Don Wig was pleased to see the UPS truck pull in his drive. A week before, he’d been browsing online for used books and had amassed quite a large cart of old literary favorites and others he’d been wanting to try for some time.

Settling into a chair, he picked the first out of the box.

“The Hungry Moon”, by Ramsey Campbell. Don learned long ago to not judge a book by its title or cover, but it seemed appealing nonetheless. He opened the front cover and was not surprised to see a name and an address handwritten on the inside cover- it was used, after all.

He continued through the pages, relishing the fact that as a secondhand book, it had been read by another individual before him, and maybe others.

As he did this, a polaroid fell out into his lap.

To his horror, a young girl stared back, her skin pale and bruised from obvious abuse. From her eyes radiated fear he could not fathom. Her wrists were bound to the corners of the bed she lay.

Don, an investigator, knew his day off was officially over.