And then her smile fades, and she glances in the light's direction. 

Then - deep breath, and, cautiously, she creeps forward.

There's -

A television, screen bright, just sitting there, tilted back and half buried in the mud. There's no evidence of electrical outlets, and...

It looks like the TV from the laundromat, actually.

"So spooky mystery TV that either has been modified to run off of mud-proof batteries, or has been modified to run off of definitely not physics."

"...It's the television from the laundromat, isn't it."

"Yup."

Heavy sigh.

Snicker. "I think we can slip behind it, just stay out of the beam and avoid looking at the screen on the off chance it's evil."

"Sure." She rounds the corner to stare uneasily at the television. 

"...It might've been behaving weirdly right before I entered the laundromat, but, I don't actually remember for sure."

"So, the spookiness might not be new spookiness, got it."

Nod.

"Cool."

"I'll go first, then you follow?"

"Works."

She makes it behind the weird TV and down the tunnel without incident, turning to flash Lily a thumbs up. "Brain's not melted by too much screen time yet, happy to say."

She snorts. "Last thing I need is metaphors getting mixed up in this, you know."

"Might be allegory if the entire story is the message, I think?"

"I though allegory was, like Animal Farm, where everything's changed."

She starts slogging over to the other woman.

"A tiny baby allegory, then."

"Don't think that's a thing."

And then, as she approaches the TV -

The air starts filling with a strange black static, like soot bubbling into reality and then fading. It smells burnt, even above the rest of the mud.

She stops in her tracks.

"The fuck?"

" - You see that, right."

"The soot, yeah."

That's the wrong word, but, there aren't any right words to use here.

She starts backing away.

The soot fades as she gets distance, and then vanishes from sight entirely.

"So it's reacting to you."

"I can try moving it out of the tunnel - it doesn't look that heavy..."

"Feels risky."