Six hours of daylight was average in the Nation of Cirland during the summer. It had always been this way, or at least as far back as historically had recorded.

Within the winter this instead worked out as being three to four, which meant that those precious moments of sunlight and warmth were crucial for sustainability.

Presently, daylight occurred between 10:00hrs and 16:00hrs.

Humanity, of course, was used to these hard times. It was ingrained into them from such an early age that theirs had been a history of struggle for sustainability in the dead of night.

Artificial light had also been a massive turning point. It didn’t drive a Vampire away, but it did even the playing field visually for humanity.

Rumours had persisted  for years of corporations attempting to create cost effective lightbulbs that would cause the same effect as sunlight to a Vampire.

But in truth, the best method of surviving the darkness was simply to reside inside a place of abode during the Night of No Moon and wait for the dawn.

Because a Vampire could not enter unless they were invited in.

***

Sunset and the twilight that followed had come and gone, and the sky had been void of all light for the past thirty minutes.

For the Stisk family, who were approximately two miles away from their home address, their car had broken down forty minutes ago.

Sefeh and her husband, Ken, sat in the front seat trying desperately to stay calm whilst in the back their two children Mefa and Rithro were staring at a sight they had never seen before in their lives.

An empty street, devoid of lamps, and the stillness of the night.

“Okay,” Sefeh whispered, resting her forehead against the steering wheel; “okay, okay, okay…”

She paused, listening to the breathing from everyone else in the silent vehicle. As long as they were breathing, they were still alive.

“Okay…”

It should have been a simple journey.

She had got out of work early, picked up Ken and then the kids from their primary school. They were always let out earlier on a Night of No Moon since that allowed for travel time home, but they had also stopped off at one of the local supermarkets just to grab some final bits since they needed dinner.

Their home was accessible through the back roads as well as the main highways and choosing to go on the back roads would have cut a full twenty minutes out of their journey.

Sure, the highway would have been safer with the sheer number of people sitting in metal boxes, but just being in a home was better and there was no indication the car would fail on them.

And yet…

“Okay.” She said, raising her head; “We’ve made the call. The Dentists are on their way. We just need to hold out.”

“Have you tried the engine again?” Ken wondered, his voice shaking a little bit though Sefeh ignored him as she turned to the girls.

“Once we’re home, we’ll have dinner and then we can relax. Do you know what we’re having tonight?”

“Pizza.” Said Mefa, though as the youngest this was her answer to most questions these days.

“No, not pizza.” She laughed and glanced at Rithro whose face was paler. Mefa was still a bit too young to be scared about what the night fully held, but Rithro had heard more stories.

“Rithro?” She said softly; “What are you thinking about dinner?”

“I don’t- I don’t know.”

“Well, what would you like to have?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Pizza?” Mefa asked hopefully, turning her face with a big grin. Her voice had risen slightly and Sefeh noticed her husband twitch.

“Well, it could be pizza I guess, but that’s if everyone in the car was happy with it-.”

“Hey,” Ken said, whispering; “Why don’t you try the engine again?”

“Because,” she whispered back with a forced smile; “the lady on the phone said to not do anything that makes us bring attention to ourselves.”

“Yeah, but if the engine starts-.”

“And if it doesn’t on this empty road, then what am I doing?”

He turned away, pulling out his phone and began to tap. He was probably researching survivability statistics.

She ignored him.

“So, back to dinner,” she wondered; “What about… noodles? Or a stir fry?”

“Ooh, I do like noodles.” Mefa said with a hopeful tone.

“Rithro? Sweety? Any noodle related opinions?”

“Are we gonna die?” Her daughter whispered.

The question cut through the car like a knife.

Mefa, mercifully, hadn’t reacted to the enquiry, but Sefeh could sense the desperation in her daughters words and her face. She knew that staying outside in the dark was asking for trouble.

All kids were taught at schools about the dangers posed by Vampires, about how they could hypnotise or trick you, how they could become mist, or animals, how some could fly…

So of course she was scared.

But Sefeh was a mum, and she couldn’t allow that.

She reached over and grasped her daughters hand.

“No. No you’re not going to die. None of us are going to die.”

“Could we die?”

“No.”

“Don’t lie to her.” Ken snapped with a sharp whisper, but she ignored him again.

“Our car doesn’t work right now, but we have called the right people and we’ve been told they are coming to help us. So we are going to be fine.”

“Sefeh,” her husband said, but she continued to ignore him.

“Before you know it we’ll be back home, eating dinner, and… tell you what, we’ll have tomorrow off school as well, how does that sound?”

“That…”

A hand was pressed against her arm and Sefeh turned to glare at her husband who in turn was pointing at his phone. He looked angry, born of worry, but it was anger nonetheless.

“Do you know how long on average it takes a Dentist to arrive and pick people up? It could be hours.”

“Then we will wait hours,” she replied, trying to keep calm.

“Can we add noodles to pizza?” Mefa wondered to herself, having ignored the conversation around her.

Ken shook his head.

“No way. If we’re just going to sit here then I think we need to leave. It’s two miles. We could walk that, easy.”

“That is crazy.”

“It’s the best idea! We could make it. It’s not far!”

“What are the survivability odds of people walking home on the Night with No Moon?!” She snapped, doing her best to keep her voice low.

The operator had given them survival tips. The biggest one was not making noise, the second was staying where they were because help was going to be on its way, and the third was of course to remain calm.

Help was on its way.

“If we stay here, we are going to die.” Ken snapped, crossing his arms and sitting lower on his seat. He immediately uncrossed them to get his phone out again and continue scrolling, but Sefeh just returned to her daughters.

“We’re going to be fine.” She said, her voice only shaking out of anger.

“That’s good.” Mefa said; “I don’t like it when we’re not. Or getting injections. Yuck.”

“This is all your fault.”

Sefeh rounded on Ken, her eyes wide with surprise.

That one hurt.

“Excuse you?” She asked, lowering her voice at the end.

“You spent so long trying to fix the car that you didn’t call for the Dentists to help earlier. You wasted time, thinking you can do everything and now we are stuck, and-.”

“I thought I would give it a go! There is nothing wrong with that- especially if I got the car moving- and I didn’t see you giving them a call. You look at your phone enough, it would have saved time.”

He turned away to look out the window and Sefeh tried to force down the irritation.

She understood that he was scared.

She was scared as well, but the number one thing was to try and remain calm.

To do anything else would risk them doing something stupid or drawing more attention to themselves.

They just needed to sit in silence and wait for help to arrive.

So, naturally, Ken then decided to start screaming.

“ARGH!”

If her daughters question had cut through the car like a knife, the scream of her husband was like an explosion. Their children reacted with a start, the youngest immediately starting to cry, whilst Rithro began to hyperventilate.

Sefeh reacted. She reached out and grabbed her husband’s mouth, wrapping her hands around it, but he pulled away.

He was pointing into the distance, towards a line of trees, eyes shaking as he fought against her as she whispered sharply;

“Quiet!”

He, eventually, stopped. The shaking hand still pointing towards the other side of the road.

“I- I saw something…!” He whispered; “Did you see it?”

“I saw nothing,” Sefeh said, following the direction his finger was pointing; “What did you-?”

“A person.” He said; “A person just standing there. They watched us and then- and then they were gone.”

Sefeh continued to stare.

She could see the trees subtly shifting with a soft breeze, but there was no figure in that direction. Her eyes darted upwards, behind them, and everywhere else…

But, she told herself, there was no sign of anyone.

“Okay,” she said, compromising; “We need to be calm for the girls. I’ll calm them down, you keep an eye out, and if you do see something then you tell me quietly and-.”

“We need to get out of here.”

He was panicking. Why did she even try when he was panicking?

“Ken, come on. What? We aren’t going anywhere. We were told to stay put, the Dentists are-.”

“We run!” He cried, trying the locked car door; “We have to run! It’s the only way!”

The girls were inconsolable now. The sound of the handle was as he tried it was booming. If there hadn’t been someone out there, there would eventually be.

Sefeh reached out once again, whispering; “Stop it!” but he pulled away.

“The door- I- I’ll smash the glass! I’ll- we can run! I’ll carry the girls! We’ll be safe!”

He removed  his seatbelt and kicked out at the window. His trainers struck the glass, but nothing happened except a loud thud of the impact.

The girls screamed. Sefeh grabbed his arm.

“Listen to me, if you try that again I will have no choice. To protect them, I will stop you.”

“Fine, I’ll go alone. Let me go. I’ll bring the other car back, or find someone, or-.”

He went to grab the door handle again and Sefeh grabbed at his arms. He pushed away and, before they realised, they were fighting.

Sefeh pulled him back, Ken tried to pull away, and soon they were full on wrestling as her husband screamed as loudly as he could. His voice was shrill over the sounds of the screaming children;

“LET ME GO!”

“Mummy!”

"LET ME GO”

“I’m scared!”

“WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!”

“Please Mummy, please!”

“WE’RE GOING TO-!”

A beam of light fell upon the car and the people inside stopped moving.

It was a noticeable vehicle with white, reflective, panels and lights on the top pierced through the darkness. If there had been someone in the trees, they likely would have decided to flee at the sight of this vehicle in particular.

It crawled to a stop inches away and the passenger side opened. A man- well, a young man- got out, glancing around, and then approached.

He was a Dentist.

“Are you okay?” He asked, taking in what must have been the strange sight of the frozen figures mid-combat; “My… name is Ashyer. We- erm, my colleague and I, we’re here to take you home?”

“Oh thank God…” whispered Sefeh as she let go of her husband and pressed the button on the steering wheel which unlocked the doors.

Another Dentist got out of the driver’s side and, with the two flanking the children, they escorted them to the other vehicle. Protocol, it turned out, said that they had to leave everything behind and arrange for vehicle recovery during daylight hours the next day.

They didn’t even ask what was wrong with the car or attempted to fix it.

They just needed to get this family home.

Ken got out of the car next, walking with the younger Dentist and speaking about something he had seen in the trees. If the younger man was concerned, he didn’t let on.

Sefeh looked at her phone as she exited the car last, wondering how long it had been since they had made the initial call for help.

Really, it hadn’t been that long at all.

She glanced back at the trees, swallowing out of concern as she walked with the Dentist to the other car.

“Did you see anyone? Like your husband?” He asked her, looking back.

She nodded slowly, rather than answer out loud.

She had seen a figure.

She just wanted to keep her kids calm.