Chapter 2

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This is a new chapter that's been added after revisions

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This is a new chapter that's been added after revisions.

On the other side of the screen, Penelope jumped out of her desk chair, sending it wheeling behind her

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On the other side of the screen, Penelope jumped out of her desk chair, sending it wheeling behind her. She wanted to let out a victorious scream, but it was late, really late, and she didn't want to wake her dad. Instead, she jumped around with her hand clamped over her mouth to muffle her squealing.

The footage of the dark figure stalking her through the hospital was the best evidence they'd ever gotten. It was a full body apparition, the rarest of the rare, and they had never captured anything as good as that before. Most of their evidence was just flashes of things, something darting by a door or a strange orb floating through the air. But this...

This was what she had been searching for all this time: undeniable proof of the supernatural. This was proof of something more, something beyond the limits of their knowable world.

This was proof of life after death.

Penelope let out another squeal. Maybe she did want to wake her Dad. After all, he was just as invested in her search as she was. After her mom—

No, Penelope thought, deciding against it with a shake of her head. The evidence would be there in the morning, and she could show him then. And, anyway, she needed to finish watching the rest of the footage first.

She plopped herself back down in her chair and dragged the progress bar back a few seconds so she could watch it again. Once again, the shadow slipped into the room, looming behind her.

"Who are you?" she repeated on screen as she circled the pentagram, the shadow in tow. "What do you want?"

A white spiky line of audio appeared over the scene with a small line of text underneath, reading: AUDIO HAS BEEN ENHANCED. The ambient noise behind Penelope's voice grew louder until it was rumbling static. Then, pulled from the lowest frequencies, came a voice...

"We want you to leave," a raspy whisper replied, appearing as a series of small bumps in the white line of audio. "Leave us alone."

And, just like that, the shadow faded away.

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