The creature's cells are similar in molecular structure to fossil fuels upon discovering this the scientists use oil-eating bacteria to destroy the Enemy's core or brain (the genetically modified bacteria are the real-life creations of Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty). Its only vital organ is a nucleus located in the center of its main body. It can create small 'probes' or 'phantoms' imitating consumed life forms to go forth and hunt more prey, obeying the orders of its 'hive mind' in addition the creature absorbs the mental capacity of those it consumes. The creature consumes other life forms to increase its mass and is able to perfectly mimic other creatures. It was theorized that the Enemy either caused or aided in the extinction of the dinosaurs, as well as many of the great mysterious mass vanishings: Mayan civilization, Roanoke, ghost ships, etc. This Ancient Enemy rarely feeds, but when it does, the effects are devastating. It is discovered that the town was built over the hibernating place of one such Enemy, a creature known as an amoeboid shapeshifter. His book catalogs and describes various mass vanishings of people in different parts of the world over the centuries. Flyte is a British academic and author of a book, The Ancient Enemy. A victim of whatever was trying to kill him managed to write the name Timothy Flyte on a mirror moments before he was killed. The police managed to find only one clue as to what was causing the town's disappearances and deaths. Together, the women and the police, led by Sheriff Bryce Hammond, are able to request help from the military Biological Investigations Unit. Finally, after growing more alarmed by the town's mysterious and alarming situation Jenny manages to call police in a neighboring town to come help.

The few bodies they find are either mutilated, or reveal some strange form of death. Jenny and Lisa Paige, two sisters, return to Jenny's hometown of Snowfield, California, a small ski resort village nestled in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains where Jenny works as a doctor, and find no one alive. Most of these Lovecraftian references were excised from the 1998 film version of Koontz's novel. Lovecraft, including the suggestion that the novel's 'Ancient Enemy' is Lovecraft's god Nyarlathotep, also known as the 'Crawling Chaos' and the fact that character of the air force specialist in potential contact with non-human intelligence is named 'Captain Arkham' (cf. The novel includes many literary tips of the hat to the work of H. The story is a version of the now-debunked urban legend involving a village mysteriously vanishing at Angikuni Lake. Phantoms is a horror novel by American writer Dean Koontz, first published in 1983.

False Memory by Dean Koontz