Kirkwood Fires
The fires glowed menacingly in the blackness of the distant woods, and the drumming that came windborne to Val's ears brought an unmistakable message of imminent death.

This time Val knew it would be her death, that at any moment whoever had locked her in her room would return to take her...out there. Was she going mad? No -- this nightmare was no madness. It was as real as every incident of treachery and horror that had taken place in the few weeks of her new teaching post at the Kirkwood School.

Two students had unexplainably died. And then everybody had...changed.

Who would be coming for her? Would it be Charles Morgan, the assistant headmaster, whose love had turned to icy fury when he suspected that she "knew too much"?

Or the arrogant Mr. Casey, who had tried to win her over with his rakish charm? Or would it -- could it -- be her best friend Sarah? But Val couldn't bear to think of what had come over Sarah...

She could think only of what waned out there in the forest, in the distant hypnotic flames of the Kirkwood Fires.