Adventure of Lexy

The warped front door yields with a wet groan. Lexy enters as the child-sized shadow slips ahead, while the embalmer remains outside beside the cold iron and disturbed earth.

Dust and dead leaves choke the hallway. In the parlor, a rotted Halloween display sags around a blackened circle scratched into the floor, its candle flames burning without wicks.

The shadow stretches one thin arm toward the circle. Beneath the floor, something answers with a muffled knock, and the candle flames bow toward Lexy.

The black circle gives a faint pulse beneath the dust. One dead leaf lifts from the floor and settles at its center, pointing toward a narrow crack in the boards.