Page 1 of Sinister

PROLOGUE

RADCLIFFE HERALD

30 YEARS AGO

ST. ANSELM HALL TO REOPEN ITS DOORS AS A HIGH SCHOOL

After almost a century of inactivity, St. Anselm Hall has reopened its doors! The eminent institution, previously a celebrated university, will now welcome high school students from all over the country. With a reported endowment of over $1 billion USD, St. Anselm Hall debuts as one of the most elite private institutions.

St. Anselm will hold its own annual admittance exam, said to be one of the most rigorous of its kind.

A LEGACY OF THE OCCULT

Regarded as one of the most illustrious institutions of higher learning in the nineteenth century, St. Anselm Hall University closed down in 1896, after a series of rituals that resulted in the death of over twenty students. The public is concerned about whether this will affect the reputation of the new high school, but the Board of Trustees confirms that the days of the occult are far behind.

Mrs. Levine, the president said, “We are happy to live in an age where people do not believe in such nonsense anymore. St. Anselm Hall will regain its reputation as a pinnacle of education.”

The townsfolk, however, are still skeptical. Particularly, members of the Reformationist church, whose families were the main contributors to shutting down the university. The town, it seems, is once more divided.

1

PETRA

Radcliffe, New England

Present Day

I smell the fire before I see it. Acrid, plasticky, thick—it singes the cold night air as shouts and yells echo around me. In the next few seconds, I see a flaming figure in a mascot costume leap off a balcony, heading straight for the pool underneath the ivy-trailed railings.

Then I hear a loud splash followed by silence.

“What the hell?”

“Was that Benny?”

The kids who have just entered the compound behind me are aptly shocked as well, drawing together and murmuring among themselves.

We all stand rooted to our spots, waiting for whoever the lunatic was to resurface.

“ANSELM WARRIORS, BITCHES!!” a brash voice shrieks from somewhere inside the mansion as the glowing blue waters of the pool roil and break apart.

Soon after, Benny’s shaggy-haired head emerges from the depths, like some dollar-store Poseidon.

Instantly, the music is back on—when had it stopped? I don’t think any of us noticed—and people are crowding around the pool, hooting and cheering Benny as he slowly wades out onto the steps and plonks himself into a nearby lounge chair.

“Dude, that was so sick!” says a burly football player, poetically named Dick or Chad (I don’t really care enough to find out), while Benny chugs down beer from a can like it’s manna from the heavens.

But the sight of another guy near them halts me in my tracks. He’s tall, taller even than most of the football players actually, and athletic. It feels like he’s looking straight over Benny’s head to where I’m standing, an unreadable expression in his piercing blue eyes.

A warm flush covers my face; I have seen him on campus before. Sin something⁠—

“Benny, what the fuck, man?!” Elias’s scream breaks through the swirl of my thoughts. “Why’d you do that? My parents will kill me if they find out!”

“Dude, relax!” Benny rolls his eyes. “Me and the boys were just messing about.”

“You were ON FIRE!” Elias’s eyes are bulging with dread, while others around them are busy creating looping videos of Benny’s jump and posting them to their socials.

And these are my peers, I think with a dejected sigh.