While sifting through the University of Pittsburgh Library's System's George A. Romero Archival Collection in 2020, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up something surprising: a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper. Kraus has since worked with Romero's estate to bring this unfinished masterwork to light. Young Renée Pontiac has heard stories of "the Piper"--a murderous swamp entity--her entire life. But now the legend feels real: children are being gruesomely slain in Pontiac's Louisiana bayou hometown of Alligator Point. To resist, Pontiac and the town's desperate denizens will need to acknowledge the sins of their ancestors. If they don't . . . it's time to pay the piper.