Cassie's mom had warned her never to participate in trances or try to evoke the spirits. But her mom was dead and couldn't warn her of anything anymore. So, when Lisa suggested at the sleepover that they perform trances to talk to ghosts, Cassie recklessly volunteered.

"Okay, so you're gonna lay your head in my lap and I'll guide you." Lisa said with confidence.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Cassie asked with trepidation.

"You're not scared, are you?" Lisa sneered down her sharp nose at Cassie laying in her lap.

"No!" She was lying of course. Cassie remembered her mother's warning, even if she wasn't around to give it. But Cassie had never been invited to a sleep over party before let alone one hosted by the Hornets, the coolest group of girls at Mount Ridge Middle School.

"Good. Because you can't be scared when practicing trances or else the ghosts will hunt your soul." Lisa jeered. The other girls sniggered.

Cassie straightened her auburn hair under her head. You can't be scared, she thought. She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves and thought of her mother. Her mother would never approve. Grief and guilt ricocheted around her heart.

Lisa placed the inky purple painted tip of her index and middle fingernail on Cassie's forehead and began to trace a lazy infinity pattern across the smooth youthful plane.

"You need to relax," Lisa began, "and then like in your mind pick a house you are familiar with." She sounded bored, as if this was all just a big joke to her.

"Okay." Cassie responded a little calmer.

"Do you have the house?" Lisa asked, fingers continuing to trace.

"Yeah, it's my house." Cassie answered with feigned indifference.

"Okay, I want you to go to your room and go to sleep." Cassie rolled her eyes. This is so dumb, she thought, the last notion she'd give her mother's warning. But in her mind's eye she crawled into her pink and cream canopy bed that her mother decorated and pretended to sleep.

"Are you asleep?" Lisa asked. No, Cassie thought. Yet, she wanted to be a part of group and play along she would.

"Yes, I'm asleep." Cassie lied.

"Get up from your bed," Lisa instructed halfheartedly, "and walk out of your room. Tell me what you see."

"I see the stairs leading downstairs to the first floor."

"Walk down your stairs," Lisa rolled her eyes. "What do you see?"

"I see the closed door, leading to the upstairs."

"Open the door. What do you see?" Lisa clipped. Cassie did as she was instructed and felt that reckless urge tug at her. Time to prove she belonged and wasn't a scared thirteen year old girl who missed her mother.

_Arauhn held still. He felt the vibrations in his web of shadows. Surprised that someone had stepped into his clearing. All he had to do was set the hook. He wasn't expecting any traps to be tripped tonight. He sent out a few shadow webs on a whim, hoping for a nibble but hadn't had much luck in this particular region of the realm. He listened to the murmur along the shadow threads. A slumber party... three... no, four girls. Young. Just on the cusp of adolescence. His favorite prey. He could play, but he was too hungry._

Cassie unintentionally pictured the scariest thing she could think of. A being with raw scaly skin and a gaping fang laced maw that haunted her kitchen, though she only ever saw him in her peripheral sight.

_Arauhn scented her thoughts. Yes, he murmured. He could taste the sweet nectar of fear. He simmered with anticipation._

"I see the man from my kitchen." Cassie's heart thudded against her chest.

_Arauhn savored each beat. Closer. He thought. I need her closer. He began to pull his shadows in slowly, sensing Cassie's fright._

"What does he look like?" Lisa asked curiously.

"I don't know," Cassie said, her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. "He's a shadow." This isn't him, Cassie thought. The man from the kitchen never ventured out of the kitchen and he was never a shadow. I don't know who this is, Cassie thought. Dread seeped its way into the marrow of her bones.

_Arauhn dragged more of his shadows back into him. Slow, he told himself. Too fast and she'll bolt. The taste of her rising terror was like honeyed wine. Hunger gnawed his insides. It took all his focus not to sink his jaws into her essence._

"Well, what does his face look like?" Lisa aggravatedly asked. She wanted details.

"I don't know. It's not there." Did Lisa sound farther away? Why did Cassie's mouth feel like it was fading?

_Still Arauhn hauled his shadows back. He could feel Cassie unaware inside them. A few more moments and he'd have her. He needed to time it just right._

"What do you mean 'It's not there'?" Lisa questioned. She had heard stories of faceless demons being summoned by trances and if that was who Cassie now saw... She tried to swallow her increasing anxiety. "Like is it blank? Is he mad? Happy? What does his face look like?" Lisa demanded. Panic seared her tone.

_Arauhn scented Lisa's alarm. Savory, like rosemary and lemon. He couldn't wait any longer. He was ravenous. Arauhn yanked hard on his shadows, successfully ensnaring Cassie in his grip. If he was lucky, he might have trapped Lisa, too. He threw a few more shadow webs at the slumber party._

Cassie couldn't respond to Lisa. She couldn't feel her own body anymore. Inside her mind a man whispered to her. The most horrifying whisper she's ever heard, guttural and caked in menacing avarice. And when he spoke she thought he'd rip right out the back of her skull.

"It's not there."

Cassie screamed inside her mind and Arauhn feasted on her fear, just as he heard the ringing of Lisa's fright from his webs. He smiled in expectation of dessert.