Gargoyles

Trees rose upwards, branches twisting together, clasped above the winding path below, slender limbs an emblem of times long passed. As the path sloped, they exposed the deteriorating splendor. Spires rose out of the foggy night. Gargoyles stood guard, facing the sky their menacing faces gleamed, fangs bared, bodies coiled in a crouch. Nature had reclaimed the towering edifice, vines crawling like veins across the stone while tendrils of thorny briars curled around rotting wood. Wind whistled through the shrouded hallways as darkness seeped into the foundations of the structure, ichorous in its appearance. Illuminated by a beam of moonlight, the crumbling staircase was majestic in its ruin, a ghost of broken memories.