Halloween Nightmare: Dead Oak Terrors, #1

By Skylar McKinzie and Rena Marin

Welcome to Dead Oaks.

The New Home of Fear!

Something strange is happening in the sleepy, little, town of Dead Oaks, N.C. Tales of disappearances, strange deaths, murder, and mayhem have been passed down through the town's history and are now used as scary tales to keep local children behind locked doors at night. Still, it all continues. Whatever sinister force that has its claws into Dead Oaks is still there, and it wants nothing more than to claim the town as its own.

Six Years Ago

Hikers, campers, and even locals had been disappearing around Dead Oaks Lake. Some claimed the ghost of a local man who went missing years before was the reason. During a neighborly camping get together, Tiffany Sellers vanished in the middle of the night. Mia Evans was the only witness. What she saw that night sent her family far from Dead Oaks in hopes of escaping the evil surrounding the town.

Present Day

Mia, and her twin sister Tia have come back to their family's cabin by the lake. Their hopes? To finally put the past behind them and reconnect with old friends for a Halloween bash to remember. As an unexpected snow storm strands the twins and their friends, they find themselves fighting to survive not only the storm but whatever is haunting the lake. Soon they realize, in Dead Oaks, sometimes the past should just stay buried.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crazy Ink
• Release date: Jul 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386461586

Book preview

Cover design by Lindsey Jayne

Edited by Emily Cargile

Proofread by Angie Wade

Dedication

This series is dedicated to our children, Dustin Dickson and Amber Gunter. We are blessed to have you in our lives. Your creativity and enthusiasm are the reasons for this series. With all the love in the world,

Your moms!

In the Beginning

Dead Oaks, North Carolina, stood nestled between two mountains, making it the ideal spot for a town its size. You would have thought it would have been a peaceful town, full of tranquil streams and lazy afternoons. However, Dead Oaks was anything but tranquil. The town, named for the oak trees that seemed to be everywhere, had its very own deep, dark secrets—secrets yet to be revealed to its unsuspecting residents.

Strange things happened in Dead Oaks, things that seemed to center on the children. Just the children. But why? No one knew, but all its sinister secrets would be revealed in time.

Prologue

Watching the dancing flames of the campfire, Caleb Rollins found himself filled with anticipation. This was the first night since the annual Rollins-Evans camping tradition had started that his younger brother, Austin, and the Evans twins, Mia and Tia, were being allowed to stay up and listen to ghost stories. For years, his father had told stories to him and the twins’ parents. On more than one occasion, he had found himself too scared to sleep. He hoped tonight he would do the tradition honor.

Taking a seat by his girlfriend, Tiffany Sellers, he waited for everyone to gather around. His brother was trying his best not to show any fear. The girls were not trying nearly as hard. They were huddled close together, holding hands near their mother. Considering the three of them were only thirteen years old, he could understand why. He popped a marshmallow on his stick and waited for his father to give him the signal to start. When he saw the wink, he leaned forward to begin.

I know you three haven’t been able to sit around and share stories with us here by the lake. There’s a good reason why. Everyone has heard about the disappearances here in Dead Oaks over the years. We’ve all tried to keep the three of you from hearing too much about them, but that’s basically impossible. Word spreads in small towns. The same for legends. Most people believe that a certain man is responsible for the disappearances—his ghost anyway.

As Caleb paused, both girls huddled closer to one another. The fear was easily noticeable in their bright green eyes. Austin had also decided to move closer to the others. He had settled himself in between Tia and his mother, his arms wrapped around himself protectively.

His name was Martin Chambers. He was a local boy who had grown up around here. His family never had a lot of money. He usually found himself as the butt of high school kids’ jokes and older people’s wrath. Some claimed he was a good guy though. Dad here and Mr. Evans both say they remember him and that he was never any trouble.

Both men nodded their heads solemnly in agreement.

Unfortunately, Martin was the first one in Dead Oaks to go missing. One day, his mother showed up at the courthouse begging for help in finding him. The sheriff sent his men out. They searched and searched but could find nothing.

No one knows what happened to him? Mia asked. It was clear she was completely enthralled by Caleb’s story.

No, and that’s where things get weird. When the hikers and campers started going missing, people started claiming sightings of a strange guy in the woods. They all claimed he was tall and heavyset with long hair. When they described his clothes, it made locals really wonder. They claimed he wore a pair of khaki pants and a torn red shirt with a smiley face on the front. That just happened to be Martin Chambers’s favorite outfit. His mother even complained to the sheriff that he had her wash his favorite shirt almost nightly. That wasn’t the only thing they were seeing though. They all claimed his clothes were covered in mud and yuck. Some even said it seemed as if he had just crawled out of the lake there. Caleb glanced toward the water. "As time went on, the stories got stranger. Locals claimed they saw him walking through their yard at night. One woman even said he tried to get inside her house. Each time police came to investigate, they found the same evidence: wet, muddy footprints.

It started keeping people away from the lake. For years, the place was like a ghost town. No one used their cabins for summering anymore. Those who lived here on the lake, like my family, had the run of the place. No one bothered us. It was nice at first, but then, well, it got a bit strange. We were the ones who were starting to see things. Mom saw the stranger in the woods one night when she went out to check on the dogs. Dad swore up and down that he saw a strange man walk out of the lake in the middle of the night when he got up to go to the bathroom. Tiffany and I saw him one night. The two of us were down here by the lake, holding hands, kissing a bit, when we heard water splashing. He stepped out of the water, looked our way, then turned and started walking toward the woods. Before we knew it, he was gone.

You’re lying, Austin snapped. He had never truly believed much of anything that came out of his brother’s mouth.

No, he’s not, Tiffany said as she stared down at the water. It was late on a Saturday night. You were already in the house and in bed. It was almost our curfew, and we were spending our last few minutes together before I had to go home. It was honestly the scariest thing I have ever seen. The way he stared at us out of those weird, blank eyes. The blood on the side of his head... Tiffany pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. Just talking about what she had seen that night freaked her out.

Seeing the fear that had taken over Tiffany sent a chill down Tia’s back. She opened her mouth to support Austin in his claim that they were making all of it up. The words just would not come out.

Caleb continued. Tonight, when you lay down to sleep in the tents, keep it in mind. That’s all this story is for. Yeah, it’s cool that it scares you guys, but it’s even cooler that it’s real. You have to keep your eyes open. The last thing you want is to be the one Martin comes to drag back to the lake with him. None of us have proof that’s what he does, but what else would it be? No bodies are found, but everything revolves around that lake. Dead Oaks Lake. He stared off at the water and said, Always be careful of the water. You never know what lurks beneath the surface.

Seeing fear in the kids’ eyes, Evelyn Rollins stood up. That’s enough. Come on, let’s all turn in. Spooky stories are just that, stories. We’re all together and fine.

Everyone agreed and began getting to their feet. Once the mess from around the campfire was cleaned up, they slowly began disappearing into their tents one by one. This would be the last night the Evans family would spend at the cabin on Dead Oaks Lake.

Chapter 1

Six Years Later

Staring up at the cabin, Tia Evans tried to keep the last night she had spent there out of her mind. Over the past six years, not a day had passed that she didn’t think about what had happened. Dark Oaks had always had a history of strange happenings and mysterious disappearances, but they had never imagined those things would strike so close to home.

Stop, Mia Evans, Tia’s twin sister, said from behind her. Neither of us can do this. We’re here for a weekend getaway. Let’s try not to ruin it, all right?

I know, Tia said, turning to see the look of sadness in her sister’s eyes.

It had been Mia who had seen the man from the lake. They had been told his story that night. They had sat and listened to Caleb Rollins tell them all to be wary of the lake. Still, none of it had meant a thing until Mia woke up in the middle of the night to witness that very man dragging Tiffany Sellers off into Dead Oaks Lake.

Tia would never forget her sister’s screams that night. The search for Tiffany and the shock and distress they had experienced when her body was never found had been tough on everyone. Caleb had been questioned for hours and had only said, I should have gone with her, repeatedly. Shaking her head to clear it of the memory, Tia turned to smile at her twin. Let’s do this.

***

Mia tried to smile but found it difficult. She could see the lake where it had happened from the porch of the cabin, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t draw her eyes away. She concentrated instead on the state of the cabin they had loved so much as children. Mom and Dad really let it go, didn’t they? she said, running a hand lovingly across the peeling paint on the banister of the porch. She could still picture the way it used to look in her mind, picture the excitement of arriving at the lake on a hot June day, the feel of the boards on the porch under her bare feet.

"Yeah,