Ellen returns home from college hoping to spark some interest from Rodney, the man that she has loved since her teenage years. She seeks peace and comfort in her childhood home and the surrounding ranch. However, a recurring nightmare from her childhood returns after a three-year break. Moving from her old room in the third story to the second story seems to help settle things down. A short time later, her Uncle returns from a long absence and introduces his new bride Tina. Surprisingly, E...

Aleah Chalmers is constantly under stress in supporting eleven-year-old daughter Jodie and her grandmother Gram. Her work as a waitress pays enough to barely make ends meet. Wealthy Luther Christain, confined to a wheelchair, makes a proposal for marriage as a thirty-day business arrangement, Aleah overcomes her concerns, accepts, and moves the family into Luther's enormous house. Luther is a perfect gentleman and begins to take on a role as Jodie's father. As the days pass Aleah reflects ...

Heather was forced to go live with her Uncle. Uncle Reece, her mother's brother, felt obligated to take her in. But, Aunt Pansy and her cousins resented that she was upsetting their lives. Heather hoped that her mother would soon save her. Coming home from school one day, a strange old man caught her eye and carefully laid a package on the lawn for her. When she opened it she found an old fortune teller's pendulum. Experiments soon progressed, and Heather seemed to have a unique ability to...

PRETEND FAMILYJessica loved playing with the family of dolls she had found in the old house. She slipped away to visit them every chance she had, and pretended that she belonged there with this, her family—with her mother, the blond haired woman in the picture on the wall. As she played, she began to realize that sometimes the dolls were not where she had left them. At times she even imagined that she heard them whispering to her. And the name they whispered was—Annabelle—not her re...

Eddie Wickham had been brought away from his family by his great-aunt Theodora with the promise that she would help him get schooling to overcome his handicap—he could not speak and had not learned to read and write. But Theodora seemed to keep him busy working, chopping wood, feeding the animals, milking the cow. All for no pay and a straw mattress in the top floor of her huge old house. Life would have been very lonely, except for the company of five year-old Katrina that followed him ev...

Following her husband's long illness ending in death, Elsea and her three children were left with no home and very little money. Her parents offered them a place to live. An old house outside of town that had been owned by their family for more than three generations. They happily moved in and began to enjoy their newfound security. Elsea quickly made friends with bearded, handsome neighbor Corey, but she felt that it was too soon for a relationship. Corey began encouraging Elsea to take u...

Felicia was not quite fourteen years old the night that she disobeyed her mother and took a path home through the woods after nightfall. She was attacked. When she came to, she vaguely recalled the incident, and could not identify what or who had attacked her. Celta, a servant who had been with the family for decades, helped her recover and keep the attack secret. However, four months later her pregnancy could not be disguised. Felicia's mother felt strongly that they should keep that baby...

Sybil received the baby dolly as a present, but she didn't like it. Three days later, her sister Rose Marie died a mysterious death. Later, when Sybil's daughter Rose had a baby born out of wedlock, Sybil gave orders to protect the family reputation by hiding the birth from the entire town. This was 1910, after all. When baby Angela was 3 months old, Sybil brought her old doll down from the attic as a present. Mysteriously, Angela did not wake up the next day. Sybil knew exactly what she w...

When the crew bulldozed a sycamore tree right before dark, they saw several bodies lying under the tree roots. The boss left to fetch the police. Carl was the only witness as the bodies transformed to beautiful people that crawled out of the hole and simply walked away. Ridiculed for his story, Carl resolved to investigate. Several strange occurrences began that night. The most important development seemed to be the newly-built church Aeternita. Several neighbors were invited to attend nig...

Gladys Swartz was a plain girl boiling with suppressed desire. In a book on the occult, she read of a bodily possession and conceived a devilish plan. She brought about her own death by accident, then, wandering the earth as a restless spirit, she attacked and conquered the body of the lovely Peri Lee. After a desperate battle, she drove the young girl's soul down into the depths of her psyche. Then she led the life of a lovely wanton, but, more and more she came to realize that she had co...

Heather was young and beautiful, but had ongoing man trouble. She decided to allow her older sister to care for her two daughters from a previous marriage. As a parting gift, Heather gave the girls a beautiful doll . . . Zenoa. The doll, with those penetrating brown eyes, was a reminder of a mother's love—wasn't it? The doll that seemed to have motives of its own . . . and would persist for decades to come. The doll that surprised and overpowered those no longer useful to her. In the dark ...

Celia, desperate to escape her abusive husband, found the gun. He soon he lay dead. Rolling his body into the swamp, she recalled that Durk had threatened to defeat death: I'll get you, Celia. You kill me and I'll come back as your worst nightmare. I'll get you and I'll get your kids, too. Telling no one about Durk, Celia began to run with help from an underground network. Despite their precautions, disaster soon struck! Coincidence? After a second incident, it became apparent that somehow...