Terror reigns deep beneath the streets of New York City. The subway system is plagued by a series of unsolved, bizarre and particularly gruesome murders. A young man is found in a Brooklyn station with his heart crudely ripped out of his chest. The headless body of a conductor is discovered inside the locked cab of a Number 6 train in lower Manhattan. Authorities blame these, as well as several other equally macabre crimes, on the city's growing, and increasingly aggressive homeless population. Melissa Manning, however, isn't buying that explanation. Having experienced a personal tragedy in the subway years ago, Melissa is definitely no stranger to the violence that can occur underground... but this is different. Weeks before the first murder was even committed, she's had an unsettling feeling that something horrifying was lurking within the sprawling transportation system. Many nights when traveling alone, and walking along a quiet stretch of the platform, she hears an eerie scraping sound in the distance, and has an overwhelming fear that someone - or something - is watching her. When the murders begin, and when a dark, faceless figure follows her home from the subway one night, she's convinced that this is something far more insidious and frightening than mere random acts of violence. Not only can she feel the presence of an evil entity...she knows it's just a matter of time before it comes after her.
About the Author: Having begun my career as a photojournalist for a number of New York City newspapers, my assignments took me all over town with the subway serving as my primary means of transportation. Most tourists usually only see the more well-known stations like Times Square, Grand Central or Penn Station. En route to my photo shoots, I became quite familiar with the stations in the outer boroughs - the stations that comprise the majority of the "real" New York City subway. These stations are fairly quiet, dimly lit and sparsely populated...and that's in the middle of the day! Some of these stations are so creepy; I'm surprised they aren't regularly used as set locations for horror movies. The title is derived from a mid-80's disco classic by Peter Brown of the same name. Although hardly the typical inspiration for a horror novel; the song features a saxophone with an unusually haunting quality. I envisioned it as the type of sound one might hear in the distance while walking along deserted city streets late at night. Between the song and my observations in the subway, "They Only Come Out at Night," is the product of my overactive (some might say "warped") imagination.