Chillz Hillz #3: Ever Midnight: Chillz Hillz, #3

By Kerrigan Valentine

It's bad enough that Mason has to deal with four scary bullies at school. But now a strange new girl named Ever Midnight has joined his class . . . and everything is about to get a lot scarier.

Ever doesn't eat. She doesn't sleep. She refuses to do the homework. She claims to hunt supernatural creatures called jumpers, who use human bodies as hosts and force them to do terrible things. Mason joins her in the hunt, but learns all too quickly that he can't hunt jumpers without them hunting him in return.

They can make him lie. They can make him steal. They can even get him killed. If Mason and Ever can't destroy these malicious spirits first, then they might just become the next victims!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kerrigan Valentine
• Release date: Jul 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386103172

Book preview

CHILLZ HILLZ #3: EVER MIDNIGHT

by Kerrigan Valentine

Copyright 2017 by Kerrigan Valentine

Cover image courtesy Depositphotos

Cover by The Spookmaster

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Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

Chapter One

I bet you’re so excited for your big sister’s wedding! Doctor Yow said.

Flat on his back in the dentist’s chair, Mason had his mouth wide open. Doctor Yow was prodding at his teeth with a silver, poky instrument. It was for the best that Mason couldn’t answer, because he wasn’t excited about Georgina’s wedding. He was excited for Georgina’s wedding to be over.

Doctor Yow was smiling behind his face mask. He was always smiling. It was a little creepy. Plus, he had a big red nose. Mason was pretty sure that Doctor Yow’s parents were clowns.

We’re all very excited, Mom called from the waiting room nearby. Her magazine rustled as the radio went from music to a breaking news update. A sudden spike in crime has shocked Chills Hills residents- The voice disappeared as the receptionist switched stations, and music played again.

Just . . . about . . . done. Doctor Yow set down his instrument on the tray, took off the blue bib that Mason had on, and made his chair lift so he was sitting up.

Mason licked his dry lips. They tasted funny. Swiveling on his stool, Doctor Yow scribbled in a file and said, And where is the wedding going to be? Here in the city?

The country club, Mason answered. It was a fancy place with a rose garden for wedding ceremonies, a ballroom for receptions, and lots of grumpy old people who yelled at kids not to run on the grass or kick the pumpkins piled up in pyramids by the doors.

Doctor Yow turned around with one of the dreadful stickers that he gave to kids. Ripping the paper off the back, he stuck the giant smile to Mason’s shirt. Between the two rows of white, even teeth were the words SHINY AND NEW!

There you go, Mason, all finished, he said. Are you off to school?

Mason nodded, but Doctor Yow was already rolling away on his stool to visit another patient. Sliding out of the chair and going to the waiting room, Mason picked up his backpack from the floor. Mom was chatting with the receptionist about how nice the country club was for a wedding.

The wedding, the wedding, the wedding, Mason thought impatiently. This had been going on for months. Georgina was eleven years older than Mason, and she used to be cool. She had a black belt in karate and had gone skydiving six times. She could do tons of tricks on a skateboard and left everybody else at the park in the dust. But it was kind of hard to remember all of that now. All she talked about was the wedding, calling Mom four, five, sometimes six times a day to discuss it.

The music.

The dresses.

The flowers.

The food.

The favors.

The photographer.

The invitations.

The napkins.

The centerpieces. Those were the latest crisis. Georgina kept changing her mind about what she wanted. There were pieces of half-done centerpieces all over the living room. Just last weekend, Mason sat on one by accident and Georgina almost lost her mind. She did lose her mind when he said she should make her centerpieces at her apartment instead.

Mom, hurry up, I have to get to school, Mason complained.

Just a minute, honey, Mom said absent-mindedly.

Mason ripped the sticker off his shirt. Dropping it into the trashcan, he waited while Mom talked about Georgina’s ring. Then Mom had to show off her ring, and the receptionist had to show off her ring, and the two of them reminisced about their own long-ago weddings. Mason swallowed a scream of boredom.

Finally, his mother said goodbye and they went out to the car. Really, Mason, you don’t need to be rude, Mom scolded.

I wasn’t being rude! Mason protested. He had to speak loudly since police cars were zooming down the road with their sirens shrieking. I’m just sick to death of the wedding! It’s the only thing people talk about anymore and Granny keeps asking why I won’t be the flower boy. I’m twelve!

People had flower girls, and sometimes flower boys, at their weddings. They walked down the aisle and dropped petals before the bride came out. But that was a job for little kids, not someone in sixth grade.

Getting into the car, he glanced at the time. It was 11:09. His class at Andromeda Academy was doing math right now. By the time he got there, it would be close to lunch.

Mom sighed as she turned out of the parking lot. The police cars were gone, but the sirens were still blaring in the distance. I wish you could show a little more enthusiasm for your sister’s big day. It’s not like it’s going to be no fun for you. Just invite a friend to the wedding! I’m sure Fletcher would love to come. You’ve been so grumpy lately and-

Her cell phone rang. She had a voice command system so she didn’t have to take her hands off the steering wheel. Answer, she said.

Mom, I don’t know what to do about the bridesmaids’ shoes! They aren’t the right shade of green! It was Georgina. Mason looked out the window. He didn’t think Fletcher would want to come to the wedding. Fletcher had better things to do. Like floss his teeth or take out the garbage.

"I said foam green, not fern green!" Georgina cried. Mom tried to soothe her.

Mason counted pumpkins on porches, lawns, and in windows to distract himself, but there were too many. It always surprised him when his family took vacations how other cities didn’t have pumpkins everywhere. Pumpkins outnumbered trees in Chills Hills, no matter the time of year, and a lot of places had pumpkin-related names. The Pumpkin Diner. Little Pumpkin Preschool. The Jack-o’-lantern Motel. It reminded Mason of a city far away with loads of apple farms. The people who lived there did the same thing. There was The Apple Diner, an Appleseed Gardening Supply, and Your Little Apples clothing store for kids.

Some places had apples. Some places had kumquats, or lemons, or stinky garlic. Chills Hills had pumpkins. The car passed a house with a dozen smiling jack-o’-lanterns on the porch, and Mason was reminded of Doctor Yow’s constantly smiling clown face.

Mom pulled up in front of his school several minutes later. Mason got out and she pulled away, so focused on the conversation with Georgina that she forgot to say goodbye.

He started up the walkway. Andromeda Academy hadn’t always been a school. It was first built up a hundred and twenty years ago as a rich family’s gigantic, two-story mansion. The family’s last name was Andromeda. Eventually, they donated their home to the city, and it was renovated into a school called Andromeda Academy. From the outside, though, it still looked like a mansion. A very old mansion, with its age clinging to it like a wet coat. Ivy grew up the gray stone sides of the main building, and the glass in the windows was foggy.

As Mason climbed the steps to the building, he double-checked his shirt. Everyone in his class would crack up if he walked in there with a SHINY AND NEW sticker, Mr. Denny included.

Stopping in the office, he stood by the secretary’s desk as Mrs. Addock withdrew a pad of hall passes from her drawer. What’s your last name and classroom? she asked.

Dearic. I’m in 6-A, Mason said.

She filled out the pass. You’re getting a new student in your class today. Isn’t that wonderful? She’s in the principal’s office getting everything squared away.

Oh, Mason said. A new student in the first week of October?

Mrs. Addock ripped the pass off the pad. Just as she handed it to him, the door to the principal’s office opened. A girl came out.

Mason stared.

And stared some more.

Black pants. Black shirt. Black boots.

Long black hair and dark gray eyes, the gray of storm clouds about to burst. She was tall, an inch or two taller than Mason. Around her neck was a tangle of silver cords, each bearing a stone amulet engraved in odd symbols. Her leather belt was also engraved with elaborate designs.

And her earrings! Or earring, as the case was here. She only had an earring on the left side. Silver feathers hung from the lobe, and a chain reached up to a tiny cuff wrapped around her upper ear. A hall pass was pinched between two of her fingers, and a dark blue backpack hung limply from her shoulder.

She was pretty, in sort of a strange way. Electric. The air around her was charged, like she walked within a bolt of lightning.

The secretary smiled at her nervously. Principal Binder, who stepped out of his office behind the girl, appeared to be nervous, too.

The girl looked at Mason. Looked through him with those stormy eyes. It was very uncomfortable, the feeling to come over him, as if she was seeing straight into his brain. Rummaging through his personal facts, peeking into his box