Chapter 1
DONT GO TO SLEEP
CHAPTER ONE, WRONG TURN
Caiden drove down the narrow country road while music blasted from the car speakers. Vaiden sat beside him in the passenger seat, and Jakob, Noah, Noah W., and Leo were crammed together in the back. They were supposed to be heading toward an indoor amusement center that had arcade games, laser tag, food, and a huge trampoline park.
“This is going to be the greatest night ever,” Jakob said, leaning between the front seats. “As long as Caiden doesn’t crash before we get there.”
“I’m a good driver,” Caiden replied.
“You almost drove over the curb when you picked me up,” Leo said.
“That curb came out of nowhere.”
Noah laughed and reached forward to turn the music louder. Outside, the sun was beginning to disappear behind the trees. The road twisted between thick woods, and they hadn’t passed another car for nearly twenty minutes.
Caiden glanced at the navigation screen.
ARRIVAL TIME: 8:17 P.M.
“Only fifteen more minutes,” he announced.
A large wooden sign appeared near the side of the road.
FUN CENTER — STRAIGHT AHEAD
Everyone cheered.
But directly beneath the sign, someone
had painted a bright red arrow pointing toward a smaller road on the left.
Caiden slowed the car.
“That arrow says to turn,” he said.“The actual sign says to go straight,” Noah W. replied.
“Maybe they changed the entrance,” Caiden said.
Leo leaned closer to the window. “That arrow looks like someone painted it by hand.”
The red paint dripped down the sign like blood.
“That definitely means it’s safe,” Jakob joked. “Turn left.”
“Do not turn left,” Leo said.
Caiden looked at the road ahead, then at the arrow.
The navigation screen suddenly changed.
TURN LEFT.
“See?” Caiden said. “Even the GPS agrees.”
“You’re trusting a GPS that just changed its mind?” Leo asked.
Caiden turned the steering wheel.
The car rolled onto the smaller road.
Almost immediately, the pavement disappeared beneath the tires. The new road was covered in dirt, fallen branches, and deep puddles. The trees grew so close together that their branches scraped against both sides of the car.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Scratch.
Vaiden looked back through the rear window.
The road behind them had vanished into darkness.
“How far is this entrance?” he asked.
Caiden checked the screen.
It no longer showed a map.
Instead, the navigation screen displayed one message:
KEEP DRIVING.
“That’s weird,” Caiden muttered.
Noah leaned forward. “Maybe the GPS is possessed.”
“Don’t say that,” Leo replied.
“What? Possessed?”
“Yes.”
“Possessed, possessed, possessed.”
“Noah!”
The headlights flickered.
For one second, a tall person stood in the middle of the road.
Caiden slammed on the brakes.
Everyone flew forward against their seat belts.
The car stopped inches from where the figure had been.
But the road was empty.
“What happened?” Jakob asked.
“There was someone standing there,” Caiden said.
“I didn’t see anybody,” Vaiden replied.
“Neither did I,” said Noah W.
Caiden stared through the windshield. The headlights illuminated nothing except trees and mist. He slowly pressed the gas pedal.
The engine made a choking noise.
Then the car shut down.
The music stopped.
The headlights went dark.
Silence filled the car.
Caiden tried starting the engine again.
Click. Click. Click.
Nothing.
He looked at the fuel gauge.
The needle rested on empty.
“Out of gas,” Caiden said.
Noah’s eyes widened.
“Did it fart?” he asked.
Everyone turned toward him.
“Get it?” Noah continued. “The car passed gas, and now it’s out of gas.”
Nobody laughed.
Noah shrugged. “I thought it was pretty good.”
“You made us listen to that joke right before we die in the woods,” Leo said.
“We’re not going to die,” Caiden replied.
A loud thump came from the roof.
Everyone froze.
Caiden slowly looked upward.
Something dragged itself across the top of the car.
Scrape.
Scrape.
Scrape.
Jakob reached for the door handle.
“Don’t open it,” Noah W. whispered.
The scraping stopped directly above them.
A drop of thick black liquid slid down the windshield.
Then another.
Then another.
“What is that?” Vaiden asked.
Caiden switched on his phone’s flashlight and pointed it through the glass. The liquid was too dark to be rain and too thick to be mud.
His phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number appeared on the screen.
YOU FOLLOWED THE ARROW.
Caiden’s stomach tightened.
Another message arrived.
NOW GO TO SLEEP.
“Nope,” Caiden said. “Absolutely not.”
The car doors unlocked by themselves.
Click.
All six locks rose at the same time.
The back door beside Noah slowly opened.
Cold air rushed inside.
Noah grabbed the handle and slammed it shut.
“I didn’t open that!” he yelled.
A light appeared through the trees.
At first, Caiden thought it was another car. Then the mist shifted, revealing an old two-story building hidden in the woods. A broken neon sign hung above its entrance.
Only three letters still worked.
I N N
“There’s somewhere we can call for help,” Jakob said.
“That place looks abandoned,” Leo replied.
“The car is dead, our phones barely have service, and something is crawling around on the roof,” Jakob said. “I’ll take my chances with the creepy building.”
The roof suddenly dented inward.
Everyone screamed.
A long metal blade stabbed through the ceiling between Caiden and Vaiden. It opened like one half of a giant pair of scissors.
Snip.
“Everybody out!” Caiden shouted.
The six friends threw open the doors and ran toward the building. They splashed through puddles and pushed between branches while something dropped from the car behind them.
Caiden heard heavy footsteps following.
Not running.
Walking.
Slowly.
Confidently.
The building’s front door stood open.
They rushed inside and shoved it closed behind them.
Caiden locked it.
For a moment, the friends stood in darkness, breathing heavily.
Then the lights turned on.
They were standing in the lobby of an old roadside hotel. Dust covered the furniture, vines grew through cracks in the walls, and dozens of keys hung behind the front desk.
A small television sat in the corner.
It switched on by itself.
Gray static filled the screen.
A cracked white mask slowly appeared through the interference. Black tears ran beneath its eyes, and its stitched mouth curved into a smile.
A distorted voice came through the television.
“Welcome, Caiden, Vaiden, Jakob, Noah, Noah W., and Leo.”
Nobody moved.
The voice continued.
“Your rooms are ready.”
Six keys dropped from the board behind the desk.
Each key had a name written on its tag.
Caiden picked up his key.
Beneath his name, someone had scratched a warning into the metal.
DO NOT FALL ASLEEP.
From outside came the sound of rusty scissors opening.
Snip.
Caiden stared at the warning scratched into the key.
DO NOT FALL ASLEEP.
Behind him, Noah yawned.
Leo rubbed his eyes. “We’ve been driving for hours. How are we supposed to stay awake all night?”
Caiden slipped the key into his pocket.
“I do that all the time.”
Everyone looked at him.
Vaiden sighed. “He’s not joking.”
“I stay awake using my dad’s computer,” Caiden said. “Sometimes until the sun comes up.”
Jakob stared at him. “So while the rest of us are being hunted by a nightmare monster, you’re completely fine?”
“Pretty much.”
Noah pointed at Caiden. “He trained for this moment by playing games when he was supposed to be sleeping.”
“Exactly,” Caiden said.
A loud bang shook the hotel doors.
The six friends jumped.
Rusty scissors scraped across the glass from outside.
Screeeeech.
Noah backed away. “Okay, computer boy. What’s the plan?”
Caiden looked around the dusty lobby.
An old computer sat behind the front desk. Its screen was dark, but a small green light blinked beneath it.
Caiden stepped behind the counter.
“If this place has a computer,” he said, “then it might have cameras.”
He pressed the power button.
The computer hummed to life.
A black screen appeared.
White text slowly typed itself across it.
WELCOME BACK, CAIDEN.
Caiden stopped smiling.
“I have never been here before.”
Another line appeared.
YOU HAVE BEEN HERE EVERY NIGHT.
The screen changed to a security camera feed.
It showed six hotel rooms.
In five rooms, Jakob, Vaiden, Noah, Noah W., and Leo were lying asleep in their beds.
In the sixth room, Caiden sat at a computer.
Exactly like he was now.
The camera feed zoomed in behind him.
A tall figure wearing a cracked white mask stood directly over his chair.
Caiden spun around.
Nobody was there.
Noah leaned over the counter. “What did you see?”
Caiden looked back at the computer.
The Sleeper had disappeared from the camera feed.
A new message appeared.
STAYING AWAKE WILL NOT SAVE YOU.
Caiden placed both hands on the desk.
“Good,” he said quietly. “Because I wasn’t planning on hiding.”
The lights in the lobby switched off.
Somewhere upstairs, a child began laughing.
Noah’s face went pale.
Caiden recognized the laugh.
“So much for this being a completely different story,” he whispered.
At the top of the staircase, two glowing red eyes opened in the darkness.
