Showing results by narrator "Christian Francis" in All Categories

It started off like any other day, but for the tourists, staff and workmen at Willerton Castle it will end in terror. Because a storm is coming, a storm like nothing anyone has ever seen. A storm that will herald an attack by creatures this world has never encountered before. Will any of them survive?

These stories were born out of a discussion on themed collections with the Canadian writer Claude Lalumiere. They are diverse in every way except that each one of them has a metal element at its heart. "The Maskmaker" was the first to be written, a story set in an early Venice and has gold as its theme. "Silver" comes next, but there follows tales of robots made of lead, cyborgs who are addicted to drinking mercury, aliens obsessed with shiny chromium, a nickel coin worth a fortune, and many others.

Fear of the dark. It's one of the most common phobias, especially when we're growing up. For teenager Lee Masterton, his deepest childhood fears are about to become a reality - because, not only will he discover that the things living in the darkness are real, he will also find himself in the middle of a war between them and the forces of light.

History student Alex Palmer is thrilled when his girlfriend, Claire Ryan, buys an apartment in Belle Vue Manor, formerly a Victorian lunatic asylum. But as Alex begins to discover the dark truth about the asylum's past, he, Claire, and their friend Marianne find themselves on a nightmarish journey. Each will face the deadly consequences of the evil that began with the construction of the first Belle Vue Manor by an aristocratic French émigré in 1789, as well as the cruelty and satanic practices that continued when it became an asylum for the insane.

For rising young executive Bart Hughes, his Manhattan brownstone was his castle - a haven of peace and security amid the urban rot of New York. Now, with his wife and children away for the summer, it was more peaceful still.

Matthew Daley is an enigma. He’s appeared after seven years - eager to pick up the threads of his life, and make contact once more with his loved ones, which is something that’s not so easy to do when everyone knows that's he's dead.

The signs of life are all around us. Everywhere we look. How much do the stars tell you about who you are, and about your future? For a group of strangers - the 12 Signs of the Zodiac in particular - the omens and predictions can only mean one thing: Their lives will never be the same again. The lonely heart, the teacher, the family, the man on the run from the mob, the would-be star, the psychopath, and others. All will soon discover that their signs have more meaning than they thought, and that destiny can be a dangerous thing indeed!

Throughout history, there have always been those who task themselves with a mission to vanquish evil. None more so than those who would be seen as monsters themselves. Monsters who accept that the only way to conquer the darkness is to descend to the place where it was born, and meet it head-on.