Before she died, Cole Nightshade's grandmother taught him how to keep his demons from coming out of their hiding places and wreaking havoc. But none of Nana's lessons have prepared him for Saint Edwards Mental Asylum, where he's landed after a foster-care placement gone wrong. Saint Edwards has a history of abuse and death that makes itself known to Cole in alarming ways. Walls containing the spirits of prior inmates scream in agony. Young women who once ran from monsters, or from their own pain, leap to their deaths again and again.The good news: Cole's new friends on the pediatric ward believe him when he tells them what he sees. The bad news: they have a bigger problem than ghosts. For years, a creature known as the Creeper has been preying on kids in the asylum. Rumor has it that if you catch a glimpse of him, you die. And someone-or something-has been stalking Cole since his first night at Saint Edwards.