Naked, on top of a crumbling castle tower, gazing down on leafless winter woodland, with another’s hand around my throat — this was not how I had envisaged the night ending. “Choose, Christian,” he urged. His words drifted past my face like smoke in the frozen air, blood pounding in my ears. I knew what I would say. But this isn’t a good time or place to begin. A better time is four hours earlier, down below. In the pit....

A Roman gladiator. That was how I felt, like a Roman gladiator, waiting for my turn to die. Although, of course, it was Hashim, stood beside me in this antechamber, who looked the part, with his chiselled, bronze body gleaming with the fragrant oil I had rubbed over him less than an hour before in preparation for the ceremony. Even his bald profile — featuring what some might call a ‘Roman nose’ — evoked the image of a ch...

For the second time in less than a week, I woke up in a different location to where I had lost consciousness. Far less comfortable than the previous awakening, this time, I lay on bare, uneven rock. At least it's warm, I thought, and then winced, as the dried come that encrusted my body and had welded me to this floor pulled at my skin when I attempted to get up. I remained still and tried to assess my surroundings. Vague...

As the sun set around the world that day, no one could have known that it would be the last dusk the species Homo sapiens would ever see. Least of all me, who did not have the privilege of witnessing it, having been sucked into some unknown dimension after three nights in the underground temple complex of a demon-worshipping sex cult. I stood before the object of their devotion, in the shadow of the horns of a creature st...