Amy and Jodi hardly remembered their father who lived and worked in a carnival, but now they were going to live with him. This could be great fun! Jodi soon went exploring, got lost in the House of Mirrors, and there discovered a mysterious talisman. Her father asked that she check with India, the carnival owner, on what to do with it. India freaked out, saying that the talisman was very bad and must be destroyed. Jodi threw it in the trash, but Amy slyly fished it out and hid it. Shortly ...

After her parents passed away, Tara sought to escape the inevitable marriage to the wealthy Albert if she stayed in town. After traveling to San Francisco with almost no money, during a heavy rain she found shelter with a small group of people that seemed to be penniless and without resources. She learned that young Amy, one of this "family", was pregnant and needing help. After the men returned from an evening outing, they expressed an urgent desire to leave. Mysteriously, they had a car ...

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...

After ten years of marriage and six children, Amanda was shocked and surprised when Alex apparently committed suicide. But, how could he have slashed his wrists in the bathtub and then slit his own throat? And why did the police not recognize that a rope around his hands had been removed? Young, sensitive Haley had seen the rope and "the other", but kept it to herself. When her 15-year old sister Cassie led the older kids to try to contact Alex through a séance, an apparition suddenly appe...

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...

The youths began appearing across town one evening. They seemed to exactly match descriptions of missing children, some gone for 30 years, several more recently. When a dog was killed, the threat could not be ignored. After the tent revival, Reverend Walsh was called to sit and pray with Matt Reed, a trapper who had been accidentally caught in one of his own steel traps. Matt had freed himself and staggered home before collapsing. Now he seemed possessed, with sounds of children's voices c...

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 ...

Sheba is impulsive, unconstrained by convention, and fond of men. When she comes into a small amount of money, she decides on a lark that she wants to purchase an old house—sight unseen—and turn it into a hunting lodge. The house and many surrounding acres are priced very attractively. She talks two sisters and her roommate Donna—her good friends—into quitting their jobs and coming to live and work with her, but each of them wants to give one- or two-week notice. Impatient, Sheba jumps in ...

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...

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...

Barry had been abused while at a nursery school. His father Ramon, a single parent, had to deal with the aftermath. Job demands left him little time to care for Barry and his older brother and sister. Fortunately, the therapist Dr. Coleman had an idea. Shannon, another of his patients, had recently lost her husband and young son in a car accident. Shannon was still struggling to recover while attending college. With summer vacation coming up, Dr. Coleman suggested that Ramon hire Shannon t...

Three years earlier, pregnant Ketti had fled along with daughter Babette, leaving son Patrick with his father. She had tried to stay hidden, and relied on Babette to care for Danny while she worked nights. One evening, Babette as awakened by loud sounds. She went into the baby's room to find her brother Patrick fighting with her mother. Ketti seemed to be trying to kill Patrick! After the police were called, it was found that Danny was no longer living. A crib death? The same thing that ha...