MaddieG
*** completed *** Since the beginning of the 20th century, Fifth Street in Rockville, New Jersey, has been avoided by every local who knows its name.
An unmarked road, narrow and silent, it carries a curse older than the town itself: anyone who walks its length awakens ancient dark magic-misfortune that escalates to betrayal, shifting alliances, death, and merciless tests of loyalty, bravery, teamwork, and the bonds that hold people together. Groups suffer worst. Friends turn on friends. Friends perish. Enemies become friends. Friends become enemies.
Maddie Collins and her six closest friends-her found family after losing their parents as infants-know none of this.
They are new to Rockville.
They have finally been adopted together by the charismatic director Mr. Robert and moved into his grand mansion... right on Fifth Street.
All they want is the normal life they've never had: school, laughter, belonging.
Then, out of boredom and teenage defiance, they step onto the forbidden road.
The curse wakes.
What begins as an innocent walk spirals into nightmare. The back-to-school dance turns to betrayal-Jake, Maddie's sweetheart, ditches her, pushes her down on Fifth Street, and joins the dangerous Rafe amid screams and cruel laughter under a blood-red moon. Kidnappings follow. Captivity in a weapon-lined hideout. Amber's awakening black smoke magic. Fights that leave bodies behind. Staged tragedies. Visions that haunt Maddie.
Maddie's necklace, left by her mother Rose, is no ordinary keepsake. It suppresses a "huge" untapped power inside her that everyone wants unleashed.
A chilling YA supernatural mystery of loyalty, sacrifice, first love, and the terrifying cost of ignorance-where the real danger isn't the curse itself, but what it forces the people you love to become.