Christmas needn't only be about good cheer . . .Four festive tales of the supernatural, apocalyptic and blood-sucking variety—an antidote for anyone who occasionally finds Christmas overly sentimental or commercialised and likes to escape to somewhere darker.

Apocalypse unleashed. Swift and deadly. Merciless.Seven billion people inhabit this planet in blissful ignorance of imminent annihilation. Destruction comes, not from meteors or nuclear holocaust, but from a source no one even knows exists.The architects of doom have long moved among us, hidden in plain sight, waiting for the signal to trigger our extinction.A handful of survivors—traumatised, bewildered—must come to terms with the new reality. And ...

A collection of three dark novellas that delve into the nature of memory, madness and the afterlife.The Goldfish Syndrome: a mystery takes a sinister turn—some secrets are best left undiscovered…Moths: when the line between reality and fantasy grows blurred, tragedy beckons.Returned: a soul dragged from the afterlife, an ancient secret and a race against time to thwart evil.

A post-viral planet. Annihilation approaches.Tom Evans and Ceri Lewis occupy a silent new world. Little more than a million people survived the Cleansing. They are spread out, weak, compelled by a force beyond their comprehension to remain where they are. Humankind teeters on the brink, its fate in the hands of the few who can resist the power that seeks to control them. But resistance may be futile.In the midst of deathly calm, a new threat arises, one tha...

Unnatural calm. A silent storm gathers. Extinction beckons.Survivors from mainland Europe and North America converge on Britain. Weary, confused, all come seeking answers; many come spoiling for a fight.What began with the Cleansing, and was hastened by the Beacon, nears fruition. Time is running out, and human numbers are too few to win the last battle alone. Unless help can be found from the unlikeliest of allies, failure is assured.Humankind face...

A deadly infatuation. Apocalypse. A haunted hotel. These are what you’ll meet if you dare to venture inside.How would you react if you came across someone who claimed he caused the end of humankind? This is the question Jake must answer in The Third Coming, the story that spawned the Earth Haven trilogy.Would you dive into a pond that will alter you fundamentally? What if you are on a beach at Dunkirk, already facing near-certain death, when you look into the eyes ...

Guilt. The heaviest burden.An old man has for many years borne a weight that runs deeper than survivor’s guilt. He is a survivor, of humanity’s darkest hour, but wouldn’t have lived through it if not for the actions of another.Now he has the opportunity for which he has long yearned: to meet his saviour’s daughter and tell her about her father’s supreme act of selflessness. And maybe, in the telling, one of them will find release.

Three short stories that share a common theme: the search for lost loved ones.In Strange Shores, a schoolteacher hits upon a drastic method of attempting to escape the sadness of his existence in this world.Joy or despair may be found in Alfonso’s Looking Glass. A grieving husband is willing to risk one to find the other.In A Matter of Perspective, an unlikely pair traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape where violence and d...