Steve Donaldson entered the darkened home and discovered a horrible mess.
“Careful, kids!” he said.
He navigated slowly through the room, his eyes still adjusting to dim interior. They seemed to have entered a cluttered nest of broken chairs, half-rotted planks of wood, old metal debris rusted beyond recognition, and a copious amount of thick, choking dust that blew up into the air with each step.
“What a dump!” said Alan.
“Don't touch anything, kids,” warned Janet. “And keep your eyes out for... vermin that might be lurking in here.”
“Yeah, I'm not so sure this is a safe place to spend the night,” muttered Steve. “Maybe we'd be better off sleeping in the car, then changing that flat tire at daybreak.”
“Dad, look!” shouted Megan.
The entire family turned to see what she was pointing at – far off, at the other end of the room, something was glowing a faint, ghostly green color.
“What is it?” asked Megan.
“Probably the ghosts of the last people to spend the night here,” muttered Alan.
“Quiet, both of you!” snapped Steve.
He began to walk towards the object, carefully picking his way through the mountain of cluttered trash in the room.
“Be careful, honey!” called Janet.
Steve continued onward in the relative darkness of the huge entry hall.
“I can see it better,” he called back. “It... it looks like a book?!”
“A book?” called back Janet. “Well... why's it glowing?”
“I don't know,” said Steve. “I'm going to... yeah, it's a book all right... I'm going to pick it up and bring it back over. It's... wow, it's in remarkably good condition. Just sitting here on this rotten old three legged table... but the book... it looks brand new.”
Steve slowly picked his way back through the mounds of abandoned debris in the room and brought back the dimly glowing book for the rest of the family to see.
The book was heavy – about the size of a big telephone directory. It was hardcover and bound in some expensive looking leather that had been dyed a deep, forest green color. There were no signs of wear and tear on the book, nor had it been dirtied with any of the dust and cobwebs that cluttered the rest of the room.
“Open it, dad!” said Alan.
“I don't know,” said Janet. “I've really got a bad feeling about it... and this place. Just put the book down, honey – let's go back to the car.”
“It's just a book, sheesh!” snapped Steve. “It's not going to hurt anyone.”
Steve opened the book and starting flipping through the gilt edged pages of the book.
“I can't make out much in the dark, but...” Steve mumbled, suddenly trailing off.
The book had started to glow more brightly as he had paged through it.
Without warning, the aura of light around the book suddenly exploded in intensity, and the Donaldson family changed...