Ye who read these words are still among the living, but I who write shall have long since gone my way into the region of shadows. Plagued by ghosts from the past, my soul can find no release from its eternal sorrow. Lost loves, spirits of the dead... madmen and devils have each in turn visited me here in the solitude of my chamber, to haunt and torment me. I implore you to heed my tale, as I relate the grim and ghastly things that befell me in my darkest hour... once upon a midnight dreary...