The Ghost in the Cellar

Long before the boutique windows glowed warm against Exeter’s evening mist, before fashion draped the old stone bones of the Guildhall’s cellar, the ground beneath South Devon’s cobbled streets bore silent witness to suffering. In the dark chill of 1725, when justice wore a powdered wig and mercy was scarce for the poor, a young seamstress named Meg Taverner vanished without justice, her cries swallowed by the dungeon walls and her blood hidden beneath the stone. Though centuries passed and the city moved on, some tragedies sink too deep for time to bury. Now, beneath the hum of modern life and racks of elegant garments, something lingers in the cellar—something unseen, unheard, save for the rustling of fabric where no hand moves and the cold gaze of a ghost who cannot forget.