"Malthorpe is about to go down in history as the most gruesome town this country has ever seen. I'm going to make Malthorpe the horror story of the century." "Why are you doing this?" For the briefest of moments the schoolmaster saw the master look out through his servant's eyes. And he was afraid. "Because I can. It is a divertissement. I am bored." "But why Malthorpe?" "It is the end of the road, literally. It exists in a societal vacuum. Events can occur in Malthorpe with the outside world being unaware. No one comes to Malthorpe; there is no reason to. It can be therefore my laboratory experiment. Call it a selfish whim. I want my very own private hell here on Earth. Other places are splendidly qualified, but Malthorpe is, well, special in that it is stultifyingly dull. It has the special qualification of being suitable as a tabula rasa upon which I can write my desires."