Shadows dance along the faded, decaying brick and mortar walls of the gloomy alleyway. A burning barrel is the only moon this place has ever known.
Dark things slither deeper into the darkness as four souls move further and further in to this place that the world has forgotten.
One of them pauses. He looks up.
He finds that the stars have forsaken this place as well, perhaps thinking it too corrupt and undeserving for even their meager light.
He stops moving completely now. His breath comes to a stop while his eyes remain transfixed on the otherworldly darkness of the heavens.
His companions continue onward, leaving him to his fate.
Dark shapes detach from the shadowy walls and encircle him, laying claw and tendril like hands on his vulnerable form. They hold him in their dark embrace and he becomes just one more among countless men trapped in this place.
None of the others risk a glance back. To look back is to die.