Play Dead!

A story about a band, their junky, broken down van, an abandoned house, and a surprisingly lively dead dog.

Corey, Kaleb, Brian, and Savannah make up an up-and-coming pop punk band, currently touring in a junky van that breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a little too close to a haunted house. A trip inside to look for help ends with them running out the door with an unexpected stowaway–the ghost of a small dog that once lived there. Kaleb somehow convinces the rest of them to keep the dog, which he names “Thief” after something Corey said when the mutt stole his hat in an attempt to play. As they’d been looking for a new band name anyway, they run with the theme and rebrand themselves as Stop, Thief! From there on out, however, things get exponentially weirder, as they suddenly seem to encounter some kind of supernatural creature or unexplainable scenario in every other town they pass through. From vampires and werewolves, to a giant fluffy spider-octopus, to a haunted payphone in their green room that the venue staff conveniently has never seen before, the band always winds up down some paranormal rabbit hole, usually while chasing their incorporeal pet. Corey keeps a blog detailing their encounters, and develops a bit of a following (that he mostly uses to promote the band), though they all think the stories are creepypasta-esque fiction.