Summer's only problem in the whole world was her new family. Her dad and her had been "the team" for so long it seemed strange to have three more people in the house, all girls: Her step-mom Jane, her older stepsister (who was seventeen) and her younger stepsister (who was eleven.) At first they'd seemed okay, maybe even likable. But now as they all tried to adjust to the new life together, things were strained. Her stepmother's attitude had changed the day after the wedding. She went from polite and caring, to condescending and rude. It was going to be "her way, or the highway" and she backed this up with "I actually have experience raising girls, your father's been too soft with you." Summer brushed this off as adjustment and made a conscious effort to avoid her step-mom if it meant a possibility of confrontation.

Worse were her stepsisters. Alana, the oldest, was a typical bitch-clique founder. She had the best clothes, the best hair and the best figure. She dated several guys, two from the football team (offensive and defensive captains) one from the basketball team (the center) and another from the gymnastics team. "Talk about eclectic," Summer thought to herself. She didn't say much to Summer, which was fine in her mind. Anything she did say was usually a cut-down on how Summer dressed, acted or thought. Her younger stepsister, Jenna, was about the same. A bitch-in-training. Already her small body had developed larger breasts than Summer. For that reason alone Summer disliked her younger sibling. Until recently, things like that hadn't been important to Summer. But as she matured she found the need for some opposite-sex attraction. She was pretty certain bigger boobs would do the trick.

Halloween was two weeks away and Summer's stepsisters were getting overly excited about it, in Summer's opinion. Halloween was for kids, but those two acted like it was the most important day in the world, or something. The two of them scurried about, talking in hushed whispers and giggles as Summer ignored them. Things around the house had been very tense for the last few weeks and being left out of yet another 'secret' was really starting to bother her. She'd been seeing the school counselor, Mr. Harris, but he hadn't been much help.

The following Monday she went to see Mr. Harris again.

"Hi Summer, come on in," he said warmly when she entered his office. "How have you been doing?"

Summer shook her head sadly and replied, "Not too well, Mr. Harris. Not too well at all." She went on to explain the problems she was having with her stepsisters, her stepmother and even her father. She felt alone and was starting to get depressed. Mr. Harris assured her that the feelings were normal and they spent the next hour trying to work through some of the issues. When she left, Summer didn't feel like anything had been resolved, but she did feel a little better, just getting it off her chest.

Halloween was the following Friday and Summer was intent on getting involved in something, anything, just as Mr. Harris had suggested. There was school dance, but since no one had asked her she didn't feel like going alone. There was a party for everyone at the 'Y', but that was mostly for kids. She resigned herself to giving out candy for the evening at home, since her dad and stepmom were going to an adult costume party and her stepsisters would probably be off doing something.

Friday came and as she suspected, she got the job of giving out candy to the beggars. Everyone else left early without so much as a "thanks" to her for staying around. She sighed heavily after everyone left, feeling more alone than she had in a long time. She wondered whom Alana would be going out with - she had so many choices. And who knew where Jenna was - although Summer had seen her flirting with a high school boy on Wednesday at the bus stop. She'd thought about telling her dad, more for Jenna's safety than anything, but decided she'd probably just be called a tattletale. No need to get into that crap. The evening went okay and Summer was surprised at the number of kids they'd had. Only a couple of really cool costumes though. By 8:30 the kids had stopped coming so Summer shut the lights off and settled down to watch an old horror movie on TV.

She was surprised a half-hour later when Alana and Jenna came home. They were laughing and giggling about something, as usual. Jenna was dressed up like little witch, which Summer thought was appropriate. Alana had some weird outfit on, a combination of a sorceress and a demon.

"Hey Summer," called Jenna. "Have fun?" She asked sarcastically and Alana laughed.

"Yeah Summer, did you meet any cute boys?" Alana added.

The girls went into the kitchen and Summer grumbled under her breath. A short time later the two girls returned.

"Hey, Summer," said Alana sincerely, "I'm sorry we were rude to you. Thanks for sticking around and giving out the candy tonight."

Summer was caught off-guard by the sudden nicety. Alana was never nice to her.

"Yeah, here," added Jenna, "I know you like these. You can have them, if you want." Said Jenna, giving Summer a handful of Special Dark miniatures. This really surprised Summer, since those were her favorite candies. She was surprised at how nice they were and the fact that they actually knew something, anything, about her. That's probably why her sixth sense grew suspicious.

"What do you want?" Summer asked warily.

Her stepsisters looked at her with perfect innocence. "What do you mean? We're just, well, trying, you know?" said Alana.

Jenna nodded gravely, as if Alana's words being chiseled in stone.

"Oh. Okay, I guess," Summer relented, wanting to believe them.

"Listen, it being Halloween and all, do you want to do something scary?" Alana asked Summer.

"Like what?" Summer replied.

"Like, I don't know, a séance or something?" Alana's eye's twinkled.

Summer didn't really want to do something stupid like that, but Alana was acting so nice, and out of character, her curiosity got the better of her.

"Okay, sure. Where?" Summer asked, getting off the couch.

"The basement!" Jenna said a little too quickly. Summer saw Alana shoot a glare at her little sister.

That's it, thought Summer. They're going to play some prank on me or something. Well, I'll play a long, what the heck.

The three girls went down to the basement. There was a single light on, in the center of the room. The open area was already setup, with candles all around and a strange looking leather-bound book on the floor. The girls sat in a circle on the floor, Alana to Summer's right and Jenna on the left.

"Okay, we're going to call a spirit from Beyond," said Alana seriously. She snapped her fingers and the single electric light switched off.

"Hey, how'd you do-" Summer started to ask.

"Quiet!" Alana said rudely. Then softer, "We must concentrate to make this work."

She opened the book, flipped through several pages and finally stopped, smiling at what she was reading. Summer leaned over to read too, but the words looked strange, like Latin or something.

Alana began to speak as Jenna started to chant. "Great warrior from beyond! Spirit of virility and submission, heed my call!" She started to speak in something similar to Latin and Summer didn't understand a word.

"Hey, this is silly -" Summer started to say when a loud "Fwoomp!" noise caused her to jerk her head to the right. It wasn't until then that Summer realized that the room had filled with a thick, bluish haze. It didn't smell like smoke; it was more like a fog. Although no windows or doors were open, the fog swirled around in small tidal pools, and seemed to have a mind of it's own. The air had taken on an electric charge and Summer could feel her hair starting to stick out as if it was being affected by static cling.

The fog, thickest of to her side, seemed to part and a figure appeared. At first Summer thought it was the prank - someone coming out to scare her. What she saw was much worse! Standing in front of her was a half-man, half-animal being. At least seven feet tall, he wore a large metal helmet that covered his face, neck and chest. There were two small nubs, like baby deer horns, sticking off the forehead. Stunned, Summer just stared at the weird mask, amazed and a little frightened. She started to get up, calling the joke off, but she realized she couldn't move. No matter how hard she tried, she could not will her body to move. That, more than anything, started the internal panic in Summer.....(cont)