Nimbus Never Left the House

Mia crouched down, holding her breath as she pulled the old terrarium away from the wall. The shed skin was stretched beneath it, brittle at the edges, but the color was fresh, too fresh to be from years ago. She called Jake over without raising her voice.

He stepped into the room and froze when he saw it. They both stared at the trail beneath the tank, which ended at a narrow opening near the baseboard. It wasn’t big, but it was just wide enough. Jake reached for the flashlight on a nearby shelf and aimed it into the gap. The beam revealed a dark crawlspace past a wall space.