The Devil's Advocate

Alice Mercer has always been good at being alone. At school, he's the quiet kid with the girl's name. At home, things are worse. With his mother gone and his father's strict rules and constant disappointment, Alice has learned not to expect much from anyone. Then, one night, a fight with his father sends him fleeing into a blizzard, the snow gets too thick to see, and he is forced to take shelter inside a cave. The cave leads somewhere it shouldn't, and Alice finds something he shouldn't. He leaves it behind, but a few days later, he returns. And something follows him out of that cave with him. It cannot speak; it only communicates through writing, and Alice is the only one who can see it waiting in reflective surfaces. Whoever or whatever is speaking to him seems to hate the world just as much as he does.

Then Stan Marsh comes into the picture. Their first real conversation happens in the school bathroom, of all places, when Alice catches Stan doing something he probably shouldn't be doing. Stan is seen as a good kid, with average grades, shitty friends, and a good boyfriend in Kyle Broflovski. Alice isn't about to ruin that for him, so neither of them asks too many questions. Somehow, that's enough to start a friendship. But while Alice tries to keep the journal and its speaker a secret, it begins pushing him toward things he doesn't understand, things he doesn't want, and things that make his own skin crawl.