Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics A centaur war is no place to be in the middle of. * * * *  The fighting spread everywhere but the ruins where the drunken audience clapped and cheered the increasing bloodshed. Gina winced when two centaurs took down another a few feet away. “We’re supposed to get through this?” “It’s your only opportunity to not face the man-eating tree again. That should inspire you.” Amy peered at the woods where the shallow stream bisected it. Between the girls and the trees, at least a dozen combatants swung swords and clubs at each other. “Our best chance is through there. Then we’ll jog to the west, pick up the trail leading to the door. Ready? Come on.” With little warning, she was off and running. On the way, she snatched up her sweater with its stupid pin. Gina and Mattie exchanged a brief glance. They came to the same decision at once, no conversation required. They raced after her. A confusing kaleidoscope of fear and desperation fo...

  Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics Unfriendly centaurs and a Greek ruin. What new horrors are in store for Gina and Mattie? * * * * Mattie stretched. She looked over their surroundings, then froze. “What’s that?” Gina peered in the direction of the nearest stretch of trees. “A table? Wait, is that a pegboard? How is it hanging in the air? Mattie, get back here!” Cursing, Gina followed her friend. They hurried over to stare at a workbench. The rough, water-stained board construction had a vise attached at the end. A pegboard hovered just behind it. Baby food jars hung from it, filled with various screws, nails, bolts and other small bits one might use in building projects. The pegboard floated in the air with no visible support. Mattie waved her hand around it. “Freaky. How is it doing that?” “So much for the perfect, nonthreatening scenario.” Gina gazed at their surroundings again. She wondered what new weirdness was in store. “Mattie-eating trees are threatening. ...

  Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics Eat or be eaten...which would you choose? * * * * Yes. Gina could run and take the fruit in her hands with her. Except now that she had it, she was seized by the urge to eat it immediately. A boy and the second teenage girl shifted. They put themselves between her and the door. “Don’t leave without a taste,” the teenager said. “You won’t believe how good it is,” the boy insisted. It was at Gina’s lips, the skin smooth. The sweet citrus aroma was thick in her nostrils. Her stomach spasmed, begging to be filled. “Gina—” Mattie started. Gina bit. A scream pierced her ears, and violent pain sliced through her head. Her teeth had closed on the fruit, and she ripped a piece out as she thrust it from herself. She noted several things at once. The warm, meaty taste that filled her mouth instead of the cool, juicy fruit she’d expected. The pink mass within pulsed. Thick red liquid gushed and poured from the fruit, more like blood tha...

  Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics Gina and Mattie encounter death in a wheelbarrow and on four legs. * * * * Before her friend could answer, movement broke from the black curtain of nothing. They gaped when an old-fashioned wooden wheelbarrow trundled toward them, pushed by a gray-haired woman. Mattie moaned deep in her throat. Arms and legs draped over the edges of the narrow cart, the bare skin showing claw marks. No, not claw marks. Gouges. Blood dripped from the limp fingers and toes. Scarlet dots trailed the wheelbarrow. Shocked, Gina brought her gaze to the woman who pushed the cart toward them. She wore a man’s outfit that looked like it might have been new during Dust Bowl days. The shoulders of the coat were too big for her, and the trousers bagged in all the wrong places. The wide-brimmed straw hat was pure hillbilly chic, as were the lace-up work boots she scuffed along. Dust drifted around her ankles. She neared the girls, her doughy face set in disapprovi...

  Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics Gina wakes from unconsciousness to find she and Mattie have fallen in Hungry House's basement...and another horrific world. * * * * “Gina! Wake up!” She jolted to her feet, her eyes wide. She stared at her tormentors. It wasn’t two hideous monsters sitting on the ground. It wasn’t even one monster. Mattie glared up at her. She rubbed her stomach. “Nice punch, champ. I suggest you save it for something that deserves it.” “Oh no. I’m sorry. I was having the worst nightmare, and—are you okay?” Gina crouched beside her friend. “Depends on your definition of ‘okay.’ Will I die from your fists of fury? No. But I’m not optimistic of long life and good health, given our surroundings.” Their surroundings? Gina had a look around. The horror she’d left in the dream returned a thousandfold. They were outdoors. The baleful moon overhead told her that much. Besides Mattie, it was the only familiar thing. The ground was cracked in jagged fis...

  Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics This week, Mattie and Gina, searching for their friends in Hungry House, are caught in its dark bowels. They went in to save Carrie and Braden...but can they save themselves? * * * * They arrived in the kitchen, and it was as huge as the reports had claimed. The stove was long gone, but the metal pipe of an exhaust hung from the brick chimney. It glinted the light from their phones. Open shelves hung over the sink that took up a quarter of a long wall. The few doors left on rustic wooden cabinets hung askew, their bent hinges ready to let go and send them to their final rest on the dust-strewn ground. “Nothing. No sign of tracks from rats or possums. Or Carrie and Braden. Shouldn’t there be spiderwebs?” As Gina put her finger on what bothered her the most about the house, the hairs on her arms rose. “It’s like a half-finished movie set of an abandoned building. A lot of details are missing.” Mattie opened her mouth. Her expression state...

  Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics Meet Gina and Mattie in our first excerpt. They've just received word their bestie Carrie and her little brother Braden might be in trouble. Lured by the forbidding manse on the edge of town, they're heading into danger. Can Gina and Mattie reach them before Hungry House feeds? * * * * Gina felt she was being chuted to the foreboding structure, with no ability to turn aside. Her obsession, and worry for her friends, spurred her on. She glanced at Mattie. Her friend’s expression was determined, and she ran faster. If Gina stopped, Mattie would keep going. “They wouldn’t have gone in. It’s locked tighter than a safe. The gate, the doors. The windows are boarded up.” Gina put on a burst of speed to keep up with her friend. “Your stories about it excited them. They’ll be at the gate, scaring each other about ghosts and goblins.” Mattie gusted a laugh that sounded suspiciously like a sob. Does she feel what I do…that we’re already to...