Page 96 of If I Stopped Haunting You

“Oh god,” he whispered, panic rising in his voice.

He needed out, back to daylight. But there was Penelope to think about, all alone down here. He could turn around; run the way he’d come—

But 8 percent. He only had 8 percent battery left.

He stared down at the screen. Make it 6 percent.

“Penelope!”

Theswish-swishof the thing behind him was closer. Maybeit was a rat. Maybe it was nothing but the air being sucked out through the narrow entrance he’d left open through the church.

Or maybe it was the woman in white—Georgina Walsh.

He shuddered and checked his phone again. Two percent.

“Penelope,” he called out, his voice more of a whimper.

God, she was always going to be the hero. Neil was such a coward compared to Penelope. She didn’t need to prove herself,hedid. Neil was the one who fucked up. Neil was the one who took up the space someone with Penelope’s skill deserved. He was the one who had been too afraid to face his past mistakes. In the last four months, he’d been crushed by doubt, and now that Penelope had made him face it and dig out a little corner of his heart for herself, she had to run off into danger.

His phone slipped from his grasp, landing with the light shining up, setting a large, cavernous room aglow.

“Fuck,” he cursed, pressing a hand to the back of his head as he tripped toward it, missing a step leading from the tunnel into the large space, and landing in the dirt with athud. He groaned, scraping against the dirt to sit up. Blinking, he glanced around, taking in the open slots in the walls, and the…

“Oh, fuck no.”

A tomb. He was in a fucking tomb.

He scrambled to stand, nearly slipping again. A tomb.A tomb.He shouldn’t have come out here, should have returned to the castle to start a search party for her with the others, butnooooo. No, he had to run off like Indiana Jones and get himself in this mess.

He crossed to his phone, tilting the cracked screen toward him in the dark.

One percent.

His battery had one percent left, and he was in a tomb. Underground.

Probably surrounded by the dead.

Because that’s what tombs were, everlasting homes for thedead. He’d never wished to enter one, never wished to stay in a haunted castle, and still, he found himself belowground in a massive hollowed tomb surrounded by skeletons.

What had he done to deserve such an end?

Neil searched frantically for an exit. His phone would shut off at any moment, and he needed to getout. Out before the thing that followed him made its appearance. Out before he found something worse down there among the dirt and decay.

And then he saw it: a set of stairs leading off to the left.

He ran for them, dirt flying behind him as he raced against the dying battery. Right as he reached the stone steps, the flashlight on his phone flicked out, and he was plunged into darkness.

“Shit,”he cursed as he clambered for the steps just as a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

Chapter 29

PEN

Pen pressed a hand over his mouth, biting back a gasp.

“Neil!” she said, the sound of her voice echoing around them. “Neil, it’s me. Penelope.”

She pulled her hand away, blinking against the darkness. Pen hadn’t heard or seen him; she’d been too focused on what was down here, waiting for her in the dark.