chapter 1

It was nearly midnight on the evening of October 30th in 1991. Amanda Michaels, the sweetheart of Rho Delta Rho Sorority, had lived in Haynesworth Hall for four years and for four years she heard the story of the Curse of Haynesworth Hall. It seemed that every twenty-five years some brave girl climbed into a small opening in the wall of the library there, just as Halloween was beginning. Never to be seen again.

Now Mandy Michaels was a natural born skeptic about all things supernatural, as you would expect from the daughter of Angus Runnymeade Michaels, that noted physicist and debunker of occult occurences. Every time she heard this story about some such "curse", she felt like gagging. She was the kind of girl who called a spade a spade and she called this story what it was, a lot of baloney!

But tonight was going to be her night, the night she finally laid to rest all this nonsense about a curse. Slowly she climbed down the stairs of that venerable old building, being careful to tread lightly so as not to disturb her sleeping sorority sisters. In spite of the dark, Amanda knew just where she was going. She had seen this infamous passageway many times. By all appearances it served no useful purpose. At one point she thought it might have been a coal chute, but the furnace was located at the other side of the building, so why have a coal chute there? Then she speculated it might be a dumb waiter, but if it was, it was a dumb waiter that went nowhere.

All that was irrelevant now. She reached the aperture, turned the handle on what appeared to be a little doorway, and climbed in. It was a tight squeeze, even for the diminutive Mandy who stood all of five feet two and weighed in at a very slender ninety-two pounds. She started to crawl, making VERY slow progress. She had to stop frequently to catch her breath as the chute was dusty and it became harder and harder to breathe.

From time to time she thought she heard a woman's voice humming a song with which she was unfamiliar and she thought she smelled something cooking, something quite delicious if she was any judge. But these were mere distractions and Mandy knew she had to keep her eye on the prize.

The passageway was unexpectedly long with several twists and turns, so it took Mandy a lot longer to make any progress than she had originally estimated. It was also physically taxing. The walls of the passage were extremely narrow and it took a massive effort on Mandy's part to make any movement at all.

After about two hours of extraordinary effort, Mandy thought she saw a light, so she knew she about to reach her destination. She could feel a cool breeze blowing, so she knew she was coming to the end of her journey. She had to admit, she was a little scared. This passage wasn't there by accident, it had to have been part of the original design of the building, but why was it there in the first place? This only made Mandy more determined than ever to discover the secret of the so-called curse!