Santiago Exímeno, “Al caer la noche” [At Nightfall] (2008) 1

Santiago Eximeno is a well-established and respected writer within the field of horror fantasy. Although he has published novels and poetry as well as interactive and graphic fiction, he is best known for his short stories and flash fiction. The story is set in an unnamed mountainous village in what the authors assume to be Spain at an unspecified point in time with no markers of modernity such as telephones or computers nor any that fixes it in a bygone age, such as candlelight. “Al caer la noche” focuses on one family’s tragedy, but this is placed within a bigger picture whereby the whole of society is threatened by vampires. The central family is struggling to make ends meet and that Fernando is ragged and dishevelled, but recalls bygone days when men like him were highly paid.