Return To The Dark House Of Mystery

A child narrator tells of how on a Wednesday night, seventeen children in Maybrook, Pennsylvania ran out of their homes at 2:17 AM and vanished into the night. The missing were all students of Justine Gandy's third-grade class, from which only one child, Alex Lilly, remained. Justine is accused by the students' parents of being involved in their disappearance, and she is placed on administrative leave. One father, Archer Graff, is particularly suspicious of her. Justine relapses into alcoholism and has a one-night stand with her married ex-boyfriend, police officer Paul Morgan. Concerned for Alex's welfare, Justine follows him home and discovers his house's windows covered with newspaper and his parents sitting motionless inside. When Justine falls asleep in her car while staking out the house, Alex's mother exits in a trance and cuts a lock of Justine's hair while she sleeps. Frustrated with the lack of leads, Archer starts his own investigation. After comparing his and another couple's video doorbell footage, Archer discovers the children's paths were directly converging on an unknown location. Both Archer and Justine become plagued by nightmares of the missing children, along with a mysterious elderly woman. While on patrol, Paul prevents James, a homeless drug addict, from committing a burglary and pricks himself on a needle in James' pocket while frisking him. Paul angrily strikes James, then releases him after realizing his patrol car's camera recorded the assault. James burglarizes Alex's house, discovering the missing children in the basement, seemingly catatonic. While heading to the police station to claim the reward money, he's noticed by Paul who chases him into the woods, thinking James was there to report the assault. James briefly encounters the mysterious woman before Paul catches him. James tells him of the children's whereabouts, and Paul brings James to Alex's house to investigate. Paul leaves a handcuffed James in the car, and after several hours, he bursts from the house and drags a screaming James inside. Principal Marcus Miller is persuaded by Justine to conduct a wellness check on Alex. Before he can schedule it, the mysterious woman arrives at his office and introduces herself as Alex's Aunt Gladys, claiming she is helping to care for Alex's ill parents. Though she assures Marcus everything is alright, he insists on the welfare check. Gladys later accosts Marcus at his home, cutting a lock of hair from Marcus' husband Terry and using it to perform a bewitchment ritual on Marcus. Marcus is compelled to murder Terry at Gladys' command and is ordered to kill Justine next. Marcus locates Justine at a gas station, where she is arguing with Archer. Archer defends Justine long enough for her to escape in her car. When Marcus tries to give chase, he is fatally run over. Archer later reconciles with Justine, and the two of them deduce that the children were all converging on Alex's house on the night of the disappearance. It is revealed that Alex's mother had invited Gladys, a distant and homeless relative, into their home, where she immediately bewitched his parents, compelling them into self-harm in order to force Alex to do her bidding. Alex obeyed Gladys' order to gather personal belongings from his classmates, which she used to summon them to the house, where she keeps them locked in the basement in order to feed off their energy. Realizing she has been discovered, Gladys makes preparations to leave with Alex when Archer and Justine arrive. They are immediately attacked by the bewitched Paul and James, who are both killed by Justine. Archer enters the basement, only to be ambushed and bewitched by Gladys into attacking Justine. Alex, meanwhile, breaks a totem to target Gladys with her own spell. The children storm out of the basement and pursue Gladys through the neighborhood, ultimately catching her and tearing her apart. Gladys' death breaks the spell over her victims, although all but Archer are left catatonic. Justine finds Alex embracing his parents, while Archer carries his son Matthew home. The child narrator reveals that Alex moved out of town to live with a different aunt after his parents were institutionalized. The children returned home, and two years later, some have even started talking again, all of them slowly healing from the darkness that almost consumed them.