Nexus. Virtual reality with a bite. An online video game that has taken the world by storm. Its fanatical players call it the most incredible battle simulation ever created. Billy Keen doesn't think so. He wishes he had never played it.
After Billy won the largest Nexus tournament ever staged online, strange things started happening. From his television changing channels by itself, to his computer turning on and off all hours of the night. Billy was annoyed at first by the simple electronic malfunctions. Then they grew worse, from microwave mishaps to a terrifying elevator plunge.
Seeking help from his video gaming friends at the Fairfield University Computer Science Center, Billy discovers the true nature of his technological terror. Now, in the labyrinthian halls of the Fairfield University Computer Science building, Billy is playing Nexus for real - against a horrifying opponent that could not possibly exist.
And if Billy isn't careful, the game could end with a fatal error.
The Fairfield Triangle has always been an enigma to its namesake town. No one has ever found a reason for the strange events that take place there.
Enter Russell Drake. Russell loves solving mysteries. That's why he tags along with his dad, Sheriff Drake, to investigate a disappearance in The Triangle. However, when his back is turned, Russell's crime-solving kit - his most valued possession - vanishes, and the young detective finds himself a victim of the legendary Triangle.
To solve the mystery, Russell teams up with the Barker sisters, classmates from school whose father just lost some equipment to The Triangle. They return to the area to search for clues, and come back with enough evidence to persuade Mr. Barker to camp out at the area in an attempt to capture the weird occurrences on tape.
While setting up his recorders at the campsite, Mr. Barker suddenly vanishes into thin air, right before the kids' eyes. When Russell and the sisters try to get the Sheriff, they find themselves trapped in a never-changing landscape with no way out!
Russell quickly realizes . . . they're lost in The Fairfield Triangle.
And worse . . . They're not in there alone.
A monster is coming after Shane Reece.
An earthquake two hundred miles from Fairfield has unleashed something terrible - Clayton T. Motley, a zombie gunslinger looking for revenge.
Back in the middle 1800s, one of Shane's ancestors ran Motley out of Fairfield by putting a bullet in his hide. A posse chased the fleeing bandit for weeks until Motley holed up in a cave, where he eventually succumbed to his gunshot wound. The bullet inside him, however, was made out of something . . . strange.
Now, almost one hundred and fifty years later, the earthquake has freed the undead gunfighter from his rocky prison - and he wants revenge.
He's coming after the only Reece left in Fairfield - Shane.
. . . and this town's not big enough for the both of them.
On the outskirts of town, the Fairfield Starlight Drive-In waits silently in the dark. A long time ago the giant movie screen flickered with life, showing technicolor westerns, murky mobster flicks and monster movies, but not anymore. Now the giant screen is overgrown with vines while rows of rusted speakers line the barren field like grave markers.
Jonathan Drake often wonders what it would have been like to see his favorite old horror movies on the big screen. He and his friends visit the Starlight Drive-In often. They wander around the dark, overgrown field, remembering their favorite scenes from horror movies and reciting lines by heart.
Then Jon hears a strange noise, like the hiss and pop of an old movie. They watch in shock as the speakers begin to shake and a beam of light leaps from the projection booth on to the screen.
Jon and his friends are about to make their scream debut in a special feature . . . a real creature feature . . .
and their roles are to die for.
Karen Sanders loves toys. An avid toy collector, she's always looking for strange and unusual playthings. Her room is practically a toy museum, from treasured rarities in collector's cases to shoeboxes full of battered pieces and parts.
Karen's friends tell her about a new store that just opened in Fairfield! A new toy store. She can't believe it! Wasting no time, she and her friends rush to the opening of . . . Kepler's Toys and Collectibles.
The selection is wonderful but Karen and her friends wonder why they are the only customers there when it first opens. Maybe it's the strangeness of the shopkeeper, Mr. Kepler, that frightens people away. To their amazement, they find most every toy they ever wanted, each buying armloads, so many they can barely carry them home.
Soon they discover their toy-friends have a life all their own.
And the name of their game is . . .trouble.
Something strange is moving into the house behind Rachel Pearson's - and only she knows it.
While exploring the vacant house, Rachel comes across some weird looking plants. They are large, green shells that have blossomed. . . letting whatever was inside them out.
Then, two months later, the Smith family moves into the empty house. They're very odd people. Not only do Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their two weird children, Jane and Richard, look unsettling, they act strange as well. Jane seems to have a taste for bugs, while Richard disappears late at night with a shovel in hand, only to return early the next morning. It's made Rachel very suspicious.
But soon that suspicion turns to fear when strange things happen to those who come into contact with the Smiths. Kids get sick. Parents disappear. And plants come to life.
Now no one's left to believe Rachel, except for the Smiths. . .
Skinny Joe Alister loves collecting rocks. He's a total fanatic about precious gems and rare stones. From kicking around fields, to scouring construction sites, Joe is always on the lookout for something special to add to his collection.
Joe and his little brother Gary often prowl the underground walkways of Fairfield Caverns hunting for rocks, staying only in the areas open to the public. Today, Joe ignores his brother's warning and explores a dangerous, little-known section of Fairfield Caverns, a half-completed expansion site, far from the main path.
Joe's heart pounds and his eyes widen as he unearths the horrible fate of the missing owner, and makes the most shocking discovery of all.
Joe was looking for something special.
He finds something rotten.
Time's running out for Elizabeth.
She and her friend Jacob went to a movie they've been dying to see, but it's sold out. Instead of going home, they decide to spend some time nosing around the train depot, and sneaking on board the Fairfield Express.
At first, its just a harmless diversion, but after Elizabeth and Jacob are mistakenly locked in, the engine begins to move. Right before their eyes, the train transforms into a chilling, haunted, death ride. The two kids find themselves confronting the gruesome engineer, a ghoul who supposedly wrecked the engine over a hundred years ago.
He explains to the kids that the story is wrong, and the real culprit is an unknown saboteur, hiding somewhere on the train!
Now the two adventurers must find the saboteur before the train crashes again, just as it does every time its haunted wheels take to the tracks.
But this time the train carries two living passengers, Elizabeth and Jacob, who don't want to end up . . .dead on its tracks.
Mitchell Garrison has made a terrible mistake.
While on a class field trip to the museum, Mitchell's friend, Howard, dares him to snatch a small, unguarded artifact from around the neck of an old, emerald suit of armor. Cracking under the pressure of his pal calling him "chicken," Mitchell reluctantly agrees, but soon comes to regret it.
That night, with the stolen piece of history tucked safely under his bed, Mitchell finds it difficult to sleep. It isn't very long after he closes his eyes that he has his first nightmare.
Terrible visions of monsters, beasts, and wild men attack him in his sleep, trying to stop him from reaching his final opponent, an ominous, emerald suit of armor... just like the one at the museum! The dream always ends the same way; the knight strikes Mitchell down.
When things from the dreamworld start happening in real life, Mitchell pleads with Howard and their other friend, Keri, for help. He knows in his gut that he must return the artifact to where it belongs...
before the Knightmare comes true.
Max is trapped.
A freak snowstorm has him sealed in his uncle's mountain cabin, along with his brother Mark and sister Teresa. But Uncle Shoe is missing, and no one's coming to rescue them. Should they take their chances and hike down the mountain to safety?
Max doesn't think so, especially not since he found those huge tracks in the snow. Then there's that inhuman howling coming from the woods.
Now barricaded behind the cabin door, Max thinks he knows what it might be. He's found some old reports that the Abominable Snowman, the yeti, was sighted there fifty years earlier. Has it returned?
The kids aren't taking any chances. They've boarded up the cabin, because as much as they want to get out . . .
Something else wants in.
Morgan Taylor was terrified of flying. Shocking visions of fatal falls and explosive crashes shook loose with each thump of the plane. The electrical storm didn't help much, nor did his sister Kelly. The thought of his father waiting at the boarding gate was the only thing pushing back his fear and swelling panic.
Then a horrified scream brought Morgan's worst fears to life.
Morgan and Kelly learn the horrible secret of an unseen war: a war being waged in our very bedrooms while we sleep. Invisible battles fought between dark and sinister visitors grappling to secure the survival of their race . . .
And others who struggle desperately to bring us a grave warning before it's too late.
Be aware . . .
We are not alone.
How could things get worse? First the frantic call from Mom saying that she and Dad would be late getting home, and that the clueless sitter would be over soon to watch us. Then the worst storm in Fairfield history pounds our house, knocking out our power, lights, and phone. And now a hideous man is lurking at our door and won't go away! He is frantically peering in the windows and ringing the doorbell over and over. . .
It's a special, late night delivery for Simon and Sarah White. A deadly delivery. A package of disaster that sends them screaming through the wildest, scariest, most dangerous night of their lives. . .
in their very own house.
At least, it was their house. Then they opened the box, flipped the latches and peeked under the lid. Now it's loose and planning on a little. . . redecorating.
And once it's out, getting it back in is murder.
