February Bleeds: The First Cut (1988)

By Christopher Thabani Mandawa

February Bleeds is a chilling leap year horror novel set at Harrowfield University, where the past never stays buried. When transfer student Lena Harrow arrives amid a brutal snowstorm, she senses something wrong especially with the East Wing, sealed off and whispered about by students. Her discovery of a hidden journal belonging to Eleanor Quinn, a student from 1920, reveals haunting tales of whispers, blood rituals, and a sinister force tied to February 29th.
Drawn into a mystery stretching across a century, Lena and her new friends including cheerful Rachel, loner Ivy, and tech-savvy Noah plan a forbidden Leap Year Eve party inside the East Wing. As the cursed date nears, hallucinations begin. Symbols reappear. A red fog rolls in. And then the doors lock.
What begins as a reckless thrill spirals into chaos. Students turn violent some possessed, others driven mad. The ghost of Elias Mercer, a cult leader once hanged on campus grounds, seems to return. But Mercer's journal reveals a darker truth: he wasn't summoning evil... he was trying to contain it.
As blood paints the walls and the Forgotten One stirs beneath the clocktower, Lena races to survive the six-hour massacre. Not all will make it out. And those who do are forever changed.
When the fog clears, the cover-up begins. Files are sealed. The truth is buried again. But horror doesn't die it waits.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FN83SL6Y
• ISBN13: 9798299035117
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"