Slowly, he walked down the stony path to the beach. Waves crashed against the rocks and the normally brisk ocean breeze was noticeably absent. Casually, he looked up at the sky and saw tiny puffs of clouds moving lazily across the sky. It reminded him a lot of the island of Maui, one of his favorite family vacation spots. But this was not Hawaii, and he was not on vacation. He let another sigh out and after a few seconds more of gazing across the vast expanse of the crystal-blue ocean, he turned to walk back to the house.

It was then that the Martian spacecraft landed and he was abducted. “Screw this,” he shouted, “I’d rather be playing CastleVille.”

Sometimes, the wind would whip over the hill and strike the house with such force that it would tremble and shake. Other times, the house would sit still, silent under sunny and cloudless skies.

The house held a deep and dark secret.