Arielle Donovan is a fifteen year old girl who has just lost something very important to her, her best friend. On a dark summer night, Jenna leaves Arielle’s home without her insisting she’ll be right back, but never returns. Arielle suffers through a summer alone, desperate to find out what happened to her friend, but lacking the energy that the experience of loss has drained from her. On the afternoon of her fifteenth birthday however, Arielle has a dream. She sights Jenna outside her kitchen window, runs outside only to bolt after her as Jenna sprints away. Losing control of her body and breath, Arielle’s world becomes hazy as she sees her friend run into the burning structure of the old Dexter orphanage, and she is powerless to do anything after being confined behind the Iron Gate that protects the place.
School starts for Arielle and as she expects, she is basically ignored and avoided. People don’t know how to speak to her because she, being once so close to Jenna, is a constant reminder that the girl they once knew is gone. Arielle is sad yet emotionless towards the society of her high school. Until she meets new boy Henry Rhodes. He is charming, sensitive and he and Arielle have an immediate connection. Sadly, he is claimed (without his knowledge) by the most popular girl in school, Lainey Ford, because he is rich like her and she believes that they would be perfect for each other.
Deciding to go out into her backyard after seeing that a new girl has moved in next to her, Arielle meets Theo, a shy yet amazingly artistic and fun-loving fifteen year old girl from Arielle’s art class. They become fast friends, bonding over mutual disgust of the people in their school and comfort with each other.
Henry won’t leave Arielle alone and decides to escort her and Theo, along with his friend Alex, to the haunted house attraction in town for Halloween. The Dexter orphanage, after Arielle insists on going there because she believes it has