Darkest Night — Michael Sean Erickson

We are all afraid of the dark sometimes. There are monsters lurking in dark corners. There are beasts sifting in and out of our nightmares. Without the distractions of daytime, our troubles loom before us as triumphant. The question is to what lengths we shall go to keep these monsters from devouring us whole. Most of the time it is just a matter of switching on our bedside lamp, or keeping on the television, or offering up the Lord's Prayer. What if those measures are not enough, though? What if the darkness is an impenetrable veil between our prayer and God's ear? The Mudd Family understands this plight. They are living on the edge, preparing for the night that the beast will come for their souls, and struggling with the evil that very well may lurk in their hearts as much as it does out there. Their neighbors fear and despise them; and when the police investigate a horrible crime, the darkness takes a hold of everything. Already the object of innuendo, the Mudd Family becomes the target of a witch hunt that, under the cloak of the darkest night, threatens their very lives.