Beware the Shadowman of Willowcreek.

Speaking his name won't make him stir, but calling his victims will,
He'll wake from his sleep, he'll hunt you down, you'll be his next kill,
If you wake him, just remember this very simple rule;
Be quiet, don't make a sound, remember that he's cruel,
For if he finds you, your name will join the rest he's taken,
Yours will be the next name that will remain unspoken and forsaken.

Beware the Shadowman of Willowcreek.

"That's so stupid," Cash rolled her eyes as her friends laughed about the old legend. She lived on the estate. Well, not exactly on, but close enough to know how ridiculous it was to think that some creature lurked in the woods and stirred to hunt people from their deaths.

"I thought you were a believer, Cashy," said George Kieley, sprawling out on the grass of the playground in town. George may have thought he'd had her at that, but Cash laughed and shook her head.

"I believe in ghosts, not urban legends," she dismissed him.

"No, it's not a legend, it's real," Mari Evans spoke up. The mousy girl played with her hands as everyone turned to look at her. Mari was the type of girl to be seen─and because of her skin tone, she stood out─but very rarely heard. "My grandpa said he's seen him. Out by the boundary line. One of the last people to be killed by him was a friend of his. Apparently, they woke him up as a dare, calling out the names of people who have died on the property, and within the week, Grandpa's friend was found dead at the old Haversfield property. Grandpa said he'd never seen anything so gruesome."

Cash had heard about that death. It actually took place on the land that once belonged to her dad's family, but they lost it a while back, selling it on to the people who owned Willowcreek. But the guy that had been killed was found ripped to shreds, with a very significant gash across his chest and, most disgustingly, his tongue had been torn out.

It wasn't exactly light reading for teenagers, however, Allie was fascinated by it.

"So they just yelled random names of dead people?" George asked, raising his eyebrows and leaning back on the grass. He placed his arms behind his head. The group were silent before George shouted, "Freddie Mercury!"

Cash rolled her eyes again, smacking George's arm as laughter broke out in the group. "You're such an asshole."

"It's not a joke," Mari insisted, as the small group laughed at George. He was the joker of the group, he was a fun guy, but he was definitely even parts jackass.

"Look, I've never seen some Shadowman during my twelve years of living up there," Cash told the group, trying to calm them down. Mari was like her new Allie, only less...Allie. She didn't let them tease her.

"They didn't yell random names," Mari told them. "They picked five names of people who died up at Willowcreek, only one was suspected to be a victim of the Shadowman. They drew straws. The friend that died was the one who called the victim's name. Explain that."

It seemed Mari had them convinced at that point, but of course, George was going to be George. He asked Mari to tell him her grandpa's friend's name. She refused to tell him, shaking her head so violently, the bun that Cash had helped pin into place started falling apart. Why would she? She was not calling the Shadowman out, no way.

Steering the conversation away from the old legend, Cash managed to convince George and Mari to go and buy some lunch for the group. Albert had stopped allowing Cash in when his diner almost burned down the afternoon following her first shift working for him. She believed it was because she lived by the boundary line. He'd been pushed to give her the job by his wife, Constance, but she knew he didn't want her anywhere near his place, let alone working there.

The fire had been an accident, but that changed nothing. She was fired, Albert had a reason to give Constance as to why Cassia wasn't allowed back in, and she was permanently barred for life.

It would have been a loss if she actually cared enough. She only worked there to make some money for her trips to Belhaven, which didn't happen nearly as often as she'd hoped they would. Getting to and from the estate was hard enough, but with enough effort, she could get George to meet her just at the town welcome sign. She found other ways to make money.

"Hey, isn't that your parents' boss?" Nat Harmon said as Lucinda Carpenter made her across the street toward the entrance of the playground. "Who's that chick with her?"

Cash's eyes widened as large as dinner plates when she spotted her.

It had been a while, long enough for Cash to be surprised by the sight of her childhood best friend. But she let out a squeal and she got herself up from the ground, running over to meet the two as they came in.

Allie was back home!

She shied away slightly at Cash's squeal, but she relented and hugged the other girl as she collided with her. For a moment, Cash bounced and she could physically feel Allie freezing, but she loosened up and the tears started.

Cash cried as she held her best friend, her sister, and could barely speak through the tears. Nat stayed where the two had been sitting, watching quietly but very much shocked. However, if Cash cared about that, she wasn't going to let it show then.

By the time that Mari and George returned, Cash had introduced Alice, and Lucinda, to her friends. "Allie is my best, best, best friend!" she told them, her arm still slung over the girl. The three friends looked at her with slightly wary expressions, bordering on creeped out.

Alice had changed a lot from the time that she'd been taken to Boston and then. Her face was pale, like she hadn't been outside in a while, and her eyes were a little sunken. She had always been a skinny child, a little sickly looking. Only now, as a fifteen year old, in places where one would expect a teenage girl to gain some semblance of shape, Allie had none. However, she looked so much more alive. Her eyes were brighter and she held the whisper of a smile on her lips as she was introduced.

Cash had always been slightly taller than Allie, but now, Allie only reached her shoulder. She was as petite as she'd ever been. She was so pretty, though, and with a little help from Cash, she'd help her gain some weight. Her pixie features would always leave Cash jealous.

Meeting Cash's new friends left Allie feeling socially drained. She'd been worried about life outside of the clinic, outside of the structure it had given her. She'd been worried that Cash would have moved on, completely forgotten about her, because it had been almost an entire year since she last visited. Even though she called, it was almost like she'd been forced to call her.

However, Cash's friends all seemed really nice, even though they looked at her like she was a bomb about to explode.

"You can stay with your friends," insisted Allie as her mom told her it was time to go home. Cash had gotten up with her. She hadn't really spoken much until then, and George was the first to make a comment about how soft her voice was.

"You sound like...like...what's the name of that one girl from that one movie?" he tried to describe, looking to Nat for some help, but he only shrugged his shoulders. "Sleeping Beauty! That's it!"

"Sleeping...Beauty?" Allie echoed him, furrowing her eyebrows and looking at Cash, hoping to make sense of the comparison.

"Her voice has always been very soft," Cash defended. "And I don't mind coming home with you guys. We have so much to catch up on!"

The group of teenagers waved them goodbye as Cash got into the car with Allie and her mom, waving back to them. It was nice that she was being chosen over these new friends, even if it was only for today.

It had been so long since Allie had been home, she wasn't sure what to expect from the house. Would it look any different? Would the rot have spread farther over the estate? No, don't think about that stuff. You spent years away from this place, you're better, all of that stuff was in the past. There is no rot taking over the estate, there are no ghosts, no spectors!

Cash was always talkative, it seemed she'd never grow out of it, because she spoke the entire time they were in the car driving home. Allie listened as best she could, but her mind wandered to the trees. It was Summer, yet half of them were bare and others had already gone brown. And not the pretty fall brown either.

They passed by the remnants of the Haversfield house, Allie thinking of all the times she'd dreamt about that place. The family that had once lived there had been close to the family who owned Willowcreek. She'd found some old journals that had belonged to the daughter of Willowcreek's owner, she'd often written about the Haversfield brothers, and one name was written repeatedly.

Clarke.

The description that she gave of the youngest Haversfield made even Allie's cold heart flutter. He was only two years older than her, as tall as her older brother, and had the most amazing green eyes.

'If Clarke's eyes were liquid, they'd be apple cider; the warm, sweet kind that you drink during the winter months, at Christmas. I would like nothing more than to forever spend my winters sipping from the cider in his eyes. There is nothing that would make me happier.'

Allie had dreamt about him after reading that and he was every bit as dreamy in her own imagination.

Stop it, she scolded herself. She could not and would not think about Clarke Haversfield. Or Arren. She would not return to those journals, she would not give them a reason to send her back to the clinic in Boston.

"─in the fall?" Allie zoned back in as the car pulled up in the courtyard of the manor, Cash leaning forward from the back seat to get her attention.

What about the fall?

"Well, the doctors believe that would be...up to Alice," her mom said and it drew a deep frown from her. School, they must have been talking about school. Their first year of high school started this fall and Cash had promised Allie they'd go together. Even while she was in that clinic. "First, let's get her resettled, okay?"

The Garroways were thrilled to see Alice walk into the manor. Thomas had cut a bouquet of Allie's favorite flowers for her, giving her them with a warm smile and tight hug. "It's great to have you home, periwinkle," he whispered in her ear, holding her as tightly as a father would hold their child. He was as close to a father as Allie had ever had.

Rose had baked some of her favorite cookies and brownies, as well as cooking up a storm in the kitchen, preparing her favorite meals. "There is nothing more suited for a welcome home meal than roast beef with all of your favorites on the side," she said, pulling Allie into yet another tight hug. "Oh, petal, we've missed you terribly."

They sat and had dinner together, the five of them. Thomas told Allie that he'd managed to get a cutting of an English rose for the garden and he couldn't wait for it to bloom. Rose made sure to tell her that anything she wanted for breakfast, she'd make her it, all she had to do was ask. "I've missed your waffles," she told her with a smile.

It was like nothing had changed.

Allie and Cash spent the night talking about what to expect at school, Cash unhappy that she was going to have to wear a uniform every day, but Allie wasn't too fussed. At least she wouldn't have to try to adjust her fashion sense to fit in. Everyone would be dressed the same way.

The girls stayed in Allie's bedroom on the second floor, sleeping side by side like they'd done many times, and Allie couldn't believe how amazing her first night home was. She slept soundly, Cash cuddling her arm, like she was making sure she couldn't leave in the middle of the night.

It was the best sleep Allie could ever remember having at Willowcreek Manor.

And it would continue for the next year.

Integrating back into school had been difficult for Alice, but Cash was by her side for the most of it. She didn't really attempt to make friends and not many people tried to befriend her. It seemed, during the three years that she'd been in Boston, people were speculating the reason. She'd missed all of middle school. A handful of students from the school that she and Cash had attended back then were now at Belhaven, and they got the rumors spreading.

Before the end of the first semester, everyone knew that Alice had been hospitalized, and worse, they all knew that she lived at Willowcreek. They gossiped behind her back about curses and ghosts, and even came up with stupid nickname─The Maiden of Willowcreek─which she ignored.

She wasn't associating herself with that stuff anymore. If she wanted to continue getting better, she had to put that stuff behind her. So, when anyone asked her about the ghosts, Alice would look them in the eye─well, not directly, she didn't have that kind of confidence─and say, "There's no such thing as ghosts."

But there was and she knew better than anyone how real they were. How dangerous they could be.

The one good thing to come out of being known as The Maiden of Willowcreek was soon, students stopped paying attention to her and left her alone. She didn't mind it, she preferred her own company over a group's any day. With the exception of Cash's company, of course. But even that was hard to come by.

Cash was a social butterfly. She was pretty and liked by everyone, especially by the boys. She had a boyfriend before their first week came to a close, and by the time they broke for Thanksgiving, she'd had three more.

Boys didn't pay Allie any attention but when they did, she panicked. She didn't want any of it, it made her uncomfortable. However...there was one boy who paid her just a little bit of attention and it didn't panic her.

She didn't realize it at the time, but she was developing a crush. Her first crush ever! Until that point, she hadn't thought about boys in the same way that Cash had. Her friend saw a cute guy and immediately stated how badly she wanted to kiss him. While Allie saw a cute guy and...well, she didn't even identify him as cute.

The exception to the rule was Lochlain Adler.

Allie saw him as such a beautiful person, it was hard to think he lived in their little nowhere town. He wasn't just a beautiful person, however, because he was as kind as he was beautiful. He liked to read in the library during lunch, which Allie also liked to do, and he'd often sneak in chocolate that he'd share with her. If he knew about her being the Maiden of Willowcreek, he didn't act like he did. There were days when he would smile at Allie, days when he'd say hello but not push it further than that, and days when he'd leave notes in the reading nook. But every day, he'd leave half a candy bar in there for her.

Right at the back of the library, there was a reading nook that almost always went unused. When it was used, couples would hide there and makeout. Allie had caught many a couple, many a time, and it just did not seem all too appealing to her.

Until Lochlain left her note, asking her to meet her at the reading nook after school.

She didn't have the time to go to Cash and ask her for the best way to go about it, because she hadn't told her yet that she might have had a crush on someone. And Allie believed she knew what she'd say. 'Just go and make out! That's what the nook is good for.'

Allie had a panic attack thinking about it and was sent to the nurse's office halfway through her last period. Thomas had to come by and pick her up. She missed the meeting. To say that it broke Allie's heart was an understatement. Cash had thought someone had done something to cause the panic attack─she came home, guns blazing, demanding to know who it was─but Allie explained what had actually happened.

Of course, her assumption of how her best friend would respond was accurate.

"Al, don't you know why people go there? They hide and make out," she'd said, making Allie's face burn beet red. The thought of making out with Lochlain wasn't embarrassing, it wasn't entirely...unpleasant. But Allie had never liked a boy, not the way she liked him.

"But I..." She tore a tissue in half, starting to tear it into tinier pieces. "I've never kissed a boy before!" she confessed, hiding her face in her hands and flurry of tissue snow. Cash stayed quiet for a second before she laughed.

"So?" Cash patted Allie's back to make her look up at her, picking off pieces of the tissue that had stuck in her hair. "Loch is different from the other boys in our year. He's not going to make you kiss him if you don't want to. Just tell him that."

"But what if I tell him I don't want to kiss him and he thinks that means I don't like him?" Allie asked, chewing on the inside of her lip. The fact that she specified the other boys weren't like him had Allie a little worried about her. Did the other boys make girls kiss them, even if they said they didn't want to? Had Cash been forced into kissing someone she didn't want to?

"Do you want to kiss him?" Cash asked and Allie's face lit up brighter than ever before. "Trust me, Allie, you're worrying over the wrong things," she grinned at her. "What you should be worrying about is what you're going to wear when you confess that you like him!"

Confessing how she felt was like confessing there was something wrong with her. Allie didn't want to tell Loch she liked him, in case she made a mistake. And have him think she was just as weird as everyone insisted she was.

Lochlain met her at the reading nook the following lunchtime and confessed to having a crush on her. Allie's heart leaped up and down in her chest, her smile growing as he watched her, waiting for her to tell him whether or not she liked him back.

Cash's question from the night before played over in her mind.

Do you want to kiss him?

Yes, the answer to that was definitely yes. And Allie couldn't stop looking at Loch's lips all lunch. He was reading Frankenstein, reading it aloud to her and she listened, but got lost in the thought of kissing him.

However, it would take them both a while before they had their first kiss.

The two began to spend a lot of their time together, be it at school or during the weekend. Loch would often visit the estate and it was obvious to her that he didn't pay attention to any rumors that had been created.

It was all just rumors, none of it was real.

Allie felt like she was living in a fantasy, because she had a boyfriend, and he was smart and popular, and everyone liked him. Of course, there were people who asked why he'd chosen her out of all of the girls in their classes. But he never justified their curiosities with an answer.

Loch was good to her and for her. Allie never knew if he'd found out about why she'd been sent to Boston before. He didn't treat her like she was broken or fragile or like she was a freak. He was constantly on her mind, so much so that she almost didn't notice her archenemy returning.

The noises started in the middle of the night, just like they always did, and Allie knew what that meant. They were stirring from their slumber and, in no time, they'd be pestering her.

The first to show himself was Clarke. He never crossed any boundaries, he remained outside of Allie's bedroom, no matter what. It would begin with tapping on her bedroom door. Clarke would try to get her attention, and she knew that if she ignored him, sooner or later─always sooner─Arren would arrive.

"Leave me alone," hissed Allie in the dark, hiding herself with her bedding. Interacting with them always created problems. But maybe this time, she could make him leave her alone and all would be well. It was late November already, snow had already blanketed the grounds. She couldn't go wandering in the middle of the night like they always wanted her to.

"Alice, please, I beg you help us," Clarke's sweet and siren-like voice lured her from her bed. "You made us a promise," he reminded her, his fingers tapping on the frame of the door.

She'd been a little girl when she made those promises. She had no idea what she was getting herself into.

Some kind of curse had taken over Willowcreek following the mysterious disappearance of Clarke's fiancée, Lucille. Her family had once owned the estate and manor, that was the only reason why Clarke's father approved of their relationship.

She had disappeared on the night of their engagement party, never to be found. It was unclear if she was alive, if she'd run away, or if some mysterious tragedy had befallen her. But from her disappearance on, misfortune befell anyone who called Willowcreek their home. That included Clarke's family.

Well, he and his older brother, Arren.

Arren was supposed to marry Lucille, but when she met Clarke, she fell in love with him. Allie couldn't blame her for it. The brothers were equally as attractive as one another, but Clarke was the more attractive one.

Clarke had sweet eyes while Arren's were steely and cruel. Clarke's voice was sweet and warm, while Arren's was...well, charming but definitely not sweet. If Clarke was honey, Arren was bittersweet chocolate. And not the kind she could binge during her time of the month.

"No, not again," Allie shook her head and scurried across the room to lock the door. Locking the door didn't keep the ghosts out, but it did give her peace of mind. "He almost killed me last time, I can't put my mother through that again. I'm sorry."

He was the resident urban legend all of the teenagers at her school spoke of. The curse that had taken over the land had created him, too. The Shadowman was unforgiving, regardless of age or gender or whether you intended to awaken him. And he'd already tried to silence her.

Something evil resided among the trees on the land and it haunted everyone it came into contact with. Allie was no different.

The Shadowman was only its puppet, the weapon that it used to exact the atrocities it most likely fed on. The Shadowman was responsible for countless lives that were taken abruptly, in horrific ways. And every one of those lives lost resulted in a spirit that was stuck on the estate, never able to find rest, never able to join their loved ones in the great 'hereafter'.

She pitied the spirits that he'd trapped, but she couldn't be responsible for freeing them. It couldn't be her responsibility.

"Alice, I assure you, he will not harm you this time," Clarke promised. His words could convince the best of them to dive into any abyss. And Allie would have fallen for it, again, if not for the little cat she'd adopted, hissing at the door.

"Not this time."

Perhaps if she hadn't helped them before, she wouldn't have almost died, she wouldn't have been sent to that place. Maybe this time would be different and she wouldn't have to worry about hurting her mother and her loved ones again.

Alice had promised Clarke and Arren that she'd help them figure out a way to cross over, to leave Willowcreek for good. She'd been a child back then, not understanding that what she was promising was out of her control.

Allie wanted to help, so badly, she didn't realize that looking into the deaths would wake the Shadowman, that she'd make herself a target of the creature. Arren had made it seem like only she could help them, because no one else had the connection to them that she had.

She lived in Willowcreek, she called it home. Her mother didn't believe, therefore, she was of no help.

He'd also made no mention of her rousing the Shadowman. Arren was clever like that. Manipulative was a better word. But she was too young to know what being manipulated was.

Clarke wasn't anything like his brother, yet he still made no attempts at protecting her from the abuse the beast inflicted upon her.

She'd thought her plan to ignore them would work. She'd thought that if she didn't make any more promises then things would be alright and she'd be able to continue to live her life. Happy, carefree, and blissfully in love with her first boyfriend.

However, that kind of thing only happened in the books she read.

Ignoring them had the opposite effect. 

The Restless Ones─the spirits that were more desperate than the others for reasons unknown to her─would maliciously hurt her, her cat, Plushie, and torment her at night. Then there was how Arren reacted.

Arren wasn't anything like his brother, he was mean and would have made for an excellent villain, if only he was a character in some book. He inflicted the most damage. He'd catch small animals around the estate, he'd kill them, maim them, and leave them for her to find.

She didn't know how he could do these things. But it seemed the things that she knew about spirits weren't exactly accurate. They were capable of a lot of things, things that disturbed Allie beyond all reason.

When Plushie went missing, Alice knew that it was him. The cat never got out, she stayed indoors because the crows tended to pick on her. But she had not expected to find the cat in the one place that brought her comfort.

It wasn't the first time that Arren had left an animal for her to find at the Fairy Pond, many times she hadn't found them until it was far too late to do anything. Maggots and flies would already have taken them over, their carcasses reduced to decaying messes. The odor was always too much.

Finding Plushie beside the pond's edge, mangled and in such a horrible way, she wailed for hours. She tried to stop the bleeding, but she had probably been bleeding for a long time. Long enough, at least, that death had taken the feline a while ago.

Thomas helped to dispose of the body, like he did with the others, but this one was different. Allie made sure to let them know that it was the ghost that had done it. She sounded crazy, she heard it herself, but nothing could stop her casting the blame on the guilty party.

"You killed Plushie!" Allie accused Arren, crying again and unable to console herself. Plushie had been her protector at night. She'd made it so that Allie could sleep, and he had taken her away. He'd senselessly killed another innocent animal and this time, she was going to make sure Clarke knew about it. "You can tell Clarke why I won't help you. You are just as vile as the creature!"

Allie was rarely left alone, especially not when she had an episode, but her mother was on her way back from Boston, visiting family out there and Rose had been keeping an eye on her. Rose stayed on the first floor whenever she slept over, and usually, Cash would sleep over, too. But Cash was spending the night with her boyfriend, pretending that she was spending the night at Mari's house instead.

Rose wouldn't hear Allie yelling at Arren. She was most likely already asleep.

"You are a murderer!" she stated, throwing salt at the fireplace where Arren stood. "Get out! Go away! I will never help you, not again! You deserve to rot─"

Alice's words were snuffed out like something was shoved down her throat. She choked, trying to speak, but nothing came out. She felt the pressure around her neck, a hand or a rope, something obstructing her breath.

"If you don't help us, I will kill you before that vile creature is able to get his hands on you," hissed Arren, cold lips brushing her ear and sending shuddering waves of terror down her body. "Or perhaps, I'll kill someone else, your mother? Your little friend?"

It was his hand, he had his hand around her throat and was choking her. He was going to choke her to death.

"No...perhaps, instead of them, I'll kill your little boyfriend, and you can experience what it's like having your heart broken," he threatened. However, his words were more of a warning than a threat.

Needless to say, they set her blood on ice.

"I will not spend another decade stuck in this cesspool," he growled in her ear, his hand gripping her throat tighter until he let her go. Allie collapsed to the floor of her bedroom, her hand on her neck and shaking in fear. "You will help me," he whispered as he crouched down to get close to her face again. "You will not tell my brother that I caused the death of your feline, and you will not mention this to him...or, Lochlain? He will cease to exist. In a very...similar manner to that of...Lucie."

Horror swept through Alice, thinking of the woman that his brother had been in love with. Was that some sort of confession? Was he confessing that he'd done something to Lucille? Allie held her breath until he decided to leave her be, but not before leaving her with a few marks on her arms in the shape of his palm and finger prints.