The Hoodoo Book

Prompt 95: There's a university where, once someone dies on campus, they become a permanent ghostly resident. But one student may have the power to break the curse.

Summerfield College is haunted, according to many students and locals. Prof. Ward Bresley advised the Coven, a school group for students interested in witchcraft and Voodoo. He was falsely accused of harassing a male and female student and fired in disgrace. When proved innocent, he sued the school and the students for defamation. His life, marriage, career, and book contracts were destroyed. He was reinstated as professor emeritus but had a heart attack which left him in the hospital for ninety-eight days before dying. He cursed the school and his students with suffering one death for each day he lay in hospital.

Jonah Jackson's work study job at Summerfield library gives him access to all the private collections. He sees weird events, such as books disappearing and reappearing in locked rooms and "poltergeist activity". In his four years at Summerfield, 57 students died of various accidental causes. He noticed a pattern of activity in the library and campus before each death, including a strange book checked out by the doomed students.

The book has been checked out by Trevor Edwards, Jonah's friend, and Jonah's fiancée, Winnie Bresley, but both insist they know nothing about it. Now the book is checked out by another student, who dies in a fall. Jonah learns he must find the book and destroy it, ending the curse, before Winnie, Trevor and others lose their lives.