Page 104 of If I Stopped Haunting You

She motioned to the door—Georgina’s door—and Laszlo glanced down at her, lips curved into a frown. “Why does this feel like a terrible idea?”

“Because it probably is,” Daniela whispered.

“I’m not sure about this, Pen,” Laszlo said.

“Please,” Pen begged. She was a broken record, and they had no intention of fixing it. “Neil needs us.”

And maybe they finally believed her, because with a surprising amount of resilience, Fanny pushed her way to the door and threw it open.

What they saw there was nothing short of a nightmare.

“Help me!” Neil cried, half-hidden by what was left of the bed. The room was macabre, everything dark and drab, the scent vomit-inducing. It was worse than it had been before, muskier, and darker.

Someone screamed, Fanny or Daniela or perhaps Laszlo, Pen couldn’t be sure. She hobbled into the room, hands wrapping around Neil’s. The weight on her ankle made her gasp in pain, but she fought through it.

“I’ve got you!” she yelled.

Although she wasn’t certain why she was yelling. The silence from the others was thunderous.

“Quick, someone grab rope!” she said, turning to the others. She angled toward the doorway, hand outstretched for help. Fanny stood frozen in the entry, eyes wide in horror as she took it in. Daniela cowered behind her, mouth open in surprise, arms wrapped around Fanny like a shield as they froze in place.

“Ohmygodohmygodohmyfuckinggod,”Daniela was chanting.

Laszlo, to no surprise, had already fled.

Pen turned back to Neil, her grip weak on his wrists as she tugged. “Penelope, please!” he begged, winking.

“I’m trying!” she called. She clamped her lips together as she pretended to pull on him.

And then, he laughed.

The sound split through the desperate silence of the room, and Pen couldn’t stop it; she laughed too. Her grip slackened on him, giggles bubbling in her chest. The laughter had taken hold of her. His hands slipped from hers as he fell to the floor, face planting against the floorboards, body shaking with laughter.

Everything seemed to freeze around them, multiple sets of eyes tracking them.

“Um, are you two okay?” Daniela asked from the doorway.

Pen helped Neil stand, shuffling on her good leg. “Sorry,” Pen wheezed. “I couldn’t keep a straight face.”

“Wait,” Neil said, wiping at his eyes. He watched her movements, eyes tracking the angle of her foot as she hobbled. “Did you actually hurt yourself?”

“I rolled my ankle on the stairs. I should be fine though.”

“Would ye two mind explaining what the bloody hell is going on?” Fanny demanded.

Neil and Pen turned to each other, smiling.

“We have some explaining to do,” Pen said. “But first, that was payback for making us suffer all the hauntings on our own.”

“Where is the ghost?” Daniela asked shakily.

“All in due time,” Neil said, sweeping his arm out the door.

Pen glanced over her shoulder as the others disappeared back down the hall. She stopped to inspect a glob of sticky white stuff, the only thing Georgina and Archie had left in their wake to… well, wherever ghosts disappeared to.

“I wouldn’t touch that,” Neil warned.

“Why, what do you think it is?”