Scary Mysteries For Teens

In the land of moss, magnolias, and bayous, ghost stories suffuse the landscape like mist on a moonlit swamp. Swamp ghosts, hot-tempered villains and tricksters once lived there, and live on today in such blood-chilling stories as the six in this collection.

Back when I was fearless, it went like this: Gaia meets boy. Gaia falls in love with boy. Boy gets hurt. Now that I feel fear, it goes like this: Gaia meets boy. Gaia falls in love with boy. Boy gets hurt. Some things never change.

Gaia is ecstatic - and terrified. Now that she can feel fear and all the conflicting reactions that emotion provokes, Gaia can't sit still. And just when she is about to settle into her new life, she discovers her past is looking for her.

Willa, a young night-spirit of the Great Smoky Mountains, is her clan's best thief. She creeps into the homes of day-folk under cover of darkness and takes what they won't miss. It's dangerous work - the day-folk kill whatever they do not understand - but Willa will do anything to win the approval of the padaran, the charismatic leader of the Faeran people. When Willa's curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in the day world, she calls upon an ancient, unbreakable bond to escape.

To earn his Ghosthunting Diploma, Tom's got to nab a deadly 12th Messenger. But while on the hunt in the haunted town of Bogpool, Tom stumbles into the mucked-up lair of a mud-loving minotaur who has an entire army of ghosts at his command. Suddenly there's a lot more at stake than Tom's graduation. This raging beast is dead-set on doomsday. And that's no bull!

After Daniel's young sister disappears in the woods, he starts to believe the myth about a witch and her terrifying hog who take little girls and keep them for 50 years....

When sixteen-year-old Paige Preston and her mother relocated to Dead Lake, Michigan, they were unaware that a seventeen-year-old previous resident of their house had killed himself by jumping off a cliff into the lake six months earlier. But was it really suicide? Noah Snyder is a ghost. At least he thinks so. Only he's not sure how he died. He recruits the cute Paige to help him get to the bottom of the mystery so he can move on.

The girls at Modesta High School feel like they're stuck in some anti-feminist time warp - they're faced with sexism at every turn, and they've had enough. Sponsored by their new art teacher, Ms. Stark, they form the Daughters of Eve. It's more than a school club - it's a secret society, a sisterhood. At first, it seems like they are actually changing the way guys at school treat them. But Ms. Stark urges them to take more vindictive action, and it starts to feel more like revenge- brutal revenge. Blinded by their oath of loyalty, the Daughters of Eve become instruments of vengeance.

Boy hero Tom, Hugo the Averagely Spooky Ghost, and famed ghoul hunter Hetty Hyssop have formed an agency dedicated to dealing with difficult apparitions. No spook can defeat them, until their too close encounter with a Gruesome Invincible Lightning Ghost (or "GILIG" in ghosthunter-speak).

Just back from rehab, Casey regrets letting her friends Shana, Julie, and Aya talk her into coming to Survive the Night, an all-night, underground rave in a New York City subway tunnel. Surrounded by frightening drugs and menacing strangers, Casey doesn't think Survive the Night could get any worse...until she comes across Julie's mutilated body in a dank, black subway tunnel, red-eyed rats nibbling at her fingers. And by the time they get back to the party, everyone is gone.

Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd's witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely's firefly spirits before it's too late.

For 15-year-old Rachel Bryant, summer vacation promises to be fun. Her 17-year-old cousin Julia will be coming to Albuquerque, New Mexico to live with the Bryants, following her parents’ deaths. With two brothers, Rachel is looking forward to finally having a sister. From the moment Julia arrives, everyone is enchanted with the orphaned teenager. But Rachel finds her strangely disturbing. Soon an evil poison seems to seep into every corner of her life. Can she discover what Julia is trying to do before it’s too late?

Joss McMillan’s perfect life crashes down the night he witnesses his sister’s murder - at the hands of a vampire. He then finds out his family’s secret heritage: They are part of the Slayer Society, a group whose mission is to rid the world of vampires. Joss is their new recruit. As Joss trains, bent on seeking revenge for his sister, he discovers powers that could make him the youngest, strongest Slayer in history. But there is a traitor in the Society, one whose identity would shake Joss to the core... if the traitor doesn’t kill him first.

Diana and her little brother Georgie have been living in the woods behind the old Willis place, a decaying Victorian mansion, for what already seems like forever. They aren't allowed to leave the property or show themselves to anyone. But when a new caretaker comes to live there with his young daughter, Lissa, Diana is tempted to break the mysterious rules they live by and reveal herself so she can finally have a friend.

There's a new boy at Shadyside High School, and he's stolen the hearts of all the girls. Good-looking, athletic Ross Gabriel is the kind of guy that every girl wants to date - including best friends Janie, Eve, and Faith. They've even made a bet on which one of them he'll go out with first. Ross dates a lot of girls - and one by one, they're all murdered. It looks like going out with Ross means flirting with a gruesome and horrifying fate.

This is Slappy's world - you only scream in it!

Denise Farber has just moved back to New Orleans with her mom and stepdad. They left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and have finally returned, wagering the last of their family's money on fixing up an old, rundown house and converting it to a bed and breakfast. Nothing seems to work around the place, which doesn't seem too weird to Denise. The unexplained noises are a little more out of the ordinary, but again, nothing too unusual. But when floors collapse, deadly objects rain down, and she hears creepy voices, it's clear to Denise that something more sinister lurks hidden here.

When Stephen's dad says they're moving, Stephen knows it's pointless to argue. They're broke from paying Mom's hospital bills, and now the only option left is to live with Stephen's grandmother in Spencer, a backward small town that's like something out of The Twilight Zone. Population: 814.

Tessa Woodward isn't exactly thrilled to move to rainy, cold Chicago from her home in sunny Florida. But homesickness turns to icy fear when unexplainable things start happening in her new house. Things like flickering lights, mysterious drawings appearing out of nowhere, and a crackling noise she can feel in her bones. When her little brother's doll starts crying real tears, Tessa realizes that someone - or something - is trying to communicate with her. And it involves a secret that's been shrouded in mystery for more than 100 years.

Harper doesn’t trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family’s new house is haunted. Harper isn’t sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strangely. The whole atmosphere gives Harper a sense of déjà vu, but she can’t remember why. She knows that the memories she’s blocking will help make sense of her brother’s behavior and the strange and threatening sensations she feels in this house, but will she be able to put the pieces together in time?