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 ...

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...

The dreams kept coming to Magret—the baby, its head rising right out of the earth, its piercing eyes staring at her. She tried to remind herself that this was just another nightmare. But then her daughter Sheena reported seeing a little girl, an infant, in the forest behind their house. Surely she was confused about what she had seen. The police searched, finding nothing. Then came another sighting, soon followed by a brutal murder in the house beyond the woods. Magret reluctantly began to...

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 ...

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...

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...

Youngsters Abby and Brian decided to spend the afternoon riding their bikes to the Speedee-Mart and buying a few treats. However, plans strangely went awry. First, Abby talked Brian into taking along Babs, his six-month-old golden retriever. Without asking permission, Brian put his best leash on Babs and off they went. Abby then wanted to stop and ask Shelly to join them. Shelly agreed, but suggested that they take the short-cut through the woods. That is where things went off-track. Along...

Andrea is confused and frustrated. Her mother—on her deathbed—told Andrea that she was not her real mother, and made her promise to seek out her real parents. Upon arriving at their home, she received mixed signals from her "real parents". She had to uncover the secrets that seemed to surround her, and began to wonder if one of the secrets was a past murder. Who could she trust as she struggled to get to the bottom of this mystery?

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...

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 ...

Jo Anne Dodson was thrilled when she came to the old mountainside mansion at River's Bend. It still seemed incredible that she was the missing grand-daughter of an eccentric millionaire, and that his death had made her heiress to his estate. But from the moment that she entered this strange house, fear began. The apparition of a long-dead girl carrying a blanket dripping with blood . . . the revelation of a family curse of madness . . . the suspicious attentions of a man who claimed to be ...

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...