When you run the gauntlet at Falter Kingdom, a tunnel next to a park on the outskirts of suburbia where local high school kids go to drink, and smoke, and maybe even other things, two things can happen.
1) Nothing
2) You catch a demon.
Annoyed by his friend Brad's incessant posturing, his girlfriend Becca's constant flurry of texts, and the silent glares of the girl he should be with, Blair, Hunter Warden just wants some peace and quiet. He wants to watch unboxing videos and be lulled to sleep by the monotone voices and smooth talking YouTube hosts. He wants his parents that are always working to either totally leave him alone or be around for once. He wants the popular kids to notice him and for Jon-Jon, the weird older drug dealer that hangs around school to just give him the money he won on that bet already. Seemingly on a whim, and after a few beers, Hunter decides to get away from it all and go for a run in Falter Kingdom.
Time seems suspended afterwards, and the cold spots, locked doors, scratches on the wall, and disappearing laptop immediately alert him to the fact that a demon is haunting him. He knows the signs, he's seen the videos of people that are possessed, and everyone knows someone that has had to get an exorcism.
Hunter Warden is suddenly the talk of his high school, simultaneously intrigued and disgusted by the fickle behavior of his fellow Seniors. Jon-Jon views Hunter as a new money-making scheme and prods him to engage with the demon to freak people out at parties. As Hunter begins to communicate more and more with the demon, eventually known as "H," his human friends drop by the wayside. H talks to Hunter by commandeering both his dreams and YouTube playlist, and their conversation continues to grow stronger with each passing day. Until H is even able to go to school and attend class as Hunter, while he watches on a screen from within Falter Kingdom.
When Becca enlists the help of two priests for an exorcism, H retaliates by turning Hunter against everyone he's ever loved except for Blair, who H intuits once had a demon that chose to leave her. As Hunter's thoughts and decisions are influenced by H and their bond transforms into an interconnected identity, so too is Hunter able to empathize with his friends and family, and not judge them so harshly. These epiphanies may come too late, as the battle for possession of Hunter's body is pushed to extremes.
