You're Invited

By Alicia Dean

Party til you drop…

Morgan Michaels and her friends invite an unpopular girl from their high school to a Halloween party as a joke…but the joke backfires, and the girl ends up murdered.

One year later, they receive an invitation to a mysterious Halloween party. It's all fun and games at first, but Morgan soon discovers there's a psycho in their midst, and he's slaughtering them one by one, using a prop from each of their costumes.

Now the killer is in hot pursuit of the remaining survivors. Can they unmask the maniac before they, too, meet an untimely end?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alicia Dean
• Release date: Oct 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9798223831204

Alicia Dean

Alicia Dean lives in Edmond, Oklahoma and is the mother of three grown children. Alicia loves creating spine-chilling stories that keep readers on the edge of their seats. She's a huge Elvis Presley fan, and loves MLB and the NFL. If you look closely, you'll see a reference to one or all three in pretty much everything she writes. If she could, she would divide all her time between writing, watching her favorite television shows-such as Dexter (Before it ended, boo hoo), Vampire Diaries, Justified, and True Blood-and reading her favorite authors...Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, and Lisa Gardner to name a few. Please follow Alicia on Twitter: @Alicia_Dean_ and visit her website: AliciaDean.com, or feel free to drop her a line at: [e-mail].

Book preview

Publishing History

Shadowspell Publishing

First Edition, 2021

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Published in the United States of America

Dedication

To Michael Myers.

Thank you for the years of joy you’ve given my children and me.

Praise for You’re Invited:

"Alicia Dean’s vivid Halloween tale You’re Invited plays out like a movie in the mind—from its terrifying beginning to its suspenseful, satisfying end."

~Anna Kittrell, Oklahoma Living magazine’s

Best Author of 2021

Prologue

Celina Carpenter stepped back and studied her reflection in the mirror. She turned to view herself from the side. The Juliette dress hid some of her rolls. Maybe she didn’t look like a fat cow. At least not as much as she usually did. Excitement rushed through her. She was invited to a party with juniors. And popular ones at that. She didn’t know why a fat, socially awkward freshman was being accepted into their fold, but she wasn’t going to question it. She was just going to enjoy it.

For the final touch, she slipped the dagger into a pocket of her gown. A shudder rippled over her skin. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to carry a dagger like the one Juliette used to kill herself, especially on Halloween when evil roamed free...

She shook her head and laughed. Lame. She was letting her imagination run wild. Just because she was a tiny bit scared of the holiday and easily freaked, she wasn’t going to let it ruin her big night.

Downstairs, her brothers were sprawled on the sofa playing their stupid video games. They should have grown up by now, but even though Dirk was a college senior and Brent had graduated last year, they still acted like children.

Dirk looked up when she entered the living room. He laughed and pointed. What the hell are you supposed to be?

She bristled. Juliette, from Romeo and Juliette.

He snickered. More like Julie-phant...you know, like elephant?

Her face burned and tears rose to her throat. All her life, he’d teased and ridiculed her. She’d hoped when they got older, he would have stopped. Not even.

Brent elbowed him. Come on, man. Not cool. He said to Celina, Ignore him. You look great. Hope you have fun.

She smiled. Thanks. I will. Nothing was going to ruin this night. Not even her asshat brother.

Dirk sat up. Are you sure you’re supposed to go? Aren’t parties like that only for cool people?

She thumbed through her email and held up her phone, showing him the message with the subject line: You’re invited. Eat shit. She triumphantly slipped the phone back into her pocket. Where’s Dad?

He’s in the car waiting on your fat ass.

She flipped him off and hurried out to the car. Her dad was probably pissed she’d kept him waiting. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered tonight except that she was going to have the best night of her life.

Her dad was only mildly irritated, and he was over it