Twisted Graves

Twisted GravesA Graveside Mystery: Book One Kennedy LayneKennedy Layne Publishing, Inc. Copyright © 2023 by Kennedy Layne Cover Designer: Sweet ’N Spicy Designs ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. DedicationJeffrey — Counting down the days until our favorite season is upon us!Cole — To new journeys and exiting adventures! About the Book A supernatural-hunting podcaster. A soul-collecting ghost. A spine-tingling suspense. Phoebe Burrow enjoys teaching courses in the occult at her local university, but she also doubles as a podcaster during the summer months. What started out as a thesis project soon turned into a successful podcast called Graveside Mysteries, but Phoebe has ulterior motives when investigating these hauntings. She wants to prove the supernatural exists in order to explain the disturbing visions she has of her sister…her dead sister. When a cryptic email is sent to Phoebe’s best friend and business partner about an old haunted house, Phoebe dives into the mysterious tales spoken on many dark nights in Rustic, Ohio. According to local legend, Margaret Shiller fell down her basement stairs and broke her neck. Over the past sixty years, three others have met a similar fate inside the decaying dwelling, leaving the townsfolk convinced that Margaret’s roaming spirit is collecting souls to avoid spending eternity alone. As the mysterious enigma of the Shiller house unravels, Phoebe soon learns that the truth may lie not with the supernatural but with the living. The last thing she needs is a possible homicide case, along with a very skeptic sheriff. Deep within the walls of the abandoned structure, she realizes it’s not only the spirits whispering their untold stories into the dark of night, but it is her sister speaking to her from beyond the grave. Contents 1. Prologue 2. Chapter One 3. Chapter Two 4. Chapter Three 5. Chapter Four 6. Chapter Five 7. Chapter Six 8. Chapter Seven 9. Chapter Eight 10. Chapter Nine 11. Chapter Ten 12. Chapter Eleven 13. Chapter Twelve 14. Chapter Thirteen 15. Chapter Fourteen 16. Chapter Fifteen 17. Chapter Sixteen 18. Chapter Seventeen 19. Chapter Eighteen 20. Chapter Nineteen 21. Chapter Twenty 22. Chapter Twenty-One 23. Chapter Twenty-Two 24. Chapter Twenty-Three 25. Chapter Twenty-Four Other Books By Kennedy Layne About the Author PrologueThe Shiller House 2003There was always an underlying sense of unease during the month of October. A foreboding that no one ever seemed to mention aloud, as if doing so would bring about their worst fears. Dead leaves had fallen one by one from the trees above, only to be stepped on or driven over in the street until they had all been turned into dust. It was as if they'd never existed. It didn't help that the colder temperatures had created a chill in the air that invaded one's bones. The intermittent, drizzling rain made it nearly impossible to absorb any warmth after being outside in the damp, bleak weather for any extended amount of time. Technically, it was the perfect ambiance for Halloween, but the spooky holiday brought about its own disquiet ambiance. Eerie decorations had been suspended from barren branches, fake spiderwebs had been stretched out over bushes, and mottled-grey tombstones were no longer reserved for the local cemetery. Cheap Styrofoam headstones had been scattered throughout numerous front lawns as if the final resting place for the dead was nothing but a parody. "We should hurry." Ashley looked over her shoulder, but she couldn't see anything through the blanket of thick, creeping fog that hovered over the gravel road. She shivered with dread, wishing that they had never taken the shortcut through the thin, low-lying tree line behind the football stadium. "My dad is going to flip out if I'm late.""You turn eighteen next month," Curtis reminded her as he slung his arm over her shoulders. They'd been together pretty much all through high school, and she didn't see that changing just because she was going to college. "What's your dad going to do? It's not like he'll ground you for the rest of our senior year."Ashley wasn't so sure about that, and she didn't want to test the dark waters. Her father was already upset that she wanted to attend a college in Florida, which was pretty far from home. She had a feeling that he was busy looking for any excuse to keep her close to the family."Hey, Curtis," Richie called out from about twenty feet in front of them. He'd turned around so that he was walking backward, barely missing a large puddle where some of the rainwater had collected into a low spot. His red hair looked almost black in the shadows. "Have you ever been inside old lady Shiller's house?"Ashley tightened her grip on Curtis' waist, not wanting to even look at the creepy old house up on a rise above the road that followed the creek bed through the hollow. No one had lived in it since way before she'd been born, and it had basically turned into a dilapidated, rotten, two-story nightmare. She'd grown up with stories about how Margaret Shiller used to lure unsuspecting people inside for a cup of tea, never to be seen again. Rumors had been spread from generation to generation that the old woman had either killed her victims with poison or shoved them down the stairs into her basement so that she had someone to talk to during the long, lonely hours of the night. Depending on who one listened to about the tales surrounding Margaret Shiller, there were several versions that had made the rounds since her death in 1965. The death of Brian Hill a year later hadn’t helped stem the tide, either. Rumor had it that Brian had gone inside