Paranelope, a ghost hunter who's been cancelled for faking evidence, must discover the truth behind a local cryptid in order to clear her name.
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Penelope, better known as the ghost hunter PARANELOPE to her millions of followers, has only ever want...
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The cellar was worse than Penelope had even imagined. As she hurried down the too-narrow stairs, she noticed that not only was it dark and damp, it was slimy, too. The steps were slick with some kind of growth, and as her foot hit the last step, it slipped in the muck. She fell, hitting the dirt floor hard. Her still-lit phone flew out of her hand, spiralling out across the room.
Penelope gasped for air as she tried to right herself. The dirt floor was damp and soft, sticking to the knees of her jeans and heels of her hands as she struggled to push herself up. The fall winded her and the room was so dark, lit only by the distant feeble light from her now-dirt caked phone, that she felt lost.
Liam snatched up her phone and then rushed back to help her. "C'mon, we gotta hide!" he hissed as he pulled her up and then tugged her along with him. Penelope let him lead her blind as she continued to gasp for air.
His eyes must be better than mine, she thought, if he can see his way in this dark.
Liam stopped dragging her and pushed her down to the ground again. Her back hit a stone wall and she curled up into a ball against it. Liam crouched down next to her, pressing against her side.
"Stay quiet," he whispered, settling in close to her.
Penelope was still too winded to speak so she just nodded, hoping Liam's sharp eyes could see it in the dark.
They huddled together, waiting. The cellar was quiet, the only sound the distant droning of flies.
It seemed like forever, but eventually, Penelope's eyes adjusted to the dark and her breath returned to normal. As she took her first big breath, she got her first whiff of the cellar and it made her nearly gag. The place smelled strongly of mould and... and something rotten. It was a deep smell, one that reminded her of long-dead roadkill that had sat out on the side of the highway for too long. She didn't want to think too much about why it smelled like that, though the buzzing flies now made sense. Instead, she focussed on her new surroundings; the wall of wooden crates that Liam had hidden them behind, the dirt floor beneath her, the floorboards of the bunkhouse that made up the ceiling. The stranger's steps echoed overhead, dust raining down on them from between the boards as they walked...
