To save her ghost-hunting career, psychic Kayde Foster must confront an evil and darkly attractive entity that has taken up residence in her uncle's business.
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Kayde prides herself on being fearless. Ghosts? Crumbling buildings? Scary legends? No...
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Darby prattled to the camera, looking at ease. My belly twisted like somebody reached into my guts and tied them into knot. Macabre thought, but man, it hurt like hell.
Chris's Mini Cooper came to a stop by our van, and I fought the urge to turn chicken and run screaming down the dirt road.
The guilt was too strong. The apprehension. The confusion over how my uncle found me, and what excuse I'd give him for ignoring all of his texts and calls.
Some niece you are.
With a bright, dazzling smile, Darby sang a cheerful greeting to the phone. Whenever she went live, our followers couldn't resist tuning in to hear what she had to say. It came naturally with her outgoing, bubbly personality. "We are here at Northville Complex tonight, getting ready to investigate. Who's excited?"
It was hard to see from here, but it looked like our viewers were already in the triple digits. Much less than what they used to be. Little hearts and reactions floated from the screen, right as an automated, robotic message—that somebody paid for—bleated: Let's go, Spelunkers team! Let's hunt those ghosts!
A car door slammed shut.
The robot-messenger bleated again: Darby is a straight up baddie! Lemmie get those digitssssssss!!
The robot voice was still jabbering "es es es exclamation mark exclamation mark," just as a headache came in full swing. The roots of my teeth ached.
"Jesus," I muttered under my breath. "Where are the mods in chat?"
Darby shrugged. "We had to cut costs."
Of course we did.
"I love this place!" my uncle sang, coming into the camera's view and waving at our watchers. My jaw fell open when I saw his getup. Are those alligator boots?
My face caught aflame as I studied them.
His checkered jacket was as tacky as his too-big sunglasses, making it look like he'd just stepped out of Goodwill. It relieved me a bit to see that he hadn't lost his odd charm, though.
He gave a dismissive gesture. "The ghosts here? Not so bad. The snakes, however..."
He shrugged, putting on a mischievous grin. He looked a lot like my father when he smiled, and my stomach did a flip. I really don't want to move back home.
For that to work, we need more views...
"Snakes?!" Darby gasped.
I groaned. I knew what he was doing. He was intimidating Darby to avoid her taking part in this investigation, hoping we'd investigate his place instead. I shot Darby a knowing look. She tried to hide her nerves, but the thin line of her lips gave her away. She hated snakes.
