The footage on-screen was just as Penelope remembered it, just from a different angle. She watched herself standing at the edge of the forest, lingering for a moment before she turned back to look into the camera. She gave a quick smile before delving between the trees and walking deeper into the woods. The camera—and Liam—followed after.
For a while, the footage was just her stumbling through the undergrowth. The camera shook as Liam did the same, his heavy breathing the only soundtrack as he trailed after her. Then, finally, he found some even ground where the underbrush wasn't so thick and stopped for a minute.
But Penelope kept going. She stepped over a log and around a tree...
And then she was gone.
On-screen, Liam realized it instantly. "Penelope?" he called out. He leaned the camera this way and that, looking through the thick green of the forest. He ventured forward and peered around the edge of the tree, even though it was too thin for her—or anyone—to hide behind.
But there was no sign of her.
She was just... gone.
"Penelope, what the hell?" he snapped, rushing forward. "Where are you?"
But she didn't answer. She was nowhere to be seen.
"Penelope! PENELOPE!" Liam began calling. Here was when you could hear the panic begin to creep into his voice. "PENELOPE, WHERE ARE YOU?"
The angle shifted then, the camera aiming at the ground.
"I-I'm sorry, I've got... I've got to find her. I'm sorry," Liam sputtered, before the footage before cut out as he ended the livestream.
"And that's when I tried to calling you on my phone," Liam explained, from his spot beside her on the couch. "I called and called, but it just went through to my voicemail."
Penelope didn't respond. She wasn't sure what to say. She just felt very cold.
This had been what she'd been waiting for, all this time, though it hadn't exactly happened the way she expected. She had always hoped to find something like—proof, real proof—but she had always thought it would be something she'd witness, capture, document.
Not something that happened to her.
She had just watched herself disappear, in real-time, on-screen. Where had she gone? She still wasn't sure, and that... scared her. Something had separated Liam and her...
But what was it?
"What happened?" Liam breathed.
She turned slowly to look at him. "I-I don't know."
"Did you see something?"
Penelope nodded.
"What? What did you see?"
The events from mere hours before replayed in her mind, coming fast and scattered. It all seemed so unreal. "A r-raven," she said, still trying to make sense of it.
"The Raven?" Liam echoed, sitting up straighter.
Penelope shook her head. "No. A raven—just a bird. Like the one at the park. And it... it spoke to me again."
Liam frowned—that had tempered his excitement. She knew he believed that it was just more of Gunnar's doing. "What did it say?" he said, his voice flat.
"Follow me," Penelope quoted the bird. "And then..." She thought of the one standout line, the one that unsettled her the most.
'HELP ME,' the raven had said.
Something about it unsettled her.
'Follow me' was something Penelope could see Gunnar teaching the ravens around town. But not 'help me'—she couldn't think of why would he teach them to say that.
She wondered if maybe she had misheard it...
"And then what?" Liam said, prodding from her daze.
"There were these trees," Penelope mumbled, replaying her memories in her head. She decided to leave out the other thing the bird said—she wasn't even sure she had heard it right, anyway. "They were braided together."
Liam cocked an eyebrow. "Braided? Like hair?"
"Not quite," Penelope said. "It was more... complex." It hadn't been the simple three strands woven together, but many more, like rope or... It reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite place it. Her brain was still pretty frazzled from the whole ordeal. "But when you showed up again, they were gone. The bird, too."
"Yeah, I didn't see any birds," Liam confirmed. "Or braided trees." He made a face.
Penelope took a deep breath. That didn't make her feel any better. She knew it sounded insane. Now, back in the comfort of the cabin, Penelope was doubting everything she had seen and heard. After all, she had been panicking, thinking she was lost. Not exactly the soundest of mind...
But the footage on the phone sitting in her lap was proof that something had happened.
"What do I do now?" Penelope asked aloud.
"Well, first, I think you need to tell your fans you're alive," Liam said, pointing at the screen of the phone again.
The livestream had posted automatically to her YouTube channel once Liam had stopped it. In the time it took them to come out of their shock and make their way home, the video had somehow racked up more than a million views and the comments that accompanied it were a mix of panic and anger.
IS PARANELOPE OKAY? demanded one viewer.
Did that new guy kill her or something? asked another.
Daevon was a dickhead but at least he wasn't a murderer.
Is this some kind of stunt?
WE KNOW WHERE YOU HID THE BODY, LIAM!
That one seemed to snap Penelope out of what was left of her daze. First, a single giggle shook free of her, then she fell back into the couch, shaking with laughter. "Yeah," she managed between giggles, "maybe I should let them know I'm okay."
"Soon, preferably, before they call the cops on me," Liam said with a huff, getting up from the couch. He went to the cabin's fridge and began to rifle around inside.
"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?" Penelope asked. "That's not your fridge."
"I mean, technically it is," Liam said, poking his head up with a smirk. "Besides, I'm doing this for you. You looked like you needed a drink of," he stood up, "Dr. Pepper?" He tried to sound innocent, but Penelope noticed that he was holding two cans.
She stared him down. "Sure..."
Liam smirked and went to the cupboards, looking for glasses.
Penelope opened up the camera on her phone and set it to selfie-mode, so her own face was reflected back at her. She hadn't exactly looked great before, but she definitely looked like she had been through some kind of hell, now.
Whatever, Penelope thought. She didn't need to be beautiful for this.
Flipping to video mode, she held the phone out away from herself and hit record. "Hi everyone," Penelope began. "I just wanted to post a quick video to let you know that I'm okay. Contrary to what some of you think," she smirked as she said it, "Liam has not murdered me and hidden my body in the woods. But something strange definitely happened out there." As the words left her mouth, the sudden weight of it landed on her shoulders again and the humour was sucked out of her face. "But I need a bit of time to process it before I try to explain it to you. I'll post again soon, I promise. See you."
She gave it a quick watch-through before she posted it to her Twitter. It would do for now and should keep her more enthusiastic fans at bay, at least for a bit. She'd need to post something more in-depth soon, but right now she just wanted to sit back and unwind with that Dr. Pepper—
"GET OUTTA HERE! THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY!"
Penelope lurched up from the couch and looked at Liam. Liam was frozen, mid-pour, and staring towards the cabin door.
"Was that my uncle?" he said, before leaving the half-empty can on the counter and heading for the door.
Penelope jumped up from her seat and ran after him.
As they reached the front step, the first thing they noticed was the massive SUV, all shiny and black and chrome. It looked like be more at home in the driveway of a rapper or some Instagram influencer than on the backroads of Ridgestone. It was parked right outside of the front office and Liam's uncle was standing on the porch, looking furious.
For a moment, Penelope wondered if Liam's uncle was shouting at was the mayor again. But it wasn't Gunnar who was standing next to the SUV...
It was Daevon.
And he wasn't alone. In addition to the full film crew—two men carrying large, professional cameras and another guy carrying a boom mic—was another familiar face.
Dressed in all black, his inky hair was slicked back on his head and he was wearing expensive black shades pulled down over his eyes, despite the cloudy weather. Looking more like a Vegas magician than an actual investigator, it was Xander Green, the most famous—and infamous—ghosthunter in the game. His TV show was the first thing people thought of when they thought of 'ghost hunting', usually following it up with a snicker.
He had once approached her, seeing if she wanted to take her 'little'—his words—YouTube channel and make it into a show. But Penelope had refused. Xander Green was not considered a 'real' ghost hunter. He was slick and slimy and fake—everything Penelope aspired not to be.
Suddenly it all started to come together.
What Daevon had mentioned on his channel...
What the mayor had said when she last saw him...
'I hired a professional.'
Of course, it was him, Penelope thought with an eye roll so pronounced it felt like her eyes might get stuck at the back of her head. And of course, Daevon is working with him now! She realized then why Daevon had been so quick to throw her under the bus. Xander must have made him an offer...
Xander stepped forward, his crew and Daevon hot on his heels. "You're Henry Burke, aren't you? We just want to ask you some questions."
"So what if I am?" Liam's uncle—Henry—shouted. Beneath his signature hat and beard, he was red in the face. "I ain't answering any of your questions!"
Daevon was pushing forward now. "Please, sir, we just want to ask you about the night you saw the Raven—"
Penelope's mouth dropped open. Wait, he's the guy who saw the Raven in the cleaning that night?
It made sense. So that was who Liam's 'reputable source' was: his very own uncle—Henry. Thinking of the story Liam had told to the stream, Henry was the right age for it. He would've been a teen in the early eighties...
She turned to Liam to confirm it, but he was already in a run, heading for his uncle's side.
"Gunnar put you up to this, didn't he?" Henry shouted, getting redder every second. The veins in his face were protruding and it looked like he was seconds away from having a heart attack. "I'm sick of him bothering me! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"You don't have to talk to them," Liam said as he leapt up the porch steps. He began pulling his uncle back from the edge and towards the open door of the house. "Go inside, I'll deal with them."
"Where the hell did that kid come from?" Xander asked his crew, looking around. He briefly spotted Penelope, still standing on the front step of the cabin, but his gaze didn't linger like he didn't recognize her.
Daevon did though, despite her new hair colour. He had turned, too, when Xander had looked, and froze when he caught sight of her. His mouth fell open and his eyes went wide with shock.
She smiled, waved... and then flipped him the bird.
By this time, Liam had managed to get his uncle inside, away from the crew. Xander was determined, though. He approached Liam, climbing the steps to the porch with a swagger that exuded absolute confidence. As he reached him, Xander flicked out a business card from seemingly nowhere, offering it over.
"I'm Xander Green," he said with the same overblown growl he used in all his TV specials. "Professional paranormal investigator. Is there anyway I could set up an interview with your," he tilted his head, pulling down his shades to get a good look at Liam, "father?"
"Uncle," Liam said, his voice icy. "And he's not doing any fucking interview. Now, like he said, this is private property. Fuck off before I call the cops."
"No need to get hostile," Xander said, perfectly unbothered by Liam's hostility. "We're happy to leave if you want us to... But if your uncle changes his mind, let me know. We pay, and well." He pushed his card towards Liam again.
Liam smacked it out of his hand and it went fluttering to the ground. "Leave," he snarled.
Xander just shrugged. Penelope got the feeling he was used to rubbing people the wrong way. He swirled his finger in the air, a cue for his crew to pack it in. With impressive efficiency, they began to pack up their equipment and climb back into the SUV.
Only Daevon lingered, frozen where he stood, still staring at Penelope.
"Sup, Deavon," Liam called. "You better get a move on before your ride leaves without you."
That broke Daevon out of his trance. Daevon glanced at Liam, then at Penelope, frowning. But he did as he was told and climbed into the SUV too, right into the passenger side next to Xander.
Soon they were roaring out of the campground, kicking up dirt on the road as they went. As the dust cleared, Penelope met Liam's eye. He had some explaining to do.
Shit's going down now!
Did you guess that Henry was Liam's uncle all along?
Why do you think Liam hid it?
And what do you think of this Xander Green? 👀