Tony Walker

Yeah.

Yeah.

In the, in the mist towards Halloween, that's even there just generated the vibe, hasn't it?

And this story walking the park was to me had a lot of that, um, you know, it was heavy on the, on the texture and the atmosphere.

Well, I mean, I think, you know, inevitably when you hear a story, you kind of, you compare it to other stories you've heard.

And one of the feelings I got was not necessarily the plot, but something Thomas Ligotti would write, you know, something like The Town Manager is a story of his where very often they're inexplicable, really.

You think, what on earth is this story about?

about in that, you know, the old beginning, middle and an end.

But it's absolutely full of this deeply, disturbingly

Not quite surreal, but edging towards a surreal, you know.

Obviously, I'm a big David Lynch fan as well, so obviously that appeals to him.

So I thought Ligotti, the other reference that I had for this was, I think I said this to you in the emails, was Barney the Vampire, sort of the 1850s Penny Dreadful character.

Same here.

I mean, I think the Varney thing is about how the vampire, as you say, visits the victim.

And there is that structural thing in your story as well, the monster thing.

visits the victim repeatedly as well, I think.

You know, the psychical predator in a way.

And the other weirdness of it was Aikman as well.

You know, you read some of Aikman's stories, Robert Aikman's stories, and you think, well, I think particularly The Hospice, one of my favourites.

Nothing like this in terms of characterisation or what actually happens, but