Includes a conversation between Stephen King and Richard Chizmar.

Stephen King teams up with longtime friend and award-winning author Richard Chizmar for the first time in this original, chilling novella that revisits the town of Castle Rock - paired on audio with King's Edgar Award-nominated story 'The Music Room'.

The little town of Castle Rock, Maine, has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one story that has never been told...until now.

There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974, 12-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zigzag up the cliffside. At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground. From a bit farther away comes the chink of an aluminium bat hitting a baseball as the Senior League kids practice for the Labour Day charity game.

One day a stranger calls to Gwendy: 'Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me.' On a bench in the shade sits a man in black jeans, a black coat like for a suit, and a white shirt unbuttoned at the top. On his head is a small, neat black hat. The time will come when Gwendy has nightmares about that hat....

Journey back to Castle Rock again in this chilling new novella by Stephen King, best-selling author of The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, and Richard Chizmar, award-winning author of A Long December.