It’s time for my main character to suffer.
Whether she’s pushed or merely falls through the rotten floorboards into the old abandoned root cellar, one thing’s for certain, she’s going D-O-W-N. Don’t worry. Someone will come along to rescue her but until that happens, she’s gonna lie for several hours in a dark, wet, muddy old root cellar.
And I need to figure out what creepy crawly things she’ll meet.
I’m talking viscerally repulsive creepy crawly things. Mice? Rats? Spiders? Centipedes? Snakes? Since she’ll probably be all scraped and bruised from the fall, I’m also thinking maybe something that’s attracted to the smell of blood.
What about earwigs? You know, the nasty thing reputed to crawl into people’s ears and bore into their brains? Yeah, an urban legend for sure but still, just looking at that picture gives me the heebie jeebies.
So right now, I’m leaning toward earwigs, centipedes skittering over her bare arms and maybe a black snake or two.
Ugh, now I’ve grossed myself out.
Any other ideas?

Cockroaches do me in. But….what about the ghost of a young girl or boy who was locked down there many years ago……….. You are always good with ghosts!
You know, I forgot about cockroaches. They live in dark places, too, don’t they? No ghosts though. I’ve got enough weird stuff going on in the novel w/o bringing in the paranormal.