Wayne Mansfield

Carter is a teacher in London. One night he steps out into an autumnal storm and, on the way to his car, the oncoming night engulfs him and transports him to another, more sinister world. Almost immediately he senses he isn’t alone. When he turns and sees a shadowy figure approaching, he launches himself at the stranger. He soon discovers that Paul, the handsome Australian man pinned beneath him, is in a similar state of disorientated bewilderment. Together they begin to explore their surroundings, hoping and praying they can find a way back home. What they are about to encounter will send terror coursing through their veins. Little do they know this is a mere taste of the nightmare to come. Will their growing feelings for each other survive what follows? Can they themselves survive?

The Collection

“Daylight kills them. That’s one reason they got me here. That machine over there, sticking straight up through the roof of the mountain, makes clouds. Not ordinary clouds. These ones are thicker and completely block the sun’s rays.”


Paul’s mind went back to the day they were captured and how it had suddenly become overcast; right before the vampires had appeared.


“Go on,” said Paul, nodding. “What about garlic? Crucifixes?”


Harrison choked on a mouthful of soup. He coughed several times before he could speak again.


“Folk tales,” he said. “They have no effect whatsoever. Daylight burns them because they don’t have any tolerance to ultraviolet rays. It cooks them alive. But the quickest way to dispatch them is a stake through the heart or decapitation. We’d need an axe or a lance of some sort.”


“And then how do we escape? Can we make it out through one of those holes?”


Chapter 18