requiem, a bittersweet tale of wilful despair. I’m the master of my own ruin, deep black waters, the hurricane’s baleful eye. There’s comfort in my curse. In misery I own my own Fate, and I triumph.

Know what it is to walk on the dark side of the world and see beauty in shadow. Sin will never betray me, nor the carnal timbre of blood. Has my perpetual downward spiral finally come to an end? Hell no! I haven’t yet fallen far enough. A promise sounds in the blackness, begging me to reach out and grab it, a hope that all is not lost and that if only I tried I might break free of the chains that hold my heart in despair. But will I accept this offer? If you don’t know the answer to that, then you don’t know me at all.

This world holds nothing for a soul as lost as mine. I prowl the shadows, searching for answers where there are none. I carry on with one purpose alone: To spite the world and all those in it. To hell with goodness, compassion and light. Give me the shadows and the darkness. Let me feel it, breathe it, swallow it up with my soul and lock it deep inside where it waits for me to unleash it on an unsuspecting world.

Ah, but misery loves company and my fall from the light is hard to resist. In my eyes you will see my soul’s destitution. Give in to temptation. Come a little closer. Can you taste death on my lips?