Trista has always loved abandoned houses and the paranormal. Now that she’s at college only fifteen minutes from the notoriously haunted Hollow Street house, she knows exactly where she’s spending Halloween. She packs a bag, puts on her favorite vintage dress, and sets off, hoping to spot the ghost of the young, dark-haired woman who’s said to haunt the house’s living room.<br><br>Fellow student Keira does not like abandoned houses, and she isn’t particularly interested in ghosts. Visiting the Hollow Street house was not how she’d planned to spend Halloween. But her little sister, who loves all things spooky, has begged Keira to check out the haunted house next to her university, and Keira has trouble saying no. She doesn’t expect to see anything supernatural, so it’s quite a shock to find herself face-to-face with a mysterious young woman in old-fashioned clothing who seems to have appeared from nowhere.<br><br>When the two ghost-hunters come face to face, each mistakes the other for the ghost she’s looking for. How tragic, they both think, that such a beautiful person should have died so young. Of course, things aren’t as bleak as they seem, and the two women might find themselves pleasantly surprised ... if they can make it to the morning. Because real entities haunt the Hollow Street house, and they’re anything but friendly.

Spirits in the Dark

There was something in the house with her.


Something had come up out of the well of her darkest dreams. It followed with heavy footsteps wherever she went, and breathed across her shoulder when she paused in the dark hallway to try and get her bearings. She felt at every minute that it was about to grab her, to rip at her with thornbush claws. But it held back. It wanted something. It was waiting.


The silence grew, and the darkness grew, thicker and thicker and thicker.


Trista was starting to doubt her own senses. Was she hearing whispers in the corner—around the corner—down the hall? Or was she only hearing the subconscious whispers that built up in your mind when you were alone too long?


Perhaps this darkness had been waiting for her, somewhere deep, for a long time—maybe all her life. Maybe this house called out to those who had shadows in them, drew them close enough to see the implications of the dreams they’d never shared with anyone.


Chapter 11