PROLOGUE
Picture a grassy, windswept hilltop, shrouded in early evening mist and shadows. A man in black silently strolls up to the crest of the hill, with his fedora tilted forward to conceal his face (not that anyone's around to see him, mind you). A hand shrouded in black sheepskin gloves tightly grips a black briefcase with silvery hinges. A name is monogrammed in gold leaf near the handle. As the man reaches the crest of the hill, overlooking the quiet harbor and picturesque city below, two treacherous clasps on the briefcase come undone. A dramatic gust of wind that has been patiently stalking and waiting now seizes its chance, and sends unbound papers floating out of arm's reach. Something else slithers out of the briefcase - too fast and too fluid to get a proper look at, the shadowy squiggle slithers away as the man in black looks on helplessly. It's on the loose now, he thinks to himself. Who knows what could happen next?
CHAPTER ONE
My name is Jake Berensen. I'm just a normal, average, All-American teenager. There's nothing really remarkable about me. I'm on the school basketball team, I play video games with my best friend Marco, and I like to hang out with my girlfriend Cassie. You know, normal teenage lifestyle. Only...
Only the town we live in isn't exactly normal. There's some seriously weird things going on. Ephraim is the kind of town where people claim to see werewolves and ghosts and UFOs. That kind of stuff. I used to think those people were just imagining things, but then we saw something, too. Something impossible to casually dismiss.
It all started one Friday night in late September. Cassie and I had gone to the mall after school. Neither one of us was clear if it was supposed to be a date or not. It was just an excuse to spend a little time together. But then we ran into Cassie's friend Rachel - who happens to be my cousin - and her boyfriend, Tobias. Cassie stopped to talk to them for a bit, and then I spotted Marco walking out of one of the stores, very eager to show us what he'd just bought.
Marco Morales is a total goofball and rarely seems like he's taking things seriously. He's always cracking dumb jokes and trying to get people to laugh, or arguing about why Spiderman can beat Batman. And he also watches a lot of horror movies. The old Universal classics, the cheesy schlock from Hammer Horror, and even lots of indie and foreign horror movies.
Cassie Clarke is probably the nicest person I've ever met. She's a natural peacemaker, and I don't think I've ever seen her get angry with anyone. She's got some sort of empathetic talent for seeing the good in everybody and trying to appeal to it. She also really, really likes animals, probably because her parents are veterinarians.
Rachel usually looks like she walked off the front cover of a fashion magazine, but she doesn't have the kind of personality you'd expect based on her appearance. She's actually kind of a daredevil and likes to do things that other people are usually terrified of - like those scrambler rides at the state fair, or roller coaster. She's even gone bungee jumping more than once.
Tobias Fangor is a bit odd. He usually seems kind of spaced-out, like he's in his own little world, oblivious to anything except for whatever music he's listening to. He lets his hair grow almost to shoulder-length to make it easier to conceal the headphones for his portable CD player. Supposedly, the only time he ever switches the music off is when he's with Rachel.
"All right, guys, check this out," Marco said as he took his new purchase out of the bag and held it up for our approval.
"I can't believe you wasted your money on this," I said.
"Hey, he only spent two dollars on it. I'd say that's a pretty good deal," Rachel said.
"It looks very nice, though," Cassie said.
"Oh, cool! I've always wanted to see one of these up close," Tobias said.
It was a hand-carved, hand-painted Ouija board.
"You guys want to help me test it out?" Marco asked.
"The mall seems a bit crowded and noisy for a seance," Cassie said, "So where should we go?"
"You know what? Let's go for the full Halloween experience," Rachel said, "Let's head up to Haunted Hill and do it there."
"Haunted Hill sounds good to me," Marco said. "Who wants to come with us?"
"I'm in," Tobias said.
"Me too," Cassie said.
"I guess I'll come along, too," I said.
"Wait a minute," Rachel said, "If we're going to do a seance at a haunted hilltop, we should get some candles to help set the mood. Just give me five minutes and I'll find some."
As promised, Rachel only needed five minutes to find a box of candles and a book of matches. She knows the whole mall like the back of her hand. And so, properly equipped for a seance, we set out for Haunted Hill.
Haunted Hill is this big hill that overlooks the town of Ephraim and the waters of Asylum Bay. There's this old Victorian mansion up there, Summerwind House, abandoned and falling apart. Next to Summerwind House was an old cemetery, overgrown with weeds and moss. The house and cemetery are surrounded by dozens of ancient oak trees, and the whole hilltop is frequently shrouded in fog. It's exactly the kind of place that looks like it should be haunted.
We took the bus out to Valmy Park at the south end of town. At the back of the park, hidden behind the trees, is a dirt path that, despite all the twists and turns, is the easiest way up to the top of Haunted Hill. As the evening fog started drifting in from the sea, we climbed up the dirt path, laughing and joking and just enjoying the scenery. Finally, we reached the top of the hill. There was Summerwind, looming menacingly out of the fog, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence.
"How about we do our seance in there?" Rachel suggested.
"Are we even allowed to go in?" Tobias asked.
"Come on, guys," Marco teased, "You don't want to look like wimps in front of the girls, do-"
Tobias didn't even wait for Marco to finish. He charged at the fence and scrambled over it in a hot second. A moment later, Rachel vaulted over the fence, too. Then I climbed over, leaving Cassie and Marco on the other side.
"Isn't there a gate somewhere?" Cassie asked, "If I try to climb this fence, I'm pretty sure I'll just get stuck."
I looked around.
"Oh, yeah, the gate's about 40 feet over that way."
Cassie ran over to the gate - which was wide open - leaving Marco completely alone.
"You know, maybe Tobias had a point. I mean, Summerwind House isn't exactly public property, is it? I mean, I know nobody's lived there for about fifty years, but-"
"A minute ago, you were the one saying I'd look like a wimp if I backed down from this," Tobias protested. "Your turn to hop the fence, Marco."
"Oh, what the heck, it's not like anyone actually goes in there," Marco said to himself, and he finally climbed over. An untied shoelace caught against one of the spikes, leaving him momentarily trapped while standing on his head before pulling loose and landing on his back.
"That could've gone better," he grumbled.
"So, into the house?" I asked.
We walked up onto the front porch, and the floorboards squeaked as we moved along. The front door was slightly ajar. Rachel boldly shoved it all the way open. Inside, everything was coated with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. Clearly, nobody else had come in here for a very long time. In front of us was a grand staircase with intricately carved banisters. There were three doors on the ground floor, one straight ahead and two off to either side.
Arbitrarily, I opened the door to the left. The walls were lined with bookshelves, and a few dusty armchairs were scattered around.
"This must have been the library," I commented.
Cassie opened the door opposite mine.
"And I think this was the parlor," she said.
Marco went over to take a look.
"I think this is a good spot," he said, "Plenty of open space on the floor, and we've still got a bit of light coming in through the windows, so we can actually see what we're doing."
He set the Ouija board on the ground, and we sat in a circle around it. Rachel lit the candles and set them around the perimeter of our circle, then placed a few in the center so we could see the Ouija board better.
"So, here's how this works," Marco explained, holding up a wooden pointer. "This thing is called a planchet. This goes on the center of the board. Then we each use one hand to touch the planchet, ask the Ouija board a question, and the planchet will move from letter to letter to spell out the answer."
Careful to avoid the candles, we knelt down next to the Ouija board and spent a minute working out how to comfortably reach in to grab the planchet without stepping on anybody's hands.
"O Great Ouija Board," Marco intoned as dramatically as he could, "We simple mortals call upon your mystic power to look through the veil of time and space. We ask you to tell us cool secrets!"
The planchet twitched around, slowly at first, and then with rapid, jerky movements. As it stopped at each letter, we read them out loud.
"B... E... W... A... R... E... T... H... E... M... O... N... S... T... E... R... B... L... O... O... D..."
And then the planchet stopped moving.
"'Monster Blood'? What's that?" Tobias asked.
"Well, how about we ask the board to explain?" Marco suggested, and then intoned once more in dramatic fashion, "O Great Ouija Board, we simple mortals would like to know: what the heck is Monster Blood?"
Once again, the planchet seemed to shudder to life, jumping once more from letter to letter.
"S... E... A... R... C... H... S... E... C... R... E... T... L... A... B... O... R... A... T... O... R... Y... I... N... C... E... L... L... A... R..."
We backed up slightly from the Ouija Board.
"You don't suppose there's actually something in the cellar, do you?" Marco wondered.
"Well, how about we find the cellar and take a look?" Rachel answered.
"Whether there's something there or not," I said, "How would the Ouija Board even know?"
The planchet moved a third time.
"R... E... P... L... Y... H... A... Z... Y... T... R... Y... A... G... A... I... N..."
"Ok, I don't know what's worse," Marco said, "The fact that the Ouija board is starting to talk like a Magic 8 Ball, or the fact that it just moved without ANY of us touching the board."