“Anything you leave I’m throwing away.” Mom said as she left my childhood bedroom.

Or what had been my childhood bedroom. It now resembled a storage room of random Knick knacks. But then again Dad had always been a hoarder.

I dug through the exercise equipment and garage sale finds. Finally I reached my dresser. I still had a few clothes I hadn’t bothered bringing to college. Some old jewelry. And…

My fingers brushed against cracked leather. I froze. No. I told him to throw it away. To burn it. Destroy it. I’d been in such hysterics, I was sure Dad would do it. He had to in order to get me to come back to his house again. Otherwise I would’ve stayed in Mom’s condo.

But as I picked up the object, I started to shake. It was the book. Old stained pages. Cracked leather binding. And the symbol I still saw in my nightmares.

“Mom!”

I ran into Dad’s bedroom where Mom and Aunt Karen were packing up his clothes. Aunt Karen froze when she saw the book. But Mom continued folding.

“What is it now?”

I gripped the book tighter. There were so many questions. Many of which would send me back into the asylum.

“Stop wasting time and spit it out.” Mom said as she shook out a shirt.

“Uh.” I looked to Aunt Karen who shook her head. “Do you think the church would want some of Dad’s stuff?”

“Put some things aside and we’ll take it over.”

“Why don’t you help me Aunt Karen.”

I hustled her back to my room and closed the door tight. Then I held up the book.

“I thought you said he destroyed this.”

“That’s what he told me.” She touched her temple. “Then again he made the same promise when we were kids.”

I looked back down at the book, my hands shaking. “There’s no strap anymore. Do you think he…”

“That does sound like him. He was never able to let go of that world.”

The symbol glinted at me. It was a stylized eye with barbs all around it. The symbol of Pandora.

“Do you…” I swallowed. “Do you think this is what killed him?”

“He did have knife wounds.”

“You and I both know those were too deep for a knife.”

Aunt Karen shook her head. “I know what you’re thinking. We are not going back.”

“We have to make sure they’re all there.” I looked down at the book. “If just one escaped it could mean the end of our world.”

“Humanity isn’t so weak.” Aunt Karen said. “We survived when Pandora first opened the box.”

“Only because her daughter collected the worst evils in this book.” I looked at it. “And now it’s down to us. We must be sure the book is completed.”

“Who says it isn’t?” Aunt Karen grabbed it and brought out her lighter. “Let’s destroy it before it makes anymore trouble for us.”

But before the flame could even touch the old leather, the ground began to shake. And a green light exploded through the window. A tiny girl landed on the exercise bike. And we all ducked as an inhuman roar ripped through the air.

I glanced at Aunt Karen as the ground stopped shaking. “What was that about the book being completed?”

Aunt Karen ignored me and went to help the little girl. A girl I recognized.

“Hope?”

The girl lifted her green eyes. She looked so tired. But she gave a weak smile.

“Hello, Alice.”

Hope winced as Aunt Karen helped her to the bed. I knocked away various books and clothes. But Hope didn’t need much room as she’d always been tiny.

“What happened?” I asked once she was settled.

She looked away from us. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop it. And Hal. Because of me…”

“Don’t blame yourself.” Aunt Karen said. “Hal never should’ve gone back.”

“But…”

I shook my head. “What’s done is done. But now we need to get those pages back into the book.”

They both nodded as I grabbed the book off the floor. My hands shook as I opened it up. And then we were all sucked into the first page.