Unthinkable (Night Fall ™)

by Shirley Duke

  Omar pushed with his feet. Hisssssss. As the dirt hit the creature’s skin, it made a sizzling noise like water dripping on a hot pan. Sophie screamed. Her back slammed back against the grave’s floor. Hisss. Hisss. Hisss. Rebecca and Omar kept tossing as fast as they could while the creature writhed and shrieked.

  Soon, Sophie was no longer visible beneath the layer of dirt, though Omar and Rebecca could still hear the shrieks. As they filled the grave, the sounds grew quieter and quieter. The surface of the dirt went from heaving to rippling until, finally, everything was quiet and still.

  Rebecca and Omar dropped their shovels and collapsed on the ground. For several minutes, they stayed there, watching the sky darken, listening to their own pounding hearts.

  That afternoon, Omar had a lot of explaining to do. His mom had been worried sick; Omar apologized for falling asleep at a friend’s house and not calling.

  “Don’t worry, Mom,” he said. “It will never happen again.”

  Later, he made up another excuse with Jon, who, like his mom, was the kind of person who was quick with forgiveness, anyway.

  “But it’s definitely over between you and Goth girl?” Jon asked.

  “Definitely,” Omar said. “Sophie’s gone anyway— moved out of town, I think.”

  “Nice, clean break—that’s the way to go,” Jon replied.

  The next day, reporters hounded Omar about his stories and their “supernatural” powers, but after what he’d been through, pesky journalists felt like no big deal. Plus, things were a little better at school. That afternoon, Omar emptied his savings account to buy a used laptop from Craigslist. (His mom didn’t notice the difference.) The first thing Omar wrote on his new laptop was another tribute to Natasha.

  A few weeks later, he read it at a special remembrance ceremony for Natasha at school. Monroe and Melissa were there that day, sitting in the audience. Monroe never did apologize, but he shook Omar’s hand after Omar finished reading. And Melissa asked him to post it on Facebook, so he did.

  Rebecca’s reappearance made national news. The local press was camped outside her house for days, which helped take a lot of attention away from Omar. Rebecca made up some story about a kidnapper keeping her prisoner, which was kind of true. Police found Sophie’s tin hut in the woods. They ID’d many of the faces on the wall. Now they were on the hunt for a killer they would never find.

  In January, Rebecca enrolled in the art program at Noble College. She and Omar kept in touch, mostly through texting and e-mail. They didn’t talk much about what happened in the woods. But they didn’t not talk about it either. The secret lived inside both of them. They held it between them, keeping it safe in the knowledge that the visions were gone. Forever.

  THE CLUB The club started innocently enough. Bored after school, Josh and his friends decided to try out an old game Sabina had found in her basement. Called “Black Magic,” it promised the players good fortune at the expense of those who have wronged them. Yeah, right.

  But when the club members’ luck starts skyrocketing— and horror befalls their enemies—the game stops being a joke. How can they end the power they’ve unleashed? Answers lie in an old diary—but ending the game may be deadlier than any curse.

  MESSAGES FROM BEYOND Some guy named Ethan Davis has been texting Cassie. He seems to know all about her—but she can’t place him. He’s not in Bridgewater High’s yearbook either. Cassie thinks one of her friends is punking her. But she can’t ignore the strange coincidences—like how Ethan looks just like the guy in her nightmares.

  Cassie’s search for Ethan leads her to a shocking discovery—and a struggle for her life. Will Cassie be able to break free from her mysterious stalker?

  THE PROTECTORS Luke’s life has never been “normal.” How could it be, with his mother holding séances and his half-crazy stepfather working as Bridgewater’s mortician? But living in a funeral home never bothered Luke. That is, until the night of his mom’s accident.

  Sounds of screaming now shatter Luke’s dreams. And his stepfather is acting even stranger. When bodies in the funeral home start delivering messages to Luke, he is certain that he’s going nuts. As he tries to solve his mother’s death, Luke discovers a secret more horrifying than any nightmare.

  SKIN It looks like a pizza exploded on Nick Barry’s face. But bad skin is the least of his problems. His bones feel like living ice. A strange rash—like scratches—seems to be some sort of ancient code. And then there’s the anger . . .

  Something evil is living under Nick’s skin. Where did it come from? What does it want? With the help of a dead kid’s diary, a nun, and a local professor, Nick slowly finds out what’s wrong with him. But there’s still one question that Nick must face alone: how do you destroy an evil that’s inside you?

  THAW A July storm caused a major power outage in Bridgewater. Now a research project at the Institute for Cryogenic Experimentation has been ruined, and the thawed-out bodies of twenty-seven federal inmates are missing.

  At first, Dani Kraft didn’t think much of the breaking news. But after her best friend Jake disappears, a mysterious visitor connects the dots for Dani. Jake has been taken in by an infamous cult leader. To get him back, Dani must enter a dangerous, alternate reality where a defrosted cult leader is beginning to act like some kind of god.