EMF Meters don’t work, by the way. Well, I guess that’s not technically true - they’re great if you’re trying to find an electric current in a wall or something like that. In terms of ghost hunting, they don’t do anything except make an annoying beeping noise anytime you get too close to a source of electricity. But there the device sat, making a loud, continuous beep, despite being nowhere near an electrical source.
I carried the EMF meter over to my bed, in case there was some weird glitch where there was an electrical frequency running through the air - I’d heard about things like that happening in some old buildings, but I certainly hoped that that wouldn’t be the case in a working hotel. As I moved, the signal dimmed to a two, but then quickly jumped back up to a five when I sat down on the bed. I stared at the little light, not sure what to make of it.
I pulled out my phone and thought about calling Liam, but I didn’t want to interrupt a shot for something as mundane as this. After all, it was a little weird, but considering some of the things I’d been dealing with lately, it was pretty mundane. So instead, I snapped a picture of it and sent him a text with the words “This keeps going off at level 5. Does that mean I have a ghost in my ass?” I hit send, then shook my head and laughed lightly at myself - I hadn’t even been around them that long, and I was already starting to pick up their phrases. Worse yet, I seemed to be picking up the dumbest of their phrases.
Three dots appeared on my screen almost immediately, and I stared at the screen, ignoring the screech of the beep. Eventually, a message popped up: “Yep, sounds like a certified case of ghost ass to me.”
Then, a moment later, another message popped up after it: “Do you need me to come back? Luke’s doing a solo in the infirmary, he’d never notice if I left him there for a while.”
I smiled down at the light from my phone and responded that no, I didn’t need him to come back right now, but I’d try to get rid of the ghosts. I put my phone to the sighed and looked at the beeping light again. I wasn’t sure what could be causing it - if it was actually electricity, the beeping should have started the moment that Liam sat down his bag. Granted, maybe it had started then, and we were both too distracted by the young man in the corner of the room to actually notice. He, too, had left not long after Liam had - I assumed that he decided I was not going to cause any trouble, considering my plans to just go straight to sleep. I kind of wished he was here now, though - he may not have spoken, but his facial expressions alone would tell me if this was something normal for this room.
I grabbed the meter off the bed beside me and flipped it over. On the back, there was a small push cover, and I opened it, removing the batteries. The light at the top turned off immediately, while the beep made a couple of small noises while it tried to continue working, regardless of its energy source. After a few heartbeats, though, it too gave up.
Well, I thought to myself, walking over to throw the batteries into Liam’s bag, that was less worrying than I expected. Probably just a faulty sensor or something. I laid the broken EMF meter on the nightstand, planning to give it to Liam when he came back to the room, and I settled myself under the blankets again to keep watching the show.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
A couple of minutes later, in the middle of a conversation between Monica and Chandler and when I was halfway asleep, I was startled by another beep. I sat up in bed, looking around the room, but nothing seemed unchanged. I looked over where I’d set the EMF meter, but it was still silent. I assumed that I must have imagined it, but just in case, I grabbed the EMF meter and sat it on my chest, so I had to look over it to see the TV.
A few seconds later, the EMF meter beeped again, and the light lit up for just long enough for me to know I wasn’t imagining it. I sat up in bed, looking closely at the EMF meter. It didn’t make any sense - it didn’t have any batteries, and even if the room was so full of electricity that it could somehow power the machine, it still wasn’t set up to use the energy from the air. I flipped it around in my hands, just making sure it didn’t have any text that would indicate that the batteries were optional.
When I turned it right-side up again, it beeped, and I jumped. Out of ideas, I did the only thing I could think of - followed Luke and Liam’s lead, even though it didn’t make any sense. “Hello?” I asked quietly, fully expecting to have no result except for my words in a quiet room.
The EMF meter beeped back immediately. There’s no way this was happening, I thought, holding it up to my eyes again. This time, it remained silent. “Are you trying to say something to me?”
Beep.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, reaching for me phone. If I was talking to a ghost through a bullshit piece of ghost equipment, Luke and Liam would be so furious if I didn’t call them. They’d be even more mad if I didn’t film it. I sent off a quick text to Liam telling him to get his ass up here as soon as possible, and then I flipped on my phone camera. “What are you trying to tell me?” I asked.
Beep.
Well, yeah, I thought - I guess I should have figured that much. We were already breaking all known elements of the universe by having the EMF meter respond to me regardless of its batteries. I shouldn’t be expecting it to be able to start talking now, either. Granted, I gave myself a little bit of a pass, considering I’d only ever held conversations with ghosts before. “One for yes, two for no?” I asked, trying to remember some of the techniques that Luke and Liam had used when talking to the air before.
Beep.
“Okay, I can work with that, I think,” I said. I sat up cross-legged on the bed, setting the EMF in front of me. I wished that the guys had thought to leave me an actual good camera before they headed out, considering I was the one who could actually see the ghosts when they came around, but I supposed that my phone would have to be good enough. “Are you the same ghost that was in this room earlier? The man in the corner?”
Beep beep.
“Alright,” I said, trying to think quickly. “Were you a crewmember on the Queen Mary?”
Beep beep.
“Passenger, then?”
Beep beep.
I stared at the machine, trying to think of who else could have been on the ship, when I was disrupted by the sound of loud footsteps outside my door. I turned to the door just in time to see Luke shove the door open and pile in, quickly followed by Liam. Both guys panted and looked frantically around the room.
“What happened?” Liam asked, a note of panic in his voice.
“Sorry,” I said, feeling a flush start to creep up the side of my face. “I should have clarified. There’s no danger - I’m just catching some ghost evidence that you can actually see.”