All right, my first big series! I'M PUMPED! Tell me what you think of it! I'm planning on becoming an author at some point in the future, and practice makes perfect! Oh, I didn't' really spend too much time on this prologue, just several minutes, but if something bothers you and it MUST be tweaked, gimme some advice and I'll clean it up a bit

And guys, I don't mind flames (they make me want to try harder), but please don't go over the top. I know I'm not the best in the world and I have room for improvement, but seriously. Being a jerk takes the fun out of writing, so play fair :D

Enjoy! –Cappy

Mid December

Xxx

The air was eerie and cold, breezing through bare branches and ruffling dying shrubs. All was still around the condemned manor, or the manor that should have bulldozed years ago. Not that anyone ever ventured there: most were too terrified to even hang out within a mile.

It was a pretty long ways out from town and the safest way there was on a winding cobblestone pathway. The path and manor were surrounded with twisting trees and ivy covered 'Do Not Trespass' signs. But to those who didn't look for those sorts of signs, they were nonexistent. The manor was just a big, creepy house involving conspiracies and myths about its secrets. Though the town was superstitious, the thought of a curse placed on a mansion was too unlikely to notice. Obviously some people had never seen The Grudge.

Since no one cared to explore the abandoned mansion, it didn't really matter anyway.

But closed thoughts and constant ignores didn't stop the sparks of curiosity. There was something strange about the towering terror, something shady, dark. Once again, since most steered clear, no one knew for sure what was going on. Some had their suspicions, though, and it was a popular tourist sight for those with excessive courage and curiosity in what the mysterious shadows there held.

Not that those people ever really talked about their experiences. In fact, not many ever came back. Maybe they'd fled. or maybe they didn't go and said they did. You'd think the Ghost Hunters would have posted their two-hour video on the Sci-Fi channel, but they never did. In fact, no one has seen them since the Christmas they investigated two years ago.

That had been the last straw for the local high school Ghost Club. They had never paid any sort of attention to the manor, but now they decided it was time to research just what was going on and maybe discover an answer to all of these disappearances. They started researching in their free time. Old documents, scary storybooks, and local newspaper superstitions told many myths about demons, shadows, poltergeists, and ghosts. But there were two suspicions that caught the most attention:

-There seemed to be some sort of black magic spell book hidden deep inside the depths of the maze cellar,

-The book's chaperone was a beast. A legit beast. An Ao Oni, or a demon of blue.

They were rational solutions to most people's interest about the house, but they were still superstitions. Some took them seriously, but many ignored them and didn't think twice. Whatever suspicions were said about the house went unnoticed like the hidden signs that covered the forest grounds.

But whatever was inside that house, if something was indeed haunting it, it had to be pretty freaky to scare away tourists and Ghost Hunters alike.

But it's not just a tale being told here; it's a tragedy. No one had ever escaped too far from that house; no one had ever escaped too far from those woods. No one had proof there was something wrong with the manor and worst of all, no one could stop what was inside. No one had ever truly survived the daunting confides or their past close-deaths there. Most had gone insane with the memories and the rest had committed suicide.

No one had ever defeated the true evil that lurked in the shadows, until a senior from Gray Stone Academy and his crew stepped inside a few short months ago…