《Dowsing Rods Don't Work》 Chapter 1: Sugar, Were Goin Down The best way I¡¯ve found to watch a ghost-hunting show when you¡¯re a psychic medium is to make a game out of it. Every single show I¡¯ve watched, from the big-budget shows that used to be all over television to the dinky little YouTubers who think that they¡¯re able to catch a ghost while keeping to their dollar store budget, bring out these little trinkets and gadgets that are supposed to help them see ghosts. There are the small things, like the flashlights that are almost certainly broken, but if you untwist them in just the right way, they will sometimes flash at random when you ask a question. And then there are the more expensive ones, like the spirit box and the ovilus. Whenever they bring out something random, you take a shot. Or, if you¡¯re already too wasted, I would recommend taking a shot of water - all of the fun, and none of the blurring the lines between life and death by drinking poison. Because that¡¯s what really happens, you know. When you¡¯re younger, you hear adults cause liquor poison and you roll your eyes because as a kid, you think that if an adult doesn¡¯t want you to have something, they¡¯ll just call it poison to get rid of you. And yeah, sometimes I¡¯ve found that to be true. But the first time I got too drunk and the ghosts started flocking to me because I was one step closer to the underworld, I was so freaked out that I stopped drinking for nearly four years. I took it up again eventually, though. You can¡¯t have a hobby of watching randos on the internet screaming about a light thump that is definitely not a ghost without a little something to loosen you up. Plus, sometimes if I drink just enough, it makes the ghosts on the screen easier to see. I first started seeing ghosts when I was about two years old, or at least that¡¯s what my mom says. Every year around Christmas, my mom retells the story about her darling daughter, Andromeda (I know, don¡¯t hate me, my mom chose that name) came up to her and asked about the old man sitting by the Christmas tree. Of course, she freaked out and ran into the living room, but there was no one there. When she asked me to describe the man, I tried my best, but come on - I was a two year old, and you¡¯re lucky if a two year old can even identify a person correctly, much less describe them. But my mom apparently heard enough of a description to run to the family photo album and find a picture of her deceased grandfather, and my young self identified him. And it was actually him, I found out in my older years. He doesn¡¯t come around very much anymore, but he still comes to visit on Christmas Eve. Last year he was pretty weak, though - it wouldn¡¯t surprise me very much if he faded from this plane soon enough. And some spirits do just that, which is why we don¡¯t have a ton of late 2000s ¡°It¡¯s Britney Bitch¡± ghosts running around anymore. There used to be plenty - trying to navigate high school while running into one of those on occasion was a real trick, especially since the ones I ran into most were the ones I had gone to school with. But I just went back to that school not too long ago for a reunion, and while there are still plenty of ghosts around there, the ones that I knew when I attended that school have all moved on. That¡¯s not to say that everyone becomes a ghost, mind you. Plenty of people die and then just move on, maybe stopping by once or twice, or maybe not stopping by at all. Ultimately, it can be really challenging when it¡¯s somebody that I was hoping to see and they don¡¯t show up again, but I get it. From what I¡¯ve heard, the afterlife is crazy enough without having to worry about the feelings of someone on the other side. When I say that I see ghosts, I don¡¯t mean that I see what they see on ghost-hunting shows, by the way. It¡¯s not all shadows and tricks of the light. They look just like you and I, which can be a little complicated if they are someone newly dead. When they¡¯ve been dead a long time, sometimes their appearance can be a bit¡­.weird. It¡¯s like as time goes on, they don¡¯t remember how people are supposed to look, or maybe it¡¯s just their idea of themselves that gets a little twisted. Either way, when someone has been dead for a while, their facial features can be in a little bit too weird of a spot, or they can be missing them altogether. Sometimes people look a bit like they¡¯re melted. And sometimes they can appear like shadow men, so I guess the ghost-hunting shows got at least one thing right. I assume it¡¯s a pure guess from them, though. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. And sometimes people don¡¯t want to be ghosts forever, and they need someone to help them move on from this world. That¡¯s probably the hardest part of being a medium, in fact - as soon as a spirit realizes that you can see them, some of them will cling to you like crazy until you can solve whatever issue they have. Sometimes they need someone to guide them in how to cross over. Sometimes they need you to talk to someone else or finish a goal of theirs - whatever¡¯s keeping them tied to this plane. And sometimes, it¡¯s just been long enough since they¡¯ve been able to talk to someone that the minute they see someone who can interact with them, they get a little obsessed. One time, when I was in middle school, I had what I lovingly referred to as a ghost stalker for close to six months. It was an elderly woman who just wanted to talk, and she followed me around, all day, every day telling me about her life. I almost failed classes that year, and despite my mom believing that my gift was real, she hardly believed that that was the reason I was flunking my first semester of middle school. But eventually, the old woman got bored of me, because there were only so many things that she could talk to me about, and it¡¯s not like I had a lot going on in my life that an old woman would be interested in either. So one day, I woke up and she was just gone. I don¡¯t know if she finally found her way into the light so to speak, or if she just found someone else to follow around. Either way, I haven¡¯t seen her sense. That was about the time I started dressing like the goth kids in school, too. I wasn¡¯t friends with them (or really anyone else in my school - it¡¯s hard to make friends when you have to continually break off the conversations with them to chat with someone they can¡¯t see), but I found that it made it easier for people to deal with the idea that I was constantly working with the dead. That tradition has stuck with me through all these years, and I swear that¡¯s part of the reason I get some of the contract work I get. The police department or a private eye see a woman dressed all in black with a history of being able to quickly find the information they need, and they stop asking questions fast. All that to explain why I was sipping a large mixed drink in my room in the dead of night, finally taking off my eye makeup while a YouTube video of some idiots trying to find a ghost using dowsing rods played shone from my laptop screen. The rods kept crossing at random as a grizzled-looking man watched from the side of the screen - slightly warped from time, but given the era that he was supposed to be in, not terrible. He wasn¡¯t answering their questions, but he did at least seem to be entertained by them making a fool of themselves. I feel like that¡¯s a pretty common feeling among ghosts when they run across these sorts of people. ¡°Did you see that?¡± screamed one of the men on the screen. Liam, I think? They¡¯re a popular YouTube duo, Luke and Liam of GhostHunters180, but I¡¯ve never been able to tell them apart. Granted, I¡¯ve never really tried. ¡°Grady, do you want us to leave?¡± The drowsing rods crossed again as the grizzled man - I¡¯m assuming Grady - chuckled. Both boys gasped and started talking about how they had to get out of there because they were clearly making the spirit mad. Then it flipped to another room - what must have been their designated safe room. ¡°Another aspect of the Peters Building is the winding staircase, that -¡± Something bright popped over Luke¡¯s shoulder as he talked. I paused the video quickly, trying to get a better view of whatever it was, then scrolled down to the comments. Clearly, it must not have been a living person, because neither Luke nor the comments seemed to react. Whatever it was, it was short - the top of their head was just barely peeking over Luke¡¯s shoulder. I went forward, frame by frame, watching the small object¡¯s movements. Then, the face of a small girl popped out from behind him. I hit play, and Luke started explaining more aspects of the building that I didn¡¯t care about. The small girl looked at him and him only. That¡¯s not that unusual for a spirit that¡¯s trapped in a building when seeing someone new - but while I wasn¡¯t particularly listening to the history of the building, I had heard enough to know that a small child in relatively new clothing would be an odd ghost to inhabit it. Then, the small girl turned to Luke and said, ¡°Luke? I¡¯m scared. Let¡¯s go.¡± Luke didn¡¯t look that way, but his head moved just slightly in that direction, as though he had heard a noise that he couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint. Well, shit, I thought. Either way, I was going to have to investigate it. Chapter 2: Existentialism on Prom Night ¡°And you¡¯re sure that you need to go to this warehouse?¡± my mother¡¯s tinny voice rang through the speaker of the phone as I ran mascara over my eyelashes one last time. ¡°You couldn¡¯t just call them and see if they have the ghost of a small child that lives in the building?¡± ¡°Luke and Liam didn¡¯t mention it in their video, so I¡¯m sure that none of them have noticed anything. You know it¡¯s a rare skill anyway.¡± ¡°It still seems like a long way to go for the potential of finding something. I¡¯m sure Poe will miss you!¡± I sighed, looking over at the black cat sitting next to me on my bathroom vanity, purposely looking in the other direction so that it might seem that he had just accidentally chosen to stay in the same room. I had found him as a kitten in an old, abandoned house that I was cleansing, and when I asked the owner about him, he had said that he¡¯d never seen a cat there before, and he¡¯d better not be there by the time he got back. And so, he came home with me. He proved relatively helpful to have around - he certainly wasn¡¯t the brightest, but one time, I had accidentally brought a spirit back to me that I hadn¡¯t yet noticed, and he didn¡¯t leave me alone until I got the spirit to go into the light. Plus, he was soft and loved to cuddle. ¡°I¡¯m sure he will, but he¡¯s gotten used to me being gone for work. And you know he would love to see grandma for a couple of days.¡± ¡°Well, alright sweetheart.¡± I screwed the top of my mascara into place and started on my black lipstick. ¡°Just make sure you keep the police updated so they don¡¯t think you¡¯re breaking in.¡± ¡°I know. I haven¡¯t gotten caught breaking into anywhere yet!¡± I joked. ¡°And don¡¯t let this be the start. One conviction and I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t be able to get any more jobs with the police.¡± Personally, I highly doubted it, but I wasn¡¯t about to start arguing with her on that point. While I¡¯m sure the police wouldn¡¯t enjoy it if I suddenly had a record for breaking and entering, they only called me when it was their absolutely last option. Record or not, sometimes the only way to get cases solved was to ask the victims, and if they wanted to keep their record for the number of solved cases, they kind of had to deal with me. ¡°I¡¯ll be over tomorrow to take care of him. Stay safe!¡± ¡°I will!¡± I put the last touches on my lips before I hung up the phone, switching quick over to messages. I had heard a few notifications while I was on the phone with my mother, and I was hoping that the owner of the Peter¡¯s building would get back to me, but regardless, it was only a couple of hours drive, and I could definitely get there and check into my hotel before midnight. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I had no new text messages, though. Confused, I checked my notifications and saw I had a new DM on Instagram. I felt my pulse start to race as I waited for the app to load. I had reached out to Luke and Liam¡¯s account on Instagram as one last hail Mary and they happened to have the phone number of the owner of the building, just in case the building hadn¡¯t gotten back to me. I¡¯d done that every time I¡¯d gone on a haunting investigation based of a YouTube video, and I¡¯d never gotten a response back from any of them. Granted, half the time, I didn¡¯t get a response for the building owner, either, and the other half of the time, I had to convince them to let me come in and remove the ghosts. A lot of the time, they don¡¯t actually want their locations to be free from ghostly activity, because then people will stop renting them for ghost hunts, but I always explain that the activity that they¡¯re picking up isn¡¯t actually from the ghosts anyway. Sometimes they believe me and let me in. Other times, they don¡¯t. But this time, Luke and Liam answered. Or, well, whoever probably runs their account answered. ¡°Hey Andromeda! Yes, we did recently post our video from the Peter¡¯s Building. Our actual filming of the location took place at an earlier date, however. I will check with the boys to see if they still have the owner¡¯s contact information, but in the meantime, I am interested in hearing more about what you saw and what your connection to this particular building is. Can you please contact me at the number below at your earliest convenience? Thanks - Caitlin, Account Manager.¡± I nearly dropped my phone when I read the message. Shit. The account manager wanted to know more about what I saw? Aside from my mother, it¡¯s been damned near impossible to get anyone to believe me when I tell them what I see, and now the manager of a famous ghost-hunting group wanted to hear about it? There was no way this was going to end well - there was probably a zero percent chance that she would believe me anyway, and if she did, I¡¯m sure she¡¯d do whatever she could to make sure I stayed quiet about it. After all, there was nothing that would kill the channel¡¯s buzz more than being told that it was all fake. I googled the channel name and Caitlin, hoping that it would bring up something that might prove that she might be a skeptic. After a quick search, there was nothing of the sort that I could see - in fact, it didn¡¯t seem like there were very many pictures of her at all. She was in a couple of pictures along with Luke and Liam at what looked like an award show, but other than that, it looked like she¡¯d mostly kept herself off the radar. I cursed myself silently. I can¡¯t believe I was stupid enough to reach out to the channel - yeah, nothing back had happened up until that point, but there was no way that a channel (especially an award-winning channel, apparently) would want to jeopardize their future over the possibility of saving a spirit. I stared at the picture of the three of them at the awards show. Caitlin looked quite nice - or at the very least, she didn¡¯t look like she¡¯d immediately tear me down if I jeopardized their channel. Or maybe she¡¯d give me enough time for me to explain that I had no interest in jeopardizing anything - even if it was confirmed that the whole this was 100% false, I wasn¡¯t interested in telling anyone that. I just wanted to help out the spirits and find out what was going on with that ghost of a young girl. Fuck it, I thought, as I clicked the button to make the call. She had my name and could probably find me anyway if she really wanted to. I may just be speeding up my own destruction, but at least I¡¯d go out trying my best to help. Chapter 3: The Middle The phone barely rang once before the other side of the line clicked and I heard a chipper voice say ¡°Hello, Ghosthunter180, this is Caitlin?¡± I gulped as quietly as I could, trying to calm my nerves but ultimately failing at it. So instead, I took a breath that was probably a beat too long and said ¡°Hi Caitlin, this is Andromeda Meadows. You had asked me to call you when I got a chance?¡± ¡°Hi Andromeda! So sorry it¡¯s been a crazy busy week. Any chance you can refresh me on what we needed to talk about?¡± Right, I thought - this conversation was going to be just as fun as I thought it was going to be. ¡°I had messaged you about the Peter¡¯s Building in the hopes that you would have the contact information for the owners?¡± ¡°Oh, right, you¡¯re the one who saw something, right?¡± I hummed my agreement. ¡°Excellent! I just wanted to know what you saw, because I was one of the people helping to edit that video, so I¡¯ve been through that footage so many times. I didn¡¯t see anything in addition to the things that we have pointed out on screen, but there¡¯s always the chance that one of us editors missed something, so if we have to make some quick edits, we should be able to at least put in some notes. So, what did you see?¡± Caitlin sounded a lot younger than I was expecting the manager of a YouTube channel to be. I was around 27, and from what I¡¯d gathered from watching Luke and Liam¡¯s channel over the years, they seemed to be around my same age. Caitlin, though, sounded like someone just out of high school, who¡¯d moved straight from class into managing the account. But at least on the plus side, it didn¡¯t sound like she was too angry with me yet, I thought. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not something that you¡¯ll actually be able to add to the video,¡± I started slowly. ¡°You see, I¡¯m a psychic, so I see things that other people don¡¯t see. I don¡¯t always know what other people can and can¡¯t see, but if you didn¡¯t notice it, then I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s just a me thing. It was pretty bright - you would have definitely seen it if you could.¡± ¡°Oh, so this is one of those things,¡± Caitlin said, her voice instantly frosting over, and I mentally cursed. This always happened, and I always questioned why I even bothered trying to explain my condition to people. Sometimes they believed me in the long run, but most of the time they didn¡¯t, and either way, it drastically changed what they thought of me. ¡°So, are you trying to get us to take the video down?¡± I started. ¡°No! Wait, is that something that psychics say a lot?¡± ¡°Some people who claim to be psychics do, yeah. We have to take the video down because the ghosts don¡¯t want to be in it.¡± I couldn¡¯t help myself, I laughed slightly at the thought. ¡°Well if it helps, I don¡¯t care at all whether the ghosts want to be in the video. I don¡¯t think the ghosts even understand what a video is unless they¡¯re recently deceased, but Grady at least sure wasn¡¯t.¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°See, that¡¯s what I¡¯ve always said too!¡± she said, her voice sounding a tad brighter again. ¡°But shit, you actually saw Grady?¡± ¡°Well, I saw what was left of him,¡± I answered. ¡°He¡¯s honestly not too bad for the amount of time that he¡¯s been dead. He¡¯s got a little bit of distortion, but considering the time frame, I¡¯m honestly just impressed that I can still even see his beard.¡± ¡°I¡¯m impressed! When in the video did you see him?¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have exact timestamps at the moment,¡± I said, feeling a blush rise to my cheeks, making me glad that we weren¡¯t having this conversation in person. Yeah, it was harder to call my gifts bullshit when we¡¯re in person, but there¡¯s always something so awkward about people trying. ¡°Frankly, he was in most of it. Not like he was in every scene or anything, but he was definitely following Luke and Liam around. Especially Liam.¡± She laughed, and I felt the stress melt out of my shoulders for at least a moment. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve always joked about Liam being a conduit for this sort of thing. Is he the one you saw something by?¡± ¡°No, actually, although I¡¯ve watched a few videos and I would agree - it seems like the ghosts tend to follow him around more. But this was actually following Luke. And it wasn¡¯t Grady - I saw a small girl peeking out from behind his back.¡± ¡°A girl?¡± Caitlin asked. ¡°That¡¯s pretty weird. I don¡¯t think there is reported to be a young girl haunting that building.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s why I¡¯m looking to get into the building. I read up on the history of the building, and I didn¡¯t see anything about a young girl being there. I¡¯m worried about her being trapped and completely unknown. When spirits are interacted with, it can help them keep their form. If they¡¯re unknown, they can distort so badly that there¡¯s no moving on for them. If they get to that point, they¡¯re essentially shadow men, and there¡¯s no much that even I can do for them at that point.¡± Caitlin stayed quiet for a moment, then let out a low, slow whistle. ¡°You seem like you actually know a lot about this. How long have you been telling people that you see ghosts.¡± ¡°My entire life as far as I can remember, although I try my best not to tell people if I can help it. For some reason, people get really touchy if they think you can talk to their deceased loved ones, so I really only try to do it if someone¡¯s relative is insistent that I talk to them.¡± ¡°And you really believe you can see them?¡± ¡°I know I can see them. It¡¯s trying to get other people to listen to me that can be the problem. But it¡¯s helped solve a few high-profile cases around here, so it¡¯s easier to explain than it used to be.¡± ¡°Then in that case, I¡¯ve got a bit of a proposition for you. I know you want to get into the Peter¡¯s Building, and I can certainly make that happen easier than you can. But we¡¯ve been looking for a psychic to come on the show for quite a while. It doesn¡¯t have to be anything long-term or anything,¡± she added quickly, as though she was sure I was going to reject her offer before she got a second to get it all out, ¡°but we think if there was actually someone there who could see and interact with the ghosts, it would add a sense of legitimacy to our channel that other channels don¡¯t have. All you¡¯d have to do is talk to a couple of ghosts and maybe help with some of the explanation for the history. Not for the Peter¡¯s Building, of course - we could do that as a part two for the original video if we can get that filmed quickly,¡± she started, obviously talking more to herself than to me at this point, ¡°but if we could explain that you were there because you can see Grady, that might add even more legitimacy to it.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind chatting with Grady,¡± I interrupted before she planned a whole season with me on, ¡°but I can¡¯t guarantee that he¡¯ll be willing to talk to me.¡± ¡°Well, if he doesn¡¯t, then we¡¯ll just show you pointing in his direction and Luke and Lia reacting to it. If they say you¡¯re legitimate, you won¡¯t have to explain much of anything - the audience will already be on your side regardless. So, if you¡¯re down, I¡¯ll call the owner of the Peter¡¯s Building and get us rebooked. I¡¯ll even get your flight and hotel room arranged. What do you say?¡± Well, I thought, this might not have been exactly what I was trying to do, but at least it would get me into the Peter¡¯s Building. If I have to go around with a couple of bumbling idiots to do it, so be it. Maybe a demonstration of my skills will get me some additional work anyway. ¡°You tell me when, and I¡¯ll be there.¡± Chapter 4: Dance, Dance Caitlin was nothing if not quick - we got off the phone not long after I agreed to join them, and within two hours, I had a message saying that I had a flight to Orlando the next week. From there, I¡¯d meet Caitlin and the boys at the hotel to go over the paperwork before we headed to the building. When I got off the plane, I wasn¡¯t expecting a driver to be holding a sign with my name, but it seemed the boys didn¡¯t do anything half-heartedly. Even the hotel was one of the fanciest places I¡¯d ever stayed. The driver pulled the black sedan up to the door, where a cheery woman in a burnt orange sweater and jeans stood waiting to greet me. The driver opened my door and I stepped out, the woman already reaching out to shake my hand. ¡°You must be Andromeda!¡± the woman I assumed was Caitlin said, shaking my hand aggressively. ¡°I love your look! I hadn¡¯t pictured you as a goth when we first talked, but I¡¯m sure the boys will be excited to find someone who fits the vibe. We had another woman on who claimed to be psychic at one point, but she didn¡¯t look the part, and quite frankly, the audience picked her apart until she broke down and admitted that she was a fraud.¡± ¡°Is that something I should be nervous about?¡± I asked, following her into the lobby of the hotel that was covered in marble. The driver walked close behind us, rolling my suitcase behind him. ¡°Is your audience that bad to people?¡± ¡°Oh no, we would never say anything like that about them, they might hear us,¡± she said turning around to lightly wink at me. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was joking about them hearing us, or if she was silently admitting that their audience was intense, but for some reason, I still followed. ¡°Now, I will say that our audience is very¡­ passionate. If they think someone is lying to them, they will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it. So, as long as you don¡¯t lie to them, you shouldn¡¯t have that problem.¡± She led me to a small meeting room off to the side of the hotel lobby. The marble floor extended into the room, but the rest of the area was much more modern than the rest of the hotel lobby, with a glass meeting table surrounded by office chairs. In the far corner of the table sat a pile of papers that looked like they had been abandoned seconds before. ¡°I will also say,¡± she began the minute the door fully closed, as she took her seat by the mess of papers, ¡°that they are admittedly more passionate when they think that someone is romantically interested in either Luke or Liam, and they seem to think that every unmarried woman who comes on the show is interested. You don¡¯t happen to be married, do you?¡± I pulled out a chair and sat down next to her. ¡°Nope, not married, but also not particularly interested in either of them.¡± ¡°Well, hopefully the audience will be able to see that.¡± She muttered to herself as she shuffled through the papers, finally pulling one out. ¡°Ahh, our contract for the Peter¡¯s Building - you¡¯ll all have to sign it before you can enter, just states that they¡¯re not liable if you fall and injure yourself, or if you get possessed by one of the ghosts of the building.¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I raised my eyebrows and she shrugged, so I read through the document quickly, and it was just as she said. ¡°They¡¯re really playing up the haunted aspect of this, aren¡¯t they?¡± I said, gesturing for a pen. She passed one over and I signed the document. ¡°I¡¯ve been dealing with ghosts for my entire life, and I¡¯ve never seen anyone actually be possessed before.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Her voice was shocked, and when I looked up, she was staring at my curiously. ¡°I can personally guarantee that between Luke or Liam, they¡¯ve been possessed at least five times!¡± It was hard to keep myself from rolling my eyes, but somehow I managed. ¡°I must not have seen those episodes, then.¡± ¡°Oh, we would never show it,¡± she said, composing herself as she started to shift through the papers again. ¡°Something like that would be far too sensitive for our viewers - they want to know that Luke and Liam are the two that are with them the whole time, not some random spirit possessing their bodies. There¡¯s nothing the YouTube audience looks for more than they look for authenticity.¡± ¡°Well, if they get possessed while I¡¯m there, at least I¡¯ll be able to take care of them.¡± I passed the paper back to her and she passed me a new one. ¡°This one¡¯s a confidentiality clause, stating that you won¡¯t tell anyone what happens on these shoots until the video is actually posted. After that time, you are able to discuss what happens at the building before, during, and after the shoot, but you are still not allowed to discuss our business proceedings. And yes,¡± she said, lightly clearing her throat, ¡°if they get possessed and you¡¯re able to detect it, you might be able to help. Last time, they needed to go to a witch to get the possession removed. It was ultimately one of our highest-viewed videos, so if you were able to remove a possession, I assume it would go equally as well for all of us, and we could easily continue the series.¡± ¡°Continue the series?¡± I asked, handing the signed paper back to her. ¡°Are you planning on me becoming a regular or something?¡± ¡°Consent to appear on video,¡± she said, handing me another form. ¡°That¡¯s the last one, I promise. And that depends on how you screen test. If our audience likes you, it only makes sense to have you back for more episodes. If they are crazy about you, I talked to the boys and they would be accepting of having you become a regular, so long as you pass their vibe check. Of course, if the audience doesn¡¯t like you and the video completely tanks, then this will be a one-time thing. I hope not, though,¡± she said with a light laugh. ¡°I could use another woman around here. Sometimes the bro energy can get to be a bit much, even for me.¡± ¡°Yeah, that is the part that I¡¯m admittedly not looking forward to. I¡¯ve never been much for bro culture, so it might be fun interacting with that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t believe everything that Caitlin says about us,¡± said a male voice from behind me. A chill ran down my spine as I jumped around to see two men about my age standing behind me. One was blonde with blue eyes, wearing a worn baseball cap, t-shirt, and jeans. The other was brunette, slightly taller, with a five o¡¯clock shadow and an all-black outfit. Unlike his reasonable conservative friend, I could see the swirls of tattoos creeping out of the collar on his shirt, and he looked to have almost as many piercings as I did. It was the blonde who was talking, while the brunette had a shit-eating grin on his face, as though he¡¯d just caught me in the middle of acting out. ¡°She¡¯s practically our sister at this point, so I think it¡¯s in her contract that she has to hate us.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t hate you,¡± Caitlin started, but she was quickly interrupted by the brunette. ¡°Come on, Cait, you don¡¯t want to start out this beautiful relationship by lying to this fine lady, do you?¡± He reached his hand out to me and after a heartbeat, I grabbed it and gave it a firm shake. Somehow, his smile seemed to grow even wider. ¡°Nice to meet you. I¡¯m Liam.¡± ¡°And I¡¯m Luke,¡± said the blonde, grabbing my hand afterward. ¡°And you must be our psychic.¡± Chapter 5: The Taste of Ink ¡°I didn¡¯t tell you that she was definitely a psychic,¡± Caitlin complained as the men crossed to the other side of the table and lazily took spots on the opposite side of me. ¡°I said that she claimed to be a psychic, and a lot of people claim a lot of things. But she did say that she saw Grady, and her description is markedly similar to the description that they gave us when we walked into the Peters Building.¡± ¡°Ahh.¡± Liam leaned over the table toward me, the same grin staying on his face - I had seen enough of their videos to know that it wasn¡¯t a permanent fixture, but I was honestly starting to wonder if it was more prominent than I thought. ¡°So either you can see ghosts through a screen, or you have the remarkable ability to Google things.¡± ¡°Forgive us,¡± Luke interrupted, ¡°but after the last proclaimed psychic ended up being fake, we¡¯ve gotten to be a little bit skeptical. You don¡¯t mind if we test you a bit before we officially take you on, do you?¡± I nodded. ¡°Caitlin was already telling me about the screen testing for the audience.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not exactly what we meant,¡± he continued, pulling a folded lump of papers from his pocket. From my other side, Caitlin sighed loudly. ¡°Guys, you promised you wouldn¡¯t do this again.¡± ¡°And you promised that the last psychic you brought in could see ghosts.¡± ¡°And the future,¡± Liam cut in, raising his eyebrows at me. ¡°And the future,¡± amended Luke. ¡°This time, we just want to make sure, because if we keep bringing in fake psychics, eventually our audience is going to start to think we¡¯re doing it on purpose to trick them, and I don¡¯t want a hoard of angry teens on our doorstep.¡± He unfolded the papers and handed them to me. The top was a bad printout of a famous ghost image - the white mist of a purported ghost on a shadowy staircase. ¡°Can you see that?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t this one of the most famous ghost photos of all time?¡± I asked, trying to figure out what the catch could possibly be. ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain everyone can see it, or else it wouldn¡¯t be famous.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what we thought, too,¡± Liam said, reaching over to point at a mildly more shadowy part of the staircase. ¡°But the last two mediums we talked to insisted that there was a second ghost in the photo that we couldn¡¯t see.¡± I picked up the paper and investigated it closer. As far as I could tell, there was nothing but shadow in that corner. If I squinted just right, I might be able to make out a face in the warping of the old photograph, but that didn¡¯t make it a ghost. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re seeing something I¡¯m not,¡± I said, handing the picture back to him, ¡°but to me, that just looks like a staircase.¡± Luke and Liam looked at each other. From the slight arching of Liam¡¯s eyebrow, I could tell they were silently talking to each other in the way that friends could when they¡¯d been around each other for years. Not that I¡¯d experienced that myself, mind you - because of being the weird kid in the school who was always seeing spirits, I never had anyone that I¡¯d gotten that close to, but I¡¯d seen it happen in front of my eyes time and time again. Turning back to me, Luke took a second picture from the stack of papers. ¡°And how about this one?¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I looked into the image of a dark hallway. At least this one was a lesser known picture, but to me, it just looked like a stock image of a place they were trying to make look creepy. ¡°Nothing in this one either,¡± I said, handing it back. ¡°Really?¡± Luke asked, the confident expression he had just had sliding off his face in a heartbeat. ¡°I was sure we captured something at that hospital.¡± He held the picture up to the light and looked at it closely himself for a minute, then sat it back in front of me. ¡°Not even there?¡± He pointed to a shadow that was admittedly an odd shape, but didn¡¯t seem particularly human. I sighed - if I was going to have to fight them about every piece of evidence, I had to wonder if this was actually a viable way to get into the Peters Building, or if I would be better off just trying to sneak in at night. ¡°It¡¯s an interesting shadow, but there¡¯s nothing that makes me think that it might be a ghost,¡± I said, passing the paper back to him again. ¡°If there was actually a ghost in that photo, you wouldn¡¯t have to try so hard to see it.¡± Luke nodded slowly, still looking somewhat unconvinced, but he took the photo away and handed one more back to me. ¡°And this one?¡± I picked up the paper to find what must have been a still from the Peters Building, although the frame was selected in such a way that it was impossible to see anything other than a small bit of a wall and Liam¡¯s face. I recognized the area immediately, though, because Grady was standing right behind him. I tapped my finger on Grady¡¯s face and passed it back to them. ¡°I don¡¯t remember seeing that frame in the video, but that was probably as close as Grady got to him,¡± I said, pointing toward Liam. ¡°From what I could tell, he didn¡¯t like your vibe, but he seemed to prefer Luke¡¯s. Odd that he would have been standing right beside you, then, but you must have been doing something interesting enough for him to want to watch.¡± Luke and Liam nonverbally spoke again for a minute before Liam turned to lock eyes with me. ¡°How did you know that was the Peters Building?¡± I shrugged. ¡°I didn¡¯t, but since Grady¡¯s in it, I assumed that it had to be. He¡¯s been locked to the building for this long, I doubt he¡¯s about to start leaving any time soon.¡± Liam nodded, his face turning a very light shade of green. ¡°I took this picture in the middle of set up,¡± he started to explain. ¡°We hadn¡¯t really done anything with the building yet, but when I was setting up a static cam, I could have sworn I felt something brush the back of my neck. I took this picture, but I didn¡¯t see anything. Do you think Grady touched me?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Maybe, but probably not.¡± At that light reassurance, the color started to immediately come back into his face. ¡°Most spirits don¡¯t have the ability to touch people, after all. They could maybe cause a light breeze on the back of your neck, but in my opinion, it¡¯s more likely that you¡¯re just a bit sensitive yourself, and you managed to pick up on the fact that he was there.¡± Luke started nodding instantly at that. ¡°I¡¯ve always said that out of the two of us, Liam is more sensitive to spirits. Spirits seems to get more attached to me, but he¡¯s the one who¡¯ll notice them.¡± ¡°Ahh, yeah,¡± I started, clearing my throat. ¡°Is it true that you think you get possessed a lot?¡± Liam, now nearly back to his original skin color, nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not full possession, like I¡¯m sure you¡¯re thinking, though,¡± he answered. ¡°Really it¡¯s more like we start thinking and feeling like the ghosts around us. It¡¯s not that they¡¯ve taken over our bodies, but that we¡¯re starting to become them in a way. It¡¯s this really weird thing that we¡¯ve noticed in haunted locations.¡± ¡°Mmmhmm,¡± I hummed. ¡°And, not to be offensive or anything, but have you ever considered that this might be happening to you because you are in the space, thinking about what they might have been thinking about at the time, instead of it being an actual possession?¡± For a heartbeat, they just stared at me, and I was worried that I had offended them, but then they both started laughing. ¡°I honestly have considered just that,¡± Luke finally managed to get out, ¡°but that makes a terrible story, so we¡¯re going to stick to possession instead. If you stick around, you¡¯ll have to learn that sometimes, the story is better if you don¡¯t question it too much. But Cait,¡± he said, focusing his direction back on her. Caitlin had been visibly checked out of the conversation, slumped in her chair and checking her nails, but she shot straight up immediately, ¡°I think we¡¯ll all get along great. Great find!¡± ¡°Thanks!¡± she responded, beaming. ¡°In that case, Andromeda, please let me see you to your room. The boys have a tradition of doing some last-minute research the night before, and we don¡¯t want to ruin the authenticity by having you know about the haunting ahead of time. Even if, in this case, it might already be ruined because you saw the video.¡± She seemed to think about it for a moment, then shrugged. ¡°They¡¯ll get over it this once, if we show them what your real power is.¡± Caitlin led me down the marbled floors and to one of the large rooms on the first floor. ¡°Just take it easy tonight,¡± she said as she started to close the door behind me. ¡°We¡¯ll want you well rested and ready to play tomorrow.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but feel like she was being purposefully ominous, but as I grabbed my pajamas out of my suitcase, I decided that, at that moment, I didn¡¯t really care. This was still the nicest vacation I was probably every going to be able to go on, so I might as well enjoy it. Chapter 6: Hear You Me I managed to rest until almost two in the morning, at which point I was startled awake by a huge crash. I sat up in bed immediately, looking around for the source of the sound - in my tired state, I immediately thought that Poe had knocked something large off my nightstand. As it turned out, that wasn¡¯t all that far from the truth, as the slightly distorted spirit of a man in his late 50s stood at the side of my bed. How he had managed to make the noise, I wasn¡¯t sure, as nothing appeared to be out of place, but his intense stare let me know that he was the one who was demanding my attention. ¡°Well, good morning,¡± I grumbled. The man just stared at me, as though he wasn¡¯t sure I was real. That was something I was used to - especially if a spirit had been around for quite a while, sometimes they had a hard time discerning that someone was actually talking to them, so I pulled off the covers and walked over to the couch on the other side of the room. ¡°I¡¯m sure this must be a lot for you,¡± I started, ¡°but if you need any help crossing over, or even if you just want to talk through something, then I¡¯m here for you. I would like to get some sleep tonight, however, so I will stay up for¡­¡± I glazed at my phone - 2:00 AM, which meant that I¡¯d technically been asleep for around 3 hours, but it felt like I¡¯d just barely closed my eyes. At least if this interruption kept me up for a while, I might actually sleep in, which might make the investigation easier later in the night. While I didn¡¯t particularly have any qualms about nodding off around a bunch of ghosts, it wouldn¡¯t look great for the YouTube audience. Plus, it can¡¯t be great for your health to lie down in a pile of dust from the 70s. ¡°Let¡¯s go with an hour. If you have anything you want to tell me, you can say it before then, or you can tell me in the morning.¡± The old man just stared at me, so I stared back at him. His eyes were slightly bulging out of their sockets, and if I looked closely enough at his neck, I could just barely see a light shadow around it. Must not have been a peaceful death, then. For ghosts, whether or not you can see the signs of death can be a big indicator of what¡¯s keeping them tied to this plane. As far as I could tell (because for some reason, I¡¯ve never taken the time to ask a spirit - usually I¡¯m too busy trying to figure out what they need to move on to ask them any other questions), ghosts can choose how they want to present themselves, at least for the most part. They can choose whether they want to look like themselves at the moment of death, when they were young, or even in a presentation that doesn¡¯t really look how they looked when they were alive. As far as I¡¯m aware, the only thing they can¡¯t control is the eventual distortion they take on. Granted, I¡¯m not even sure if that is an actual rule - it¡¯s possible that by that point, they¡¯ve been away from this plane of existence for so long that they just forget what they look like as a person. ¡°You know, a lot of spirits have been in your position at one point or another.¡± I stood up from the couch and walked to the tiny kitchenette area. If I wasn¡¯t going to be going to bed anytime soon (and judging by the ghost¡¯s reaction every time he heard me talk, I wasn¡¯t going to be going to bed for quite a while yet - probably even longer than the hour I promised, if he ultimately started to talk), so I might as well make myself a cup of tea. I popped a coffee mug into the microwave and started selecting my tea from the surprisingly large amount of tea packets they had available. ¡°Lost, stuck, trying to figure out how to get yourself out of this place. If there¡¯s something that¡¯s keeping you tied here, I¡¯d be happy to help, but I can¡¯t help if I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m trying to help with.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The old man made a slight groaning noise and I raised my eyebrows. Making noise of any sort was impressively quick for anyone who hadn¡¯t been able to speak at all. Maybe I wasn¡¯t going to have to stay up half the night after all. ¡°I¡¯m more than willing to help you if you -¡± I nearly jumped out of my skin at the knock on the door. I looked at the ghost, just to make sure he wasn¡¯t accelerating at an astounding pace, but he didn¡¯t seem to have noticed the sound at all. The knock sounded again, and I turned toward the door of the hotel room. I guess it wasn¡¯t too late, I thought - a lot of people were in bed by 2 AM, but maybe this was another part of working with ghost hunters that I hadn¡¯t thought about. Caitlin hadn¡¯t said anything about my needing to be awake in the middle of the night, but the longer I was here, the more it felt like she hadn¡¯t told me much about the job at all. I looked through the peephole to see Liam standing there. His arms were crossed, and his expression was a lot more serious than it had been earlier that day. It was that change that made me open the door for him - I thought something must have shocked him out of his jovial mood. ¡°Liam?¡± I asked, cracking the door open. ¡°It¡¯s 2 in the morning.¡± ¡°And yet I heard you talking through the wall. I seem to have gotten the room next to you,¡± he said, pointing with his thumb to the room on the right. ¡°You sounded serious, so I just wanted to make sure there was nothing going on.¡± The ghost of the old man was clearly not happy that I was taking my attention off of him. As Liam spoke, I heard the light rattle of some of the other coffee cups in the cupboard clinking against each other. If he wasn¡¯t careful, he was going to knock one of them off, and then I¡¯d have to pay for the damages. Well, I guess technically the Luke and Liam account was going to be paying for the damages, but I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they forwarded that cost on. I looked over at the ghost, trying my best to give him an ¡°in a minute¡± look, which didn¡¯t work to satisfy him at all. ¡°Is there someone in there with you?¡± Liam asked, trying to poke his head in the door. I sighed and opened the door to let him in - I know they had talked about him being a bit gifted with ghosts, but unless he could fully see them, there wasn¡¯t much for him in my room anyway. ¡°Man, I didn¡¯t know Luke worked that fast.¡± The joke died on his lips as he saw that I was indeed alone in my room, and he turned to me quizzically. I figured the best answer would be the truth, so I just shrugged my shoulders and nodded slightly in the direction of the old man who still had his hands in my cupboards. ¡°There¡¯s a ghost in here.¡± ¡°No shit?¡± Liam asked. I was expecting him not to believe me, especially after this afternoon, but he sounded instantly interesting. ¡°Where is it?¡± ¡°Over in my cupboards,¡± I said with a sigh. ¡°He was mad that I was talking with someone else rather than giving him attention, so he¡¯s threatening the glassware.¡± ¡°No shit,¡± he said again, with his voice full of amazement. He walked over to the cupboards and opened them up. ¡°So he¡¯s right in here?¡± ¡°Er, no. You¡¯re kind of standing on top of him.¡± He jumped back, looking around in the general direction of the old man, but clearly not seeing anything. ¡°Shit, if this is true, we¡¯ve got to start recording right here, right now. Depending on how the Peters Building goes, this might be the best evidence we¡¯ve got. You promise you¡¯re not making stuff up?¡± ¡°I promise,¡± I said, but the ghostly man lightly knocked the cups again, and this time Liam was close enough to hear the movement. His jaw dropped as he stared into the cupboard. ¡°Shit,¡± he said again, and I started to wonder if his language was just because he was actually experiencing something for the first time, or if they just did a great job of editing. ¡°We have to get Luke in here, right fucking now.¡± Chapter 7: If It Means a Lot to You Less than ten minutes later, a groggy Luke was also in my room, as he and Liam frantically set up a bunch of cameras to look at my cupboard. I tried to tell them that the ghost was no longer there - he was still in the room, but he was much more interested in watching Luke and Liam than getting my attention - but it was to no avail. Ultimately, it didn¡¯t matter to me whether they caught the ghost on film or not. It just mattered to me whether I¡¯d actually get to sleep that night. ¡°So it was right here,¡± Liam explained to Luke for what already seemed like the tenth time. ¡°I was standing right here because Andromeda said the ghost was standing right here, and then I heard these glasses start to clink together.¡± ¡°It¡¯s because he had his hands in the cupboard, trying to get my attention,¡± I explained again. ¡°It won¡¯t happen now, though, because now he¡¯s over by the bed.¡± ¡°But you can get him to do it again, right?¡± Liam asked excitedly. ¡°Um, maybe? I can ask, but it¡¯s not like I can make him do anything.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like we¡¯ve got the fucking ghost whisperer on our team,¡± Luke enthused. ¡°This is fucking epic!¡± ¡°He can hear you too, you know,¡± I said, rolling my eyes. The ghost didn¡¯t particularly seem to mind either way. ¡°Shit, I guess that means we¡¯re ghost whisperers too,¡± he said, adjusting one last light, then stepping away to view his handiwork. From what Liam had said when the two of them started hauling bags into my room, this was nowhere near the largest setup they could get, but it still took up a vast majority of the room. I couldn¡¯t imagine how long the full setup would take. Considering I had no experience with it, I could only hope they wouldn¡¯t make me help with it. ¡°Do you have a name or anything? That¡¯d make it easier to talk with him.¡± I shook my head. ¡°He hasn¡¯t actually said anything since he got here. We were working toward it, but with this,¡± I gestured toward the equipment, ¡°I¡¯m guessing it won¡¯t help much.¡± Liam nodded, clearly deep in thought. ¡°So an unknown spirit, potentially just passing through but trying to make contact? Can we assume anything else that we might use for the story?¡± ¡°Probably died in the hotel?¡± I added. My eyes flicked over the the old man, but he didn¡¯t respond to the assumption. ¡°Sometimes spirits will return to areas that meant a lot to them, but it¡¯s not the most common, especially in a place like this.¡± ¡°If I died around here, I¡¯d think about coming back,¡± Luke joked. ¡°It¡¯s a nice hotel, and it¡¯s gotta be better than a lot of the places in Florida.¡± He flipped a switch, filling up the cupboard area with such bright light that I would have thought that filming would be impossible. ¡°And we¡¯re rolling!¡± he said, pushing a button on the camera. ¡°If you could convince the ghost to move those cups again, that¡¯d be great.¡± I turned toward the ghost, but he was busy looking at the screen of the camera. ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯s very interested in cooperating with your shoot,¡± I said. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± Liam said, lightly grabbing my arm and pulling me toward the filming area. ¡°We need to get an intro for you, anyway. The sooner, the better, so we can leak a scene to TikTok to test it.¡± I pulled my arm from his grip. ¡°I¡¯m in my pajamas!¡± ¡°You¡¯re in a black t-shirt, and I guarantee that nobody is going to think anything about it.¡± ¡°And I don¡¯t have my makeup on!¡± Liam looked at my face, as though just realizing that for the first time. He frowned slightly, as if contemplating his options. ¡°Honestly, I wonder if our audience would prefer it if we didn¡¯t have you in makeup for the first introduction. What do you think, Luke?¡± He nodded vigorously. ¡°It¡¯ll seem more authentic, and we can lean into the whole ¡®you were woken up in the middle of a night by a ghost¡¯ aesthetic.¡± ¡°That¡¯s literally what happened,¡± I said, crossing my arms. ¡°And that¡¯s why we want them to believe that,¡± he argued back. ¡°If you come on in a full face of makeup, at least the women viewers won¡¯t believe that it¡¯s authentic, and if you look at the analytics, our audience is mostly women between the ages of 13 and 30. They¡¯ll want you to be you, and then when we do the actual all-night shoot, you¡¯ll have plenty of time to get your makeup just right.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± I sighed. Ultimately, I reminded myself, it didn¡¯t really matter if their audience liked me, so long as I found out more about that little girl I saw in the background of the Peters Building video. ¡°But I want it noted that I don¡¯t like it.¡± Liam laughed lightly, then jumped in front of the camera. His face immediately lit up as he went into performance mode. ¡°What¡¯s up, everyone?¡± he started. ¡°It¡¯s Luke and Liam, and we¡¯re coming to you straight from the hotel we¡¯re staying in. These cups behind us have been rattling all night, so we¡¯re going to try to catch them on camera. In the meantime, though, we wanted to introduce you to our new special guest. Everybody give it up for Andi!¡± Luke clapped off to the side, and I stepped forward into the line of the camera. ¡°Andi? It¡¯s Andromeda.¡± Liam gave me a huge smile. ¡°Andi sounds better. So Andi here,¡± he turned his attention back to the camera, ¡°has been seeing ghosts forever, isn¡¯t that right?¡± ¡°Andromeda,¡± I corrected. ¡°But yes, I¡¯ve been seeing ghosts since I was at least two years old. It might have been before that, but it¡¯s hard to tell since I couldn¡¯t talk.¡± Liam laughed a hollow tinny laugh that sounded particularly fake. ¡°And you came to us because you saw a ghost in the background of our videos, right?¡± I nodded. ¡°When you went to the Peters Building, I saw Grady in the background of your video, yeah.¡± ¡°And now,¡± Liam said, ramping himself up to an announcement voice, ¡°you¡¯re going to have the chance to see him again, because we¡¯re going back to the Peters Building!¡± Luke jumped into frame behind the two of us. ¡°And this time, there¡¯ll be even more ghosts! And with your help, we¡¯ll be able to catch them all and prove to the world that ghosts are real!¡± ¡°Keep your eyes peeled for the most conclusive evidence you¡¯ve ever seen in our next video for GhostHunter 180!¡± ¡°Flipping the script on ghost hunting!¡± Both Luke and Liam finished their catchphrase and then froze for a moment. Then, Luke continued, ¡°and now we¡¯ve got our screenshot for the intro video, so we should be good on that. We can add some makeup to you in post for the image if you want - Caitlin¡¯s done that for herself before and she¡¯s pretty good at it. And now, we¡¯re just going to let the film run throughout the night and we¡¯ll see tomorrow morning if the ghost has moved anything else in the cupboard.¡± I looked at the giant lights that were now filling up my hotel room. ¡°So I¡¯m just supposed to sleep in essentially broad daylight?¡± I asked. ¡°No, of course not!¡± Liam said. ¡°We¡¯ll make sure to set up the night vision before we leave. Unless you want to sleep in my room with me.¡± He said with a sly smile. ¡°Dude, quit flirting with every woman we have on the show,¡± Luke said, lightly elbowing him in the ribs. Liam grunted and put his hand over his ribs, but the smile didn¡¯t leave his face. ¡°I¡¯ll have you know that I haven¡¯t flirted with Caitlin for almost a year,¡± he insisted. ¡°Yet,¡± Luke said, rolling his eyes. ¡°We just got an official psychic on the channel. Don¡¯t mess this up for us before we even see the audience''s reaction.¡± Liam did a phony salute before he turned off the spotlights and messed with a couple of settings on the camera. At least I wasn¡¯t going to have to deal with that. Chapter 8: ??? The room was so silent that even my breaths echoed through the darkness. There was no light - I couldn¡¯t see my own hand in front of my face, not that I tried. I hadn¡¯t been sitting down, had I? It was odd to fall asleep when one is sitting down, but it¡¯s not unheard of, I suppose. I struggled to pull myself to my feet, but it was as though I were glued to the chair I was sitting on. The tension in my legs strained, but it did no good, as not even the fabric on my pajamas moved. Had I somehow become paralyzed during the night? No, that couldn¡¯t be, it made absolutely no sense. ¡°Mine,¡± rang a sharp falsetto voice. I immediately started looking around, forgetting momentarily that I couldnt¡¯ see. ¡°What¡¯s yours?¡± I barely breathed. Even my arms remained as if glued to the back of the chair - the only body part I was able to move was my head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry if I took something that wasn¡¯t yours.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Leave him alone!¡± the voice hissed, closer than before, though I heard no movement. ¡°Leave who alone?¡± I asked. I pulled in a deep breath through my nose, then sharply released it through my mouth - something I¡¯d been taught to do as a small child when my work got too scary for me. Smell the roses, blow out the birthday candles, and repeat until your panic attack subsides. ¡°Leave him alone,¡± the voice whispered, now just over my shoulder. Slowly, as though it knew it was playing with me, I felt one sharp hand drag its way up my arm, resting on my shoulder. If it had been a different situation, I would have almost called the gesture maternal, but I couldn¡¯t keep myself from flinching away. ¡°I can¡¯t leave him alone unless you tell me who we¡¯re talking about,¡± I said. The hand on my shoulder gripped tighter, the sharp ends of its fingers digging into my flesh. I took another deep breath, trying hard not to notice just how sharp they were, or what felt like a slight drizzle of blood that had started drizzling down my arm. ¡°Leave him alone,¡± the voice said again, squeezing my shoulder tighter for a moment before suddenly releasing it. ¡°He¡¯s mine,¡± it said again, but then the darkness closed back in, and the only sound around me was the sound of my own heartbeat. Chapter 9: MakeDamnSure I sat up in bed, drenched in sweat. I couldn¡¯t remember going to bed, but obviously I must have. The last thing I remembered was talking to Luke and Liam about the ghost in my room - the old man who had disappeared when he seemingly got bored watching the two of them mess around with small dials on the equipment. Whatever had just happened to me couldn¡¯t have been him, I thought. The man had definitely been a little bit warped, and he hadn¡¯t been overly friendly, but there was nothing about him that insinuated that he could be at all violent to anyone other than himself. Shit, I thought, pulling off my t-shirt so I could better see the marks that had been left by the ghost. My shoulder looked perfectly fine, though, and when I rolled my arm around to test the socket, there was no pain at all. My mother always told me that the scary people in the middle of the night were just nightmares made up by my own mind, but I never believed her. When you see ghosts every day of your life, it¡¯s hard to believe that one you might see while you¡¯re asleep wasn¡¯t real. And none of those had ever touched me in the way this ghost had. In fact, I wasn¡¯t sure that any ghosts, real or nightmare, had ever done more than lightly graze my hand. Despite their reputation, there are very few ghosts who are violent. I took another deep breath, getting my bearings in the room. Maybe it was just a dream after all. All of this obsession with the ghosts must have been getting to me. Maybe all I needed was a hot shower and a cup of coffee. *** I got out of my shower and had just enough time to get changed for Luke and Liam showed up at my door. Their hair was haphazard and they had huge circles under their eyes - it almost looked like they hadn¡¯t slept at all once they had gotten back to their hotel rooms. They said hi quickly, then ran for the cameras. Luke brought in his laptop so they could move the footage over and start pouring through it. A couple of minutes later, Caitlin strolled in wearing a cute pink sweater dress with leggings, and carrying a drink carrier full of coffees. She handed one to me before heading over to the boys. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure what you liked, so I got you the same thing I always get - a vanilla latte with an extra shot of whipped cream. Generally good with allergens, but hopefully you can handle dairy.¡± I nodded my thanks and took a long sip. It was definitely just the thing I needed after battling whatever nightmares I had last night. ¡°Good, glad, you like it,¡± she replied to me happy drinking noises. ¡°Find anything in the video yet?¡± ¡°Nothing drastic that we¡¯ve seen yet, except for the sounds Andi¡¯s making,¡± Liam said. ¡°Did you know you¡¯re a sleep thrasher?¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Andromeda,¡± I corrected, ¡°and I¡¯m usually not. I had the weirdest dream last night.¡± ¡°Andi will go over better with our audience,¡± Luke explained. ¡°¡®Andromeda¡¯ has too many syllables and it¡¯ll be hard to spell in the comments. Andi is much easier.¡± ¡°There must have been something weird in our food last night, though, because I had a weird dream, too,¡± Liam said, although he was still clearly more interested in the footage than he was in the conversation. ¡°You did?¡± I asked. ¡°What was it about?¡± ¡°You always blame the food for that sort of stuff,¡± Caitlin complained, plopping down on the couch near my bed. I wondered why my bedroom had to be the place where we all gathered, but ultimately, they were paying for it anyway, so I suppose it didn¡¯t matter. ¡°Could it have just been the fact that you were high as balls last night?¡± ¡°I doubt it, or I¡¯d have bad dreams most nights. Just because you don¡¯t like weed doesn¡¯t mean it doesn¡¯t do great things for everybody else. But,¡± he said, finally turning to me, ¡°I had a dream that I was in a salon run by a sloth who was very interested in talking about the stock market. Did you have the same one?¡± My excitement deflated about as quickly as it arrived. But, I suppose that was another point for my dream theory - if Liam had had the exact same one, there would be a good chance that it wasn¡¯t a dream at all. ¡°No, not the same one. Mine was about ghosts.¡± ¡°So tell me,¡± Caitlin said, gesturing at me with her seemingly now empty coffee cup, ¡°what is it about you that makes everything related to ghosts? You talk to ghosts, you make ghost footage appear before our very eyes, and now you¡¯re even dreaming about ghosts.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said with a shrug, taking a seat next to her as the boys went back to analyzing the video as best as they could in a short amount of time, ¡°I think I was just born that way.¡± ¡°Well, you might want to tone it down if you want our audience to like you,¡± she warned. ¡°They want ghost content, and that¡¯s ultimately what they clicked on the video for. But if it¡¯s too centered on ghosts, then the audience is going to lose their interest really quick. It¡¯s got to be somewhere in the middle, where you¡¯re interested in ghosts and finding out information about them and all that shit, but you¡¯re also willing to joke around with the boys.¡± ¡°I will when we actually get to the shoot,¡± I said, and I meant it. Yes, I would see the ghostly activity, but you have to keep in mind, for me, it¡¯s not all that novel anymore. I¡¯ve seen ghosts forever, and while it¡¯s still kind of interesting (and sometimes annoying, when they won¡¯t leave you alone - god, I hope whatever I saw last night actually was a dream rather than that sort of a ghost), you can only do it for so long. ¡°You better,¡± she said, grabbing another cup out of the drink carrier and taking a long sip. When she set it down, I saw it was the one labeled ¡°Luke.¡± ¡°We might have found something!¡± Liam said, and both Caitlin and I shot out of our chairs. He pointed aggresively to the screen right next to the cupboard, then pressed play. As far as I could tell, there was no ghost in the video, but Caitlin gasped, so when Liam played back the recording again, I tried by best to look at it a hard as I could. About halfway through the clip, you could see a slight mist on the screen, as though someone had taken a shower and it had gotten a little doggy inside the house. In all my years of being a psychic, I¡¯d never seen a ghost look like that. Or, at least, I¡¯d never seen something like that and assumed it was a ghost. ¡°Oh my fucking god, this is so amazing!¡± Caitlin squealed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you caught something so huge in just one try!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s fucking go!¡± Luke nearly yelled. ¡°I know!¡± Liam said, turning back toward me. ¡°In all these years, I guess the only thing we were missing was you, Andi. Isn¡¯t that amazing?¡± Amazing was one word for it. Chapter 10: Until the Day I Die The boys spent most of the rest of the afternoon editing a TikTok of the video, and then most of the evening watching the views creep up and answering questions from their viewers. A lot of people seemed to be as confused about the mist as I was, but there were also a lot of people who claimed to see it clearly, and even a handful of people who claimed to see more than just the mist. Not a ghost, exactly, but something else that wasn¡¯t visible to anyone else who looked at the video. Just an afternoon with them, and I was already understanding why they may have originally been skeptical of my abilities. Around 8:00, though, the boys started quickly gathering all of their ghost equipment so we could head toward the Peters Building. I wasn¡¯t expecting to leave so early, but Caitlin explained that we needed time to scope the building out ahead of time, to make sure there were no hazards for us, but also to set up the static cams. So, soon after that, we headed out. I had, of course, googled the Peters Building before this whole thing had started, but it hadn¡¯t prepared me for just how terrifying the building looked in the dim light. Another commonly held ghost belief is that spirits are more active at night, and I could totally understand why. In the dark, especially prior to the invention of modern lights, shadows danced along the walls in ways that made it seem like the spirits were out to play. In reality, though, it¡¯s just as likely to see a ghost in the daytime, if not more likely. It just kind of depends on the person, ultimately. If someone was often up in the middle of the night when they were alive, then it would be common to see them up in the middle of the night after death. But most of the time, ghosts were like people, and their habits followed them past the grave. As a result, while I¡¯d done plenty of spirit investigations, I tended to frequent the buildings in the middle of the day. The few places I¡¯d been to in the middle of the night had been in the city, and while the building itself was not well lit, there were still the sights and sounds of the city right outside the window. The Peters Building, however, had been built several miles outside of town, so to get there, we needed to drive down a winding gravel road surrounded by dark trees that scratched out at our car. Caitlin drove the rented SUV down the road like she¡¯s been there a thousand times, though, which made me feel just a little bit calmer. ¡°I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re going back already,¡± Liam said, reaching over the back seat to try to grab one of the several cameras he¡¯d brought with. ¡°I think this has got to be a record for the most times someone¡¯s been at the Peters Building.¡± ¡°Still can¡¯t come anywhere close to the amount of times that some channels have been to the Conjuring House,¡± Luke said, typing something into his phone. ¡°Some groups make that their second home.¡± ¡°At least the Conjuring House isn¡¯t definitely full of lightly crumbling asbestos,¡± Liam argued, finally grabbing hold of a camera. He flipped off the lens cap and turned it on, quickly whipping it around to face himself. ¡°And we¡¯re back on the road to the Peters Building again, this time with our good friend, Andi! If you missed the last video, to get you caught up, Andi can see ghosts, and she¡¯ll be our key to finally making contact with Grady!¡± ¡°You should include a clip from the TikTok here,¡± Luke said, sliding his phone into his pocket. ¡°Andi sees ghosts all the time, but she¡¯s even better at bringing them out into the open. We captured this footage just last night.¡± ¡°That sounds cheesy.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll fix it in post,¡± Caitlin added. ¡°Do you think we should do the proper intro here, or should we wait until we¡¯re in the building?¡± Luke asked. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Caitlin shrugged. ¡°Probably in the building, but it doesn¡¯t matter, because we¡­are¡­here!¡± She drawled out the last few words as she pulled around the corner, the shape of a dark, industrial style building popping out from behind the trees. ¡°Fuck yeah!¡± Liam said, leaning between the front seats to get video of the approaching house. ¡°I swear you get us here faster every time, Cait.¡± ¡°Probably just me breaking through the space-time continuum,¡± she giggled. The house approached, blocking out what little of the moonlight we still had. On the steps, though, there was a bright light, and when I squinted, I was able to see an old man and woman standing on the steps holding it. She waved her arm as we got closer. ¡°Nancy!¡± Caitlin said, after parking the car right in front of the steps and practically flying out to greet the old woman, completely ignoring the old man. ¡°Thank you so much for taking the time to let us back in so soon!¡± ¡°Nancy is the caretaker for practically all of the haunted locations in this part of Florida,¡± Liam leaned forward again to whisper to me. ¡°Caitlin is always so worried about being super sweet to her, but she keeps forgetting that Nancy absolutely adores us.¡± ¡°We¡¯re just like her grandchildren, too,¡± Luke joked, ¡°so there¡¯s no way she would ever get sick of us.¡± I stared at the old woman as she greeted Caitlin with a long hug. Caitlin then started talking animatedly about something, all the while ignoring the old man. He seemed unremarkable to me - he looked wistfully at Nancy and Caitlin, then beamed toward the car as Luke and Liam started to get out. ¡°And what about the old man?¡± I asked. I unbuckled my seatbelt and hopped out after them. ¡°Holy shit, please tell me that you still had the camera going,¡± Luke said, stopping dead in his tracks and looking at me. ¡°What?¡± I asked, horrified, at the same time that Liam said, ¡°I sure did!¡± ¡°There¡¯s no old man here,¡± Liam said, clearly putting on a creepier voice than he actually needed for the video. ¡°The only person who was waiting for us here was Nancy.¡± Liam panned over to the building, his camera zooming in on the front steps where Nancy and Caitlin were chatting while the man was watching. ¡°I think Nancy was married at some point though, wasn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± Luke said, sounding unsure. ¡°You should go ask.¡± ¡°No shit, I¡¯m not going to go ask someone if they had a husband die on them. Who am I, you?¡± They continued bickering, but I stopped paying attention to them as suddenly, the man¡¯s eyes locked to mine. It was the kind of stare I¡¯ve felt many times before - the kind that sends a shiver of ice down your bone. The chill of interacting with the dead. As I stood semi-hearing the boys arguing around me, he started walking toward me. ¡°He must be,¡± I said, and both of them stopped talking to pay attention. ¡°And he¡¯s headed this way.¡± ¡°What does he want? Are we safe?¡± Luke lightly snapped. ¡°I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s a bit early in the video to be worried about being possessed,¡± Liam said, pulling out his phone to look at the time. ¡°We haven¡¯t even gotten a chance to do introductions yet!¡± Despite Liam¡¯s protests about time, the old man quickly reached me. He reached out a hand to grab mine, and I felt the icy pricks as his hand wound around mine. ¡°You can see me, can¡¯t you?¡± he asked. His voice was particularly gruff, as though he was unused to talking. I nodded, and the man looked at me intensely, tears in his eyes. ¡°I need you to tell my wife that I love her and I forgive her.¡± I nodded again. The old man stared at me for another second, then nodded his head and turned back toward Nancy. ¡°He just wants me to talk to his wife,¡± I said. Luke and Liam started asking me questions, but I ignored them both as I walked up to Nancy. When she saw me coming, she gave me a wide smile, but then she saw my face, and her expression turned more into one of confusion. ¡°Hi, you must be Nancy,¡± I said, reaching out to shake her hand. She took it, never taking her eyes off me. ¡°I¡¯m Andromeda, and I have a message from your husband.¡± ¡°Carl,¡± the old man added. ¡°Carl,¡± I said with a nod, and Nancy gasped throwing her hands over her mouth. Her eyes sparkled just about as muhc as Carl¡¯s had. ¡°Carl¡¯s still here?¡± she asked. I nodded, and she sighed, but a light smile returned to her face. ¡°The old fool never could let anything go.¡± ¡°He says he loves you, and that he forgives you.¡± She smiled, looking around as though she would be able to see him, too. ¡°Tell him that I miss him, and I¡¯ll be happy when I get to see him on the other side.¡± I grabbed her hand and squeezed it in the reassuring way that I learned how to do when I was young. One thing I learned is that even if someone seems to be fine after confronting a deceased loved one, they never really are. ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯s looking forward to that, too,¡± I said. ¡°So long as it¡¯s not anytime soon,¡± Luke said from behind me. ¡°We¡¯ve got a building to investigate!¡± Chapter 11: The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows It didn¡¯t take very long for Nancy to tell me all about her husband, Carl, and then about how they had ended up owning the building. They hadn¡¯t meant to buy a haunted building, she said, but they happened upon it in an auction, and they decided that they couldn¡¯t pass it up - it was a good price, and Carl had had high hopes of renovating the building and starting a bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, though, Carl had passed away before they truly got a chance to start renovations, and Nancy didn¡¯t know the first thing about renovating a building, so she had been starting to build up the funds needed to have it professionally renovated. Nancy told me this last part herself - as soon as he had gotten the message across to his wife, Carl¡¯s spirit started to vanish. That was a pretty common occurrence - once a spirit completes their business, most of them don¡¯t tend to stick around for long. But as Nancy lit up and started talking to Carl, I wasn¡¯t about to tell her that. ¡°So anyway, it was not too long after Carl passed that I started to notice some odd things happening in the building, didn¡¯t I dear? I thought at first it might have been Carl, but I kept hearing things drop, and Carl had never been a clumsy man. Besides, I knew if he were around and were able to move things, he would have been helping me fix up this place.¡± She smiled gently, and I almost looked away - there was something so intrusive about seeing her rejoice at talking to her husband again. But it had been part of my life for so long that I had grown used to it. Luke, Liam, and Caitlin had not, though, and they all started fidgeting. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re all so anxious to get into the house, aren¡¯t you?¡± Nancy said, misreading their movements. ¡°I¡¯ll be quick, but we don¡¯t want to do Andi an injustice by not telling her what she¡¯s walking into, do we?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t,¡± Caitlin agreed. ¡°We were just hoping to set up some of the static cameras before midnight.¡± ¡°Well then, how about the boys go in and get started, and the three of us can wait out here for a little while?¡± She suggested. Luke and Liam barely waited a heartbeat before running off. Nancy just watched them, shaking her head. ¡°If we could figure out a way to bottle that energy, we¡¯d be millionaires in minutes,¡± she chuckled. ¡°Anyway, where were we? Oh, yes - before I fully decided to leave the work up to the professionals, I would go into the building after work and do whatever work I could manage. That¡¯s when I started to notice strange things happening when I was in the building. It was small at first - the sound of something dripping when the water had been turned off in the building, a few pebbles hitting the ground, a cold breeze whipping by me when I was working. It was all things that could be explained by being in a building that was slowly falling apart. ¡°But, I¡¯m not sure how to explain it,¡± she continued, looking to me as if for guidance. I just nodded along - every story was different, and while I¡¯d heard some that started out like hers, I didn¡¯t want to risk manipulating hers by telling her others. ¡°It¡¯s like there was something in my bones that just knew it wasn¡¯t a normal building. Every time I walked around in here alone, I felt someone¡¯s eyes on me. It got so bad that I even had one of my friends come with me, just to see if I was imagining things, but she felt the same way.¡± ¡°Oh, tell her about the people in the windows!¡± Caitlin jumped in. She nodded. ¡°That was when whatever was happening in the house really started to escalate, I think. It wasn¡¯t too long after I gave up trying to renovate the place myself and hired a maintenance crew. I immediately started getting complaints that the place was haunted. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there was part of me that thought that they were just imagining things, too! But they agreed to continue working, haunting or not, so every morning, I would drive out here early and unlock the doors for them, and every evening, I would drive back and lock the doors back up. There¡¯s no getting in or out of that building without this,¡± she said, holding up a large, brass key. ¡°And this hasn¡¯t left my person since Carl died, aside from the occasional ghost hunting group. But I had the keys in my hand when I drove up one morning, and I saw a face in the window.¡± If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Interesting, I thought. An escalation from small noises to an actual corporeal ghost was a bit unusual, but sometimes construction will raise the nearby spirits - it¡¯s one of the few ghosts myths that actually turns out to be true, but I don¡¯t think they expected it to happen as often as it does. People always talk about it when renovating old buildings, but no one ever thinks of the people who was killed in a car crash coming back to haunt the road construction. ¡°And you checked all the windows and everything to make sure someone wasn¡¯t just staying in the building?¡± ¡°Even better, I called the police!¡± she laughed. ¡°They came and inspected every inch of the building while I waited outside by the one open door, and they didn¡¯t find a thing. One did almost fall through the floor in that one area, though,¡± she said, her eyebrows knitted with worry. ¡°Do you think Luke and Liam remembered to steer clear of that area?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll remember after they almost fell through last time, too,¡± Caitlin giggled. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t worry too much about them - they¡¯ve been in way worse situations than this.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t instill me with much hope,¡± Nancy said, but she smiled lightly regardless. ¡°But ever since then, the ghost activity has definitely increased. Workers'' tools go missing constantly, only to turn up in weird areas, people see others out of the corner of their eyes, and one worker even claims that they saw a grizzled man who didn¡¯t belong with the crew in the building while they were working. He wasn¡¯t alone that day, though, and no one else saw it, so I thought he was just imagining things until I actually looked through the history of the building. ¡°It was an office for many years, as I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll see when you get in there. Before that, it was an old clinic - the only one in the area. And that clinic had been around since before I was born.¡± ¡°So not super old?¡± Caitlin said with a grin. Nancy grinned widely. ¡°You flatter me, dear. But no, not super old in comparison to some of the other haunted buildings. But I also found that, while it was a clinic, there were a couple of people who died here. Mostly, it was elderly patients that were rushed here in an emergency, plus a couple car crash victims and mothers who died during childbirth. There was one death, though, where the victim looked exactly like what the man had described. His name was William Grady, and he died after a farm accident. His wife managed to get him here, but there was nothing that the doctors could do for him.¡± I nodded. ¡°That makes sense - quick, traumatic deaths do have the tendency to create the strongest of ghosts.¡± Nancy nodded back. ¡°And he definitely is strong! Since the workers got the floors up to code enough that we can walk everywhere except parts of the third floor, I¡¯ve been doing tours to help pay for the renovations. Most of the time we don¡¯t see anything, but Grady is pretty reliable - even if we don¡¯t see a full body apparition, it¡¯s not unlikely for us to see something thrown right in front of us.¡± ¡°Have you actually seen Grady, then?¡± I asked. ¡°Me? No, haven¡¯t been lucky enough to. Or maybe I should say that I¡¯m lucky enough not to, considering I¡¯d probably never make it back into this house if I did?¡± She giggled, cut off solely by Luke and Liam popping their head out of the door and waving to us. ¡°They must be ready then?¡± She asked. Caitlin looked at her phone. ¡°I doubt it - if they have everything set up by now, it¡¯d be record-breaking. Maybe they just need help with something.¡± They stood by the door, waving us over to them, so we walked over. I offered Nancy my elbow so she might be able to better keep her balance on the uneven grass, but she waved it off, making some comment about how she wasn¡¯t that old yet. As soon as we got close enough to them to be able to see their expressions, I noticed that Liam had a huge grin on his face, and Luke looked more confused than anything. ¡°Guys, you have to fucking see this!¡± Liam cried, gesturing for us to follow him into the house. Chapter 12: Act Appalled ¡°Just to make sure, Nancy, you didn¡¯t do this as like a part of a Halloween party or something, right?¡± Nancy shook her head, staring at the mess before her. ¡°I assure you, I haven¡¯t had this place open for Halloween yet - too much risk before all of the floors are fixed up. Besides, I would never do something like this.¡± Luke and Liam had nearly pulled us up to the third floor. They had gone upstairs to mark off the area where they couldn¡¯t walk in an effort to keep any of us from falling through the floor. When they were almost up to the third floor landing, however, they started to notice some coloring on the wall that wasn¡¯t there before. On the wall in front of us was what I would call a loose interpretation of a mural. It looked as though someone had splashed green paint across the wall, and written across the paint splash was the word ¡°mine.¡± My bones chilled to the core. Yes, it was a pretty common word, but I couldn¡¯t help but think of the dream I had had the previous night, and whatever creature was the main character of it. Suddenly, I felt a light touch on my hand, and I yanked it away. Beside me, Liam was looking at me curiously, his hand lightly outstretched toward where mine was, which put me at least a little at ease - at least it wasn¡¯t the creature from my dream immediately come to light. Liam raised his eyebrows at me in a blatant ¡°are you okay¡± gesture, and I gave a light nod. He looked at me for another second, debating whether or not to believe me, but ultimately turned back to the conversation. ¡°Well, it can¡¯t have just appeared here,¡± Nancy insisted, gesturing at the paint. ¡°Someone has to have done it, and I can¡¯t think of a better reason than for internet fame.¡± ¡°Nancy,¡± Caitin interrupted, ¡°you can¡¯t possibly be insisting that Luke and Liam would do this, can you?¡± ¡°Well,¡± the old woman started. ¡°You know them! You know they would never do such a thing, especially not to you. And if they did, do you really think they would have immediately come to show you?¡± ¡°I just don¡¯t get how anyone else might have done it,¡± she huffed. ¡°Maybe the doors aren¡¯t as secure as they seem?¡± I suggested. ¡°Have we checked all the windows to make sure they aren¡¯t unlocked or broken? Or maybe someone snuck off from the last group of explorers you had in here.¡± The old woman still grumbled a bit, still complaining about people having wrecked her already condemned building, but ultimately she must have decided to trust us, as she handed Caitlin the key to the large lock on the door and told us that she¡¯d be back in the morning with cleaning supplies to clean up the mess. She asked Luke and Liam to not sensationalize it in the video, which they surprisingly agreed to - even if, in my opinion, it seemed a lot more likely that a person broke in and did that than a ghost, I would have thought they definitely would have wanted to put it in the video. For people who can¡¯t see ghosts, it seemed like anything that could potentially be considered evidence was taken as gospel. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. So, with that, the boys took a couple minutes to finish blocking off the troublesome area upstairs, and then we started the investigation. They set up a couple of chairs in a long dark hallway and rehashed most of the history that Nancy had shared with us, including the bit about Grady and his apparent death from a farm accident. They also talked about some of the ways that the building was supposed to be haunted - whispers in the hallway, things going missing, and even sightings of some of the more famous spirits. ¡°I forgot to ask Nancy,¡± I said when they had wrapped up, ¡°but you didn¡¯t mention anything about the little girl that¡¯s here.¡± ¡°Little girl?¡± Luke asked, as all three of them looked at me confused. ¡°As far as we know, all of the ghost sightings have been either Grady or shadowmen.¡± ¡°I saw a little girl on your video as well,¡± I said. ¡°She was standing right behind Luke, but she didn¡¯t seem particularly active. Definitely not as active as Grady, which might explain why he¡¯s seen more prominently.¡± ¡°Holy shit,¡± Liam said, his jaw dropping as if the fact that I was able to see ghosts was not the sole reason why they had me come with. ¡°Turn the cameras back on, Cait,¡± Luke insisted. ¡°We need to get her saying that on camera. That¡¯s the first new ghost information to come out of this place since we¡¯ve started investigating.¡± ¡°Imagine us being able to capture video of the full apparition of a little girl,¡± Liam said, still acting like he was in shock. ¡°You¡¯d be better off trying to catch an image of Grady himself,¡± I said, sitting myself in the chair Liam had just been in. Luke stayed in his chair, looking like he was set up to interview me. ¡°He seemed a lot more aware of what was going on around him. The little girl just looked at Luke and asked him to help her.¡± ¡°So the ghost that you saw was interacting with me?¡± Luke asked ¡°More like trying to,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°Obviously you didn¡¯t respond back.¡± ¡°And you¡¯d be able to see her if she did come back, though, right?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Liam paused for a beat too long, then turned to Caitlin. ¡°Did we get that?¡± ¡°Every word,¡± she said with a huge smile. ¡°That¡¯ll be a great introduction, especially if you end up seeing one of the ghosts that are here. Even more so if you happen to see the little girl.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t promise anything,¡± I warned her, but she waved at me dismissively. ¡°We know that you can¡¯t control the ghosts, just like we can¡¯t control if something shows up in our videos. But from everything I¡¯ve seen, it seems like Grady is still around, so I have no doubt you¡¯ll be able to see him as the night goes on. We might not catch anything on camera, but if we have you pointing and saying that you see something, that¡¯ll still be significantly more than any of the other channels have had lately.¡± Caitlin started packing up the camera. ¡°I think that plus the introduction in the car will be plenty. Shall we start the actual investigation? I was originally planning to start in the basement, but now I¡¯m wondering if the third floor is the place to go.¡± ¡°Do you honestly think that a ghost did that with paint?¡± Liam asked, folding up the chair I¡¯d been sitting in. ¡°No,¡± Caitlin said, ¡°plus we promised that we wouldn¡¯t be sensationalist with it, anyway. But if there¡¯s even a small possibility that it involved one of the ghosts, then I think it makes sense for us to start there.¡± ¡°Might as well,¡± Luke agreed. ¡°Then we can save the spookiest part for the witching hour! Maybe we¡¯ll get some extra activity then!¡± I didn¡¯t bother correcting him. Chapter 13: Things That Rhyme with Orange Most people who have never been ghost hunting don¡¯t tend to believe me when I tell them the truth - for the most part, ghost hunting is really boring. A vast majority of it is sitting around, waiting for something to appear to you. And that¡¯s for people like me who can see the ghosts. For someone who can¡¯t, I have to imagine that it would be even more boring. At least Luke and Liam came up with some activities for us. They had us walk into a room and answer some questions with those stupid low-quality flashlights (I thought about telling them that that wasn¡¯t accurate, but I decided that if we got rid of everything that wasn¡¯t accurate, it would be an even longer night), then we did some sessions with the spirit box, which is literally just a broken radio. If you listen to white noise for long enough, you¡¯re bound to start hearing words, but at least they tried a method where one of them was blindfolded and listening to the box in headphones while the other answered questions. It was still gibberish, but at least it was more interesting gibberish. After several hours of random other experiments, we were finally on to the last experiment of the night - they decided that the ghosts might be more active for them if they stayed in the most haunted rooms by themselves. Luke had just started a ten minute solo investigation in the basement. Caitlin stayed right at the door to the basement, ready to run down if Luke got too scared or, even worse, if one of the cameras died. When they were both set up, though, Luke suggested that we go back to the area where we originally talked about the history of the building. It wasn¡¯t too far, he said, and there were chairs, and then we could actually chat without risking the investigation, all of which sounded great to me. Especially chairs - I wasn¡¯t used to being on my feet for so many hours at a time, and I hadn¡¯t considered that when I brought shoes with, so instead of Vans or something more comfortable for long periods of standing, I only brought my heeled platform boots on the trip. If I ended up ¡°testing well with the audience¡± and joining them on more ghost hunting trips (which, honestly, after this one, seemed like a relatively fun way to make a paycheck, so I was significantly more interested in it than I was at the beginning. Even if it involved doing a bunch of shit that made literally no sense), I would definitely have to invest in better shoes. Liam folded out both of the chairs and gestured to me to sit in one while he collapsed in the other. ¡°Usually, I¡¯m not this tired at the end of a hunt,¡± he said, resting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head. His dark hair flopped down in front of his face so I couldn¡¯t see his expression, but I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. ¡°I don¡¯t think staying up most of last night helped that much, and there¡¯s only so much energy drinks can do.¡± ¡°Sorry for keeping you up talking to that old dude,¡± I said, relaxing into my chair. It was just a standard metal folding chair, but to me, it felt like heaven. ¡°I assume you weren¡¯t able to miraculously help him after we left?¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯d feel bad, but I gave him a time limit for talking to me before I went to sleep, and I stayed up long past that time limit, and he still didn¡¯t talk. At that point, it¡¯s kind of on him.¡± Liam sat up to look at me, running his hand through his hair to flop it back into its original position. ¡°Approximately how many people have you managed to help cross to the other side?¡± ¡°Approximately?¡± I shrugged, giving myself an extra second to calculate. ¡°That¡¯s a bit hard, because I don¡¯t really know if I helped anyone cross over while I was in like elementary school, but as far as I can remember, probably a couple hundred?¡± ¡°A couple hundred?¡± he let out a low, impressed whistle. ¡°It¡¯s only like ten a year,¡± I argued. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Which is like ten a year more than the rest of us,¡± he responded. ¡°You¡¯ve helped a lot of people, and you¡¯ve been through a lot of these experiences, I have to imagine,¡± he said, gesturing around the the dilapidated room around him. I nodded. ¡°Then in that case, do you care to explain why you freaked out so much about earlier?¡± I winced. ¡°I was kind of hoping you¡¯d forgotten about that.¡± He cocked his head. ¡°Why would I forget it? It¡¯s not very often that someone turns as pale as a ghost right in front of me, all because she saw a little bit of paint. You were acting like someone who had never even been through a fake haunted house, rather than someone who works with ghosts for a living.¡± I sighed. ¡°It¡¯s going to sound kind of crazy,¡± I started. ¡°This whole thing sounds crazy,¡± he interrupted. ¡°How many people can say they¡¯ve sat in a deteriorating building in the middle of the night as a job.¡± ¡°Fair point,¡± I conceded. ¡°It¡¯s not so much about there having been graffiti - I''ve been to places with way more graffiti in them. But you remember that dream I mentioned having this morning?¡± He nodded and leaned toward me. His gaze was penetrating as he stared at me, as though I was the only thing in this crumbling building. ¡°Your creepy dream that had something to do with ghosts, yes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the one. Well, in that dream, the ghost or whatever it was kept saying two things - he¡¯s mine, and leave him alone. So, to walk into a building the day after that and see one of those things written on the walls¡­ it just kind of shook me, is all.¡± Liam nodded slowly, as if he was processing what I was saying. ¡°And you don¡¯t have this kind of dream often, then? Because to be honest, when you told me that you had a dream with ghosts in it, I was like ¡®well no shit, this girl talks to ghosts on a daily basis, of course she¡¯s going to have dreams about ghosts.¡¯¡± ¡°Oh, I definitely do. Or, at least I think I do - ghosts look a lot different to me than they do to you, so it¡¯s hard to tell.¡± ¡°Different how?¡± I shook my head, searching for a good way to explain. ¡°They don¡¯t look like white fog, and most of the time they don¡¯t look like shadows. They just look like humans, sometimes with just a little something wrong if they¡¯d been dead for long enough.¡± Liam sat for a moment in silence and then I saw my words fully click for him. ¡°And that¡¯s why you thought Carl was a person at first?¡± he asked. I nodded, excited that he understood. ¡°Exactly. So normally, if I¡¯m dreaming about ghosts, they might have a weird outfit or something, but otherwise, they look just like anybody else. But in this dream, I couldn¡¯t even see them. It was just darkness, and some unknown entity creeping up on me. And then it grabbed me on my shoulder.¡± I reflexively grabbed the same shoulder that had been injured in my dream. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it almost felt like it was sore. Liam¡¯s eyes flashed. ¡°It hurt you? I always thought that it might be able to do little things, but I¡¯ve always thought that those stories of people getting seriously injured by ghosts were bullshit.¡± ¡°They are,¡± I agreed. ¡°That was probably the thing that freaked me out the most. I¡¯ve dealt with a lot of ghosts, and while I¡¯ve seen some angry ones, I¡¯ve never seen one that was actually violent.¡± He nodded slowly. ¡°Do you think dousing yourself in holy water might help? We always bring some in our packs, just in case.¡± It wouldn¡¯t, of course. Holy water affected ghosts just like it did humans - at worst, it made them damp. But I couldn¡¯t help but feel a warmth in my heart because of his attempts to help. ¡°It couldn¡¯t hurt,¡± I said with a smile. He grabbed his pack from the ground and started the rifle through it, but we both jumped at the sound of shuffled footsteps from just outside of the room. ¡°Nothing,¡± Luke said as he walked in, closely followed by Caitlin. ¡°Anything over here?¡± ¡°Andi¡¯s got a ghost in her ass,¡± Liam said, passing me the vial of holy water he¡¯d found. ¡°Oh shit, get your ass on camera,¡± Luke joked, his mood instantly lifted. ¡°Weird place to store a ghost, I would say,¡± Caitlin said, clapping me on the shoulder - the same shoulder where the ghost had grabbed. I don¡¯t think it was just my imagination - it still stung, at least a little. ¡°No weirder than Luke keeping one as a girlfriend,¡± Liam said with a grin. ¡°Hey, I can¡¯t help it if all the dead ladies love this guy,¡± he said, pointing to himself. ¡°Now come on - Nancy¡¯s at the gate waiting for us to lock up, and there¡¯s a cozy bed at the hotel that¡¯s calling my name.¡± ¡°Please promise me that you won¡¯t call us all into your room for a ghost again tonight,¡± Caitlin said, grabbing one of the bag as the guys grabbed the others. ¡°I didn¡¯t try to call you into the room in the first place!¡± I insisted. ¡°But honestly, I¡¯ll be glad if there¡¯s not a ghost waiting for me tonight. Maybe the hotel would be fine with me switching rooms?¡± Chapter 14: Clairvoyant The hotel was not cool with me switching rooms - I asked at the front desk when we got back, hoping that it was late enough that they wouldn¡¯t be expecting anyone without a reservation, so they might have an empty bed. They said that they were completely booked, though, so I headed back to my room. Thankfully, there were no ghosts right then, but since he showed up in the middle of the night the night before, I didn¡¯t want to get my hopes up just yet. I tried to head to bed immediately because by all rights, I should have been exhausted, but my mind kept racing, so I ended up sitting up in bed and turning the tv on. I tried to keep the volume as low as possible, but it wasn¡¯t even ten minutes before I heard a light rapping on my door. ¡°Are there more ghosts tonight?¡± Liam asked, when I opened the door. I let him in, closely followed by Luke - I had expected them to go straight to bed as well, but they had been talking about starting to review the footage when they got back, so I wasn¡¯t entirely surprised to see them together. ¡°No,¡± I answered, going to the kitchen area and starting a cup of tea. I held up the container of tea packets, and both of them shook their head. ¡°Today has been disappointingly free of ghosts.¡± ¡°Not even Grady,¡± Luke agreed, sounding exhausted. ¡°Not even Grady,¡± I concurred. ¡°Do you have any idea why he wouldn¡¯t have showed up for us tonight?¡± Liam asked. They both collapsed on the couch in my room, but while Luke looked like he was about to fall asleep, Liam somehow looked wide awake. ¡°No clue.¡± I sat down on the small chair on the side of the room, stirring my tea with the tea bag itself. ¡°Some ghosts can be predictable, but that isn¡¯t always the case. Maybe you¡¯ve been there recently enough that Grady didn¡¯t see you as a threat?¡± ¡°That wouldn¡¯t make sense for you, though,¡± Luke countered. I shrugged. ¡°Maybe he just didn¡¯t feel like coming out, then.¡± Liam reached down to the bag he had brought with and pulled out a laptop. ¡°Maybe not, but that¡¯s unfortunately not going to look good to our viewers,¡± he said. ¡°We have a new person come onto the channel, claiming to see ghosts, and then there are no ghosts the first time she¡¯s there?¡± I tilted my head, confused. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that make more sense than me seeing a ghost every time, just because.¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Some of our viewers might agree with that,¡± Luke agreed. ¡°But I could also see some being sus about it. Maybe we resplice the TikTok from earlier and add elements of that in, and then we can pad out some parts of her seeing Nancy¡¯s husband with lore about them building the building. We¡¯ll edit the Peters Building section down more than we would normally. It¡¯l be like some of those ghost hunting YouTubers who only get to the haunted location an hour into the video, but I¡¯d rather copy someone else¡¯s video style for one video than show up with no evidence.¡± I sipped my tea slowly, watching them work - Liam controlling the computer for the most part, with Luke jumping in to make suggestions here and there. After about an hour, Luke started visibly fading quick and excused himself back to his own room. ¡°Poor guy,¡± Liam said, a few seconds after the door closed behind Luke. ¡°He used to have better energy to work on these in the moment, but he says he hasn¡¯t been able to sleep well for a while, and you can really see it.¡± I moved over to the couch so I could actually see what Liam was working on. It looked like he and Luke had already managed to kick out a rough draft for the first 30 minutes of a video. From what I¡¯d seen, their videos usually were about an hour long. ¡°I¡¯m impressed that you managed to get that much of the video done already.¡± ¡°Thank you! But I¡¯d argue that we got the easy part done, and now all we¡¯ve got left is the hard stuff. A lot of this,¡± he said, gesturing to some of the earlier clips, ¡°is stuff that has already been edited for other platforms, so we can pretty much just add it in. This,¡± he said, flipping to a different folder and circling hours of footage with his mouse, ¡°is all stuff we will have to go through, just to see if we caught any ghostly activity. I know you said you didn¡¯t see anything, but you weren¡¯t with all the static cameras the whole night. Besides, the audience wants content - whether you see a ghost there or not, who¡¯s to say what the cause is behind some of the bumps and creaks we heard?¡± ¡°I am,¡± I answered. ¡°It was the building decaying around us.¡± ¡°Probably,¡± he admitted, ¡°but it could also be a ghost! I remember seeing a clip with a ridiculously loud bang, hold on.¡± He started clicking through a variety of clips and skipping through them trying to find the right image. I watched over his shoulder as images of the halls of the Peters Building skipped by, some moving along with our explorations and some staying still throughout the whole of the night. ¡°It¡¯s this one, I think,¡± he said, as he clicked one last clip and skipped to about the midpoint of it. It was a clip from Luke¡¯s solo investigation down in the basement. He¡¯d proped the camera up on something (probably a shelf, judging by the fact that the height was not quite right) and was sitting in an office char that must have been left when the building was abandoned. ¡°It¡¯s just me down here,¡± he said, wildly staring around into the darkness. ¡°The others are all upstairs, so if you want to say something, now would be the time.¡± ¡°Regardless of whether there¡¯s ghost activity or not, it¡¯d be hard to say that this wouldn¡¯t be a good clip for the video,¡± Liam whispered, but I shushed him, intent on watching Luke. It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t disagree - in fact, I thought it would definitely be a good clip to add to the video - but it was that there was something about Luke that didn¡¯t seem quite right. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it, though. ¡°If you want to say anything, we might not hear it now, but we¡¯ll be able to hear it later when we watch the recording. If you would rather, you can say something just to me. You can play with this red light on the floor,¡± he said, nodding toward the REM Pod that he¡¯d tried to explain to me earlier (it was just another piece of ghost equipment that definitely didn¡¯t work - it was just a crappy red light that turns on at random). ¡°You can touch me if you¡¯d like.¡± Nothing happened for a second, and then I saw a slight movement from up but Luke¡¯s face. ¡°Hold on,¡± I said, and Liam immediately pressed pause on the video. ¡°Can you back up a few seconds?¡± ¡°I can go frame by frame if you want,¡± he said, clicking back frame by frame until I saw it. The edge of Luke¡¯s eye, just at the very corner, distorted. It was just for a fraction of a second, and if I¡¯d been watching from home, I most likely wouldn¡¯t have seen it. But it was enough for me to see now. ¡°I think I know why Luke¡¯s been so tired. He¡¯s been possessed.¡± Chapter 15: Jamie All Over ¡°I thought you said that possession almost never happened,¡± Luke complained the next morning. We had debated waking him up the night before, but Liam said that the witch they¡¯d used to remove possessions before insisted that it would work better on someone who was well rested. Besides, it didn¡¯t seem like the spirit was causing any harm to Luke by being there - he¡¯d been acting normal all night, and who new if this was even the first night he¡¯d been possessed. ¡°I said that I never saw it,¡± I corrected him. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that it must happen more than I thought in this case.¡± ¡°I guess,¡± Luke huffed. Liam had called the witch earlier, and she had arranged to make a special trip out to Orlando to exorcise him and, more importantly, star in a new video. Liam made the call immediately, followed by both of them convincing me to point out what I saw on the camera. I knew it wasn¡¯t going to appear on video for anyone else, but when in Rome. ¡°I just don¡¯t get why it happened to me.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the one who¡¯s got a ghost girlfriend!¡± reminded Liam. ¡°It¡¯s probably her, just hanging on, whispering ¡®Oh, please, Luke, let¡¯s take another stroll around the park!¡¯¡± Luke laughed brighter than I¡¯d seen him laugh, although I wasn¡¯t sure if it was from the stress or from Liam¡¯s crappy joke. ¡°As if I¡¯d ever take a stroll around the park with her!¡± ¡°And just like that, we watch Luke get fully possessed and start strolling toward the walking trail,¡± Liam joked, holding up his hands as though he could see it. Caitlin laughed, but reached out to gently swat Liam¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t even joke about that - if he walks into the lake, we definitely won¡¯t get the shot.¡± ¡°Thank you all for your support,¡± Luke said, sounding dejected despite the smile on his face. He flopped down on the couch in my room, still looking exhausted. I¡¯m not sure how my bedroom ended up being the constant meeting room for all of us, but right at that moment, as I lay back on the plush mattress, I couldn¡¯t really complain. ¡°Hey,¡± said Liam, ¡°at least we got one good start to a video out of the night, which is more than I can say for the rest of the footage we got.¡± ¡°Did you go through it all by yourself again?¡± Caitlin asked, sounding disappointed, as though she¡¯d told him many times to sleep after an investigation. Even I had told him to sleep after the investigation what felt like a hundred times. ¡°No, of course not!¡± he picked up his lukewarm coffee from the coffee bar and took a large sip, taking down the caffeine like it was oxygen. ¡°Andi helped me look through it.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Andromeda,¡± I reminded, holding up one hand, but that was about as much of an argument as I could make. Liam might have been used to living off caffeine for several nights in a row, but I sure wasn¡¯t. ¡°You guys,¡± Caitlin said, sounding disappointed, at the same time as Luke said, ¡°you¡¯re sure you didn¡¯t find anything else of interest?¡± Liam shook his head, pointedly ignoring Caitlin. ¡°She says that Grady didn¡¯t even show up in any of our footage, so we¡¯re just walking around talking to the air all night. But, for those of us who can¡¯t see ghosts, there were definitely some interesting moments.¡± He clicked a couple of times and then flipped the screen to Luke. ¡°As much as I appreciate your work ethic,¡± Caitlin tried again, ¡°you need to actually sleep between shoots or you¡¯re going to totally burn out, and you know that¡¯s been really going around on YouTube lately¡­.¡± ¡°If I start to feel even the slightest bit burned out, I swear I will make a point to sleep after doing a ghost hunt,¡± he promised her. ¡°But for now, I think Andi and I both get too wired from them to shut out eyes immediately afterward.¡± ¡°Speak for yourself,¡± I said, rolling onto my side to better face them. Liam winked at me. ¡°Whoa,¡± Luke said, interrupting us. Liam immediately pulled the screen back toward him. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you mention this?¡± He hit play, and his finger traced something across the screen. ¡°Whoa,¡± Liam echoed, and with a sigh, I pushed myself off the bed to see what they were excited about. ¡°This changes everything, watch!¡± On the screen, there was a still image of Luke and Liam in their chairs, clearly in the middle of talking about the history of the building. They pressed play and I watched, but there were no ghosts on the screen. I shook my head at them, and Liam clicked back and played the clip again. ¡°Look here,¡± he said, tracing something on the screen. Where his finger moved, there wa, in fact a small shadow moving. Liam played it again and I watched Luke and Liam, trying to figure out if it was one of them, but neither of them seemed to be moving in that fashion. ¡°How odd,¡± I said, as they played the clip again for Caitlin. ¡°Oh my god,¡± she squealed. ¡°We finally caught a ghost! I can¡¯t believe it! No one¡¯s going to believe it!¡± ¡°But that¡¯s not a ghost,¡± I started, but her cheers overwhelmed mine, and soon, she, Luke, and Liam were talking about the sheer improbability of catching a ghost while they were just sitting there. I grabbed the laptop off of Liam¡¯s lap (other than looking at me curious for a moment, he put up no fight for it) and want back to the bed, playing and replaying that clip. There was undeniably something there, but it didn¡¯t look like anything I¡¯d ever seen. Even in the most distorted of spirits, there was still some sort of humanity to them, and they always looked solid to me. But this figure was transparent even to me, and while it had a vaguely humanoid figure, it didn¡¯t give off the same sort of ghost vibes that the other spirits did. I watched the video again, and it looked like the figure stopped for a second, making sure the camera was rolling, and then started walking again. It was the craziest thing - I don¡¯t think I¡¯d ever seen anything like it in my life, and that was something that I hadn¡¯t been able to say for quite some time. ¡°If we add that as a secret snippet in the Peters Building video and then don¡¯t call it out,¡± Luke suggested, ¡°we could go back to it when the psychic gets here and say that¡¯s what you saw. I mean, it looks like she looks at me, so maybe that spirit possessed me while we were talking.¡± I shrugged. It was as likely a theory as any - possessions were rare, and so was whatever this thing is, so it might as well be both. ¡°Whatever it is, we¡¯ll find out tomorrow when the witch gets here, Caitlin said, walking over and snapping the laptop closed. I didn¡¯t fight her on it - I¡¯d watched it enough times that watching it a few more wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference. ¡°For now, both Andi and Liam look like they¡¯re about to fall over dead, so it¡¯s managed appointed bedtime. Luke, you and I can work together and see if we can piece the rest of the video together with what Liam found before she gets here. Good night, you two.¡± Chapter 16: Cute Without the E (Cut from the Team) When they said a witch was coming, I expected someone who kind of looked like me - stereotypically goth, with a lot of blues and blacks, tons of lace, and arguably too much star jewelry. What I wasn¡¯t expecting was a short woman with a pink piky cut, wearing a huge anime sweatshirt as a dress. When she¡¯d gotten to the hotel room, she¡¯d texted Caitlin that she was there and Caitlin gave her the room number, but I was still convinced that somehow whoever this was had gotten the wrong room. ¡°Oh hi!¡± she squealed, reaching up to hug Caitlin, and I fully realized that it wasn¡¯t a mistake. The woman pulled back and stared around the room. ¡°Luke,¡± she said, her eyes finally settling on him, ¡°I can¡¯t believe you got possessed again! Didn¡¯t we just finish the last video like a year ago?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s been way too long for our audience, and apparently the ghosts agree,¡± he said, standing up to give her a hug. ¡°Circe, I¡¯d like you to meet our newest video costar, Andi.¡± ¡°Andromeda,¡± I corrected, giving a slight wave from where I was sitting on the bed. ¡°Oh, you must be the psychic that Caitlin was talking about! I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll work together great, because you¡¯ll see the ghosts, and I¡¯ll banish them! That audience will love it!¡± I nodded because, yes, from what I was hearing about the audience, I was sure they would love that sort of a thing. I wasn¡¯t sure if this woman could actually banish ghosts or not, but it didn¡¯t really matter all that much for the show aspect. Caitlin and Cerce sat on the couch and caught up on everything that had been going on in the last year while Liam, Luke, and I got the camera equipment set up. I¡¯m not sure how I exactly got roped into the task, considering I had never done much with cameras before, but Liam asked for a quick hand, and next thing I knew, he was giving me a list of the things that needed to be done. When I finished setting up a camera or light, one of the two of them would come behind me and make sure that it looked alright. I must have been doing something okay at least, because other than some minor adjustments, they seemed happy with the setup. Setup took us about a half hour, after while Cerce skipped back to her room to grab her anti-possession toolkit, as she called it. She came back with a bag full of various oils, crystals, candles, and salts, which she started placing around the filming area. It all seemed ridiculous to me still. Granted, I had never done an exorcism on anyone, considering this was the first time I¡¯d seen someone with a ghostly attachment. But previous to this, in order to banish a ghost, all I had to do was guide them toward the light. I had to imagine that, while they might be more connected to someone that they were possessing, I couldn¡¯t imagine it being all that different, but I was trying my hardest not to judge before the exorcism actually took place. ¡°Are we rolling?¡± Circe asked, and Liam nodded. ¡°Great. Luke, you know the drill - please sit in the chair in the middle of the salt circle.¡± I watched Luke take his seat in the chair, halfway wondering about how we were going to clean up the various salts that she had scattered on the floor of the hotel. Surely we weren¡¯t just going to leave that here for housekeeping to clean up, right? Circe flipped off the lights (something the boys were apparently prepared for, as I saw Liam hit a button on the two closest cameras), and suddenly the room was only lit by a large collection of candles scattered on the floor around him. Circe then walked carefully over the salt circle and put her hand on Luke¡¯s shoulder. I felt a light ache in my own shoulder, the memory of something sharp grabbing me jumping forward in my mind, but I pushed it out of my thoughts and tried to focus on whatever clusterfuck of a ritual Circe was doing. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°Spirit, I command you,¡± she started, taking her hand off Luke¡¯s shoulder and using it to open a small vial of some liquid. ¡°The power of Christ compels you,¡± she said, sprinkling some of the liquid on the top of Luke¡¯s head. ¡°The Holy Spirit compels you to leave this body. This body is not yours. It was not given to you by our creator, and you are not allowed to take from our creator. Out!¡± She shouted the last word, and at the sound of her voice, the candles surrounding Luke all quivered. Caitlin gasped, and I didn¡¯t blame her - if I couldn¡¯t see ghosts and didn¡¯t know that nothing had exited him, I probably would have done the same. ¡°You are not permitted to enter this body,¡± she continued, flipping open another vial and sprinkling the liquid onto the front of Luke¡¯s shirt. ¡°You are not permitted to enter any body on this property. You are to leave these humans be and go toward the light!¡± ¡°Luke?¡± a small voice said, and I sat up straighter. No shit, I thought, there was no chance in hell that this was actually working. But I looked around, and it was clear that no one else had heard the voice. ¡°Go toward your maker, and you will be reborn in his light!¡± Circe roared. Some of the candles surrounding Luke burned out, and as they did, Circe folded over, as though all of her energy had been wiped away. Caitlin immediately rushed over the candles on the ground and went to help support her as Circe panted heavily. ¡°It is done,¡± she wheezed between breaths. ¡°When the candles blow out, it is the spirit using that energy to move toward their next life beyond.¡± Bullshit, I thought, as Caitlin helped Circe back to the couch, where she immediately collapsed. She definitely hadn¡¯t gotten rid of whatever was attached to Luke, but she had gotten it to react to him, which was more than what I was expecting her to be able to do, so I guess I had to give her props for that. Still, I was surprised that she was as exhausted as she seemed - she curled up on the sofa and seemed to immediately nod off. ¡°Well,¡± Liam said, making his way into the frame, ¡°there you have it, folks! Another successful exorcism by the famous Circe! Everybody make sure you say ¡®hi Circe¡¯ in the comments!¡± He hit a button on the camera in front of him, then turned back to Luke. ¡°You okay dude? You look kind of pale.¡± ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t know,¡± Luke said. I couldn¡¯t see him very well from where I was standing, but I noticed that his voice was shaking, so I walked closer to him. Liam was right - instead of getting rid of a ghost, Luke looked like he¡¯d just seen one. ¡°We¡¯ve done this before several times,¡± he said, looking to me as though I could better explain it (which, I suppose, if there was someone in the room who could, it would be me. Especially now that Circe was lighty snoring in the corner of the room), ¡°and each time, we¡¯ve had the oils and the lights and the drama, and it¡¯s great for the video. But this time¡­ I don¡¯t even know how to explain it.¡± Liam nodded. ¡°You didn¡¯t look like you took to it well this time.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t.¡± Luke held up his hands slightly and looked at the back of them. Even from where I was standing, I could see they were shaking slightly. ¡°This time, I wasn¡¯t thinking about metrics or anything. I was just¡­ I don¡¯t know, scared, I think?¡± Liam looked over to me, and when I met his stare, it was clear he was trying to express something, but I wasn¡¯t sure what. Quickly, he shifted his eyes back to Liam. ¡°Like something had gone wrong with it?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t think it was that,¡± Luke said slowly. ¡°It was like something in me didn¡¯t want the exorcism to happen, or like I was scared of what Circe was doing, even though it hasn¡¯t really changed much.¡± Liam nodded slowly, then turned to me. ¡°What are your thoughts? What did you see?¡± I bit my lip, unsure of how much I wanted to say with Circe right there, albeit asleep. Caitlin was right there, too, and seemed to have the utmost faith in Circe, although she wasn¡¯t paying attention to any of us - she had instead just grabbed one of the cameras and started downloading the footage. ¡°I didn¡¯t see anything,¡± I finally decided on. ¡°Nothing?¡± Liam asked, and I shook my head in confirmation. ¡°Did you see anything for previous spirits that you¡¯ve helped move on?¡± ¡°Well, yes and no,¡± I explained. ¡°I don¡¯t really see any of the bright lights they see or anything, but they just kind of disappear.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re saying that you didn¡¯t see this in this case?¡± Luke asked. His hands were still shaking lightly, but he rubbed his hands through this hair in an attempt to cover it up. ¡°I¡¯m saying that I didn¡¯t see anything,¡± I said. ¡°And that means whatever was in you is still in you.¡± Chapter 17: I Write Sins Not Tragedies ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but that¡¯s complete bullshit,¡± Circe said. When she woke up, Luke and Liam told her what I¡¯d said, and she¡¯d been raving ever since. ¡°I saw something leave you, and you saw the candles! What more do you need?¡± ¡°Andi said that she didn¡¯t see a ghost leave Luke,¡± Liam said, his arms crossed. For someone who was so excited about her arrival, I thought, he didn¡¯t seem particularly happy with her now. Granted, I wouldn¡¯t be happy about someone nearly screaming at me in a hotel room either. It was a wonder we hadn¡¯t been kicked out yet, if you think about it. ¡°Why do you expect us to take your word over hers?¡± ¡°Maybe because you¡¯ve known me for years, and she¡¯s just some rando that came to you and said that she could see ghosts?¡± Circe asked angrily. ¡°She didn¡¯t even bring a single piece of ghost detecting equipment here, and you said she didn¡¯t even see a ghost in the Peters Building, which is super haunted! For all you know, she just wanted to up her follower count!¡± ¡°That would be more likely if she had been the one to ask about being on the show, Circe,¡± Caitlin stated, probably the most calm out of all of us. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was just trying to calm the energy in the room, or if she actually wasn¡¯t bothered by any of it. ¡°But that¡¯s not the case. She just reached out to us to see if we had the contact information for the owner of the Peters Building, and we were the one who asked if she wanted to join since you weren¡¯t available to film videos more consistently.¡± ¡°And so far, she has seen a couple of ghosts,¡± Luke said, jumping in. He still didn¡¯t look great, but at least his hands seemed to have stopped shaking and there was a bit of color to his face. ¡°She even pointed out one in this room the first night, and we actually caught some evidence on a static cam!¡± Circe huffed, then grabbed her bag and started throwing candles back into it haphazardly. ¡°So she gets lucky enough to run into one actual ghost and all of a sudden she¡¯s this saint? Fine, then, I guess you guys don¡¯t need me anyway!¡± She threw one last bottle into her bag and started heading toward the door. ¡°Circe, wait!¡± Caitlin said, but Circe didn¡¯t, and Caitlin followed her into the hallway, trying to catch up. We all stared at the closed door for what felt like an eternity, waiting to see if she would come stomping back into the room. Finally, Liam gave out a low whistle that broke the silence. ¡°Drama,¡± he said in a sing-song voice. ¡°She¡¯s always been dramatic,¡± Luke reminded him. ¡°It¡¯s part of the reason why she does so good on the channel. But,¡± he said, swinging his head toward me, ¡°it can also lead to situations like this. You¡¯re sure of what you saw? Or, rather, didn¡¯t see?¡± ¡°Positive,¡± I said. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°But you haven¡¯t seen the warping on Luke¡¯s face any other time, right?¡± Liam asked. I shook my head. ¡°Is it possible that it¡¯s just a trick of the camera?¡± ¡°We would have seen it, then,¡± Luke argued. ¡°Hmmm. Or maybe a ghost walked through him and we just didn¡¯t notice them approaching?¡± ¡°I guess it¡¯s possible,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen it happen, but I¡¯ve never seen this happen either, so I don¡¯t know the rules.¡± ¡°By ¡®this,¡¯ do you mean a ghost possession, or a drama queen meltdown?¡± Liam asked, his grin returning to his face. ¡°Either one,¡± I said, smiling back at him. ¡°Which is great,¡± Luke said, ¡°but if it is a possession, then that means that the ghost is still in me somehow.¡± ¡°True¡­¡± I said. ¡°Have you ever just tried asking nicely to see if the ghost will leave?¡± They both looked at me like I¡¯d grown two heads. ¡°Do you actually think that would work?¡± Luke asked after a minute. ¡°No clue, but I know that can work for objects. There was one customer I had who had a ghost that was attached to an old painting and the spirit needed me to send a letter to someone, but it involved tracking them down and it was going to take quite a while. So, I asked them nicely if they could detach themselves from the painting and instead attach to the letter I had written, and they did it.¡± I shrugged at their stunned silence. ¡°Ghosts are just people. It doesn¡¯t always work, but some people are reasonable.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s worth a shot,¡± Luke said with a sigh. ¡°Roll the cameras again.¡± Liam flipped the nearest one on, and Luke looked straight down the lense. ¡°Spirit inside me, if you can hear me, could you please haunt something else instead?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a small child, I think, judging by the voice,¡± I suggested. ¡°Didn¡¯t you have a stuffed animal you were working with before.¡± ¡°Boo Buddy!¡± Liam said, and went to rummage through one of their ghost hunting supply packs. A moment later, he came back and handed a disheveled looking bear to Luke. ¡°Try that.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Luke held the bear up in front of him and looked straight into the plastic eyes. ¡°Can you please possess this bear instead of me?¡± As he finished his sentence, I saw a flash of light that was so radiant that I had to squint my eyes and turn away. ¡°Andi?¡± Liam said, lightly touching my back to check on me. ¡°Are you alright?¡± ¡°The light is too bright.¡± ¡°What light?¡± Well, that was unexpected - if they couldn¡¯t see it, it meant that it was probably related to spirits, but I¡¯d never seen one that was a bright light before. They always just looked like people. But since I¡¯d started hanging out with Luke and Liam, nothing was ever normal anyway, so I guess I couldn¡¯t be too surprised. The light started to die down, so I turned back to them. Both guys were staring at me, totally oblivious to the light source that was now rapidly dimming inside the bear. It didn¡¯t look like a person, or like anything I¡¯d seen attached to an object before, but rather it just looked like the bear itself was glowing, like someone had put a bright lightbulb inside of it. ¡°I think it worked?¡± I asked. ¡°You think?¡± Liam replied, cocking an eyebrow at me. I couldn¡¯t help but notice that he still kept his hand on my back, as though he just wanted to be sure that I was okay. ¡°I¡¯ve never experienced anything like that in my life,¡± I said. My voice felt hoarse in my throat, as though the light had affected me internally as well. ¡°That makes three of us,¡± Luke said holding up the bear again. ¡°At least it¡¯s in this now.¡± Liam grabbed the bear from Luke and put it on the counter in the kitchenette. ¡°And, on the plus side, this camera,¡± he said, tapping the one lightly on the side, ¡°was recording the whole time. We¡¯re going to have some interesting footage, one way or another.¡± Chapter 18: ??? I was back in the dark room. Oh god, why was I back in the dark room? At least this time I was able to move my arms. The rest of my body was still attached to the same chair I was in last time, but it was a light improvement. I whirled my arms around, trying to find something, anything, near me, but I couldn¡¯t even feel the chair I was attached to. It was like my arms had been transported into a completely different, empty place. ¡°Mine.¡± I heard the word, a light whisper this time, coming from far in front of me. I immediately shot my hands in that direction, grasping at nothing. There was a light shuffling noise to my right side, so I tried to follow it with my hand, but whatever it was seemed to be too fast for me. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± I cried out. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you want!¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°I told you,¡± the voice hissed directly into my ear. I jumped, and my hand immediately jumped up to grab at whatever was talking, but again I felt nothing but dead air. ¡°I told you to leave him alone!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know who,¡± I started to argue, but a sharp chill running up my back stopped my voice. IT started near my tailbone, travelling up quickly until it reached my shoulder - the same shoulder that it had grabbed last time. In the dream, my shoulder was a lot more sore than it was in real life, as though the injured flesh was still present. Hands, or maybe talons, crossed against the shredded skin before pressing down again. ¡°You must leave,¡± it said, its knife-like fingers cutting new patches of skin to ribbons. I tried to keep from screaming at the pain, but it was a battle I was losing. ¡°Run, and never look back. Leave him to me!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t¡­do that,¡± I panted, and felt the hand grip harder. ¡°You must, or you will die for it!¡± the thing warned. Even without seeing it, I could sense it moving closer to me. Though I couldn¡¯t see the creature, I imagined it looking like the creatures in horror movies, with hollowed out eyes and gaping holes where mouths used to be. ¡°I will kill you for it.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± I said again through gritted teeth. I felt one sharp point of a talon press into my back, just heavily enough for a light trickle of blood to spring forth. ¡°Then I¡¯ll make you.¡± Chapter 19: Monsters I woke up to heavy pounding at my door, and I immediately jumped out of bed. I was half expecting myself to still be stuck to the chair in my dream, which made me stumble a bit, but I managed to catch myself before I fell to the ground. ¡°Andi, hold on!¡± shouted a voice from outside the door as there was a momentary pause in the pounding noise. ¡°If you can hear me, Caitlin has gone to get the manager to unlock the door. We¡¯ll be in there in a minute!¡± Why did that voice sound familiar, I asked myself. Thinking was like trying to wade through a heavy fog, and I was having trouble even remembering where I was. I looked around, and started to remember the hotel room. The pounding at the door was Liam, and maybe Luke, too. I shook my head, trying to remove the last bits of fog as I headed toward the door and unlocked the bolt. The shoved the door open immediately, almost knocking me down in the process, but Liam managed to catch me as I started to fall. ¡°Andi!¡± he said, his voice still near a yell. ¡°Are you alright?¡± ¡°I think so?¡± I asked, pulling myself back to my feet. Like last time, none of the pain of the dream had followed me back to real life. ¡°You were screaming in your room,¡± Liam said, guiding me over to the couch to sit down. ¡°We thought you¡¯d hurt yourself or were having a seizure or something.¡± ¡°No,¡± I responded, reaching my hand up to feel my shoulder, just like before, there was no injury. ¡°Or at least, I don¡¯t think so. I think it was just a bad dream.¡± ¡°A dream bad enough to wake us all up?¡± Luke asked. I noticed for the first time that he was standing there just in his gym shorts, and Liam was just wearing a pair of boxers. I guess I wasn¡¯t much better, in an old t-shirt and shorts. ¡°Was it the ghost again?¡± Liam asked, paying no attention to Luke¡¯s question. ¡°Again?¡± Luke asked while I nodded. ¡°In the same room?¡± I nodded again. ¡°What the fuck is going on, and why am I not a part of it?¡± Luke demanded. Liam looked at me and raised his eyebrows, as though checking to make sure it was okay with me that he told the story. I nodded for a third time, and he told Luke his version of events, clueing Caitlin into them, too, when she walked back in. ¡°So,¡± Caitlin said slowly as Luke finished telling her about the dreams. I hadn¡¯t explained the new dream I¡¯d had yet, but none of them had asked. Frankly, I was glad, because I wasn¡¯t sure I was ready to talk it through it just yet. ¡°You¡¯ve been having dreams about this ghost that¡¯s not like any other ghost you¡¯ve ever seen?¡± She thought about it for a second, then shrugged. ¡°I mean, we¡¯ve all had the occasional nightmare. Most of us don¡¯t wake up half a hotel, but it is what it is.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Most of us don¡¯t have these sorts of effects, either,¡± Liam said, gesturing to me. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how rough I looked - I certainly didn¡¯t feel great. ¡°I don¡¯t know if we can really compare that to our bullshit.¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t think it¡¯s real, right?¡± Luke asked. ¡°Like, as far as you can tell, this is just some weird dream, maybe brought on by the fact that you¡¯re doing actual ghost hunting?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve done ghost hunting before,¡± I answered, my voice sounding as shaky as I felt. I wasn¡¯t sure why this time seemed to be affecting me so much more than the last one, but there was something in my gut that told me that this time was more important than the last one. ¡°But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s real. I don¡¯t seem to actually be injured.¡± I lifted up my sleeve to show them, as though I had to provide evidence of the claim they were so willing to believe. Caitlin nodded. ¡°But,¡± she started, ¡°it could still be both - it could be that the ghost is real, but that the injuries in the dream are not, couldn¡¯t it?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Maybe? I¡¯ve never had a ghost enter one of my dreams, so I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s actually possible.¡± ¡°And you said that the ghost wanted you to leave him alone?¡± I nodded. ¡°Who¡¯s him?¡± ¡°They never said,¡± Liam answered for me. ¡°Although unless they¡¯re talking about some other ghost, I¡¯ve got a couple of guesses.¡± He pointed to both himself and Luke. ¡°I suppose it¡¯s too much to ask that it¡¯s just one ghost that¡¯s really pissed at the ghost you saw in here yesterday?¡± ¡°It seems weird, but I suppose it¡¯s as possible as anything else,¡± I agreed. ¡°I¡¯ve only had this dream here, but there¡¯s been a lot of things that I¡¯ve only done in the last few days.¡± ¡°Well then,¡± Caitlin said, standing up from the edge of my bed she¡¯d been perched on, ¡°I, for one, think that the best course of action would be to get the fuck out of here.¡± ¡°Now?¡± Luke complained. She looked at her watch. ¡°It¡¯s 7:00 in the morning. I know we were up to date trying to get you unpossessed, but these are normal human hours. And I, for one, don¡¯t want to go back to sleep just to be woken up by screaming again.¡± I nodded, unsure of what I was going to do. My flight was still not for a couple more days, but there was no way I was going to be able to afford this hotel for myself. I supposed I could go and find a local Days Inn? I couldn¡¯t help but sigh. As though reading my mind, Caitlin grabbed my empty bag and tossed it to me. ¡°And of course, you¡¯ll be staying at the boy¡¯s place,¡± she said with a smile. ¡°I¡¯ll be staying there too for a bit. There are plenty of spare rooms, and believe it or not, it¡¯s more homey than this place. Hopefully fewer ghosts, too.¡± I blinked, trying to process it. Man, I couldn¡¯t ever remember my brain being this slow before. ¡°You want me to stay at their place?¡± ¡°Only if you want to, of course,¡± Liam said with a grin. ¡°It could be good, too,¡± Luke added. ¡°At least while we¡¯re working on the video. I assume you don¡¯t have any professional recording equipment at your house, just in case we need to rerecord some audio?¡± I shook my head. ¡°Then it¡¯s settled!¡± Caitlin exclaimed. ¡°We can leave you to get packed up, and we¡¯ll plan on heading out in a half hour. Nobody,¡± she looked pointedly at Luke, ¡°go back to sleep.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve gone back to sleep all of once when we were on a tight deadline!¡± he argued. ¡°Once is enough for me to always remember it,¡± Caitlin said. The two of them headed out the door, but Liam hung back, packing up some of the remaining camera equipment. As soon as the door was closed, though, he abandoned the bag and walked up to me. He grabbed my hand and lightly squeezed it. ¡°I know you¡¯ve already been asked this, but I just wanted to double check for myself,¡± he started. ¡°Are you okay?¡± ¡°I think so,¡± I said, more sure than the last time I had said it. Liam''s eyes burrowed into me, clearly trying to figure out if I was actually telling him the truth. Eventually, he must have figured it out, because he squeezed my hand one more time, then let it go. ¡°You know,¡± he said, as he threw the strap of the camera bag over his shoulder, ¡°if you¡¯re ever not okay, I would really appreciate it you told me, right?¡± I nodded. ¡°Okay, good. Because we¡¯re in this together, and I need to know that you and Luke and Caitlin are all okay. You guys are my family now, and you mean more to me than these ghosts ever did. Maybe not much more,¡± he joked, lightly slapping the camera bag, ¡°but more.¡± As he turned to leave, I couldn¡¯t help but think about how fast I seemed to have been adopted into the group. I had to admit it to myself, but part of the hesitation earlier was not just not knowing where to go, but not wanting to leave. I was glad that at least one of them felt the same way. Trauma bonding at its finest. Chapter 20: Remedy When Caitlin said that we were going to Luke and Liam¡¯s house, what I imagined was that they must live relatively close. What I hadn¡¯t imagined, but what had actually ended up happening, was that she would buy a whole new plane ticket for me to fly with them to their house in Los Angeles. When she told me this, I immediately tried to back out, and told her that I could find some other place to stay, but more or less told me to get over myself, and that I would be coming with them. It was hard to say no after that point. And even harder to say no when she told me that she¡¯d already refunded my original ticket, so if I wanted to go straight back to my house, I¡¯d have to buy my own. So, I thought, I might as well go to their house. I¡¯d never been to Los Angeles before, and it wasn¡¯t like I had anything particularly exciting waiting for me back home. I called my mom to update her on the situation and see if she would be able to watch Poe for a few more days. Once I assured her that I wasn¡¯t actually being kidnapped, she seemed happy for me to be finally going on a trip. Like Caitlin said, it took her less than a half hour to get a flight scheduled for the four of us. I suppose that made sense, since Los Angeles is one of the largest destinations, but I was still impressed. We boarded the plane, and 6 hours later, we were in Los Angeles in Caitlin¡¯s car. It was a large SUV that was only a little more worn than the one she had rented in Orlando, but it was large enough to easily fit all of our bags and the camera equipment. ¡°Do you all want to swing by a taco truck for dinner quick on the way back?¡± Caitlin asked, pulling out of the parking lot at a speed that would have made my mother cry, but that seemed pretty average for the drivers around here. ¡°If I ever tell you that I don¡¯t want food from a taco truck, I¡¯ll need you to make sure I haven¡¯t been switched with an imposter,¡± Liam said, leaning forward to get into the front seat area, where Caitlin and Luke were sitting. Now that I was apparently a regular for this group, the chivalry of letting me sit in the front seat was gone, and instead, Luke called shotgun the moment we saw the valet pulling up. ¡°Or you¡¯ve been possessed?¡± Caitlin offered, glancing over at Luke, but he just laughed. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure even then, I still would have wanted tacos.¡± They chatted, trying to debate which truck would be the best for tacos, but after we actually picked up food, the conversation lulled. I had been warned that everywhere in Los Angeles took a while to get too, but it was my first time experiencing such a long drive while still being in the city. I didn¡¯t mind it, though - it gave me a chance to eat my frankly fantastic taco and look out the window. Every street we passed was full of people, even at the late hour. It reminded me of scenes in movies about New York. Granted, in the movies, there aren¡¯t nearly as many slight distortions of spirits, but I figured the amount of spirits in this town would be rampant. Anywhere with meaning tends to hold on to more ghosts, and this was a place where people came to try to get their big break in life, after all.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s actually gone,¡± Luke eventually said, after a moment where the silence of all eating had crept in. ¡°The spirit, I mean.¡± Caitlin shrugged. ¡°No idea, but why wouldn¡¯t it be? We saw it go into the Boo Buddy.¡± ¡°Well, I saw a light,¡± I pitched in from the back seat. ¡°I never actually saw a person or anything.¡± ¡°Yeah, but you saw the light, and you know it went into the bear, so what else could it have been?¡± Caitlin turned the corner onto a brightly lit street. The farther we got from the airport, the more spread out the houses were. Considering we¡¯d already made a couple of turns in this neighborhood, though, I assumed we must be getting close. ¡°No, I know,¡± Luke said. ¡°And it would make sense if it was gone, but it just doesn¡¯t feel any different. You¡¯d think I¡¯d feel different now, you know?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t feel any different when you got possessed,¡± Liam pointed out, but he turned to face me. His expression seemed to be asking me if what he was saying was actually a valid point, but I just shrugged. I¡¯d never been possessed, so I didn¡¯t know if you would feel anything when you became possessed. The closest I¡¯d been is having a spirit walk through me, and with that, you just felt a little cold. ¡°True. Maybe I¡¯m just overthinking it,¡± Luke said. He paused for a second, then opened his mouth to continue, but he was cut off by Caitlin. ¡°Home sweet home!¡± she said, turning abruptly into one of the large driveways. It was hard to see the house well in the dark, but from what I could see, it wasn¡¯t as large as I had originally thought. It was still way larger than any house that I had ever lived in, but it was far from a mansion, and from the outside, it didn¡¯t look particularly fancy. Definitely not as fancy as the hotel we¡¯d been staying in, which honestly put me more at ease than anything else. ¡°You literally don¡¯t live here,¡± Liam said, swinging his door open the moment the door stopped. I followed suit, and walked out into the chilly night. ¡°No, but I might as well, for the amount of time I stay here.¡± She walked around the the back of the SUV, where Liam had already opened up the hatch, and grabbed her bag out from the mess of cameras. ¡°I don¡¯t live here either,¡± I reminded them. ¡°Not yet!¡± Caitlin said chipperly. ¡°Your TikTok with the boys is doing great, so I¡¯d be surprised if the fans aren¡¯t begging for you to become a permanent fixture before the end of the week. And if that¡¯s the case, it would be easiest for you to move into one of the spare rooms. Just saying.¡± ¡°I have a cat back at my apartment,¡± I reminded her. Luke and Liam were trying to pick up every bag at once, so I went back to grab my overnight bag and the first unoccupied equipment bag I could find. If I was going to be staying here for longer than expected, hopefully they¡¯d let me throw in a load of laundry here, I thought. ¡°And you can move a cat,¡± she reminded me. ¡°Worst case scenario, we can always buy an extra plane ticket so your mom can bring him out for you.¡± She swung open the door to the house and stepped inside with a flourish, gesturing me through the entryway. ¡°But anyway, welcome to your new home, at least until we¡¯re done with these videos.¡± Chapter 21: Thats What You Get The house that had looked so unassuming from the outside had definitely been deceiving - the inside of Luke and Liam¡¯s house was entirely in shades of black, white, and gray, giving the house a strange old movie vibe. I had to admit, though, that it matched their personality - stylish and classic while still having a bit of an edge. But I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the fact that they incidentally had more black in their house than I did. Caitlin led me up to the room that she had decided would be mine. She told me that she picked it because it was the farthest room from hers and ¡°she didn¡¯t want to be woken up by any more screaming,¡± but honestly, it felt like the room was designed with me in mind. There was still plenty of black and white throughout the room, but unlike the shared areas, there were some splashes of blue and red throughout the room, including one large built-in bookshelf with a multitude of different colored spines. Aside from the bed (which looked nearly alarmingly plush, considering how little sleep I had gotten the night before), there were only two main sets of furniture. There was a chest of drawers that were black and white on one side of the room, and on the other side of the room, there was a large computer station. I set my bag down on top of the chest of drawers and pulled one open - all empty. At least that would make it easy if I did end up staying for a while. I had walked over to look at the computer station, just because it was the only other thing in the room, when I heard a light shuffling noise at the door. I turned around quickly, not quite sure what to expect - after these last couple of days, there wasn¡¯t a lot that could surprise me anymore. Liam stood, arms crossed and leaning on the side of the doorframe, looking at me with an expression I couldn¡¯t quite understand. He looked like he had just gotten out of the shower, as his characteristically floppy hair was still weighed down, and he was in just a pair of plaid, flannel pants. ¡°Sorry about having to stick you in the room with my editing station,¡± he said, nodding his head toward the computer setup. ¡°Caitlin was really freaked out about the whole screaming thing.¡± ¡°I think we all were,¡± I said, turning to face him. ¡°It¡¯s not every day that someone wakes you up with a scream.¡± Whatever serious expression had taken hold of Liam¡¯s face momentarily lifted as he gave a slight half-smile. ¡°Clearly you haven¡¯t spent much time around my family.¡± I cocked an eyebrow at him. ¡°You had a lot people screaming in the middle of the night when you were growing up?¡± He chuckled quietly. ¡°It¡¯s one of the fun perks of growing up in a large family. But I was gonna say, if you feel like using my computer, you can. You can even watch the newest video if you want - just please, try not to rearrange the clips, because it¡¯ll be a pain in the ass to get them back again.¡± I nodded appreciatively. ¡°Something tells me that you didn¡¯t rush here to tell me about computer access, though.¡±A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. He shrugged. ¡°I didn¡¯t, but it seemed equally important. And a hell of a lot easier.¡± He lowered his voice for the last part, so low that I almost couldn¡¯t hear him from where he stood. ¡°Can I come in?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± I asked, worried. I¡¯d only been here for a couple of days, I thought - there was no way that I could have already messed up so badly that he¡¯d need to talk to me in private. But he didn¡¯t look mad, so maybe I was just catastrophizing. Liam nodded his thanks and walked in, closing the door behind him. He silently crossed the room and sat in the computer chair, so I sat on the bed to be on a more equal footing to him. ¡°I wanted to talk about Luke.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but give a tiny sigh of relief. He stopped talking and looked at me curiously. I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks, but I tried to ignore it. ¡°Go on,¡± I prompted. ¡°Sure¡­¡± he started slowly, raising an eyebrow at me, but then he shook his head slowly, clearly deciding to ignore it. ¡°I¡¯m worried that Luke is still possessed, and I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s a ghost.¡± I nodded slowly, processing his words before I responded. It was clear that he¡¯d given this a lot of thought before he came to talk to me, and maybe that¡¯s why he had seemed quieter than normal on the flight. But it didn¡¯t make any sense. Sure, I hadn¡¯t actually seen a spirit attach itself to the Boo Buddy, but what else could that light have been? I decided to start with what felt like the easiest question. ¡°What makes you think Luke is still possessed?¡± ¡°See, that¡¯s the thing,¡± he said, leaning forward in his chair and clasping his hands in front of him. He looked like he was closer to prayer than an explanation. ¡°Since you haven¡¯t seen any possessed people before, you might not know about any of this, and I don¡¯t know if any of the other possessions that I¡¯ve seen have been actual possessions, so maybe I¡¯m just judging this based on nothing at all. But whenever other people have been possessed, there¡¯s something about their personality that drastically shifts. Usually, it¡¯s super noticeable - if it¡¯s in a video, it¡¯s blatant enough that our viewers can point out the exact time that it happens. But this time, it was weird because I don¡¯t even know when he first got possessed. I was thinking, maybe it happened at the Peters Building, but honestly, there haven¡¯t been any major changes.¡± ¡°It wouldn¡¯t have to specifically be at a famously haunted location,¡± I reminded him. ¡°Honestly, if a possession were to happen, it would make more sense if it happened in connection to the death of a person close to him, like it does with object possession.¡± ¡°And nobody around him has died recently, either,¡± he said. ¡°He might have had a grandparent die in the past or something, but not anytime recently that I know of, and not anyone he was particularly close to. But anyway, then I was thinking, he has been a bit different lately. He¡¯s been way less outgoing recently - he used to be nearly as talkative than I am, but when I thought about it, I realized that, in a lot of our conversations with newer people, I¡¯ve been the one doing most of the talking. Even with this,¡± he said, gesturing between the two of us, ¡°I know Luke hasn¡¯t blatantly ignored you or anything, but I haven¡¯t seen him going out of his way to chat, either.¡± He was right - while he¡¯d been friendly, I wouldn¡¯t exactly describe Luke as extroverted. Or, at least, not nearly as much as Liam. ¡°And he wasn¡¯t always like that?¡± I asked. ¡°No!¡± he said with a light laugh. ¡°He used to be the one to arrange all of the trips for us, back before we hired Caitlin. He loved talking to the owners and getting the history. So, I was trying to think of when that all changed. Obviously, it changed a little bit after we hired Caitlin, but for a while, he was still as chatty as ever. And I don¡¯t think there was ever a drastic switch, but he slowly started to get less talkative, and I think it started happening after we did a ghost hunt at the Graham House. Did you ever see that video?¡± I shook my head. ¡°I hate to break it to you, but I didn¡¯t religiously watch your videos.¡± He smiled again, which made me feel a weird sensation in my chest. It must have just been the proximity. ¡°Then, you¡¯ve got your homework cut out for you.¡± He gestured with his thumb to the computer behind him. ¡°I can grab Luke¡¯s computer chair from the other room. Want to watch?¡± Chapter 22: Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy Watching more of Luke and Liam¡¯s videos made me really regret being willing to be in them. They were sensationalist, made a huge deal about nothing, and were full of stupid humor that made me question what kind of audience they had. And yet, as I sat there beside Liam, I couldn¡¯t help but love it. It may not have been something I would have ever enjoyed watching by myself, but there was something about filming the videos that made them so much more fun to watch. As they walked through the dark rooms of the old house/museum they were exploring, It almost felt like I was there with them, walking around and talking to the air. We watched the entire episode together, laughing at the stupid jokes and occasionally pausing so Liam could give more context to what was going on in the house. He would also point out things that he thought were for sure ghost activity, but I didn¡¯t see a ghost throughout the entire episode. ¡°So that¡¯s where you thought that Luke might have gotten possessed?¡± I asked as the end screen played. ¡°I hate to break it to you, but I didn¡¯t see any ghosts throughout the video.¡± ¡°I figured,¡± he said with a slight shrug, ¡°but there were a lot of spots that got cut out of the video. Besides the fact that Luke seemed to start changing around this time, though, one of the reasons why I suspect this might be the place is because one of the ghosts at the Graham House is supposedly the daughter of one of the owners, and the apparition of a little girl is one of the most commonly seen ones.¡± I nodded, remembering them talking about that in the video. ¡°So you¡¯re thinking that, in one of the points that you cut out of the video, she might have possessed Luke?¡± ¡°It¡¯s as possible as anything else, isn¡¯t it?¡± I shrugged in response. ¡°I wish we still had the parts of the video that got cut out, but that was so long ago, it would have been deleted to make space for new things.¡± ¡°Yeah, that probably would have been our only way of knowing for sure,¡± I said with a sigh. ¡°But you said that you thought that he might not have been possessed by a ghost,¡± I reminded him. ¡°If the Graham House is haunted by the ghost of a little girl, how could it be the same.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s the thing,¡± he said, lightly turning his chair to better face me. His knees knocked into mine in a way that I couldn¡¯t help but notice, but he didn¡¯t move them away. ¡°Have you heard the theory about ghosts of little girls?¡± I shook my head. ¡°I try my best to stay away from theories created by people who can¡¯t even see ghosts,¡± I said.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sorry to drag you into one, then,¡± he said, giving me a little half smile. ¡°So, there¡¯s this prevailing theory that ghosts never appear as children. Because of that, if you see the ghost of a child, that means that it¡¯s not actually a ghost. The theory says that any child ghosts are actually demonic.¡± I started shaking my head halfway through his sentence. ¡°That¡¯s not how the ghost world works,¡± I said. ¡°From everything I¡¯ve gathered from actually talking with ghosts, once you die, you can appear to be whatever age you want to be. So, if you¡¯d prefer to be a child, you can be.¡± ¡°Sure, but who would actually prefer to be a child in the afterlife?¡± Liam said in a tone that was only halfway joking. ¡°If I was going to be any age, I¡¯d be about the age I am now - old enough for people to take me seriously, but not old enough to be considered old.¡± ¡°You might,¡± I said, emphasizing the word ¡®you.¡¯ ¡°But what if you died as a child and that was the only thing you¡¯d ever known? Or maybe life got harder for you as you got older, and you realized that the best times in your life were when you were a young child.¡± ¡°Yeah, but how many times have you actually seen it?¡± he said, emphasizing the word ¡®seen.¡¯ I thought for a second. I knew I had definitely seen a few child ghosts here and there, usually when I had visited a hospital ward. The kids were always some of my favorite to deal with - always sweet to be around, they were ready to play, and it was never a huge task to get them to go toward the light. The same couldn¡¯t be said for adults - often they were stuck in their ways, and that was the exact reason why they were stuck here. ¡°A few,¡± I answered after a minute. ¡°And how many acted like this?¡± ¡°Absolutely none.¡± Liam nodded slowly, as though waiting for me to piece it together. ¡°So,¡± he eventually started, ¡°the prevailing theory that I¡¯ve seen is that demons will come to Earth and will present themselves specifically as little girls, because everyone would think they¡¯re cute and innocent or whatever. But in reality, they attach themselves to someone and they start draining their life energy from them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯ve been so concerned about the possibility of demons with Luke,¡± he continued. ¡°He¡¯s been so tired lately, and he keeps saying that he hasn¡¯t been able to sleep, so what if it¡¯s more than that.¡± ¡°But demons don¡¯t exist,¡± I reminded him. ¡°Ghosts are real, but I¡¯ve never seen anything that would even point to a demon.¡± ¡°Yeah, but you also had never seen a possession, and that obviously happened,¡± he said, turning his chair to purposely bump his knee lightly against mine. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s time to face the idea that you just don¡¯t know everything.¡± ¡°Well, that definitely can¡¯t be it,¡± I joked, and a light smile lit up his face. We sat in companionable silence for a moment later, both just staring at the paused end screen on the computer. ¡°So,¡± I said slowly, and he turned to look at me. There it was again - that expression that I couldn¡¯t quite read. ¡°If this actually is a demon, then I¡¯m out of my depth with this one. Ghosts are pretty cooperative, but I have to imagine demons would not be.¡± ¡°Probably not. Which, I suppose, means there¡¯s still a good chance he¡¯s possessed.¡± I nodded. ¡°Do you have any way to check to see if there¡¯s something in the Boo Buddy?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t notice a spirit in there earlier, but I assumed I was missing something,¡± I answered. ¡°But even if there was, there¡¯s no way to tell for sure unless the spirit wants you to know about it.¡± ¡°Well,¡± he said, suddenly pushing back his chair and standing up. ¡°I suppose we¡¯ll just have to ask him then, won¡¯t we?¡± He held out his hand to help me up, and I took it. Call me crazy, but I was starting to think that the tingles that went down my spine every time he touched me had nothing to do with the ghost hunting anymore. Chapter 23: The Curse of Curves Liam ran the sleeve of an old sweatshirt over the dusty shelf in the garage, then plopped the old bear on it. ¡°This will probably be the best place to do this anyway,¡± he explained. ¡°Otherwise, Luke might walk in on us, and I have to imagine that it would complicate matters if the potential demon knows we¡¯re on to them.¡± We stood in the dark garage, illuminated by one of the stupid ghost hunting flashlights that Liam apparently insisted on bringing with him everywhere. At least this time, the flashlight top was fully screwed on, so it wasn¡¯t flashing every few seconds. ¡°Ahh, yes, demons are known to hate garages.¡± He bumped his elbow against mine to shut me up. ¡°Ideally, it¡¯s not a demon, and is instead some lost little ghost girl who loves living in this bear, and we know the dark makes them more comfortable.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not true actually,¡± I corrected him. ¡°Wait, what?¡± he asked, grabbing my shoulder lightly to turn me toward him. He didn¡¯t seem too concerned about it, so I just smiled at him innocently. ¡°Ghosts don¡¯t care if it¡¯s dark or light - I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s just something that like Zak Bagans made up and everyone just follows it. Same with those flashlights,¡± I said, pointing to the light source. ¡°It doesn¡¯t do anything except make it annoying to see. If ghosts could adjust them to make them work, there would be a lot more easy ways to get your attention.¡± Liam let go of my shoulder with a little ¡®hmmph¡¯ noise, as though he would have never considered that that was false. I ignored him, instead leaning down to look at the bear. The glass, lifeless eyes stared back at me. Admittedly, I wasn¡¯t sure what I was supposed to do at this point. With every other haunted object I¡¯d interacted with, I would barely get into the same room as the object before a ghost would come springing out. In general, ghosts that possessed objects were lonelier than ghosts that just haunted buildings, possibly because they got less of a chance to see people. But, if the ghost was in the bear, it hadn¡¯t been there for very long, so it probably wasn¡¯t very lonely yet. I cleared my throat. ¡°Hello!¡± I said, as cheerily as possible, as if we weren¡¯t in a dusty, dark garage. ¡°My name¡¯s Andromeda! What¡¯s your name?¡± Silence rang through the room as we waited for the response, but nothing came. ¡°If you¡¯re in there, we just want to help,¡± I said gently. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Yeah,¡± Liam chimed in. ¡°We want to help you and make sure you¡¯re not still in our friend.¡± ¡°I¡¯d say you¡¯re not helping,¡± I shot over my shoulder, ¡°but I¡¯m pretty sure there¡¯s nothing in here anyway.¡± Liam¡¯s eyebrows raised, nearly imperceptible in the dark. ¡°You can tell that already?¡± ¡°You say that like I haven¡¯t been talking to ghosts for nearly 30 years.¡± ¡°Touche. Well, I guess we can just leave Boo Buddy here and -¡± ¡°Brrr¡­it just got cold in here!¡± Liam froze as the bear spoke the words in the tinny, pre-programmed voice that it always used. I stared at him curiously, wondering why he was concerned, but then I noticed the chill creeping over the room. Within a matter of seconds, the room must have dropped at least 15 degrees. ¡°What the fuck,¡± Liam whispered, then locked eyes with me. His eyes were wide - apparently the garage wasn¡¯t prone to random cold spats. I was about to suggest that maybe the air conditioning kicked on in another part of the house when Liam¡¯s crappy flashlight died, leaving us in a pitch black room. My lungs suddenly burned, as I couldn¡¯t pull in enough oxygen. This was just like my dreams, I tried hard to keep myself from thinking, but it was true. The only thing that would have made it more realistic would be the feeling of that cold, taloned hand against me. Tears sprung from my eyes as I whirled around, trying to find any source of light (the doors hadn¡¯t been airtight, after all - why couldn¡¯t I see a crack of light from underneath them?), and getting ready to fight anything that got close to me. When I felt a hand close on my wrist, I screamed and tried to shake it off. When that didn¡¯t work, I tried to claw it off. I didn¡¯t process the noise around me for another few seconds. Even when I could hear, I could barely process sound above the beating of my own heart. But what I did hear was Liam saying ¡°Shhh, Andi, it¡¯s me. I¡¯m here.¡± ¡°Liam?¡± I cried. I didn¡¯t want to be in this world by myself, and I didn¡¯t want to have to fight off the creature on my own, but I definitely didn¡¯t want him to get hurt too. ¡°Liam, you have to get out!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not leaving you.¡± His voice was strong, and I felt a pull on my wrist from the same hand I¡¯d just been clawing at. I think I realized it was Liam¡¯s hand, and I allowed myself to be pulled into him. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his chest. ¡°I¡¯m here. Just breathe. Nothing bad is going to happen with me here.¡± I did my best to listen to what he said, and I tried to match my breathing to his own. It was hard to do, though, but as I felt the dampness of my tears against him, it was like a splash of cold water, and my heart rate started to calm. ¡°That¡¯s it, slow breaths,¡± he said, slower than he normally talked. ¡°We¡¯re going to start walking toward the house together, okay? I don¡¯t know why the light went out, but I know that if anything wants to get to you, it¡¯s going to have to go through me, okay?¡± I whimpered, and he just chuckled lightly. ¡°Even through this, you sound like you¡¯re worried about me. But you don¡¯t need to worry - I can hold my own, even against demons. Come on.¡± Slowly, we started walking toward the door to the garage, step by step, as Liam carefully kept the pace even enough that I wouldn¡¯t be brought back to the edge of panic. But by the time we¡¯d almost gotten to the door, I was more numb than anything. Fear has a strange way of doing that to you - as soon as the danger has passed, it¡¯s hard to feel anything anymore. So I didn¡¯t feel anything except the ever-pressing darkness and the warmth of Liam¡¯s arms. We were only a few steps from the door to the garage when it suddenly flung open, the sudden light blinding my already sore eyes. In the doorway, Caitlin stood, holding a golf club like a bludgeon. She looked between the two of us, confused at first. Then she took in my face and immediately turned to Liam, her face already turning red with anger. ¡°And just what,¡± she said, her voice rising with every word, ¡°in the god damned fucking hell do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± Chapter 24: Helena ¡°A demon?¡± Caitlin asked. Liam had somehow managed to get her calmed down, and we were now all (except for Luke, who had apparently made a trip to the gym, which Liam joked was a sure sign that he was still possessed by something) sitting in the black and white living room with blankets and cups of coffee that Caitlin had insisted I needed. I hadn¡¯t argued - after the time in the garage, my nerves were so frayed that I didn¡¯t think caffeine would hurt anything. ¡°I know I¡¯ve heard other ghost hunting groups talk about them, but I honestly thought they were a myth.¡± ¡°That makes two of us,¡± I agreed. ¡°And we¡¯re still not sure about that, mind you.¡± ¡°Speak for yourself,¡± Liam said, picking at the bandage on his hand. Apparently, in my desperation to escape from his grasp, I had scratched him hard enough to draw blood in a couple of spots. He barely even flinched when Caitlin was patching him up, though - he just kept his eyes on me, as though he was sure that at any moment, I¡¯d fall back into my panic attack. I wasn¡¯t fully ruling it out, either. ¡°I¡¯ve seen a lot of crazy ghost shit, and I¡¯ve never seen something like that. My vote is demon.¡± ¡°Your vote has always been demon,¡± Caitlin said, swatting at Liam¡¯s hand so he stopped messing with the gauze. ¡°Maybe we¡¯re just overreacting, you know? Maybe we can just take Boo Buddy out to the fire pit and get rid of him once and for all.¡± I shook my head. ¡°It might help in the short term, but if there actually is a demon in the bear, you¡¯ll just let it loose in the house again.¡± ¡°So what do you suggest, then?¡± Liam asked. ¡°Other than containing it and hoping for the best, I¡¯m not sure if there¡¯s anything we can do,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°Maybe we could get a featured spot in the Warren¡¯s museum?¡± ¡°Or we just shove it into a box in the back of the closet and assume it can¡¯t find its way out,¡± Caitlin offered. ¡°It might work,¡± I conceded. ¡°Just so long as it doesn¡¯t turn into an Annabelle situation where she starts chasing us around the house.¡± ¡°Like she¡¯s already been doing,¡± Liam asked. Caitlin sighed, then pulled out her phone and typed something into it. ¡°There, I took care of it.¡± Liam¡¯s eyebrows raised at her. ¡°You took care of it in fifteen seconds.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I asked Circe if she wanted it. I¡¯m assuming the answer is yes, because she¡¯s got quite a collection of haunted objects. Then she can get this ghost doll and we don¡¯t have to worry about it and can get back to filming. Everyone happy?¡± I looked at Liam. It wasn¡¯t a brilliant solution, but it was probably the best that we were going to get for the time being. *** Liam and I retreated back to our room for a couple of hours. He was the one who suggested it, and I thought it was a brilliant idea - I needed a bit to be in a safe place alone to fully calm down. Caitlin, in the meantime, had boxed up the Boo Buddy and ran it down the the post office. After she¡¯d mailed if off, she texted me to let me know that she hadn¡¯t noticed anything weird happening with it. That gave me less comfort than I¡¯m sure she thought it would. After all, I would have thought it was safe in the garage until it suddenly wasn¡¯t.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Or, at least, that¡¯s what I thought? The longer I lay in the way too plushy bed, thinking about what had happened, I started wondering if I¡¯d even been in danger at all. I mean, yeah, the temperature shifted suddenly, but it was a garage. Had I not seen the weather shift significantly before? And if it gets suddenly cold outside, it would probably get suddenly cold in the garage. And yeah, it got suddenly dark, but Liam had been using his crappy old flashlight. Maybe the easy answer was just that the flashlight died and that I was touchy. I had almost convinced myself that it was all in my head when I decided to sneak down to the kitchen to try to find something for dinner. It was closing in on 8 PM, which was late for dinner for me, and I¡¯d been pretty hungry already, but I thought it would be better to calm down before I headed downstairs. I started walking down to the kitchen, but the door a couple down from mine was open a crack, and I peeked through as I was walking by. It was a brightly lit room, following the color scheme of the rest of the house, with the exception of the posters on the wall. The walls were covered with old movie posters. I was so distracted by them, that I almost didn¡¯t see Liam notice me from where he sat. ¡°Do you like my collection?¡± he said, and I jumped at the sound. He laughed quietly. ¡°You can come in, you know. I¡¯ve been wanting to check on you, but I wanted to give you a chance to rest first.¡± I pushed open the door, flooding the light into the hall, and leaned against the door frame with my arms crossed, much like he had earlier that day. ¡°I think you¡¯re the one who needed a chance to rest more than me, considering you actually got injured.¡± ¡°Ahh, this old thing,¡± he said, gesturing to his bandage. ¡°It¡¯s just a scratch. Plus, if I¡¯m lucky, it¡¯ll scar, and women love a good scar story.¡± ¡°Do we?¡± I joked back. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ve ever asked a story about a scar in my life.¡± He instantly pulled up his sleeve, revealing a pale slash against his upper arm. ¡°Not even now?¡± he said with a grin. I grinned back. ¡°I suppose I must, at this point.¡± He dropped his sleeve back down and nodded smugly. ¡°I fell out of a tree when I was a kid and broke my arm.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a very good story.¡± ¡°Ahh, but you still asked for it, and that¡¯s the point. So, what are you doing out wandering around?¡± ¡°I was going to go down to find some sort of food. I was getting a little hungry up there wallowing.¡± Liam instantly jumped up and started toward me. ¡°I¡¯ll go with you, he said, gesturing for me to leave the room. ¡°I could use some food myself, too. Plus, I don¡¯t know what we actually have in the house, so we might have to order something in, and I definitely don¡¯t want to miss that.¡± There was indeed no food in the kitchen, so we ended up ordering pizza for everyone in the house. Luke had gotten back from the gym and was starving, so we ended up getting a ton, but I didn¡¯t mind. They ordered from some local place, and it was better than any pizza I had ever had back home. ¡°So,¡± Luke said through a full mouth of cheese, ¡°did you get a chance to watch the video yet?¡± ¡°Which one?¡± I asked, dunking the crust of my bread into the remains of a marinara sauce. ¡°What do you mean which one? We¡¯ve got two videos that you were even in, and I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve done more than import the footage from the exorcism yet.¡± ¡°Oh, is the video from the Peter¡¯s Building completely done, then?¡± He and Liam both nodded excitedly. ¡°Then no, I haven¡¯t seen it yet. Maybe we should have a movie night for it?¡± ¡°You guys can do whatever you want,¡± said Caitlin, as she piled up a plate with a few more slices of pizza, ¡°but I, at least, am going back to my room to work on our next project.¡± ¡°Is it your room if you don¡¯t even live here?¡± Liam asked as she walked away. She just flipped him off and kept walking. ¡°Well,¡± Liam said, grabbing the leftover pizza boxes, ¡°I would be up for a movie night.¡± Luke nodded. ¡°Shall we all head to the living room?¡± We sat down on the pristine couches, plates full of pizza that I was worried about dropping, and Liam cast the video from his phone. ¡°What¡¯s up, everybody! We¡¯re Luke and Liam, and we¡¯re here today visiting the Peter¡¯s Building! This one might be familiar to you guys - we just visited this building not too long ago, but we¡¯re here under different circumstances. This time, we brought someone who can see ghosts with us! Let¡¯s back up and Introduce you to Andi!¡± The scene cut to us in the car - the section they¡¯d filmed when we were driving to the Peter¡¯s Building. You could barely see anything because of the dark, but then Luke had turned on a small light to get a better shot. ¡°Stop!¡± I said, and Liam immediately reached out to pause the video. There, in the corner of the screen, sitting right next to me in the car, was the little girl I¡¯d seen in the original video. Chapter 25: Dark Blue The eyes of the small girl burned into the lens of the camera, as though she were trying to stare it down. Luke and Liam couldn¡¯t see anything of course - they said that it looked like there was just a blank space right beside me. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t explain why I didn¡¯t see her when I was there,¡± I said, staring straight into the young girl¡¯s eyes. ¡°She was right there. How the hell did I not see here?¡± ¡°Maybe you just missed her?¡± Luke suggested. ¡°We were busy fucking around, plus it was dark. Maybe we distracted you and you just didn¡¯t notice.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you fully grasp what these things look like,¡± I said, possibly more harshly than I needed to. ¡°Would you miss a person if they were sitting literally right in front of you?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± he said with a shrug. ¡°In that case,¡± Liam joked, ¡°you are not the person I want to be bringing into abandoned buildings with me.¡± He cracked a half smile and looked at me to see if I would do the same for his joke, but I was too concerned to really think about humor right then. ¡°If this is something that I actually can¡¯t see except in video, then we¡¯re all in more danger than we thought,¡± I reminded them. ¡°This thing could be anywhere around us, and I would have no idea.¡± ¡°Except this thing hasn¡¯t done anything to anyone except give you a couple of nightmares,¡± Luke snipped back, his arms crossed. ¡°Or,¡± Liam immediately cut in, grabbing my hand and giving it a light squeeze, ¡°maybe the ghost is in a box, headed to another part of the country, and we won¡¯t have to worry about it again.¡± I let out a large sigh. Maybe Liam was right and I was freaking out over nothing. There was something in my bones that told me that that wasn¡¯t the case, though. But honestly, when had my intuition been serving me at all lately? Caitlin¡¯s head popped in through the doorway, and she gave us all a questioning look. ¡°Why do I feel like I¡¯m missing something and, if so, why are you not recording it?¡± ¡°Andi sees a ghost in the video that she didn¡¯t see on the day of filming.¡± She raised her eyebrows and her gaze focused on the screenshot on the monitor. ¡°In the rented car, no less. Any chance it could be a ghost that¡¯s related to the car? They could always be doing the old James Dean thing and using haunted parts from a death car.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I shook my head. ¡°Not unless that happens to be the same one you used the last time you went to the Peters Building. The ghost was the same one that I saw in the video.¡± She kept staring at the screen for a moment, as though she was trying to will herself to see what I was seeing, but then she seemed to give up and turn toward me. ¡°Did you see her anywhere else in the video?¡± Liam shook his head. ¡°We only got to where we put the footage of us driving there.¡± Caitlin rolled her eyes, then plopped down in a chair in the room. ¡°Well for god''s sake, play the fucking thing, and let us know if you see any more ghosts.¡± Luke looked at Liam, who gave him a quick shrug, so he also grabbed a chair, as Luke started the video. The girl wasn¡¯t in the rest of the video, which did help put me a little bit at ease - even if I couldn¡¯t see her, at least she didn¡¯t seem to show up very often. We all watched the rest of the video, and the three of them occasionally threw out a piece of information about the shoot or a fun fact about other places they¡¯ve been and how they were similar. When we got up to the section about the third floor (which had indeed been carefully cut so that the graffiti never showed up on screen), they told me the story about the time Liam almost fell through the floor - apparently they¡¯d been doing an Estes method reading where Liam was blindfolded and listening to the spirit box, but he¡¯d gotten up to walk instead of just sitting. He¡¯d learned his lesson and stayed in one place ever since. I had to admit it, coming from someone who used to drink just to get through their videos, I really enjoyed this one. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was just because I knew them, so now it felt like hanging out with friends, or if I¡¯d just changed as a person in these couple of days. Either option seemed possible. ¡°So?¡± Caitlin asked the second the end screen started to roll. ¡°Did you see any other ghosts?¡± ¡°Not even Grady which matches what I saw that night,¡± I answered. ¡°Shit,¡± she said. ¡°I was hoping we captured something again. But I suppose our audience won¡¯t know the difference.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll know that Andi said she didn¡¯t see anything,¡± Liam pointed out. He was right - it was one of the last shots in the video, right after they went over the potential evidence. It added a nice mystery to it, as to whether or not I was telling the truth. ¡°And that might affect whether or not they believe that she¡¯s a psychic,¡± Caitlin reminded them. ¡°Are you okay with that, Andi?¡± I nodded. ¡°If they believed Circe without any evidence, then I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll believe in me, too.¡± ¡°Hey, Circe¡¯s trying her best, okay? She¡¯s gotten rid of plenty of spirits for us.¡± Caitlin looked irritated that I might even insinuate that Circe wasn¡¯t telling the truth, so I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not saying she didn¡¯t,¡± I reminded her. ¡°I¡¯m just saying that she didn¡¯t have any proof to her claim either.¡± ¡°And,¡± Liam said, his voice slightly elevated in a way to let Caitlin know that she shouldn¡¯t continue that topic of conversation, ¡°we all know they¡¯re both good for the channel, so let¡¯s just drop it.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Caitlin said, standing up from her chair abruptly. ¡°In that case, I¡¯m going to actually head to bed. If you all approve that video, it should go up tonight. The algorithm for ghost videos seems to work better when they¡¯re posted later at night.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± Luke nodded. ¡°We can get that up.¡± ¡°And we¡¯ll monitor the comments to see the response to Andi.¡± Caitlin nodded. ¡°Wake me up if you need me. And don¡¯t need me.¡± The minute she was gone, Liam turned to Luke and sighed. ¡°She¡¯s in a mood tonight, isn¡¯t she?¡± Luke rolled his eyes. ¡°You know she¡¯s just protective of Circe. I hope you don¡¯t take any offense to that,¡± he said, his eyes flicking to mine. ¡°I don¡¯t think she dislikes you in any way, but you¡¯re always going to lose to her friend from high school.¡± ¡°They were friends in high school?¡± I asked, surprised. ¡°And they both got into this sort of a line of work?¡± Luke and Liam both laughed lightly. ¡°What¡¯s that old saying?¡± Luke asked. ¡°Birds of a feather and all that. Those of us with unusual interests sure do have to flock together.¡± Chapter 26: Here (In Your Arms) I woke up the next morning (night? I honestly had no idea what time it was, but it honestly felt like I¡¯d gotten the best night¡¯s sleep I¡¯ve ever had) to the sound of someone banging on my door. I opened my eyes lazily, taking a moment to remember why I was in a mostly monotone room. I pushed myself off of the memory foam mattress unwillingly and headed toward the door. On the other side stood Caitlin, looking more excited than I¡¯d ever seen her. ¡°It¡¯s a hit!¡± she nearly yelled. ¡°What¡¯s a hit?¡± I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I was trying to recall the last night, but it was like it was all done in a half-asleep haze. Probably because that¡¯s exactly what happened. I saw the ghost in the car. We watched the video. We posted the video. I stayed up with Luke and Liam for a bit while they monitored the response, until eventually Liam had walked me to my room because he said I looked like I was dead on my feet. That¡¯s what happened. ¡°The video!¡± Caitlin enthused. ¡°Or, I guess I should say, you¡¯re a hit! I¡¯ve been reading through the comments all morning, and this is officially the most comments that we¡¯ve ever gotten in the first twelve hours. And reading through, almost all of them are positive! The audience loves the drama of having one person who can actually see ghosts, and they seem to love you as a character! At this point, I don¡¯t think we¡¯d have any problem selling you as a permanent member of the team!¡± Slightly down the hallway, a door cracked. ¡°Any chance you could keep it down, Cait,¡± Liam said. He looked slightly worse for the wear than he had last night - there were dark circles under his eyes, and his hair had gone from stylishly unkempt to standing up haphazardly. I hated to admit it, but he was still pretty handsome that way. ¡°Some of us were up until pretty late, making sure we didn¡¯t get flooded with trolls.¡± ¡°And some of us were up early to check the status of our newest video,¡± she chimed back in a sing-song voice. ¡°And I¡¯m delighted to say that Andi here is a hit!¡± ¡°No shit,¡± he said, running his hand over his face. ¡°If they didn¡¯t like her, I would have been having serious concerns about our audience.¡± ¡°Well, you never know what our audience will believe and what they won¡¯t,¡± she reminded him. ¡°Telling them that someone is a psychic is a big ask, but they seem to have gone along with it. That said, we definitely have some work we need to do if we want to make her a permanent member of the team. We may need to change up the optics for the next video, especially if we¡¯re planning on dropping the video with Circe before it.¡± I felt the weight of her stare as she looked me up and down, as though she was trying to examine every inch of me from the audience¡¯s perspective. ¡°The goth look really helps a lot, considering it fits the vibe of what we¡¯re going for,¡± she said after a moment, ¡°but there¡¯s a definite nervous energy about you that our audience picked up right away, and that has a subset of them questioning if you¡¯re ready to do ghost hunting yet.¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I¡¯ve been ghost hunting my entire life,¡± I reminded her. ¡°Plus, it was her first time on the channel,¡± Liam pitched in. ¡°It can be disconcerting to see all of the cameras, especially if you¡¯ve got the pressure of a channel that already has millions of subscribers.¡± ¡°And we all know that,¡± Caitlin said, ¡°but our audience doesn¡¯t. Admittedly, that¡¯s mostly our fault,¡± she said, giving me a little sympathetic smile. ¡°We didn¡¯t do a great job explaining the situation after all, so you just seem like a rando who wandered onto the set and is trying to get their 5 minutes of fame. We can¡¯t really do anything about that, though - if we try to add that into a video now, they¡¯re going to think we¡¯re covering for her instead of being sympathetic.¡± ¡°What if we did a TikTok about it?¡± Luke suggested. ¡°Hmmm¡­maybe?¡± she said. ¡°When we get on location, we can film a little introduction that explains that you¡¯ve seen ghosts forever and that we invited you on the show, and maybe that will help. Although there¡¯s probably going to be a fair amount of hate in general. The audience hates any woman who comes onto the channel.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t hate you,¡± Liam argued. ¡°I¡¯ve been here since the beginning, so I don¡¯t count,¡± she countered. ¡°Plus, I have absolutely no chemistry with either of you, so I¡¯m safe for the people who want to pretend that they¡¯ve got some shot with you even though you¡¯ve never met.¡± Caitlin looked to me and then her eyes flicked to Liam. More specifically, they flicked to how close we were standing. ¡°Unfortunately, I don¡¯t think the same can be said for you, so you might get some additional hate from that. It¡¯s an unfortunate truth about being in the spotlight as a woman.¡± ¡°The fans are going to have to get over it,¡± Liam said. ¡°Well, good luck telling them that, I suppose,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to be on the losing end of the battle for anything.¡± Her eyes focused on mine, intense yet sympathetic. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t have any skeletons in your closet? Because those are going to be unveiled in moments.¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know if we could think of a better welcome to the team than a light threat,¡± Liam said with a weak smile. ¡°We¡¯re still glad you¡¯re here, though. Seeing ghosts makes this whole thing a lot more interesting. Now, I¡¯m going back to bed, and we can talk about moving your stuff in the morning.¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re definitely not going back to bed right now,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°You¡¯re going to get up and start packing, because while you guys have been fooling around, some of us have been working to keep the lights on. If we¡¯re going to keep up this level of hype, we need to be at the airport in two hours.¡± ¡°Two hours?¡± asked Luke. She nodded and turned dramatically to leave. ¡°Fuck.¡± ¡°But we haven¡¯t even gotten a chance to do our research about the place!¡± Liam protested. ¡°Do you ever?¡± she asked without even turning back. ¡°We¡¯re going to the Veil of Thorns. You¡¯d best prepare yourselves as much as you can.¡± ¡°What the fuck does that mean?¡± Liam said, suddenly sounding more awake than he had moments earlier. Caitlin flipped him off behind her and kept walking, and Liam sighed. ¡°To quote her own description of herself, what a dramatic bitch,¡± he said. ¡°Yeah,¡± Luke agreed, ¡°but that¡¯s exactly what we love about her isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Unfortunately,¡± Liam agreed, and we all went to our rooms to pack. Chapter 27: Swing, Swing The ¡°Veil of Thorns,¡± as Caitlin had called it, was actually a prison in the middle of Nevada, actually named the Williamsville Bastion. The Williamsville Bastion was originally a small jail that was built in the mid 1800s as a place to hold people who were suspected of theft in the gold rush. That is where it got its brutal name - as a way to emulate the depiction of a crown of thorns, veils made of dried cactus were sometimes placed on prisoners as a punishment for their wrongdoings. The practice was stopped in the early 1900s, but the nickname stayed throughout rebuilding and reconstruction. In the 1930s, the old jail was torn down in order to add in a newer prison to accommodate for the growing population. It was around that time that the prison had the first reported sightings of ghosts. Prisoners would often complain about cold spots in the prison, which seemed unlikely given the Nevada heat, along with the visage of a shadowman in solitary confinement. In the 1950s, a riot broke out in the prison, resulting in the deaths of eleven prisoners (nine of which died during the riot, and two of which died afterward due to complications from injuries, as well as the death of one prison guard. After the riot, reports of ghostly activity greatly increased. There were frequent reports of the sound of yelling that could not be pinned to any current prisoner. Occasionally, prisoners would report seeing the image of prisoners outside of the cells, only for them to disappear when the prisoner tried to catch their attention. Prisoners and prison guards alike also have been known to frequently hear the sound of whistling through the hallway, thought to be the spirit of the prison guard completing his nightly rounds. The prison closed in the 90s, which it was deemed more expensive to repair than it would be to create a new prison, and has been giving tours ever since. While the amount of ghost activity is not as constant as in some of the more famous places like Eastern State Penitentiary, it was constant enough to make a believer out of even the most hardened skeptic. Or, at least, that¡¯s what the site Liam was looking at said. I wanted to see it for myself, but it was always good to know the general history of a place before one when to explore it. The flight that Caitlin had mentioned was a red eye to Las Vegas. It was only about an hour, so Luke and Liam didn¡¯t have a ton of time to look into the history of the place. Luckily, as soon as we got off the plane, we booked a few hotel rooms in the first hotel we saw, so we could sleep and research until it was time to meet the owners of the place. I was so exhausted from everything that I could barely keep my eyes open - for god¡¯s sake, I had barely had any sleep since I first got on that plane to Orlando. I guess I knew how they managed to stay up so late for ghost hunts, I thought with a laugh - if you end up sleeping all day, you might as well stay awake all night.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. But even with the exhaustion I felt, I couldn¡¯t force myself to go to sleep. My mind was racing - thoughts about the demon, thoughts about being a permanent member of the team, thoughts about the upcoming ghost hunt. I tried to keep my mind from thinking about Liam, and the safety I felt being tucked against his chest. Thinking like that would do no good, because ultimately, I wasn¡¯t planning on staying here forever. I felt like I had lost that thought sometimes within the last couple of days - I had only been planning on staying with them until I freed the spirit of the little girl who had asked for my help, who might not actually be a little girl at all. I had never planned to stay and permanently join their channel, no matter how much money I made. I had a life back home, and a cat, and a job that might not need me all the time, but when they needed me, they really needed me. I couldn¡¯t give all that up just to galavant around the world, telling people that I see ghosts and expecting them to believe me! I¡¯d had a lot of crazy things pass through my life, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯d ever had a thought that absurd before. And yet, here I was still thinking about the possibility of staying. Even through the haze of thoughts, I somehow must have managed to fall asleep, because the next thing I knew, there was a knock on my door from Caitlin, come to collect everyone for the ghost hunt. I pulled on the best outfit I could of the clothes that I had available (if, and this was a big if, I ended up staying here for much longer, I would for sure have to send for more of my clothes, because repeating an outfit in a video this early on just seemed awkward to me) and shuffled out to the hall to meet them. Luke and Liam looked about as tired as I did, while Caitlin looked like she had just downed a ton of coffee. ¡°Are you ready to go hunting?¡± she asked. ¡°I¡¯m going to need you to turn down the chipperness by like 150%¡± Liam complained, running his hand through his hair. ¡°And we¡¯re going to stop and get coffee on the way, because some of you didn¡¯t actually get any sleep,¡± she chirped. So we sipped our coffee on the long road down to the prison. Like the Peters building, the prison was outside of the city, in the pitch black countryside. I couldn¡¯t help but look back and forth, trying to figure out if there was going to be a little girl sitting with us again and, if so, trying to figure out if I actually would see her or if she was something other than a ghost. ¡°Here,¡± Liam said, after watching me peek over my shoulder for what must have been the 15th time. He pulled out his phone and turned it to selfie mode, then scooted as close as his seatbelt would let him. ¡°Say cheese!¡± he said, snapping a few pictures of us together and then handing him the phone. ¡°See?¡± he said, when he saw me switching through the pictures. ¡°Not a single ghost in this car.¡± I didn¡¯t see any in the pictures that he shot, which made me feel a little better, but I turned the phone camera on Luke and snapped a couple as well. They were a bit blurry, but that could have just been from the bumpy road. I gave a sigh of relief, and Liam held out his hand for the phone. Maybe we¡¯d get lucky and catch a ghost on video at the prison tonight. And maybe we¡¯d get even luckier and it wouldn¡¯t be the same one. Chapter 28: King for a Day Entering the prison happened much the same way entering the Peters Building did - we met a man who we soon found out was the caretaker outside the building. He was just about as decrepit as the building was. Like last time, Caitlin and I stayed outside to entertain him while Luke and Liam went inside the building to get set up. Somehow, even in Nevada, there was a bit of a chill in the air, and I pulled my arms around myself, trying to keep in as much heat as I could. The caretaker at this building wasn¡¯t nearly as charismatic as Nancy had been, and while Caitlin managed to chat along and hold a good conversation with the man, but I couldn¡¯t help the fact that my mind kept drifting off to other topics. Eventually, Luke called us into the building. The caretaker handed Caitlin the keys and walked off, telling us that he would be back at 5 AM to collect the keys from us. Then he immediately started hobbling toward his pickup - apparently, he wasn¡¯t as much of a fan of chatting as Nancy was, either. We walked inside of the Williamsville Bastion, and I could have sighed at the relative heat stored within its walls. I mean, it was still chilly as there was a definite draft, but compared to outside, it was relatively comfortable. But the temperature was the only thing that I would ever be able to say that about. I admittedly hadn¡¯t been to many old prisons during my life, even to help ghosts. I¡¯d been to plenty of modern day prisons when I was helping the police with their investigations, but there was something that was significantly less eerie than what was in this building. The first room we walked into was assumedly the reception room, and even though the only barred off areas were the two doors that headed farther into the building, I couldn¡¯t help but feel the overwhelming sense of being trapped. It was like the prison was a magnet, and once you got here, your soul didn¡¯t want to leave. Granted, it could have just been my imagination. It¡¯d been a long week, after all. Luke unfolded a metal chair and sat in front of a camera that was pointed at what was once the receptionist''s desk. ¡°We thought that the best way to handle this is for Liam and I to talk about the history of the place,¡± he started, as Liam pulled another chair to him, ¡°and then we¡¯ll have Andi jump in after a while so we can get her take. After such a heavy-hitting episode with the exorcism, we thought it would probably be best to keep it more to just us if possible.¡± Caitlin nodded. ¡°I think that¡¯s a good plan - Andi hasn¡¯t officially been announced as a full-time third member of the channel, so we want to keep the focus on you two for now.¡± I had stopped paying attention to them, though, because as they discussed their strategy for filming, a man peaked his head into the doorway. I had to assume he was a ghost because the bars on the door didn¡¯t seem to stop him at all. I breathed a silent sigh of relief that the little girl had been an anomaly and it wasn¡¯t as though I had suddenly lost the ability to see ghosts.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. The man was older and wearing what looked like a worn three piece suit and a flat cap. He was brunette and clean-shaven save for a mustache that looked like it had been meticulously cared for. He watched Luke and Liam talking for a moment, then ducked back behind the door. I shrugged it off and went back to watching the guys for another moment before he returned with another man in tow. This man had a similar clothing style to the first one, but his head just showed his blonde hair instead of a cap. The brunette walked through the door and gestured for the blonde to follow, which he did seemingly uneasily. Neither were paying attention to me, and were instead just focused on Luke and Liam talking, which wasn¡¯t wholly surprising, but was a tad unusual for me. Usually, spirits were pretty quick to be able to tell who has able to see them and who wasn¡¯t, and they would immediately flock to the people who could see them. As if thinking along a similar line as I was, the brunette walked in front of Luke and wave his hand directly in front of his face. ¡°Hello?¡± he asked, then sighed when he got no response. ¡°It¡¯s just another group of people with these newfangled machines,¡± he told his friend, pointing over his shoulder at the camera. ¡°It¡¯s no use trying to talk to them, but maybe we can mess with their equipment.¡± ¡°What about her, boss?¡± the blonde said, pointing at me. I hadn¡¯t even noticed him noticing me, but when I looked his direction, his eyes were locked on mine. ¡°You can see us, can¡¯t you?¡± he asked. I nodded. ¡°Hot diggity dog,¡± the brunette said, clapping his hands together and walking toward me. ¡°Listen, both my friend here and I were killed and buried under these floors. They found a lot of the bodies from the riots, but because they were so focused on that, they never found us too. I guess they assumed we escaped and wouldn¡¯t be found. But we¡¯re still trying to get out - any chance you can give us a hand?¡± I nodded again, and the brunette squinted his eyes at me. ¡°What, are you dumb or something?¡± I shook my head this time, then put my pointer finger to my lip to indicate that I was being quiet, and then pointed toward Luke and Liam. I wasn¡¯t being particularly subtle about it because my view of them was blocked by the man. I just kind of forgot that they couldn¡¯t see him. The brunette turned to look where I was pointing, and I could see Liam looking at me with curiosity. He allowed Luke to finish his sentence, then said ¡°Before we go on, I think Andi was trying to get our attention.¡± I smiled sheepishly. ¡°I really wasn¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°Sorry about that, I kind of forgot that you could see me.¡± I waved at them dismissively, hoping they¡¯d get back to filming. They looked at each other as Caitlin turned to stare at me. ¡°What the fuck do you mean that you forgot they could see you?¡± she asked before they got a chance to respond. ¡°Well, I couldn¡¯t see them, so I forgot that they could still see me,¡± I answered, feeling heat rushing to my cheeks. ¡°Did you go blind or what?¡± she asked. ¡°It can¡¯t be the demon again,¡± Liam said, quickly getting to his feet. ¡°Nobody else seemed to be in the dark, right?¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t in the dark,¡± I quickly explained, putting my hands up to halt them before they started getting too out of control. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I should have just explained better - I couldn¡¯t see you because one of these ghosts was blocking the way. I just forgot that you couldn¡¯t also see them, is all.¡± Chapter 29: The Anthem I don¡¯t know why I expected them to all act normally after that revelation. There was a part of me, though, that expected them to just accept what I was saying and continue on with the introduction. However, as I should have known, that was definitely not what happened. When I mentioned the ghost, the first thing that happened was that Caitlin dodged out of the way, as though she was worried about getting hit by something like Slimer from Ghostbusters. She took several steps back, trying to get as far away from me as she could and still be in the room. ¡°Did you get that?¡± she asked frantically. ¡°We probably got her voice on camera, but we weren¡¯t pointed that way right then,¡± Luke said, releasing a clamp on the camera they¡¯d been using for introductions and spinning it around in my direction. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like there¡¯s anything that we¡¯re able to pick up,¡± he said, sounding mildly disappointed. ¡°Can you describe what you¡¯re seeing?¡± ¡°I guess?¡± I said, dodging around the men as I tried to see the camera. ¡°There¡¯s two men here, and they¡¯re saying that they were killed during the riot -¡± ¡°Before the riot,¡± corrected the brunette. ¡°Before the riot,¡± I said, giving him a small nod of acknowledgment, ¡°and that their bodies were never found, so they haven¡¯t been able to leave.¡± ¡°So they can¡¯t see us?¡± the blonde asked, and I shook my head. ¡°Only this doll here,¡± the brunette confirmed, winking at me. ¡°What¡¯s your name, sweetheart?¡± ¡°Can you give us more of a physical description?¡± Caitlin asked, already clearly starting to get exasperated. ¡°The audience can¡¯t see them, so we need to paint them a visible picture if they¡¯re ever going to believe you.¡± ¡°Um, sure,¡± I answered her. ¡°They¡¯re two men, probably in their late 40s, early 50s?¡± ¡°I¡¯m 55, but I¡¯m flattered,¡± said the brunette, giving me a tiny head nod. ¡°55, apparently. There¡¯s a blonde man and a brunette. The brunette has a mustache and the blonde is slightly taller.¡± ¡°And more handsome,¡± joked the brunette. The blonde didn¡¯t look super comfortable with his joking, but he stayed silent. ¡°He was always the one that all the broads were after.¡± ¡°What a magnificent description,¡± Caitlin sighed, rubbing her forehead coarsely. ¡°Whatever, if it¡¯s what we have, then I¡¯ll take it.¡± I nodded and turned my attention back to the ghosts. ¡°My name¡¯s Andromeda.¡± ¡°Andi,¡± Liam corrected from where he stood, and I reflexively rolled my eyes. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Andromeda,¡± I emphasized again. ¡°What are yours?¡± ¡°I¡¯m ¡®Squint¡¯ Large, and this here¡¯s ¡®Baby Face¡¯ Pedone,¡± he said gesturing to the blonde. ¡°Squint Large and Baby Face Pedone,¡± I repeated, and Caitlin immediately pulled out her phone and started typing. ¡°I can¡¯t help but assume those aren¡¯t your birth names.¡± ¡°They might as well be, as they¡¯re the only ones we¡¯ve ever gone by,¡± Squint answered. ¡°So, are you going to help us or not?¡± I looked to Luke and Liam. ¡°He¡¯s asking if we want to help him.¡± They turned to each other, seemingly communicating without words for a moment. Then Liam said, ¡°It¡¯d certainly be the first video of it¡¯s kind on YouTube.¡± Luke nodded. ¡°We¡¯d have to be careful not to have a repeat of the Logan Paul incident.¡± ¡°We wouldn¡¯t - I don¡¯t think either of us would dare not to blur a body,¡± Liam argued. They bickered for a few seconds more. Squint and Baby Face turned to watch them, seemingly engrossed in their conversation. Eventually, though, they decided that we would indeed be changing the vibe of the video, so they packed up their camera equipment and we headed out, with the two spirits leading the way. Which, I guess meant I was leading the way for the rest of them, but at least there were no areas of the floor that were breaking in this building. Despite the assessment that it would cost too much to fix up this building, and despite the years that it had been left to rot in the desert, the building seemed to be in pretty good shape. We walked through the dark down a hallway that was labeled as C block. The only light surrounding us was the lights from the cameras that Luke and Liam brought with. The camera lights swung back and forth across the hall at random, taking in the images of rust and decay. Occasionally, they would swing into a room, and I was surprised by how much it looked like it had just been abandoned that day. Often there were still thin sheets meticulously tucked into the bunk, as though the occupants had fled instead of departing according to schedule. Squint and Baby Face finally stopped us near the end of the hall and ducked into a large cell with multiple bunks. I followed them, and Liam was close behind, shining the light of his camera so I could see where I was walking. The spirits walked toward the edge of the room and pointed to a large grate. ¡°We were both stuffed in there after Two-Knife Fanella shanked us in a fight,¡± he explained, and I relayed the information to the group. ¡°Can you ask him what caused the fight?¡± Liam asked, forgetting that the ghosts could see him, even if he couldn¡¯t see them. Squint answered, with almost a whimsical look on his face, as if after all this time, it was almost a fond memory. ¡°There was a commotion - the start of the riot, we soon found out - in another block, so all but one of the guards went to go help. And the guard who hung back¡­ What was his name, Baby Face?¡± ¡°Dale,¡± the spirit supplied. ¡°Dale, right. He was a little shit. He wouldn¡¯t hardly stop a fight even if someone was trying to fight him. Some of the other guards might have put the fear of God into Two-Knife, but not Dale. So, we was playing cards, and Lady Luck must have been on our side because Baby Face kept getting Aces. And Two-Knife didn¡¯t like that too much. He accused Baby Face of cheating, and I told him to stop being a sore loser. Some words were said, one thing led to another, and we ended up with a shiv in both of our sides. ¡°By that time, it was obvious that there was something else going on somewhere in the prison, but there was always some fight going on in the prison. Two-Knives took the opportunity from the distraction to shove us into the broken air vent, knowing that they¡¯d never bother to fix it because it was too far from the guards.¡± ¡°And he was right,¡± pointed out Baby Face. ¡°Nobody ever bothered to look into it.¡± ¡°They didn¡¯t,¡± he agreed. ¡°But it wouldn¡¯t have mattered if they did. When the riot started in full swing, he got killed trying to fight his way out.¡± Squint sighed. ¡°We lost a lot of good men that day. I wouldn¡¯t consider Two-Face among them, but most of the others were part of our family.¡± I nodded, not wanting to push too much into their gang dynamics - not because I thought it would be an issue for me, but because I didn¡¯t think it would make for great video material. God, I thought, it hadn¡¯t even been that long, and this was what I was turning into? ¡°And did the guards just never look for you when they discovered you were missing?¡± ¡°Oh, sweetheart, they did their best job, which was frankly not very good. When we weren¡¯t around for headcount, they just assumed we went on the run. I think we got our names out on America¡¯s Most Wanted for a bit, didn¡¯t we Baby Face?¡± The blonde man nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s a good way to bring it up,¡± Liam said slowly, after I¡¯d repeated the story to them, ¡°but wouldn¡¯t somebody have noticed the smell?¡± Squint laughed. ¡°This guy has never been in a prison in his life, has he? You tell him I said, bud, if they had a way to ethically add that scent into prisons, I bet they would. They¡¯re not going to get rid of something that makes our lives worse in here. Now,¡± he said, gesturing to the vent cover, ¡°are you going to help us, or are we going to stand around gabbing all night?¡± Chapter 30: Walls After a quick discussion, it was decided that nobody really wanted to crawl into the vent and dig out what was probably just a bunch of bones by this point. But, to my great relief, both Luke and Liam decided that it would be best for the video if one of them did it. After a quick match of rock, paper, scissors, we had the vent cover off and Liam was on the floor, shining a powerful flashlight into the vent. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything in here but a lot of dust,¡± he said. ¡°He might have to crawl in there a little way,¡± Squint said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how far Two-Knives pushed our bodies in there because we were both kind of out of it yet, but he has to have pushed us a ways in. Wouldn¡¯t want the vent to fall off and have a guard find us, after all. Then they might actually have to fix it.¡± I relayed the information and Liam looked back at me, blowing his hair away from his eyes. ¡°And how much does it matter to you to get these bodies out?¡± he asked me. ¡°Tell him to stop being such a candy ass and get in the vent,¡± Squint complained beside me. ¡°A candy ass?¡± I asked with a light laugh. ¡°Well, thank you,¡± Liam said back jokingly at the same time Squint answered ¡°A wimp, a wuss, a lily-livered jackass, whatever you want to call them!¡± I concealed a chuckle at that as best as I could. ¡°Squint wants you to get into the vent.¡± Liam sighed and started slowly army crawling into the opening. ¡°All right, all right, anything for you, Squint,¡± he said, sounding exasperated. He inched forward slowly, his body slowly disappearing into the opening until he was just about to his knees. ¡°Guys, I found it!¡± he yelled back to us, the tinny sound of his voice barely audible. ¡°He pushed it past a bend, but I should just about be able to¡­¡± The last part of his sentence was stretched out, as though he were concentrating on trying to grab something. Then we all heard a bunch of shuffling, and a minute later, he pushed the end of a mummified leg out of the vent with his foot. ¡°Hey, be careful with that, would ya?¡± Squint complained. ¡°It might be a bit shriveled up is all, but I don¡¯t want it broken up any more than it has to be.¡± I called our Squint¡¯s concerns to Liam, and he called back, ¡°Sorry, it just fell off when I grabbed it. The bodies are kind of falling apart, but I think I might have gotten them.¡± He started slowly scooting back out of the vent, going significantly slower than when he entered. As he moved, brown leather started to appear with him, covered in tatters of worn gray fabric. He wormed himself out of the vent quickly afterward, immediately rolling away from the bodies on the floor. ¡°I am definitely not fucking it for the next gross thing we do. Luke also has to do the individual investigation this time, because I sure as shit am not.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Luke reached down to help him off the ground. ¡°I¡¯m fine with that - you deserve a bit of a break after this.¡± Caitlin refocused the cameras to be sure that they were aimed toward Luke and Liam and away from the bodies, then went to look at the brown, shriveled shapes on the floor. As they lay, they almost didn¡¯t look like bodies until you saw the skull and small amounts of hair still sticking out of the remaining browned flesh. ¡°I don¡¯t know if that vent actually didn¡¯t work anymore,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°It looks almost like they were mummified.¡± ¡°Either way, we need to figure out what we¡¯re going to do now,¡± Liam said. He dusted himself off, Luke helping as best as he could, but there was still a gray tone where his clothes had touched the vents as he crawled. ¡°We walked in here with no bodies, and now there¡¯s suddenly two.¡± ¡°Well, they¡¯re not going to think you did anything, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re worried about,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°These guys died before you were born. I think the only reasonable answer is to call the cops and let them know. There¡¯s probably still some cold case on them somewhere.¡± ¡°Well, let¡¯s ask them,¡± Luke suggested, grabbing the camera and turning it toward me. ¡°Sure,¡± I said. I turned to where they had been standing, but there was just a blank wall. ¡°Squint?¡± I asked, turning around to look behind me - maybe they¡¯d moved to get a better look. ¡°Baby Face?¡± I turned again, but there was no one in the room other than the four of us and the two corpses. ¡°I think they left?¡± ¡°Left?¡± Liam asked. ¡°As in, poof?¡± He gestured an explosion with his hands, and I shrugged. I wouldn¡¯t personally describe going into the light that way, but if it worked, it worked. ¡°They did say that the thing that kept them here was the fact that they were undiscovered. I guess now they¡¯re discovered,¡± Luke reasoned. ¡°Yeah, but you¡¯d think they¡¯d want to stick around for the burial or something,¡± Liam said. ¡°They didn¡¯t seem like the type to want to stick around for formalities like that,¡± I joked. ¡°Or, at least, they would have wanted to dip the moment the police got involved.¡± Caitlin sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll call the caretaker to let them know why there¡¯ll be police on the property with us. Luke, you call the cops and explain the situation. You might want to avoid talking about Andi¡¯s portion of it. I¡¯d imagine some police stations don¡¯t take kindly to the idea of psychics.¡± ¡°Some don¡¯t,¡± I agreed. ¡°Although I¡¯ve got enough of a record of helping my local police department that it should lend me some credibility if they start asking too many questions.¡± Luke nodded, and both he and Caitlin moved off to the side of the room to make their calls without getting interference from each other¡¯s conversations. I walked over to Liam, who was still looking a little gray in general, and I lightly grabbed his arm. He had been staring off into space, and when I touched him, he jumped slightly. ¡°How are you holding up? That can¡¯t have been fun,¡± I whispered. Liam shrugged, but the movement didn¡¯t have the same lighthearted nature that it usually did. ¡°I think we¡¯re all just lucky that I¡¯m not horribly claustrophobic, or else it would have been significantly worse. When I was holding the bodies, it was almost too snug to get back out.¡± He sighed, loudly enough that Caitlin looked back at us for a moment before she decided that her conversation required more of her attention. ¡°I think that¡¯s the closest I¡¯ve been to a real dead body, though.¡± ¡°Really?¡± I asked, surprised. He nodded. ¡°We¡¯re not out here investigating current murders or anything. Basically, everywhere we go, we¡¯re investigating deaths that happened like 50 years ago. This,¡± he said, gesturing to the bodies, ¡°is an absolute first.¡± ¡°But the important question is, is it a first you¡¯ll be okay with?¡± I asked. Liam was quiet for a moment, as though weighing the answer, but then he slowly nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be okay,¡± he said. ¡°But I¡¯m going to need a very long, very hot shower to get me there, I think.¡± Chapter 31: Such Small Hands The police sent one of their detectives out right away, and he concluded basically the same thing we had thought - that these were really old bodies that our group of reasonably young YouTubers had nothing to do with. So, he roped off the room after the coroner had come to take the bodies, but told us that we were allowed to stay in the rest of the prison if we wanted. He said the bodies were old enough, and the prison had been cleaned enough times, that us walking around wouldn¡¯t hurt any investigation, if they did any investigation other than identifying the bodies. I did end up telling the police that I was a psychic and gave him the names that the spirits had given me as a way to make their job easier, and I also gave them the story that Squint had told me. The detective wrote it all down in his notebook, looking incredibly bored through the whole thing. Whatever, I thought - whether he ended up using my information or not was none of my business. We stayed in the prison until 5 AM when the caretaker came back. Caitlin took the caretaker to show him where the bodies had been, but he seemed frankly uninterested in the whole thing. I suppose I couldn¡¯t blame him - he ran a haunted prison, after all, and we had inadvertently gotten rid of two of the ghosts. And it was possible that we had gotten rid of the only ghosts that were even in the prison - throughout the rest of the night, I didn¡¯t see any other activity whatsoever. Sure we got plenty for the video, including a particularly active spirit box session, so long as you used your imagination. In terms of regular ghosts, the building was clear. We packed up the car as Caitlin talked with the caretaker again, looking infinitely more ragged than she had when we had first arrived. The caretaker looked equally unhappy to be up so early in the morning, after having been woken up in the middle of the night with a phone call about us finding bodies in the vents. He sipped on a large gas station coffee, not responding to anything Caitlin said with anything more than a grunt. I was helping Tetris the camera equipment back into the car when Luke suddenly said ¡°Shit.¡± ¡°Did you break something again?¡± Liam asked, shoving a camera bag into a perfectly sized opening. ¡°If you broke another light and I have to clean it up again¡­¡± ¡°No,¡± he answered. ¡°I¡¯m just pretty sure I left one of our introductions cameras inside.¡± ¡°Dude, you said you grabbed everything!¡± Liam complained. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I thought I did!¡± Luke said. ¡°I¡¯ve got the bag, it¡¯s just -¡± he held up the bag to us and opened the already unzipped flap - empty. ¡°I can run and get it,¡± I offered, handing him the two bags I was still carrying. ¡°It¡¯s right inside the doors, right?¡± He nodded. ¡°We sat it on the shelf pointed toward the receptionist''s desk, in case some ghost came and decided to pretend to work in reception or something.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be right back. Don¡¯t leave without me!¡± I joked. ¡°You might want to tell Caitlin that,¡± Liam joked back. ¡°She¡¯s the one with the keys, but she might be too busy talking to her new BFF Norman.¡± I rolled my eyes and headed back in through the entrance of the old prison. I half expected to be greeted by Squint and Baby Face again, but the halls were silent. Sometimes, when you¡¯ve helped out a spirit and they¡¯re about to head into the light, they¡¯ll take the time to thank you for the help you¡¯ve given them. Sometimes, there¡¯s no time for that. I smiled - it made sense that they¡¯d both want to be out of there before the cops were called. I suppose all that mattered was that they got their happy ending. I grabbed the already dusty static camera off the shelf and twirled around, holding the camera up to get one last clip of the entrance. I kept it running while I walked out, thinking that a cool end shot could be us packing up the car on the way out - I¡¯d seen a lot of ghost hunting shows, and I don¡¯t think I¡¯d ever seen any that actually portrayed the realness of what it was like to go on a ghost hunt. I shook my head at my own line of thought - I still hadn¡¯t been part of the group for very long, and already I was trying to make some of the filming decisions. I still didn¡¯t love the idea of giving up everything in my life to move in and film videos, even if it would be a relatively steady paycheck, but if I wasn¡¯t careful, that would be exactly what happened. I pushed open the door, focusing first on Caitlin talking with the caretaker of the prison, but quickly turned it away because I wasn¡¯t sure how much he would like being on film. Instead, I focused the camera on Luke and Liam packing up the car. The camera wouldn¡¯t get into focus for some reason, though. Maybe I knocked it out of autofocus when I was messing with it, I thought - it seemed to be focusing just fine before. So I focused it away and messed with some of the buttons. On the top, right above the photo selector, there was a button that just said ¡°AF-ON,¡± and I assumed that had to be it. I pressed the button and the camera lens started whirring as it tried to focus on the grass. Content, I lifted the camera back up and started walking toward the car. It took a minute for the camera to fully focus, but when it did, I nearly dropped it. Standing right between Luke and Liam, looking at the end of the car, was the little girl. I looked up from the screen for a moment, but it appeared as though nothing was there. My eyes flicked back to the screen, and I gasped - the little girl had turned, and was now focused on me. I stopped walking toward the group as the little girl slowly lifted her arm to point at me. I started sprinting toward Luke and Liam - the sight of the girl chilled my bones to ice, but I couldn¡¯t let myself think of that right then - what mattered was that I protect my friends from whatever was causing that. Liam saw me first, his easy grin falling quickly as I flew toward them. ¡°Andi, what¡¯s wrong?¡± he asked, and I nearly collided with him as Luke finally looked up, his face generally unconcerned by my panic. ¡°The girl!¡± I panted, shoving the camera at him. ¡°She¡¯s here! She was right here!¡± From where he stood, the lens just started whirring again as it tried to focus on the taillight of the car. ¡°She was in between you two,¡± I insisted, and Liam turned to focus the camera on Luke. He panned the camera up and down him slowly. ¡°Show me where she is so I can better focus on her,¡± he said, but I couldn¡¯t. She wasn¡¯t there anymore. Chapter 32: Dear Maria, Count Me In ¡°You see,¡± I said, a couple hours later as we were pouring through the footage in an incredibly sleep-deprived state. The first thing that Liam had wanted to pull up was the footage from the static camera I had been holding, as though this time, he might be able to see what I was talking about. Or maybe he just wanted me to be sure of what I was talking about. ¡°When I bring the camera up, it takes a moment to focus on you, but when it does focus, there she is, standing right between you.¡± I pointed to the figure on the screen - it was blurry, but it was definitely the same little girl I¡¯d been seeing. ¡°And then, I start running,¡± I said, skipping through the blurry footage of the ground, ¡°and when I get there, there¡¯s nothing in between you two. There¡¯s nothing anywhere.¡± ¡°Are you sure she didn¡¯t just, like, disappear?¡± Liam asked. ¡°I thought ghosts didn¡¯t have to be seen if they didn¡¯t want you to see them.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t,¡± I said, rewinding the footage to try to find a clear frame of the girl. ¡°Which is why I¡¯m so concerned about this. She was visible when I was far away, but then the moment that I, someone who could actually see her, got close, she disappeared. That never happens - if you¡¯ve spent decades alone, you tend to sprint toward the first person that can hear you.¡± Luke nodded. ¡°And that¡¯s why the ghost from the hotel was trying to get your attention?¡± ¡°Exactly. But not her.¡± I looked closely at the image of the girl as she stared into the back of the car. She looked innocent enough, in a pink dress that looked like it might have been used for church clothes, and her hair pulled into curly, brown pigtails. But there was something that felt off about her, and I couldn¡¯t quite figure out what. ¡°So I¡¯m guessing that means the exorcism didn¡¯t work, then? Either of them?¡± Liam looked at Luke, concern in his eyes. I couldn¡¯t help but echo his feelings. If asking the spirit to leave hadn¡¯t worked, I was running out of ideas. ¡°Maybe I should chug some holy water,¡± suggested Luke halfheartedly. ¡°If there¡¯s a demon attached to me, I bet it¡¯d hate that.¡± ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re the demon expert now?¡± Liam joked. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m just saying, it doesn¡¯t take an expert to come up with the idea that something that hates God would also hate holy water.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it would work,¡± I answered, ¡°but I don¡¯t think it would hurt anything, either, so whatever makes you feel better.¡± ¡°So then,¡± Liam asked, ¡°if you¡¯re not sure about that, what would you suggest?¡± I shrugged.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°I think we should call Circe back,¡± Luke said. ¡°She¡¯s the only person we know who has dealt with demons.¡± ¡°Or at least, she says that she¡¯s dealt with demons,¡± reminded Liam. ¡°Which is still more than the other people we know, no offense to present company.¡± I sighed. ¡°I have no problem with you inviting Circe back. I, personally, don¡¯t think she¡¯s telling the truth, but maybe I¡¯m wrong. And either way, she¡¯s good for the channel.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get Caitlin to give her a call,¡± Luke said, getting up from his spot on the couch. ¡°If she¡¯s still as pissed as I¡¯m assuming she is, it¡¯ll be best off if the request comes from her.¡± A few seconds later, Liam and I sat alone in the shadowed room, both staring at the girl on the screen. I¡¯d taken Luke¡¯s seat on the couch next to Liam, in hopes that it would give me a different viewpoint, but it didn¡¯t help anything. Without looking at me, Liam asked, ¡°Are you okay?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I be?¡± ¡°You seemed really freaked out back there.¡± He turned to face me, close enough that I could feel his breath touch me as he talked. ¡°And like yeah, we found a ghost or a demon or whatever, and that was our ultimate goal, so that¡¯s great, but I don¡¯t want you to get too freaked out in the process.¡± I pulled at the chapped skin on my bottom lip with my teeth for a moment before I responded. I debated how truthful I should be - on the one hand, it was incredibly scary for me to run into something like this that I hadn¡¯t seen before. On the other hand, I knew myself well enough to know that that wasn¡¯t the root cause of my fear - at least not right now. ¡°I was worried because it was so close to you. You both,¡± I said, changing my mind at the last moment. ¡°And I¡¯ve never seen a ghost get violent or anything, but I¡¯ve never seen anything like this, either, so I was worried that she might attack you and -¡± I was cut off by Liam grabbing my hand with one of his hands, and touching my cheek with the other. Gently, he turned me to face him so that I was looking directly into his hazel eyes. The light from the screen somehow danced in them in a way that was almost mesmerizing. I nearly felt my heart stop for a beat before he said anything. ¡°We¡¯re going to be okay,¡± he said softly. ¡°Luke and I, and Caitlin, and you, too. I know this is unknown, but you have to know that we¡¯re going to get through it.¡± ¡°How can you be so confident in that?¡± I whispered - there was no need to be particularly quiet, I suppose, but it felt as though any loud noise would break this odd tension that was building around us. ¡°Lots of practice,¡¯ he said with a lopsided smile. ¡°And reckless optimism. But we haven¡¯t been attacked yet, and nobody¡¯s been completely taken over, and I think if that was going to happen, it would have already happened.¡± I nodded slightly. ¡°Nothing¡¯s happened yet, except for the dreams I keep having, and I can¡¯t shake the thought that maybe the two things are related. Like maybe, if we don¡¯t figure out what is happening with the little girl, that sort of thing is going to happen in real life.¡± Liam raised his eyebrows. ¡°And by ¡®that sort of thing,¡¯ I assume you mean that one of us will be attacked by a demon with razor sharp claws?¡± I nodded. ¡°Attacked or killed. I¡¯m pretty sure I just about died in my last dream.¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯d better do our best to avoid that, then,¡± he said. ¡°You know the old wive¡¯s tale - if you die in your sleep, you die in real life. Although I can¡¯t help but think, if we¡¯re killed by a demon, it¡¯s got to be pretty good for views, right?¡± I opened my mouth to say something but was interrupted by a low ¡°Woah,¡± from the doorway. Liam instantly dropped his hand from my cheek and flicked his eyes in that direction, but I couldn¡¯t help but notice that his other hand still held mine. I turned toward the door to see Luke standing there, a light blush on his face. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to interrupt¡­ whatever was going on there,¡± he said, gesturing to the two of us. ¡°I just wanted to give you an update - Circe¡¯s on her way here, and I¡¯m pretty sure I just saw the girl in the mirror.¡± Chapter 33: Punk Rock Princess ¡°You what?¡± I nearly yelled, jumping up from the couch and walking over to Luke. He looked remarkably calm considering he¡¯d just said that he¡¯s literally seen a ghost. ¡°I think I saw her. Or, at least, I assume it must have been her, unless there¡¯s another ghost hanging around with us. Short, pink dress, pigtails, right?¡± I nodded. ¡°That was her.¡± ¡°Where did you see her? What mirror?¡± I asked, turning toward the mirror in my hotel room. All I saw were our reflections - Luke¡¯s looking fairly normal, if potentially a bit bored for the situation, and me looking significantly more frazzled than normal. It had been a long day. ¡°Not that one,¡± he said, following my eyes. ¡°It was when I went into Caitlin¡¯s room. I was standing there, explaining to her that we should call Circe back, and then arguing with her when she didn¡¯t want to call her because she didn¡¯t want her freaking out at her again. I¡¯m not sure I won that argument, by the way.¡± ¡°And you saw her while you were arguing?¡± I asked. He nodded. ¡°We were talking, and I turned toward the mirror, and it was so weird! It was like there was a little girl that was just standing there next to me, like she just appeared out of thin air. And Caitlin sure as fuck didn¡¯t see it, because she was looking at me and she didn¡¯t mention anything.¡± ¡°Could Caitlin see her in the mirror?¡± Liam asked, leaning over the back of the couch with rapt interest. ¡°I didn¡¯t get a chance to ask,¡± Luke answered. ¡°She was just standing there for a second, and then she kind of waved at me, like this,¡± he said, holding his hand up in the air without movement, ¡°and then she was gone.¡± ¡°She must have wanted just you to see her,¡± Liam said. ¡°That¡¯s what you said, right, Andi? That ghosts are only seen when they want to be seen?¡± I stared blankly at the two of them, not fully processing Liam¡¯s question. The idea of answering any questions other than ¡°what the fuck was going on¡± seemed preposterous, anyway. Luke couldn¡¯t see ghosts. Hell, the whole reason for them starting the channel was to find evidence of ghosts - that¡¯s not something you¡¯d need to do if you saw ghosts all the time, like I do. But he¡¯d somehow seen this one, when I couldn¡¯t even see her without the camera between us. ¡°Hello? Earth to Andi,¡± Luke said after however long I had been standing there, not responding to them. ¡°This seems like a good thing, doesn¡¯t it? She seemed friendly.¡± ¡°But she doesn¡¯t seem like a ghost,¡± I finally said. ¡°She shows no signs of other classic ghost behavior. It just doesn¡¯t add up.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Well, if she¡¯s not a ghost, then I suppose it¡¯s a good thing that we¡¯re working with someone who has experience with demons, isn¡¯t it?¡± Liam said. ¡°Maybe Circe didn¡¯t know what she was talking about with ghost possession, but maybe she knows a thing or two about demons.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s hope,¡± Luke said, looking at me with a worried expression. ¡°Clearly, whatever this is is not going away on its own.¡± I sighed - I had been thinking the same thing. ¡°Well, at least we haven¡¯t seen any signs of you being actually possessed again.¡± ¡°Have we even tried it?¡± Luke asked. Liam shrugged and grabbed the camera sitting on his desk. He turned it on and handed it over to me. ¡°See anything?¡± I held up the camera, trying to focus on Luke as well as I could. He looked particularly tired today, as the darkness around his eyes proceeded to get darker, and the rest of his skin looked a little sallow. It was a wonder we hadn¡¯t noticed. But then again, we¡¯d been focused on other things, and we had no reason to suspect that the exorcisms wouldn¡¯t work. ¡°Nothing that I can see,¡± I said, handing the camera back to Liam. ¡°Well, that¡¯s good, right? You only saw it the one time, and who knows, maybe it was just a trick of the light or something, and he¡¯s really just got this ghost that likes him.¡± I nodded, not wanting to get into how unlikely that was. If it was a trick of the light, they both would have immediately seen what I was looking at, after all. But, I also somehow instinctively knew that not letting him have any hope would not help anything. ¡°Do you have any idea when Circe is going to get here?¡± ¡°She said she was going to head out straight away, and from here, she¡¯s close enough that she¡¯ll probably just drive. So, maybe four hours?¡± ¡°In that case,¡± Liam cut in before I could ask anything else, ¡°you look like you could seriously use some sleep, my dude. We all probably do.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Luke said, barely containing a yawn as he spoke, ¡°I don¡¯t think that would be a terrible idea, either. Want to set an alarm for four hours, and then we can go over some footage before she gets here?¡± ¡°Sure, that works.¡± Luke waved his goodbye and headed out of the room. I stood to follow him, thinking that a quick nap would probably do me a lot of good, too, but Liam grabbed my arm before I could move. ¡°Do you think he¡¯s going to be okay?¡± he asked me quietly. I sunk back down into the couch, more to stall the conversation than anything. ¡°I mean, probably, Circe apparently knows what she¡¯s doing, and as soon as the demon isn¡¯t attached to him, he¡¯ll be fine.¡± Liam looked at me, his expression more stern than I had ever seen it. ¡°Please don¡¯t lie to me,¡± he said, his voice almost a whisper. ¡°I saw your face when he was talking about what happened. If he¡¯s seeing the demon, do you think there¡¯s any chance of bringing him back?¡± I sighed. ¡°Quite frankly, I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t really know anything about this demon, stuff. And I don¡¯t even know if the little girl is even a demon, or if she¡¯s something else. All I know is that I¡¯ve never met someone who has suddenly started seeing ghosts without a near death experience.¡± ¡°Well,¡± Liam said, giving a half-hearted smile, ¡°maybe being in the prison was a lot less stressful for him than it was for us.¡± I raised my eyebrows. ¡°You were literally holding on to rotten corpses.¡± He shrugged. ¡°And we all experience things differently.¡± He paused for a moment, and the silence felt nearly overbearing. Then he said, ¡°I¡¯m just worried about him, is all. He doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s slept for more than a few hours since before we even went to the Peters Building. And he seems so much less¡­ interested in what¡¯s going on, if you know what I mean.¡± I nodded. ¡°I noticed how tired he looked, too.¡± I looked at my phone - it was currently closing in on 8 in the morning, and though there was still energy flowing through my veins, I knew that if I didn¡¯t get at least a little sleep, I¡¯d be worthless when Circe got here. Not that she¡¯d even want to see me, much less need my help. But I wanted to be there if there was an option. I stood up from the couch, and this time, Liam didn¡¯t stop me. He hardly looked at me as I turned to go. I turned back quickly to give him a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. ¡°We¡¯ll get it figured out,¡± I promised, ¡°even if I have to call in every favor I have. We¡¯ll save him.¡± Chapter 34: This Could Be Anywhere in the World ¡°Well, well, well, guess who came crawling back with an apology for calling me a fraud,¡± said a voice in the doorway, several hours later. All four of us were hunkered around Liam¡¯s laptop, looking at footage from one of the still cameras in the prison. It was taken before the cops showed up (basically every bit of footage after they came was completely unusable), and Luke and Liam both claimed to see a shadow move in one of the doorways. Caitlin was having trouble seeing it, and I, of course, knew that there was nothing there because there was another spirit in the room, and they didn¡¯t react at all to someone walking by. The spirit of the bald man in a gray jumpsuit just stared straight at the wall on the other side of the cell, as though he didn¡¯t quite realize that he wasn¡¯t trapped there anymore. I felt bad that we hadn¡¯t gotten a chance to help him, but we were so busy with Squint and Baby Face that I hadn¡¯t had much time to investigate the rest of the prison. Maybe we would the next time we went there. Of course, I told everyone about the spirit in the room, which just made them all the more sure that the shadow they saw was real. Whatever - all the ghost hunting videos I¡¯d seen on YouTube were fake anyway, so they might as well freak out about a shadow. It was better than something that was obviously added in post. I turned and saw Circe walking through the door of Liam¡¯s hotel room, trying to bully a suitcase that had to be half her body weight through the door. Since the last time we¡¯d seen her, she¡¯d dyed her hair bright green, and today, she had on a short black dress, combat boots, and space buns. I couldn¡¯t help but think that her fashion choices were remarkably similar to my own outfit. I was about to correct her and say that no one had said she was a fraud - that all I¡¯d said was that I didn¡¯t see any spirits when she did her first exorcism, and that I was clearly right because Luke still was possessed, but Liam lightly touched my arm before I could say anything. It was a small enough gesture that Circe probably wouldn¡¯t see it, but it was enough to know that he also remembered that that wasn¡¯t what I had said. ¡°Circe,¡± Luke said, standing up to give her a hug. ¡°Thank you so much for coming, and being willing to try the exorcism again.¡± ¡°I thought about saying no,¡± she said as she broke away and reached for Caitlin, who had now moved closer and was eagerly awaiting her turn for a hug, ¡°but then Cait asked so nicely that I figured I couldn¡¯t just leave you guys hanging. Besides, it¡¯s been a while since I dealt with a demonic possession.¡± She caught Luke¡¯s chin in her hand and moved his head back and forth, inspecting it closely. ¡°So, any symptoms of demonic possession? Black eyes, speaking in tongues, violent thoughts, puking split pea soup like in the exorcist?¡± ¡°You¡¯re really just getting this from movies, huh?¡± Liam said, although his voice was joking. ¡°And the movies have to get it from somewhere,¡± she said, dropping Luke¡¯s chin and returning to her bag. ¡°Well?¡±Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Nothing like that, but I did see the little girl for a second,¡± Luke said. She turned around, her eyebrows raised, to look at Luke. ¡°So what, you¡¯re seeing ghosts now, too? Don¡¯t tell me that you see like 15 in this room that I¡¯m missing or something. If you get too drastic with your made up abilities, people are going to start to doubt you,¡± she said, her eye flicking to me for a second. Liam rolled his eyes. ¡°Oh, come on, Circe, you know Andi didn¡¯t mean it like that.¡± ¡°You tell that to the next person whose craft she decides to insult,¡± she said, turning back to her back and digging around for a second, then pulled out a small bottle. She opened the top, and pulled out a dropper full of liquid. ¡°Open your mouth,¡± she said, turning to Luke. He did as asked, and she squirted the liquid into his mouth. His eyes immediately bulged slightly and he started coughing. ¡°Can someone get him a drink of water?¡± she asked, and Caitlin immediately grabbed one of the glasses from the sink and filled it with tap water. ¡°It¡¯s a homemade mixture of rosemary oil and oil of oregano. Both ward off bad spirits, plus they''re good for your health.¡± ¡°Yeah, if I survive them,¡± Luke said between coughs. ¡°No one has died yet from anything that I¡¯ve given them, and I doubt you would be the first.¡± She looked at the glass of water he was holding, then opened up a side pocket of her bag and pulled out a little vial of water, which she poured into his cup. ¡°The holy water will be diluted by the regular water, but it should still be strong enough to get rid of a demon.¡± ¡°See, we told you that would work,¡± Liam said, subtly grabbing the camera off his desk to film what was going on. He¡¯d missed the rosemary and oregano, but something told me that was a good thing. ¡°We don¡¯t know if it will,¡± Circe said, and I wasn¡¯t sure if she was just protecting herself in case nothing changed, or if she was actually defending me. ¡°But it¡¯s been said that demons have a fear of holy water, so it¡¯s best to flush your system with it. I should grab some more from wherever the closest church is, actually, so we can dilute some in water for you to drink for the next couple of days. Speaking of things that demons fear, though,¡± she said, rifling in her purse again before bringing out a long, beaded necklace. ¡°Rosaries also help to get rid of demons, so you¡¯ll need to wear this and pray as often as you can.¡± She reached up and hung the rosary around Luke¡¯s neck, then finally noticed Liam with the camera. ¡°You might as well turn that off - we¡¯re not doing a full exorcism tonight.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not?¡± Luke asked, already reflexively rubbing the beads of the rosary with his hand. ¡°We¡¯re not,¡± Circe answered. ¡°Shit,¡± Liam said, turning off the camera and setting it back down. ¡°Okay, but I¡¯m fully expecting to be able to get another video out of the exorcism.¡± ¡°And I¡¯ll make sure you get it,¡± Circe said, a devious smile appearing on her face. ¡°But part of doing an exorcism is having the mental fortitude to force the spirit out. And after this long of driving in a car, I definitely don¡¯t have that right now. Plus, if we get a little more holy water into his system and get him to wear a rosary overnight, it should start wearing the demon down. We¡¯ll put on a whole show tomorrow, but I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t take more than lightly requesting it to leave. In the meantime, though, I¡¯m going to go find enough holy water to last you through the night, and then I¡¯m going to pass out because I¡¯m fucking exhausted.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come with you,¡± Caitlin said, immediately jumping up when Circe grabbed her bag. ¡°I don¡¯t want you driving around an unknown city while you¡¯re exhausted, and these guys have got to work on the video, anyway.¡± ¡°Work on the video for a while if you must, but make sure you sleep as well. We¡¯ll need to be at full strength for tomorrow,¡± she warned, once again fighting to get her bag through the door. ¡°If you don¡¯t, don¡¯t say I didn¡¯t warn you.¡± Chapter 35: Miserable at Best We went to bed fairly early, but it took me forever to get to sleep. I couldn¡¯t keep thoughts out of my mind, and every time I thought too deeply about what was going on, I woke up. It was still hard for me to believe that we were dealing with a demon. I¡¯d never been much of a religious person - there was something about actually being able to see the afterlife that removed a lot of the questioning about where we would all end up after we die. Good or evil, we all went to the same place. Unless we got stuck here, that was, but that wasn¡¯t the fault of a divine being. But now, I was being confronted by something that I didn¡¯t understand; something that I didn¡¯t even believe in. And through it all, there was something that didn¡¯t sit right with me about it. But the proof was undeniable - if it was a ghost that I couldn¡¯t see, then clearly it was already something that was outside of my realm of expertise. At that point, it might as well be a figure from religious fiction. All in all, I woke up the next morning having lightly slept, but it didn¡¯t seem like I was the only one. Despite Circe¡¯s warning the night before, when we met up for a late breakfast, she was the only one who didn¡¯t have dark circles underneath her eyes. Liam gave a low whistle at me when I walked into the hallway to meet up with the rest of them. ¡°Didn¡¯t sleep well, huh?¡± ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s nothing quite like questioning the whole of everything you¡¯ve ever believed to keep you up at night,¡± I joked. ¡°Honestly, same,¡± he said, knocking my arm lightly with my elbow. ¡°I mean, if one of us was going to be possessed by a demon, I always thought it would be me,¡± he joked. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t laugh at the demon,¡± Circe warned. ¡°We¡¯re working on getting it out of Luke¡¯s body. If it¡¯s angry, you¡¯re just empowering it.¡± ¡°Right, sorry,¡± Liam said, and he was uncharacteristically quiet for the rest of breakfast. So was Luke, but at least his quietness was understandable to me. Caitlin and Circe seemed completely unphased by the whole of the situation, and both chatted on about other things in their life until eventually, we had eaten our fill. ¡°Well, shall we?¡± Circe asked, getting up from the table as soon as Caitlin had paid for the meal. ¡°Demons are less sensitive to the light than ghosts are, but they still prefer the night to the daytime, so I would say that an exorcism in the afternoon is the most likely to work.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Liam looked over at me questioning as Circe talked. When I met his eyes, he cocked one brow, as if to ask if I was going to correct her thinking about ghosts not liking the daylight, but I shook my head. While that one part was bullshit for ghosts, who knows if it was also bullshit for demons? Either way, I wasn¡¯t planning on pissing Circe off again before she had a chance to even try another exorcism. We went back to the hotel, this time all meeting in Circe¡¯s room, where she¡¯d already created a pentagram within a circle on the floor of the room with masking tape. In the middle of the circle sat a lone chair, which Circe pointed to. ¡°Get in it,¡± she said, and Luke followed her instruction immediately. ¡°You¡¯re going to want to stay inside the circle at all times. The point of the circle is to help keep the demon restrained when it exits your body. That way, its only choice will be to head back to hell where it belongs. If you step outside of the circle, though, then there¡¯s no restraint on the demon.¡± Luke nodded, immediately pulling in his feet so that he was nowhere near the outside of the circle. ¡°And it can¡¯t just stay in the circle and possess me again, can it?¡± Circe shrugged, taking a glass bottle of water and pouring it into a cup. ¡°Theoretically it could, but the point of an exorcism is not necessarily to kick the demon out of your body, but to make your body so uncomfortable that the demon decides to leave without too much aggravation from us. Much safer that way.¡± She handed Luke the cup, then pulled out a sage stick and a lighter and started the sage on fire. She walked around him in a circle as he drank, wafting smoke toward him. ¡°Want me to open a window?¡± Liam said, adjusting a setting on one of the cameras pointed toward the two of them. ¡°It might kill the mood a bit if the sprinklers go off.¡± ¡°Do as you must. It shouldn¡¯t affect this.¡± Circe set the burning sage down on one of the plates from the kitchenette. ¡°I need you to touch your rosary while we do this,¡± she said, pulling out a crinkled, old-looking paper from her back pocket. ¡°Keep all of your thoughts on God, or at least away from the demon itself. You don¡¯t want to do anything that would keep it coming back to you.¡± She grabbed another small bottle of liquid and flicked it toward Luke. The water dotted his pants, but he didn¡¯t appear to notice. He squeezed his eyes closed, as though he was pretending to be far away from that hotel, as he clenched the rosary in his hands. ¡°In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we call to St. Michael, the Archangel of Heaven, to rid thy demons from this man,¡± Circe nearly yelled, splashing the liquid at Luke again. ¡°We call on him to banish thy demon from this body, and to remove it from this plain, bringing it back to the hell which is belongs!¡± As she spoke, I couldn¡¯t stop my eyes from glazing over slightly, as though my vision was quickly losing focus. I blinked, trying to clear the fog from my eyes, and it worked for a second, but as Circe once again asked St Michael for help, the room started to spin. I grasped a nearby chair to keep my balance, but my arms felt weak. They felt like I had just woken up from a long sleep, and didn¡¯t quite remember where I was, which made no sense. Maybe I just needed water, I thought. Slowly, as so not to disturb the scene behind me, and also to keep my balance as best as I could, I turned and walked back to the sink. There were no more cups after Circe had used them for the ritual, so instead I just turned on the water and lowered my face to drink. Some of the cool water entered my mouth, but more of it ran in rivulets along my face. I hadn¡¯t realized I was so warm, but the water felt so nice¡­ ¡°Andi?¡± Liam said from behind me. It would have made me jump had I had the coordination to do so at that time. ¡°Are you alright? You don¡¯t look very good.¡± I tried to answer him, but I found that my vocal cords weren¡¯t working. I stood up, fully intending at least mouth the words to him, but as I stood up, I saw my vision narrow to pinpoints, and suddenly, I wasn¡¯t sure whether I could stand up anymore. I wasn¡¯t sure if I even wanted to stand up anymore. ¡°Andi!¡± yelled Liam, grabbing onto me as I felt my feet give way under me. ¡°Somebody, go get help!¡± But I was fine. As fine as I¡¯d ever been. Chapter 36: ??? I was back in the chair in the dark again, but this time, I didn¡¯t bother to take stock of whether or not I could move from it. Ultimately, I knew it didn¡¯t matter, both because I knew I wouldn¡¯t be able to, and because even if I was still stuck to the chair, there was something spiked through my chest. The room was different this time - instead of pitch black, there was just enough light to be able to see the vague outline of things. Mentally, I¡¯d always pictured the room to be the hotel room I¡¯d been staying in, but it was actually more of a hallway, with open doors along each side in front of me. Over by one of the doors, there was a hint of some movement along the ground, but it was still too dark to see what it was. I looked down to see a sharp, barbed spike sticking out from a small hole in my black dress, which just happened to be the one that I¡¯d worn on the first shoot in the Peters Building. Given the size of the spike, it didn¡¯t hurt nearly as much as I would have thought - it was more of a dull ache than anything else, as though it was an injury I¡¯d sustained long ago that was still trying to heal. Somehow, it must not have pierced my heart, which is the only reason I was still alive. Or maybe it was because this was all a dream, I reminded myself, shaking my head. The movement caused the pain to reemerge in both my chest and my shoulder, and I winced. I always thought that you couldn¡¯t feel pain in dreams, but here I was, living proof of it. ¡°I told you to stay away,¡± hissed a low voice behind me to the right. I gritted my teeth and tried my best to turn to look at the voice, despite the barb in my chest keeping me in place. The resulting pain was so sharp that my vision started to narrow, but despite the light in the room, I could see nothing. ¡°I warned you,¡± it hissed, coming from the left now, as though it had dodged my vision. I whirled my head to that side as fast as possible, but there was still nothing to be seen in the rest of the darkened corridor. ¡°I warned you to stay away from him!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t even know who you were talking about,¡± I wheezed. I could hardly get any breath out - the spike must have punctured a lung. ¡°LIAR!¡± the voice roared, so loud that I looked over my shoulder again, because I assumed that it must be right next to me. My chest felt like it was on fire at the movement, but there was still nothing in the long corridor behind me. ¡°You knew!¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°You never told me!¡± I cried, turning back to face the front. Whatever had been moving on the floor earlier looked like it was headed in my direction, but it was still impossible to make out what it was. It looked more like an amorphous blob than anything. ¡°You still knew,¡± it hissed, and then it clicked for me. It¡¯s true, I¡¯d never been specifically told, but given that the demon was possessing Luke, who else could it be talking about? ¡°You knew, and yet did not yield!¡± ¡°I swear I didn¡¯t know,¡± I whispered, thinking about all the times I¡¯d had this dream. Every time I¡¯d had it, it¡¯d been when I was trying to free Luke of his possession. How could I be so stupidly blind? Slowly, I felt the spike in my chest start to pull backward. The pain was almost unbearable, but I kept myself from whimpering, if only to not give the being the satisfaction. It moved until the edge of the barb was pressed right against my chest. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, waiting for the rest of the spike to be pulled free and actually kill me, but the movement of the spike stopped. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes a crack. The little girl was standing directly in front of me. Her clothes were pristine, as though she was not the one doing this to me, but was instead just an innocent bystander. She looked me dead in my eyes, her head tilted slightly to the side as though she was merely curious about what was going on.We stared at each other in silence for what felt like hours, until finally I gasped, ¡°So, this was you all along, huh?¡± It hurt to even draw breath at this point. Underneath the point of the spike, I could feel a damp heat start to puddle against my clothes as the wound in my chest started to bleed again. It was likely that I wouldn¡¯t last long in this condition, and while I wasn¡¯t sure I fully believed Liam¡¯s claim about dying in my dreams, I wasn¡¯t looking forward to testing it. ¡°Why can¡¯t you just tell me what you really want?¡± I sobbed. The little girl¡¯s head tilted more, as though she didn¡¯t understand the question. Her mouth opened to speak, but for a second, the only sound I heard was the pounding of the blood in my own ears. ¡°I did tell you,¡± she finally said, her voice a high falsetto that did not match the current circumstances at all. ¡°I¡¯m still telling you, but you won¡¯t listen. All I want is to be left alone. If you do that, none of this happens. If you don¡¯t, well,¡± she said, gesturing around the room. Blood started to well up in my mouth and I spat it out, trying my best to reach her but it just splattered on the floor next to her. ¡°I¡¯m not giving up on Luke just so you can have him,¡± I whispered, my voice weak, but full of all the hatred I felt in that moment. The little girl just smiled at my words. ¡°See?¡± she asked. ¡°I knew that you knew who I was talking to all along.¡± I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, the little girl held up her hand. Without her touching me, I felt something incredibly strong slam into my chest, forcing the barbed spike back into my flesh once and for all. I screamed, and the world started to go black. The last thing I saw was the image of the little girl, smiling back at me. Chapter 37: Hands Down A light, electronic beeping was the first thing I noticed. It was rhythmic and steady, but sounded familiar in a way that I couldn¡¯t quite place. Slowly, I opened my eyes against the harsh light that was shining down on me. ¡°Holy shit, she¡¯s awake,¡± said a voice I couldn¡¯t instantly recognize. ¡°Liam, wake up!¡± As my eyes slowly adjusted, I heard the sound of something shaking immediately next to me, then a mumbled ¡°What?¡± ¡°She¡¯s awake, Liam,¡± said the first voice, his tone urgent. ¡°Fuck, Andi!¡± the second voice, Liam, said, flipping into action mode. ¡°Andi, can you hear me? Are you alright?¡± I fully opened my eyes, forcing myself to focus on the faces in front of me, rather than the too-bright light behind them. Luke and Liam both sat by the sides of my bed, looking at me expectantly. ¡°What¡¯s that beeping?¡± I asked, trying to look around the room, but my head was killing me. ¡°You really focus on the important questions, huh?¡± Luke joked, grabbing my hand closest to him. ¡°Fuck, Andi, we thought you were dead there for a moment,¡± Liam said, clearly less amused by the situation than Liam was. He reached up and brushed my apparently disheveled hair out of my eyes. ¡°The beeping is a heart monitor.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to flag a nurse and let them know she¡¯s awake,¡± Luke said, standing up to leave the blue room. Then it clicked - that¡¯s why the room looked so weird - I was in a hospital room. ¡°Why am I here?¡± I asked, my voice still holding trace amounts of grogginess. ¡°We don¡¯t exactly know,¡± Liam said, running his hand up and down my arm. ¡°No one really had their eyes on you at the time. We were in the middle of Luke¡¯s exorcism, and all of a sudden, you fell to the ground and started spasming. The doctors asked us if you had a history of seizures - we didn¡¯t know, but there doesn¡¯t appear to be any on your medical record, once they found you in the system.¡± I shook my head. ¡°No history of seizures,¡± I agreed. ¡°And I don¡¯t know why I fell either, but I had another dream again.¡± I tried to sit up, but Liam pushed me back down with gentle force. ¡°Later,¡± he said. ¡°You hit your head pretty bad when you fell, and kept going in and out of consciousness, so you should take some time to rest. And now that you¡¯re awake, I¡¯m sure they¡¯re going to want to run a thousand more tests. And don¡¯t worry about the bill at all - it¡¯s all on us.¡± All thoughts of the dream I¡¯d had wiped from my mind momentarily at that. ¡°You can¡¯t!¡± I protested. ¡°You¡¯ve known me for less than a month - that is way too generous!¡±The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. He shrugged. ¡°Call it worker¡¯s comp. Isn¡¯t that right, Luke?¡± he asked as Luke walked back into the room, followed quickly by a nurse. ¡°Getting injured is a hazard of the job, I¡¯m afraid,¡± he agreed. ¡°At least you didn¡¯t end up being the one with the ghost in your ass.¡± *** I was in the hospital for two full days before the doctors felt I was healthy enough to be discharged. Liam was right - they had to have run just about every test on record, but they weren¡¯t able to find anything that might have caused the seizure. Per the doctor who came in to explain it to me while I was filling out the discharge paperwork, sometimes it just happened, but they sent me away with some seizure medication and a notice to call my primary doctor if anything like that ever happened again. They did also insist that, at least until my head wound was fully healed, I should stay somewhere where someone could keep an eye on me, and Luke and Liam were quick to say that I¡¯d be staying with them for the time being. Frankly, it was probably my best option. And they even somehow managed to get the doctor¡¯s permission to drive back to Los Angeles, so within two hours of me getting fully discharged, the three of us and Caitlin were on the road in a rented SUV. I stared out the window as we drove, partially staring at the desert beside us, and partially staring at my reflection in the glass. Somehow, when I fell, I¡¯d split a large part of my head open, and it had to be stapled back together. That process also evidently involved the removal of a large chunk of my hair, so it now looked like I had a pretty punk sidecut. I didn¡¯t mind it, especially with the addition of the staples. I reached up to lightly touch the scabbed skin. It stung, but not as much as I would have imagined for a wound of that size. Before I could touch it much, though, Liam¡¯s hand grabbed mine. ¡°The doctor specifically told you not to pick at it, or else it¡¯ll leave a scar.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I kind of like the look of it. Maybe a scar to make it permanent would be a nice touch.¡± ¡°Well,¡± he said, squeezing my hand lightly, but not letting it go, ¡°then after you get all healed up, if you want to get a tattoo there, be my guest. We¡¯re supposed to be watching over you, and I, for one, think that includes keeping you from scarring yourself.¡± ¡°Second,¡± called Luke from the front seat. Even injured, he didn¡¯t take pity on me when calling shotgun. ¡°Third,¡± Caitlin agreed, ¡°and if I have to pay to get your blood out of this car, you¡¯re going to have to do a whole string of solo videos to make up for it.¡± I couldn¡¯t help the smile that touched my lips, even though I wanted to continue to pout about them all being bossy. ¡°So you¡¯re still planning on having me make videos with you, even if I got injured and ruined the shoot?¡± Caitlin chuckled. ¡°As if that would ruin the shoot. One of our highest grossing videos involved Liam falling out of a tree and breaking an ankle.¡± ¡°Definitely wasn¡¯t worth it, but it was great for views,¡± he joked. ¡°But of course, we¡¯re still planning on having you in the videos. If you¡¯ll have us after your hospital stay, that is.¡± I shook my head. I hadn¡¯t been planning on staying with them after we figured out what was causing the hauntings. Making new friends had never been part of my plan. But I had to admit, it was nice to have someone who cared enough to sleep in a chair in my hospital room, just so I wouldn¡¯t have to be alone. Besides, I had grown to like their company, and even if I still found their videos to be a little ridiculous, that was part of the fun of them, wasn¡¯t it? ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll stick around. For now,¡± I added, when Luke and Liam started cheering a little bit too quickly. ¡°And we¡¯re bringing my cat to the house, and you¡¯re paying for cat sitting every time we go on a shoot overnight.¡± ¡°Your mom should be at the house not long after us,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°I called her while you were getting discharged and told her the plan. She just about tried to drive up here when you were in the hospital, but I told her that between me and these two idiots, we had it handled.¡± One last thing I had to worry about, I thought, staring out the window again. It was starting to get dim outside, which made my pulse rise a bit. That was probably the worst part for me - even though I knew ghosts didn¡¯t come out more often in the dark, I¡¯d always been drawn to it. Part of the goth aesthetic, I think. But since the last dream especially, every time I was in a dark room, I thought about that barb through my chest. Obviously, that hadn¡¯t actually happened, but there was something that had happened, and that made it even more disconcerting. Who¡¯s to say that the next time, it wouldn¡¯t be real. I pulled my hand from Liam¡¯s and started picking at one of the staples again, the gentle ache of pain distracting me just enough that I didn¡¯t think about it. Liam sighed, grabbing my hand again. ¡°That habit started fast,¡± he said. Chapter 38: Ohio Is for Lovers Poe had taken to his new house almost immediately. When my mother got there, she set down the cage and immediately ran to me, and he loudly meowed behind the bars until Caitlin was generous enough to let him out. He immediately repaid her by running over to the couch and running his claws down the side. Caitlin had chased after him, talking about how she was going to get rid of him in the morning. The next day, I walked into the living room to find him sleeping on her lap. Oh, how the tide turns. My mother had spent four days with me, babying me significantly more than was necessary, and making sure that I had everything I could ever possibly need. Liam tried to do the same thing for a while, but I ultimately sent him away, because the major thing I did not need was him and my mom battling over who got to take care of me. But on the fourth evening, we arranged a flight back for my mom because there wasn¡¯t that much that she could even do to help me out anymore. I hadn¡¯t had any more seizures, and while the long scab with the staples still looked nasty, it was healed to the point that there wasn¡¯t a danger of me ripping it open. My hair even started to grow back, but Liam helped me shave it off into a better approximation of a side cut. Finally, after nearly a week of having someone hovering over me around the clock, I laid back in my bed, joyously alone, and fell into a gentle sleep with no nightmares. I hadn¡¯t had a dream at all since the incident, and I wasn¡¯t sure if that was because of the heavy pain meds, or because I wasn¡¯t hardly around Luke at all. He¡¯d come into my room a couple of times, apparently mostly at Liam¡¯s bidding when he thought my mom had gotten sick of him hanging around, but other than that, he¡¯d been staying as far away from me as possible. I¡¯d ended up telling Liam and my mother about the dream at the same time, not long after she arrived. She scooped Poe out of his carrier and handed him to me, and when he curled up in my lap, it all came pouring out. My mom looked more surprised than Liam did - he just stood there, shaking his head and muttering ¡°fucking demons¡± over and over. I had to assume that was why Luke hadn¡¯t been to visit me much - a collective group decision to try to keep any prospective demons away. I was already starting to wake up when I heard a light tap on my door. ¡°Come in,¡± I said, stretching so much that I would be surprised if they understood what I was saying, but Liam slowly opened the door anyway. ¡°Hey,¡± he whispered, stepping inside when he noticed that I was awake. ¡°I hope you¡¯re not just awake because of me?¡± I shook my head in response. ¡°Oh good.¡± He closed the door lightly behind him, then came to sit on the edge of my bed. ¡°Is there anything you need? Water, a snack?¡± I started to shake my head, then stopped myself. ¡°I don¡¯t need anything, but I¡¯d love for you to stay for a while. I haven¡¯t gotten a chance to see any of you for a while.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Liam chucked. ¡°Yeah, your mom really went into mama bear mode when you were injured. We were all terrified to come to visit for fear that your mom would maul us.¡± I lightly swatted his arm. ¡°In fairness to her, I spend a little bit of time with you and I¡¯m knocked out cold by the first demon I encountered.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t blame me, blame the demon,¡± he said with a shrug. ¡°Speaking of,¡± I said, sitting up more in bed so that I was closer to face-to-face with Liam, ¡°is the demon gone? Obviously, the end of the exorcism is a little fuzzy for me.¡± He shrugged, which didn¡¯t instill me with much confidence. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say, with our resident ghost-seer out of commission. Circe said she was positive that it was gone this time, and that she felt the spirit of the demon move through her. Granted, after her last performance, I, at least, think that she¡¯s great for the cameras, but otherwise is pretty much total bullshit.¡± I raised my eyebrows - of course, I¡¯d been thinking that, but I¡¯d done my best to keep my opinions to myself. ¡°So you still think he¡¯s possessed, then?¡± He shrugged again. ¡°He¡¯s looking better, so maybe not? He said he¡¯s been able to sleep a bit more at night, so that seems like he¡¯s turning the corner. But he says he doesn¡¯t feel any different except maybe less tired, so we decided that it was best to keep him away from you, at least until you¡¯re healed.¡± ¡°You specifically sent him in here a couple of times,¡± I argued. ¡°Well, yeah, but he was miserable not getting to see you, and if the demon is going to count ¡®bringing you a glass of water¡¯ as close interaction, we¡¯re all screwed anyway.¡± I nodded - he had a fair point. ¡°But, as soon as you¡¯re back to normal and your head wound has healed, we¡¯re willing to let you two in close proximity again. Until that time, he¡¯s on a strict regime of holy water and rosemary and oregano oil, which he hates.¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°That part is definitely bullshit.¡± ¡°You say that, and yet what actually got the demon to full on attack you? Tons of probably unsanitary holy water and a disgusting concoction of some oils that Circe got off the internet,¡± Liam joked, lightly knocking me on my shoulder. Then his face grew more serious, as though touching me brought something out in him. ¡°In seriousness, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re feeling better. I was scared that you were going to die in my arms for a second. I saw you falling, and I caught you as well as I could, but it¡¯s hard to catch a falling body,¡± he said with a shrug. ¡°You were so pale and lifeless that I thought you were dead right then, at least until you started convulsing.¡± ¡°Thank you for that wonderful compliment,¡± I joked. ¡°And thank you for catching me. This,¡± I said, pointing to my head wound, ¡°would have probably been way worse if I had fallen to the floor first. Probably the demon¡¯s attempt to take me out.¡± Liam reached up and touched my head, running his fingers right next to my wound, and I felt a shiver run down my back. His hand moved down from my hair until it was resting on my cheek. ¡°I¡¯ll always catch you,¡± he said, his voice nearly at a whisper. I had lived through a near death experience. I¡¯d felt a barbed hook tear through my chest. I¡¯d been stuck in the hospital, and then stuck in a bed with my mother for far too long. I was tired of waiting. So, instead, I reached up and grabbed the front of his black sweater with my hand and pulled him forward until his lips finally crashed into mine. Chapter 39: Bang The Doldrums ¡°So are you guys like, officially a couple now?¡± asked Luke as Liam helped me walk down to the kitchen for breakfast a couple of days later. I was still somehow weak - apparently I had lost a lot of blood when I¡¯d gotten my head wound - but I had been trying my best to get up and walk around a little more in the last couple of days, with Liam dutifully by my side every step of the way. We¡¯d been nearly inseparable since - he¡¯d even slept in a chair in my room a couple of times. Now that we could both finally admit what was going on between us, it seemed that neither of us wanted to be too far apart from the other, especially until we figured out if we were still dealing with a demon. ¡°We haven¡¯t officially had that talk yet,¡± Liam said, subtly looking at me out of the corner of his eye. ¡°Oh fuck that, you are,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°Or at least you are, if what I heard when walking by your room the other night was accurate.¡± I blushed, not sure what she heard, but assuming it must have been one of the times when we were more, uh, lively. Not that we¡¯d slept together yet - I definitely didn¡¯t have energy for anything like that yet, but that didn¡¯t mean that all other options were off the table. ¡°Which is going to make my job significantly more difficult. Half of the fans want to date you, Liam, and you go and ruin the ¡®maybe one of you could get the chance¡¯ vibe that we¡¯ve got going on? I don¡¯t think our numbers will drop too bad, but I fully expect to get a ton of hate on the first video where that¡¯s revealed.¡± ¡°Then we don¡¯t reveal it,¡± Liam said, depositing me into a chair and heading toward the open breakfast pizza that Catilin must have picked up. ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯ve never had a girlfriend before, and we¡¯ve never brought them up in videos to keep up this mystique that you want,¡± he said, using finger-quotes around the term ¡°mystique.¡± Caitlin rolled her eyes, passing me an uneaten slice of pizza from her plate. ¡°Yeah, but none of them were ever in videos before, either. The minute they see you together, fans are going to start noticing. Have you never seen any of those Dan and Phil compilations where people spend an hour analyzing a hand movement and trying to prove that it¡¯s a sign that they¡¯re dating?¡± ¡°I have, and I¡¯ve seen the ones of me and you, me and Circe, me and Liam, and all the other combinations. If they¡¯re going to make it, let them make it. As long as we¡¯re not obvious, the die-hard fans that want to date me won¡¯t think anything about it.¡± He walked back over and handed me a plate with two more pieces of pizza. I shook my head and tried to hand it back to him. ¡°That¡¯s way too much,¡± I said. ¡°You need to eat if you want to heal,¡± he said, lightly kissing the non-injured side of my head. ¡°If you two keep up with the cutesy thing, the demon will for sure leave,¡± Luke joked through a mouthful of pizza. ¡°If nothing else, I¡¯ll puke it out.¡± Liam quickly kissed my cheek several times, and Luke made a fake gagging noise. ¡°Speaking of,¡± I said loudly, trying to speak over Luke¡¯s fake puking, ¡°Liam said that you¡¯ve been sleeping better?¡± Luke gave a one-shouldered shrug. ¡°Basically anything is better than the amount I was sleeping before, which was practically nothing. Now it¡¯s closer to four hours a night, which is significantly better in my opinion.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I nodded my agreement. ¡°Do you think Circe actually got the demon out?¡± ¡°I want to think that,¡± Luke said, taking another huge bite so I had to struggle to understand him. ¡°But it¡¯s hard to say for sure. I think I felt something the night of the exorcism, but was it really the demon leaving, or was it heartburn from the oils she gave me?¡± He shrugged again. ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell because those oils do wreak havoc on your digestive system. But I couldn¡¯t feel the demon before, either, so who knows? She sure thinks she did.¡± ¡°She monitored him for an extra two days when you were in the hospital,¡± Caitlin defended. ¡°And she didn¡¯t notice any demonic activity, so she declared you safe.¡± I took a bite of the lukewarm breakfast pizza and chewed contemplatively for a moment. ¡°So where¡¯d the demon go, then?¡± I said finally. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Liam said, his eyebrow arched in adorable confusion. ¡°Well,¡± I said, taking another bite - it felt like it hadn¡¯t been that long since Liam had snuck me a midnight snack, but I was ravenous. Maybe he was right about me needing more food to heal, I thought. ¡°Demons aren¡¯t the same as ghosts, but a lot of times, when a ghost possesses an object, it will leave the object for a while to say its goodbyes before they go into the light. And there¡¯s no going into the light for demons.¡± ¡°I assume it just went back to hell,¡± Caitlin said dismissively. ¡°Isn¡¯t that specifically what Circe was asking them to do?¡± ¡°I suppose,¡± I said, sounding about as convinced as I felt. But there was no true way to know, I thought, since I couldn¡¯t really see her, anyway. Luke had the one time, but otherwise, we¡¯d only seen her in videos. ¡°Speaking of,¡± Caitlin continued as though she had read my mind, ¡°how much activity are you feeling up to?¡± ¡°No, Cait,¡± Liam cut in before I could answer. ¡°She¡¯s supposed to be resting! She¡¯s definitely not supposed to be going on a plane right now.¡± ¡°I specifically never said anything about getting on a plane,¡± she said, grabbing her phone and starting to type. ¡°But we need to start thinking about filming more content. Our audience is pretty understanding, but they¡¯d be a lot more understanding if it was one of you two injured. If we delay videos for a newcomer, we¡¯re going to start to lose some of our momentum.¡± Luke and Liam both looked over at me, concern clear in their eyes. I shrugged. ¡°I could always just stay here by myself,¡± I offered. ¡°You guys could jet off for a couple of days, film a quick video without me, and then I¡¯ll help you put together the video when you get back.¡± Not that I was much help to them, and they both knew it, but at least then I could look through the footage and make sure I didn¡¯t see the demon. Plus, if I was going to stick with this group for long (and, I thought, my eyes creeping over to Liam, hopefully I was going to be here for a while), I was going to have to learn how to help out with the videos at some point. ¡°I don¡¯t love the thought of leaving you home alone while you¡¯re still healing,¡± Liam said after a second. ¡°And I don¡¯t love the thought of leaving you alone in case the demon jumped out of me and into my laptop or some shit,¡± Luke added. ¡°I¡¯ve lived by myself for plenty of years,¡± I argued. ¡°And I¡¯m healed enough that I can fend for myself for a couple of days. I¡¯ve managed so far.¡± ¡°Or,¡± Caitlin argued, raising her voice over mine, ¡°we could go to a close area to investigate and she could come with. It¡¯s not like there¡¯s any shortage of haunted areas around LA. She can show off her new hairstyle, show her staples to prove why we¡¯ve been away from filming for a bit, and walk in, claiming to see a ghost. Hell, we can even sit in the introduction room for a while.¡± I sighed. I didn¡¯t particularly want to bring my wounded head into a dusty, old building, but I suppose there were worse possible suggestions. And, I had to agree with Caitlin to a certain extent - I didn¡¯t want to weigh the group down and make us lose followers because I couldn¡¯t sit in a chair for a few hours in the middle of the night. ¡°I think I can make it through a ghost hunt, as long as I can sit through most of it. My sleep schedule¡¯s fucked anyway.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± Caitlin said, a huge grin on her face, ¡°because I¡¯d already booked a couple of rooms for us, and I¡¯m not sure how refundable they are.¡± ¡°Rooms?¡± Luke asked. ¡°Yep,¡± Caitlin said, turning her phone around so we could see the confirmation screen. ¡°We¡¯re going back to the Queen Mary.¡± Chapter 40: Holiday In case you are unaware, the Queen Mary was a luxury cruiser that was turned into a military transport ship during World War II. Supposedly, there have been hundreds of deaths on the boat, although only 47 of them have been recorded, making it the world¡¯s most haunted ship. I¡¯d seen many videos from the Queen Mary before, obviously - it has always been a fan favorite of many ghost hunting shows, but I¡¯d never been there before myself. As I sat my bags down in the room Liam and I were sharing (everyone else had their own room, but Caitlin had gotten one room with two beds so that someone could be with me in case I had any issues, and Liam of course jumped in to volunteer to room with me), I knew one thing for sure - I wasn¡¯t going to get any sleep that night. In the corner of the room, watching the two of us, stood a young-looking man in a light blue shirt and navy pants, with a small white cap on his head. He looked unphased by people being in the room with us as he silently took in the situation. ¡°So, I¡¯m pretty sure this is part of the old barracks,¡± Liam said, filling the dead space around us with noise. ¡°I haven¡¯t stayed in this part before. Last time we were here, we stayed in B340, which is apparently the most haunted room, but I¡¯m assuming that wasn¡¯t available with this short of notice. Plus, you probably don¡¯t want to be sharing a room with all of us, anyway. That¡¯d be too many people in too small of a space to get any good rest.¡± ¡°Are we planning on resting?¡± I asked, sitting down on my chosen bed. I felt like I was healing at an incredible rate - yesterday, I had to get Liam¡¯s help to get to breakfast, and today I sat in the car for the whole of the ride and then walked to the room by myself, but even I had to admit that my energy was starting to fade quickly. Maybe I would be able to sleep in this room tonight after all. ¡°Every ghost hunt I¡¯ve been on with you has been an all-nighter.¡± ¡°Yeah, and it will be for us,¡± he said, emphasizing the last word as he gestured between him and the wall that separated us from Luke and Caitlin¡¯s rooms. ¡°Not for you, though. I imagine we¡¯re just going to have you pop in, tell everyone you¡¯re still alive and still with us, and then you¡¯re going to come back and nap in the room.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like a particularly fun time,¡± I said, even though I felt my eyelids already start to sag. Granted, I would have the opportunity to rest before we got started - while we wouldn¡¯t be setting up any still cams or ghost equipment since we were in an active, working hotel, we had still gotten here several hours before they were planning on starting their investigation, as per tradition. Luke and Liam had talked about taking a walk through the infirmary before they got started, but I didn¡¯t think either of them would mind if I slept through that part. ¡°I know it doesn¡¯t,¡± Liam said, crossing the room and sitting next to me, grabbing one of my hands in his. ¡°But we don¡¯t want you to overexert yourself on your first ghost hunt back. You¡¯re supposed to be resting, remember?¡± He leaned over and gave me a light kiss on the temple. ¡°Besides, we¡¯ve explored the Queen Mary a couple of times before, and we¡¯ve always found evidence of something. I think we¡¯re okay with having our resident psychic sit out, just this once.¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The man in the corner looked like he perked up a little bit at hearing that, and he eyed me a bit closer. I locked eyes with him, expecting him to move forward and start talking to me, but he just gave me a light nod. ¡°Does it count if I¡¯ve already seen a ghost?¡± I said, lightly nodding my head in the man¡¯s direction. ¡°There¡¯s one in here?¡± Liam asked, sounding surprised. ¡°I guess that makes sense - every inch of this place is supposed to be haunted. Who is it?¡± ¡°A young man in a naval uniform,¡± I said. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± I asked the man, but he ignored me. ¡°Not a talkative guy, I guess,¡± I said, turning back to Liam. He looked over toward the corner I¡¯d been talking to, looking slightly in the wrong direction. ¡°Do you often get ghosts that don¡¯t want to talk to you?¡± he asked. ¡°Sometimes. It depends. Most of the time, they want me to help with whatever is keeping them tied to this plane. But sometimes, they¡¯re just content staying where they are.¡± I turned back to the man in the corner. ¡°Are you busy keeping guard over your old barracks?¡± He ignored me, and I rolled my eyes. I guess I wasn¡¯t going to have a hard time sleeping in here after all. ¡°He¡¯s probably just making sure that nobody causes any trouble around here.¡± Liam grinned, then brought my hand to his lips. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a good thing that nobody around here has caused any trouble for quite a bit, then, huh? It¡¯s been almost two full weeks since you wound up in a hospital.¡± The spirit¡¯s eyes flashed my way, clearly curious, but I ignored him. ¡°That¡¯s not my fault and you know it! I can¡¯t control demons.¡± He stood up and went back to unpacking his bag on the other bed before answering. ¡°Not like you can see them, either,¡± he joked. I reached into my bag and grabbed the first thing I could feel and threw it in his direction. He expertly dodged it, then reached down to grab the fabric. ¡°I didn¡¯t figure you to be a creepy doll type of person,¡± he said, picking it up. ¡°I¡¯m not?¡± I asked, and he held up the object I had thrown - I¡¯d thought it was one of my shirts, but instead, it was a small, yellowing fabric doll. The face had been embroidered on at some point, but had started to wear off over the years, and all the color had seeped out of the clothes. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what kind of a game you¡¯re playing, but that¡¯s not mine,¡± I said, trying to hand it back to him. ¡°It¡¯s not mine, either, but it was in your bag,¡± he pointed out, leaving me holding it. I turned the doll over in my hands. Even though I was certain I¡¯d never seen it before, there was also something that was vaguely familiar about it, like if I¡¯d seen it in passing at my grandparents¡¯ house when I was a child. ¡°Maybe Poe found it in the house and hid it in my bag?¡± I asked. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first time I¡¯ve found an object that I didn¡¯t pack.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Liam said with a shrug. He picked up one of the cameras and started recording. ¡°This doll was mysteriously in Andi¡¯s bag when she started unpacking here at the Queen Mary. She says she didn¡¯t put it in there, and suggested her cat might have, but where would he have found such a doll?¡± ¡°Maybe Luke had it?¡± I suggested. ¡°I doubt it, unless he¡¯s hidden his secret doll obsession from me for all these years.¡± He zoomed in on the doll, making sure to get a good shot of his face. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s one of the ghosts of the Queen Mary, trying to bribe you into staying?¡± The ghost in the corner rolled his eyes at Liam¡¯s suggestion, as though wanting us to stay at the hotel was the most ridiculous suggestion anyone could make. I didn¡¯t tell him that, though - I made fun of him enough without a ghost joining in on it. ¡°Maybe,¡± I said again. I spun the doll around in my hand again, hoping to find a tag, but when I flipped it to my other hand, I felt a sharp stab of pain on one of my fingers. I dropped the doll on my lap, but the pain remained as a small drop of blood welled up on my finger. Chapter 41: But It’s Better If You Do ¡°So, you cut yourself on an old, mysterious doll, and now your blood is on the doll, and we¡¯re wondering if that¡¯s a problem,¡± Caitlin repeated into the phone, sounding significantly more bored than the occasion deserved. As soon as I¡¯d realized what happened, Liam ran to grab Luke and Caitlin, and as a group, they decided that the best thing to do would be to run this by Circe, because at best, it was all a weird accident, and at worst, that¡¯s apparently how you curse someone. ¡°I didn¡¯t cut myself on the doll itself,¡± I corrected her. ¡°I cut myself on the needle that was sticking out from the doll.¡± ¡°Whatever, close enough,¡± she answered. ¡°What do you think, Circe?¡± There was some muted conversation on the other side of the phone while Circe asked questions. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think any of us have seen the doll before,¡± Caitlin answered, holding the doll up for a closer look. I¡¯d removed the needle after I had been poked, but the small drop of blood that had transferred to the fabric was a start red in comparison to the muted yellow fabric. ¡°I¡¯ll ask,¡± Caitlin said after another moment. She turned the doll to face me and held it out, as though I wouldn¡¯t have been able to draw the doll with my eyes closed at this point. ¡°Does she look familiar at all?¡± ¡°I already said that I didn¡¯t bring her,¡± I answered, mildly annoyed. It¡¯s not like I¡¯d not bled other places with hauntings before - hell, I¡¯d had a huge head wound in the middle of an exorcism. The fact that we were treating this with some sort of reverence just because the doll was creepy seemed a bit much to me. ¡°No, I know,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°I mean, is she styled after anyone you¡¯ve seen before?¡± I narrowed my eyes, looking more closely at the doll¡¯s face. ¡°No,¡± I answered after a second. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s modeled after anybody. It looks pretty generic.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re sure it doesn¡¯t look like the little girl you keep seeing?¡± I raised my eyebrows. ¡°She thinks it¡¯s related to her?¡± ¡°She floated it as a possibility,¡± Caitlin answered. ¡°So?¡± I looked at the face again. ¡°Nah, this is definitely supposed to be an adult,¡± I said. ¡°Just look at the eyelashes on that thing.¡± I pointed to the eyes with my non-bloody hand. They were one of the only places where the stitching was perfectly intact. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right,¡± Caitlin said, turning the doll back around to look at her. ¡°Definitely not a stand in for the little girl.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Circe apparently asked a couple more questions before Caitlin finally hung up the phone. ¡°On the plus side,¡± she said, ¡°Circe doesn¡¯t think you¡¯re going to be haunted by this, although she made sure to tell me to tell you to avoid bleeding on antiques from now on.¡± ¡°I really wasn¡¯t planning on it,¡± I said a little too snippily, but Caitlin didn¡¯t seem to notice. ¡°She did still suggest we burn it at our earliest convenience, however. Which will probably not be while we¡¯re on this ship,¡± she said, eyeing the sprinklers in the ceiling. ¡°We can throw it in the burn pit when we get home,¡± suggested Luke. ¡°Hopefully it won¡¯t pick up any spirits before then.¡± ¡°Well, thank fuck we¡¯re not on the world¡¯s most haunted ship or anything,¡± Liam said, grabbing the doll from Circe and putting it in his bag. ¡°Soldier boy hasn¡¯t been eyeing it or anything, right?¡± ¡°Solider boy?¡± Luke asked. ¡°There¡¯s a ghost in the corner,¡± I said, and Luke immediately started fumbling the camera, quickly trying to get it on and filming. ¡°And no, he didn¡¯t seem particularly interested in it.¡± ¡°Well good. And now, it¡¯s tucked beneath my boxers, so the only way a ghost will get to it is if they¡¯re a perverted ghost.¡± I rolled my eyes at him and Liam grinned back at me for a second before turning to the others. ¡°Should we get started? It¡¯s got to be late enough by now that most of the guests are asleep.¡± ¡°Yeah, I suppose we should,¡± Luke said, still filming the corner where the young man stood. The young man looked at the camera with curiosity, but didn¡¯t move from his spot. ¡°Are you going to be alright sitting here by yourself for a while? Cait and I were talking, and we thought the best case scenario would be to get all of the active parts of the investigation done first, and then we can pull you in when we do the spirit box sessions and stuff like that.¡± ¡°That sounds heavenly,¡± I said. With all the excitement, I hadn¡¯t really had much of a chance to rest, and the weight of the day was already pressing down on me. I was really glad that I wasn¡¯t alone in their house at the moment, but going on a ghost hunt was also a lot more effort than I thought I was ready to give. Sitting somewhere and pretending to talk to ghosts while we listened to a broken radio, however, seemed right up my speed. ¡°Excellent,¡± Liam said, crossing over and giving me a chaste peck on the lips. He held my gaze for a second, his thumb slowly running down my jawbone for a moment before he stood up. ¡°IF you need anything, please feel free to call us - there¡¯s nowhere on this ship that¡¯s too far, and we can be back here in a few.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure I won¡¯t need anything,¡± I said, waving them off. ¡°Just make sure you call me when you get to the Estes method. I¡¯ve got to get my video credits in somewhere.¡± ¡°Oh, we for sure will,¡± he said, then added with a quick wink, ¡°Just make sure you don¡¯t cheat on me with Soldier Boy over here.¡± I laughed, assumed them all that I wouldn¡¯t cheat on Liam with the spirit (which the spirit was clearly not amused with, but he did nothing other than make an unpleasant face from his corner), and they headed off, leaving me in the too quiet room. To try and distract myself from the sounds of the wind and water surrounding the boat mixed with the sounds of other passengers aboard the vessel, I turned on an old rerun of Friends and settled into my bed. About an hour later, I was watching another episode when I heard a slight beeping. I passed if off at first, assuming it must have just been something from another room, but then I heard another and another. I stood up, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. It led me over to Liam¡¯s bed, right where his bag was. As I walked closer, the beeping went crazy, until it was just constantly making noise. I reached into the bag, moving a few things around as I tried to search for the object, and I eventually pulled out a large brick-like object with a small light on the top. I flipped the object over and saw the label at the top - EMF Meter. Below that, was a scale from 0-5. While hunting with Luke and Liam, I¡¯d seen the meter spark up to maybe a one or a two, but it never did anything like it was doing right now, and I just started at the box as it continuously held steady at a Level 5. Chapter 42: If I Told You This Was Killing Me, Would You Stop? 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.¡± Chapter 43: The Future Freaks Me Out ¡°This is some excellent footage, Andi,¡± Liam said, looking through what I¡¯d shot on my phone after Luke had gotten a still cam set up. I¡¯d tried asking the EMF meter a couple more questions after they got there, but the light stayed dimmed, as though it had finally run out of energy. Luke and Liam had had much the same amount of success when they¡¯d attempted to talk to the ghost. ¡°I would have loved to have had a full conversation with it, but at least we have something to show for it.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t get why it was working so well before you got her, and now doesn¡¯t seem to be working at all,¡± I complained. Liam shrugged. ¡°Maybe the ghost is just camera shy? That¡¯s not that uncommon of a thing - the number of times we¡¯ve had something happen consistently right until we pull out our cameras has been pretty wild. But, while I would have rather not run back, we were just about to come get you anyway. All we have left is the Estes sessions, although I¡¯m not even sure we need it with what you captured. But it¡¯s an audience favorite, so it¡¯s gotta be done.¡± I scooted myself out of the wrapped covers and ducked into the bathroom quickly, just to make sure my makeup still looked good. My clothes were a bit crumpled from having been lying in bed, and my hair was looking a little ridiculous, but there was really nothing that could be done about that until I grew it back out. I was about as good as I could be, I supposed, so I went back out and pulled on my combat boots. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you caught that on film,¡± Luke said, watching the video of me asking questions again. ¡°We¡¯ve been doing this for so long and we¡¯ve never been able to catch anything anywhere near as good as this. And you didn¡¯t even have to use your psychic powers for this!¡± ¡°Well, what can I say? Ghosts love me.¡± I finished lacing up my boots, then stood up, reaching my hand out toward Liam. He immediately took it and pulled me toward him. ¡°So, where were you planning on doing the Estes Method?¡± ¡°We got special permission from the owner of the ship to do an Estes method session in the old pool room,¡± Liam said with a huge grin. ¡°We had to agree to have a chaperone from the ship come with us and sign off in case of any injuries, but it¡¯s well worth it to get one of the only shots of the pool room on YouTube.¡± Our escort to the pool knocked on my door about five minutes later, and promptly walked us down to the tile room with the large empty pool in the middle of it. There were guardrails keeping us from getting too close to the pool itself, which I assumed was also why we had an escort, but I didn¡¯t mind - there was no way I¡¯d be crawling into there even in the best condition. The room was gorgeous, though - I was sure that, when it had been in its peak condition, it was a lovely place to swim. Two young women, both in swimsuits, seemed to have refused to leave - they peeked at us from behind columns on the other side of the room, and I did my best to ignore them as Luke and Liam got set up. Yes, they might have wanted to film them had they known, but I didn¡¯t want them pointing a camera at every blank space where I said there was a ghost. I felt like their audience was already close to not believing me when I spoke, and I didn¡¯t want to give them any more reason to question it.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. When they were ready, we all sat in a circle on the floor, and Luke volunteered to be the one to go under. He put on his headphones that were attached to the spirit box, then tied a blindfold around his head so that he¡¯d be as deprived of his senses as possible. When he was ready, he gave a thumbs up, and Liam turned to me. ¡°We¡¯ve got to ask questions relatively quickly, as it¡¯s only safe for Luke to be under for a little while,¡± he said, and I assumed he was explaining it more to his audience than he was to me. ¡°Any longer than that could be extremely dangerous, especially considering his recent possession.¡± He turned back to Luke, making sure to sit in just the right way so that his face would be picked up by one of the cameras. ¡°Who are we speaking with right now?¡± Luke rocked back and forth in an easy rhythm, with a light frown on his face. After a moment of silence, he said ¡°It¡¯s me.¡± ¡°Me?¡± Liam asked, quickly shooting me a look over his shoulder. ¡°Are you one of the women that are supposed to haunt this swimming pool?¡± I looked over at the two women, who were eyeing us with curiosity, but still hiding behind the columns. It clearly wasn¡¯t them. Luke just said, ¡°you know me.¡± ¡°I know a lot of people,¡± Liam joked with a light smile. ¡°Can you tell me if you were one of the passengers who died on this boat?¡± Luke rocked back and forth, remaining silent for so long that Liam took that as a cue that he wasn¡¯t going to answer. ¡°So one of the crew, them?¡± Liam rocked back and forth one more time, then stopped for a moment. He held up his hand in the symbol they used when they wanted to say something that wasn¡¯t just a repetition of what they heard. ¡°I think it said Mine? But in a really hissy way,¡± he said. My blood ran cold, and Liam immediately grabbed my arm and looked at me. ¡°That¡¯s what the thing kept saying in your dream, right?¡± I nodded. ¡°It said mine again,¡± Luke muttered. Liam grabbed Luke by the shoulder and lightly shook him. Luke took off his headphones, and even through the static, I could still hear ¡°Mine¡± lightly being repeated. He whipped off his blindfold, looking between Liam and me. ¡°That was the creepiest voice I¡¯ve ever heard on a spirit box,¡± he said. ¡°And that was exactly what the voice kept saying whenever the demon visited Andi in her sleep,¡± Liam said. ¡°That can¡¯t just be a coincidence.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a common word,¡± Caitlin chimed in, and I jumped. She¡¯d been so quiet since the guys returned to the room that I¡¯d almost forgotten she was with them. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just a weird coincidence.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Liam agreed, ¡°but why would the women at the pool be concerned with something that is theirs?¡± ¡°They¡¯re not,¡± I answered. ¡°The women who haunt the pool are both over at the other side of the room. Whatever this was, this wasn¡¯t them.¡± Luke held up the headphones, staring at them as they still made noise. ¡°Maybe I have to go back under?¡± he suggested. ¡°Like fuck are you going back under,¡± Liam said. ¡°If anything, we¡¯re getting you away from the ghosts altogether.¡± A screech pulled our attention back to the headphones, making a sound that was too convoluted for me to hear. That wasn¡¯t the case for Luke, however, who looked to me, our eyes locking over the machine. He looked more scared than I had ever seen him. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re looking for me anymore,¡± he nearly whispered. ¡°It¡¯s saying ¡®she.¡¯ ¡®She¡¯s mine.¡¯¡± Chapter 44: Never Meant ¡°Nope, no, absolutely not,¡± I said for what seemed like the millionth time as we opened the door to our room. ¡°You must have misheard it.¡± ¡°I think we both know I didn¡¯t mishear anything,¡± Luke said, sounding significantly calmer than I felt. ¡°It¡¯s been trying to keep me away from you this whole time!¡± I argued. ¡°It makes no sense that it would have switched to me.¡± ¡°It could be talking about Caitlin?¡± Liam offered, but even he sounded like his suggestion was only half-hearted. We all knew it wouldn¡¯t be her - while she came with us on these hunts, she never was particularly involved with them. Plus, as per usual, she was chipper and perky and had slept great. A demon possessing her would never stand a chance. Me, on the other hand¡­ ¡°You did say you haven¡¯t been sleeping well,¡± Luke pointed out, clearly following my train of thought.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t,¡± agreed Liam. ¡°Even less than me, if that¡¯s possible, and I¡¯m not even trying to heal.¡± ¡°Well yeah,¡± I said, trying to come up with an argument for that, but I couldn¡¯t. ¡°We¡¯ve been busy,¡± I finally said. ¡°We¡¯ve had videos to edit and comments to go through, plus I¡¯ve been moving, and I had to order a lot of the stuff that I left behind.¡± Liam grabbed my hand softly, reassuringly, and I assumed for a moment that he was going to side with me. But instead, he lightly squeezed it and said ¡°That¡¯s all true, but other than moving, we¡¯ve all been dealing with the same thing. Hell, Caitlin does the most fan interaction out of all of us, and look at her,¡± he said, gesturing her direction. She flashed a bright smile for a moment before her serious expression flashed back. ¡°Plus, while your head wound healed, you¡¯ve got to admit that it¡¯s taking longer than I¡¯d expect for you to gain your strength back. I mean, you¡¯ve been out of the hospital for about a week, and you can still barely manage to walk around this building. I mean, Luke and I have had our fair share of head wounds, and while the actual cuts can take a while to fully heal, we¡¯re always up on our feet after a day or two.¡± I shook my head. While I couldn¡¯t really refute anything that they were saying, it just made no sense to me. I¡¯d always been the one freeing ghosts. I¡¯d been the one interacting with them and helping them move along. Even at this point, while I didn¡¯t know what else the little girl could be other than a demon, there was still a part of me that didn¡¯t believe it. And yet, it was the only thing that made any sense. ¡°I can¡¯t be possessed,¡± I said, nearly as a whisper. Liam squeezed my hand and then pulled me to his chest, wrapping his arms around me. I pressed my face into the heat of his chest, breathing in the scent of laundry detergent mixed with the stale air that permeated the whole of the ship. ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± he said, and I felt the vibration in his chest more than I heard the words. He ran his hand down my hair, trying in vain to soothe me. ¡°If the demon jumped to you, it¡¯s okay. We¡¯re here with you no matter what.¡± I took a deep breath, trying to calm the rush of blood that pounded in my ears. Panicking would do no good - if anything, assuming that the little bit of research I did on demons was at all accurate, it would only give it ammunition. ¡°And, on the plus side, if it jumped into you, that means that whatever Circe did worked. We can have her come back and do the same thing to you, and then you¡¯ll be fine.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°No!¡± I said, before I had even fully digested his words. I pushed away from his chest, and while I a part of me expected him to be angry at that, he merely raised his eyebrows in question. ¡°We can¡¯t just do that again, because it didn¡¯t get rid of the demon. All it did was make it jump into me, and I don¡¯t want it to jump into you!¡± ¡°Are you insinuating that I couldn¡¯t handle a little bit of demonic possession?¡± Liam tried to joke, but it fell flat. ¡°Look,¡± he said, taking my chin in his hand and lightly running his thumb over my cheek. I hadn¡¯t even realized that I¡¯d been crying until I felt the moisture spread under his touch. ¡°If it¡¯ll make you feel better, what if the rest of us do everything we can to make ourselves inhospitable to a demon, too?¡± ¡°Absolutely not,¡± Caitlin said, already pulling out her phone. ¡°I¡¯ll get it organized, but if you think I¡¯m drinking anything Circe pulls out of her bag, you¡¯d better think again.¡± ¡°All of us except for Caitlin, who will be sure to be far enough away that the demon has no hope of getting to her,¡± he added. ¡°I don¡¯t mind chugging some holy water if it¡¯ll help this situation.¡± ¡°The holy water isn¡¯t the part you should be wary of,¡± warned Luke. ¡°Whatever oils she gave me last time gave me heartburn for a solid week. But if it¡¯ll get you unpossessed, I¡¯ll give it a shot,¡± he said with a sigh. ¡°I think we can squeeze some Tums into the video budget,¡± Caitlin said, rapidly typing. ¡°But we might have to up Circe¡¯s appearance fee if we keep pulling her back every few days.¡± ¡°This has got to be the last one for a while,¡± Luke said. ¡°If we keep going back and forth between ghost hunt and exorcism videos, our audience is going to lose faith in us. There is only so many times that we can show them an exorcism before they lose faith in us.¡± ¡°True,¡± Caitlin agreed. ¡°But I don¡¯t think three is that number - three exorcisms is a story progression. I would definitely detail you taking the holy water and oils, though. You¡¯ll have to show growth and all.¡± She tapped a couple of final keys passionately, then slid her phone back in her pocket. ¡°Circe says she¡¯s not surprised, but she¡¯ll meet us at the house tomorrow. For now, let¡¯s finish up this ghost hunt and get some rest before we drive back. We¡¯ve got¡­¡± she pulled out her phone again to look at the time, ¡°7 more hours until check out.¡± Luke and Liam looked at each other, having the sort of internal communication that only they understood. After a moment, Luke turned away from him and toward Caitlin. ¡°How about you and I just go shoot some B-roll?¡± He suggested. ¡°I think we have plenty of actual content from tonight, especially if we use the footage from this conversation,¡± he said, pointing to the still cam that was still pointed toward where the EMF meter had been. I turned to look at the camera that I¡¯d all but forgotten. ¡°It might not be a good angle, but they can hear the realness of our conversation, then. The last time we did that, it was a big hit. And then Andi doesn¡¯t have to be here by herself in case something more happens.¡± I crossed my arms in front of myself, raising my eyebrows. ¡°I¡¯m a fully grown woman,¡± I reminded them. ¡°I don¡¯t need a babysitter.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t,¡± agreed Liam, ¡°but you¡¯re also injured and the target of a demon. Forgive me if I¡¯d rather not have you in this room by yourself. Besides,¡± he said, grabbing my hand, ¡°maybe we can hang out and watch a movie or something?¡± I sighed, fighting the flush that I felt rising to my cheeks. ¡°Fine,¡± I sullenly agreed. ¡°I guess I¡¯d prefer not to be fully possessed, although I¡¯m not sure what you could do about it if I did.¡± ¡°We really need to invest in some holy water pistols for these situations,¡± Luke joked, and Liam broke his eye contact with me to flash him a quick smile. Caitlin, however, just pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head lightly. ¡°I¡¯m working with a bunch of idiots,¡± she muttered to herself, loud enough for us to be able to hear as well. ¡°Yeah, but you love us,¡± Luke said, bumping her lightly with his elbow. ¡°Unfortunately for all of us,¡± she agreed. Chapter 45: All That Ive Got As soon as Luke and Caitlin left, Liam climbed into his bed, keeping himself propped up on an elbow to keep his eyes on mine. ¡°So, what were you thinking for a movie?¡± he asked. ¡°I think ¡°Ghostbusters¡± would be a hilarious choice, but given the circumstances, I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re feeling up to it.¡± ¡°Up to it?¡± I asked, crossing the room and sitting on the corner of his bed. Liam¡¯s hand immediately slid onto my leg, as though it were a reflex, and he began rubbing his thumb in a soothing circle on the side of my thigh. ¡°You know, because it¡¯s about someone being possessed and all. I mean, you might not be possessed by Zuul, but I can¡¯t imagine you enjoy being reminded of it when you¡¯re trying to relax.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think there is going to be any relaxing, regardless of what we watch,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°I think that¡¯s kind of the point of being possessed by a demon - no rest.¡± Luke¡¯s hand found mine and he lightly rubbed his thumb back and forth across my palm as he thought for a moment. ¡°Maybe a comedy is more the vibe then. Get your mind off things for a while.¡± I sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t think I can just get my mind off it either. A month ago, I didn¡¯t think possessions were actually a thing, or that demons actually existed, or that I¡¯d be on the Queen Mary with a bunch of YouTubers while my life hangs in the balance.¡± I flashed a half smile at that part. ¡°Other than the imminent danger, I guess not all of the changes have been bad.¡± He pulled my hand to his lips and gave it a quick kiss. ¡°I can¡¯t imagine how difficult this is for you,¡± he said, glossing over the compliment. ¡°We¡¯ve been through haunted locations a ton of times, and have had so many possessions that I¡¯m sure the viewers are probably sick of it by now. But to come in and deal with them immediately after having only dealt with ghosts for so long¡­ it¡¯s got to be tough.¡± Tired of sitting up, I laid back onto the bed. Liam snaked his arm around me and lightly pulled me closer to him. The heat radiating from him was a huge comfort compared to the cold dampness of the rest of the ship. That was probably the biggest change of all, I thought to myself. I¡¯d dated when I was younger, but the ghosts had always gotten in the way of everything. After all, no one really wants to date a girl who¡¯s constantly talking to thin air. So eventually, I¡¯d given up trying to find someone who was okay with it. Finding someone who was not only okay with it, but actively celebrated it, was somehow both like a breath of fresh air and a disturbing shock to the system. Part of me was still somehow unable to believe it, and another part of me was sure that this was just a passing moment in time, and that whatever spell had fallen over me was soon to be broken at any moment. But even if that were actually the case, I thought, it¡¯d be better to drink it in now than to lose it without ever fully experiencing it. I turned my face toward Liam¡¯s to find him staring at me as though he were trying to read my thoughts. I grabbed the top of his shirt and pulled his lips toward mine. If he actually wanted to distract me from the demon, I thought, there were significantly better ways.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. *** We awoke to pounding on the door of our hotel room. I looked around the room at all the beige, and it took me a moment to piece together why the room wasn¡¯t monochromatic, and why there was a man sleeping next to me in bed. Liam stirred slightly at the banging but didn¡¯t open his eyes. ¡°If you two don¡¯t get up this minute, we¡¯re going to miss checkout!¡± Caitlin yelled from the other side of the door before she started pounding again. ¡°Can you just tell her that we¡¯re awake,¡± Liam mumbled. ¡°Is that actually the truth, or do you want me to lie to her?¡± I joked, and his lips pulled up into a light smirk. ¡°Can¡¯t it be both?¡± he asked, then with a sigh, sat up in bed. ¡°We¡¯re awake, Cait, just give us a second.¡± As he moved, the blanket fell off him, leaving his chest exposed, and I pulled my eyes awake to keep us from definitely missing checkout. ¡°If you wanted a second, you should have gotten up the first time I knocked!¡± Caitlin argued back, but at least she stopped knocking, which I was grateful for. My head ached, as though I¡¯d had a night out at the bars instead of in the hotel room. I must have just done more than I was ready for with my head injury, I thought. Liam pulled down the covers and slipped over me with a slight wink. He went to his bag and started pulling at clothes. ¡°Fine, I can let you in,¡± he said as he pulled the first thing he found in his bag - a shirt - over his head, ¡°but I am currently modeling the fashions of Winnie-the Pooh.¡± ¡°Oh my god!¡± Caitlin said, sounding somehow like a yell mixed with a groan. ¡°You don¡¯t need to yell that through the hotel!¡± ¡°They¡¯re a hotel,¡± Liam argued back, pulling a pair of sweatpants over the boxers he¡¯d grabbed. I slid off the bed and started grabbing my own items from my bag. ¡°They¡¯ve definitely heard worse things than that.¡± ¡°I swear if we missed any good ghost footage because you two were messing around, I¡¯m never getting you a combined room again!¡± ¡°Oh yeah, we were definitely levitating at some point,¡± Liam said, looking back at me with a wink. I giggled, pulling up a black skirt. ¡°What!¡± Caitlin yelped from outside the door. ¡°Nothing ghostly happened,¡± Liam said. He looked back at me and I gave a quick nod as I finished pulling my shirt over my head. He opened the door to Caitlin, who looked slightly like she wanted to add to the death toll of the ship. ¡°It was just a normal night - Andi didn¡¯t even see anyone in the room after you guys left.¡± Caitlin rolled her eyes, her glare finally landing on me as I pulled my fingers through my hair. ¡°Did you at least remember to take the oils that Luke gave you? And fill your bottle up with the holy water solution?¡± I winced. ¡°The holy water, yes,¡± I said, turning back to my bag, where I¡¯d thrown the bottle of oils that Luke had handed me before they had left. I¡¯d been planning on taking it before bed, in case it did give me terrible heartburn, but the lack of normal routine had thrown me off. ¡°I¡¯ll take the oils right now, as soon as I can find them,¡± I said, starting to pull out things out of my bag trying to find it. Caitlin sighed. ¡°It won¡¯t have as much time to get into your system, but we¡¯ve still got an hour to get back to the house, plus I assume Circe will want to rest first when she gets there, so we can make it work.¡± I pushed a couple more makeup items aside (which I¡¯d brought with in the hopes that I¡¯d feel up to doing a full makeup routine before the Estes method, which obviously didn¡¯t happen), trying to find the oil, but it somehow seemed to have disappeared in my relatively small bag. Then, as I shuffled around a couple more things, I saw a small flash of yellow and paused. I hadn¡¯t brought anything yellow with me. I grabbed my bag and tipped it over on the bed, letting the contents scattered across the comforter. Right in the middle, on top of a pile of miscellaneous makeup, was the little yellow fabric doll. The small spot of blood on the side of the dress was prominent on the front, and I couldn¡¯t help but stare at it. Caitlin came over to look at my bed. ¡°I don¡¯t see the oil,¡± she started, then did a double-take at the doll. ¡°I thought you put that doll in your bag,¡± she said, looking at Liam. ¡°I did,¡± was all he answered. Chapter 46: I Write Sins Not Tragedies ¡°Well, the simple answer is that I told you to burn it,¡± Circe said, holding the doll up to the light so she could get a better look at it. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it was going to be an urgent matter, but apparently it is.¡± ¡°You also didn¡¯t think Andi was going to be possessed by it,¡± Luke pointed out. ¡°We have no evidence that that¡¯s what actually caused the possession,¡± she said, lifting up a small bit of the yellowed fabric and trying it between her fingers, making sure to stay away from the blood droplet. ¡°Or that it¡¯s at all related. Although if it¡¯s not, it¡¯s an awfully big coincidence.¡± Her eyes shifted to me as she set the doll down on the counter. ¡°Are you feeling better?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Not a hundred percent, but better than I was a few days ago.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Circe responded, ¡°because you¡¯ll have to be the one to burn it.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t it be a team effort?¡± Luke jumped in before I got a chance to say anything, then he caught my eye. ¡°Sorry, I just know you¡¯re still injured. We don¡¯t want your energy to zap while you¡¯re standing by the flames or anything.¡± ¡°The fire itself can be a team effort, so long as she¡¯s the one to throw the doll in,¡± Circe answered. ¡°The most important part is that Andi is the one who takes the final steps to actually disperse the spirit, as it will weaken the claim that came from this.¡± She tapped lightly on the now dark brown blood spot. ¡°Without this step, I think she could drink all the rosemary oil she wanted and it still wouldn¡¯t help anything. You did start that, didn¡¯t you?¡± I nodded. ¡°This morning, right after we found the doll again.¡± She sighed. ¡°It¡¯ll have to do. I would have preferred if you would have started last night, but I heard that someone had more important things happening.¡± Caitlin blushed when I looked in her direction, but she didn¡¯t meet my eyes. Whatever - I had bigger things to worry about than gossip. Circe looked at her watch. ¡°I¡¯ll need to sleep before we go through with the exorcism, as will you, but if we burn the doll first, that will give you at least enough time to get a bit more holy water into your system.¡± Her eyes flicked down to my half-full water bottle for a moment before flicking back up. ¡°You¡¯d better get to drinking, hun. You sound like you¡¯re a serious case, and you¡¯re probably dehydrated anyway. Luke,¡± she said, turning toward him, ¡°be a dear and get a fire started, preferably outside in case there are more flames than we might expect.¡± ¡°On it, we can use the fire pit,¡± Luke said with a slight nod. Circe rounded on Liam. ¡°And you need to keep an eye on her. She¡¯s already injured and stressed, and that¡¯s when a demon can really really get its claws into her. So to speak,¡± she added when I flinched.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Well, I was trying to distract her yesterday, but everyone seems pissed about it,¡± he answered, flashing me a little smirk. I felt heat rise to my face. ¡°Not like that,¡± Circe replied, emphasizing the first word. ¡°Maybe draw a nice bath for her after you burn that doll. Use your imagination in the most PG-rated way you can.¡± ¡°PG-13,¡± Liam bartered back. ¡°We can work with that,¡± she agreed. ¡°And then get some beauty sleep!¡± she reminded me before heading toward what was apparently her assigned room in the house. Liam grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly. ¡°It¡¯ll all be fine. Circe is the expert for anything like this.¡± ¡°I¡¯m starting to believe that,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°After all, she was the one who called the possession in the first place.¡± ¡°And got it to jump from Luke to you, apparently, which is¡­¡± he shrugged, as though he wasn¡¯t sure how to finish that sentence. ¡°Probably good, considering how run down Luke was?¡± I suggested. ¡°We had no way of knowing that I¡¯d crack my head open immediately afterward.¡± Liam gave a half-shrug as if to say that was close enough to what he was thinking. ¡°Want to go outside and see how Luke¡¯s doing with the fire pit? The sooner we chuck this thing into the flames, the sooner we can get you into a nice bubble bath.¡± I laughed and followed Liam toward the backyard. ¡°Do you actually have bubble bath solution in the house?¡± ¡°We do not,¡± he said pointedly. ¡°But I think Luke still has some Epsom salt left over from when he sprained his leg tripping over some shit during a ghost hunt, so at least that¡¯s something.¡± ¡°You¡¯re still telling that story?¡± Luke called out from the fire pit. He hadn¡¯t gotten it to the point of a roaring fire yet, but there were small bits of flame and smoke spewing from the pit. ¡°It was dark, and some asshole with the night vision didn¡¯t warn me that I was about to run into our filming chairs!¡± ¡°Some asshole with the night vision didn¡¯t realize that you¡¯d completely forgotten where we¡¯d started filming,¡± Liam said with a quick smile. ¡°How¡¯s the fire coming?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fire,¡± Luke answered, shoving a couple of small sticks into the flame. ¡°I think if we douse the doll in some lighter fluid, it¡¯ll be ash in a matter of seconds.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s do it,¡± Liam said. He walked toward Luke, who handed him a bottle of lighter fluid, which he then tossed to me. ¡°Spray it all over that doll so we can get it out of here. The sooner we¡¯re done with this, the sooner we can un-possess you.¡± I opened the bottle of sickly sweet-smelling liquid and squirted it on the doll, trying to get it as covered as possible. When it was fairly damp, I walked over to the flames and threw it in. It caught fire immediately, creating a little fireball in the middle of the pit. ¡°Good fucking riddance,¡± Liam said, grabbing my hand again. Together, we stood in silence, watching the doll burn to ash and crumble to the bottom of the pit. ¡°Is it over?¡± Luke asked, breaking the silence right as the last flake of ash fell from where the doll had originally been sitting. ¡°Please tell me we can get rid of this thing for good.¡± ¡°Circe would be the one to ask about it,¡± Liam answered him, still staring at the flames that had started roaring since I¡¯d thrown in the doll. ¡°But I don¡¯t think so. Are demons ever really over?¡± ¡°It¡¯s definitely not over,¡± I said. ¡°I can feel it somehow.¡± And that was true - since I first found out I¡¯d been possessed, I¡¯d been trying to pinpoint the feeling, and there was definitely something there - as though I had a roommate in the middle of my chest. ¡°But I think it¡¯s definitely weaker. Hopefully Circe will be able to get it to leave for good.¡± ¡°She will,¡± Liam assured me, squeezing my hand. ¡°I know you haven¡¯t known her for long, but there¡¯s a reason we all have such faith in her. It¡¯ll all work out in the end. Now, let¡¯s get you inside before the fumes from the burning ancient doll cause even more problems.¡± Chapter 47: ??? I was back in the fucking dark hallway again, although this time, it was significantly less dark than it had been. It was dim, as though several of the lightbulbs had burned out, rather than being plunged in utter darkness, but it seemed as though the shadows on the walls were alive with movement. That wasn¡¯t nearly as concerning as the fact that the last thing I remembered was lying back in the bathtub. Liam had drawn me a warm bath, and sinking into the water felt like heaven. All of my muscles had relaxed nearly immediately, but now, with the sudden reappearance of the hallway, it seemed like there was a solid chance that I had relaxed a bit too much. I thrashed in my chair, trying to wake myself up to no avail. This time at least, I hadn¡¯t been injured, which I took to be a good sign. The bad sign was that, once again, I couldn¡¯t move anything except my head. ¡°You had to interfere,¡± a voice thundered from behind me. I turned my head as far as I could, but all I could see was the long, empty hallway behind me. ¡°We could have had him, but you had to interfere.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you take my friend,¡± I said, struggling against my invisible binds. I could feel beads of sweat start to pop up on my forehead, which I couldn¡¯t help but ring as odd - should I be able to feel such a small detail in dreams? But then again, the boundary between wakefulness and dreams had always been skewed in this hall. ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± a small, calm voice said from directly in front of me, and I whipped my head around to see the little girl. She was in a pink, velvety dress, with her hair perfectly coiffed into long, brown curls. As I met her dark brown eyes, she lightly turned her head, looking at me with a sense of confusion. ¡°We can take you in his place.¡± ¡°No!¡± I yelled, pulling against the chair again. The wooden feet of the chair wobbled lightly on the floor for a moment but then stopped, as though an additional pressure had been added. ¡°You can¡¯t have any of us.¡± The little girl blinked. ¡°But we already have you,¡± she argued. ¡°You¡¯re here with us.¡± From behind me, I heard the sound of something heavy dragging against the floor. I fought myself for a moment, trying to decide if I should keep my eyes on the little girl or the sound behind me, before trying to turn around again. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you,¡± the little girl said in a sing-song voice. ¡°He¡¯s already mad that he couldn¡¯t have him. You wouldn¡¯t want to make him even angrier.¡±If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Who?¡± I nearly yelled into the open space of the hallway. ¡°Me,¡± said a deep voice immediately from in front of me. I whipped my head back around, but even the little girl was gone - in front of me was just the long hallway with so many doors. ¡°Come out and talk to me, you coward,¡± I pleaded, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. ¡°I can help you! I can get you back to where you belong.¡± As I talked, I started to feel a weird sort of tugging directly behind my belly button, but I ignored it as best as I could - nothing in here seemed to transfer to the real world, anyway. ¡°There¡¯s no more talking. There¡¯s only coming with us,¡± the little girl¡¯s voice chirped. I looked around, unable to differentiate what direction it was coming from, but she was nowhere to be seen. ¡°You¡¯ll never see your friends again!¡± She giggled, the sound of it echoing through the halls in some discordant symphony. ¡°We can get this figured out!¡± I yelled again, as the tugging in my stomach got heavier and heavier. ¡°Can we?¡± A familiar voice said, and I froze, my eyes glued toward the nearest door on the left side of the hallway. From inside, I saw a shred of movement. ¡°Can we get this figured out, or are you going to get distracted by your boyfriend again?¡± the voice said with an obvious hint of disgust. Out of the doorway, Liam stepped, his eyes trained on me as he walked slowly toward me. ¡°You came here for a job,¡± he accused, ¡°and yet you caught feelings for the first dipshit that gave you a lick of attention. How pathetic.¡± ¡°Liam, please,¡± I begged, not really sure what I was begging for. For him to let me go? For him to stay with me? A little bit of both? ¡°Liam, please,¡± he mocked. ¡°That¡¯s all I¡¯ve heard since you first found us.¡± He reached behind his back and pulled out a small knife. ¡°Without you, this would have all been over in a matter of weeks.¡± ¡°Just let me go, Liam,¡± I said quietly. I felt tears fall down my cheeks, unaware of the fact that I¡¯d actually fully started crying. ¡°I¡¯ll leave, and you and Luke can go back to the way you were.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that simple and you know it,¡± he said, throwing the knife up lightly and catching it, the muscles of his hand flexing in a way that, even in that state, I couldn¡¯t help noticing. ¡°You came here and fucked everything up, and now you¡¯re going to have to pay for it.¡± The tugging in my gut increased by so much that I wanted nothing more than to rest my hand over my stomach. I tried to will it away, focused on what was happening, but I couldn¡¯t. ¡°I was just trying to help,¡± I said quietly. ¡°Yeah, well, you didn¡¯t,¡± Liam said, his face annoyed. ¡°And now, we¡¯ve all got to deal with it.¡± He raised the knife and I flinched, waiting for the final blow that I assumed was coming. But instead, Liam took the blade and ran it across his own throat. Blood started spurting out immediately, along with small bubbles as he tried to breathe. ¡°Liam!¡± I yelled, flinging myself against my bonds again, but it was no use. Between the pull of the chair and the pull in my stomach, there was no way I could go to him. ¡°This is all you,¡± he managed to gurgle, the bubbles of blood popping obscenely on his neck. His shirt was soaked immediately, as droplets started falling to the floor. After another couple of seconds, Luke dropped to his knees, never breaking eye contact me with. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± I sobbed, finally stopping my struggle against the bindings. Even if I freed myself now, there would be nothing I could do to help him. I finally averted my gaze, unable to take the sight anymore. ¡°You should be,¡± he said, perfectly normal again. I started to look back, but before my eyes could lock with his again, the internal pull got too strong, and I could feel myself moving against my own volition. Probably to hell, I thought, but after that, what could hell do to me? Chapter 48: I Will Follow You Into The Dark ¡°Sir, I¡¯m going to need you to step back and give us some space,¡± said a male voice that I didn¡¯t recognize. I felt a beating against my chest that was rather unpleasant, and I wanted to speak up to tell them to stop, but I couldn¡¯t make a sound. ¡°Can you tell us what happened here?¡± I was cold. Unreasonably cold. And damp. But this couldn¡¯t be that mythical ¡°hell¡± that Christians were always talking about. I still wasn¡¯t sure I believed in hell in general, but if this was it, I thought, it was kind of a letdown after the horrors of that hallway. ¡°She went for a bath and must have passed out,¡± Liam said. My blood ran somehow even colder at the sound of his voice. So he wasn¡¯t actually dead, I thought, fighting the shiver that ran down my spine. ¡°She hadn¡¯t been feeling well, so I came to check on her, and I found her under the water. I pulled her out, but I wasn¡¯t sure how long she¡¯d been under.¡± The beating on my chest stopped for a minute while people hurried around me, and then I heard another unknown voice say ¡°We¡¯ve got a pulse!¡± ¡°Your quick actions might have saved her life, boys,¡± the first man said again. ¡°We¡¯re taking her to Cedars-Sinia. We¡¯ve got room for one person to ride with us.¡± Liam must have stepped up, because the man continued, getting quieter as I was apparently being wheeled away. ¡°Okay, we¡¯re going to get her into the cab first, then we¡¯ll get you your spot. She spit up a lot of water, so her oxygen levels are getting back to normal, but we¡¯re going to want to monitor her for a bit and do some tests to see what toll the lack of oxygen took. I don¡¯t want to worry you too much, but generally someone would be awake by this point.¡± I was awake, even if the man didn¡¯t know it, but I could tell that wasn¡¯t going to be the case for long - even as they were loading me into the ambulance, I was starting to feel myself drift back into that black abyss. And I sure as hell did not want to go back - after that narrow escape, it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if the demon was still sitting there waiting for me. But despite how I tried to fight it, as I felt several more people getting into the back of the ambulance with me, Liam assumedly being one of them, I lost that battle. *** When I woke up, thankfully without any dreams of that hallway, my entire body was sore. I took a deep breath in and cringed slightly at the pain in my chest. ¡°Andi?¡± asked a worried voice from next to me. ¡°That was definitely more than just a sleep movement,¡± said a second voice. Luke, I realized. ¡°I¡¯m going to get the doctor.¡± A hand grasped onto mine, and I winced slightly again, although it hurt significantly less than breathing. ¡°Andi, if you can hear me, I need you to open your eyes, okay? For me?¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. With a shuttering, painful gasp, I realized that the voice was Liam¡¯s. For some reason, it didn¡¯t sound exactly like I remembered it. Then I realized that the voice itself wasn¡¯t that different - it was just that it lacked any of the pep that his voice tended to have. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if that was a result of the demon, too. Slowly, I opened my eyes and focused on him. He¡¯d looked like he¡¯d aged five years since the last time I saw him, and he clearly hadn¡¯t showered in at least a couple of days. When my eyes met his, I could see the water glistening in his eyes. Carefully, he lifted a hand to run his thumb along my cheek gently. ¡°Hey,¡± he said quietly. ¡°I sure am glad to see you. We weren¡¯t sure if you were going to make it through this one.¡± As he spoke, all I could think of was him working with the demon and slitting his own throat it front of me. I turned away from his touch, wincing at the stiffness in my neck. I saw a flash of the hurt in his eyes for a second before he hid it again, moving his hand back down beside him. His other hand was still grasping mine, and even though there was a part of me that wanted to pull that from him, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to do it. Liam cleared his throat, but when he spoke, there was still a gravel to the tone that hadn¡¯t been there before. ¡°I was really worried about you. Sorry about breaking into your bath without permission, but when I saw you under the water¡­¡± He squeezed my hand slightly harder, but I could tell it was subconscious. His eyes stayed glued to me, as though scared to look away. ¡°I was worried that, no matter what we did, it wouldn¡¯t be enough,¡± he continued after a beat. ¡°That the demon finally had its clutches in you and it wasn¡¯t going to let you go.¡± I looked down as he looked at me - anything to keep me from meeting his eyes that were much more clear than my thoughts were. Eventually, I decided that not speaking up and confirming whether or not what had happened in the dream was true would be more difficult for me in the long run. Sure, I could assume it was just the demon and go on living my too-happy little life all of a sudden, but eventually, that would turn around and bite me in the ass. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just let the demon take me?¡± I asked, my voice raw from both the pain and the emotion. Liam started back in his chair for a moment, his eyes suddenly sharper than they were a minute ago, with a small flare of anger. ¡°And just why in the hell would I do something like that?¡± he asked. I shrugged, wincing at the pain in my shoulder at the movement. Who knew that drowning was a full-body workout? ¡°While I was in the hallway, you said it,¡± I said, looking anywhere but at his eyes that were now piercing into me. ¡°You said that I was stupid and fell for the first person to show me any affection. And that it had all been part of the demon¡¯s plan. And then you¡­¡± I trailed off, not wanting to open that door right now, even for myself. Liam reached up and lightly grabbed a hold of my chin, moving my face in his direction. ¡°Look at me. Please.¡± I held off for another moment, but then I slowly slid my eyes to his. There were no more tears in his eyes, or pain. There was just something that rhymed with anger as they pierced into me. ¡°That wasn¡¯t me, and you know it wasn¡¯t me. Why you¡¯d even think it could be is beyond my comprehension. But Andi, this is a demon,¡± he said, punctuating the last two words. ¡°Getting under people¡¯s skin is like their whole thing. And it took whatever fucking preconceived notition that you had that I wouldn¡¯t actually like you, and it used it against you to keep you occupied. Whatever you saw, it means nothing.¡± He let go of my chin to pull lightly at his shirt. ¡°I¡¯ve been sitting by you in this hospital room for two days. I need to shower and change out of these gross clothes, and I need to sleep somewhere other than this crappy chair, but you can sure as hell bet that I wasn¡¯t going to leave you when I wasn¡¯t sure if you were going to make it, and you¡¯re worried about me letting the demon take you?¡± He sighed, and the sound echoed in my bones. ¡°The only thing I want to do with this demon is make it leave in the most physically painful way possible for it. Do you understand?¡± I nodded, feeling the pricks of tears starting in my own eyes. ¡°Just don¡¯t die on me, either,¡± I asked, squeezing his hand back in return. Liam looked exhausted, but the frustration left his face as I joked with him. ¡°I wasn¡¯t planning on it, but I¡¯ll make sure to put it on my list,¡± he answered. We sat there in silence until Luke managed to return with a doctor. Even then, Liam¡¯s hand never left mine. Chapter 49: Swing Life Away I was in the hospital for another day, before the doctors finally decided that I had nothing wrong with me other than my propensity to fall asleep in unfortunate places. But the near drowning fortunately didn¡¯t cause any additional problems with me, and we all knew what the actual cause of my near-death experience was. After I was sent to the hospital, Circe was sent home, as I wasn¡¯t going to be up to doing the exorcism until I was fully healed. Besides, having been in the hospital for a couple of days, she claimed that my body had already flushed out all the oils and holy water that I¡¯d been taking, so she wanted me to start that process over again. And, considering the strength of the demon even after we¡¯d burned the assumed trigger object, I was going to need more of it than I¡¯d assumed. I sat on the couch, watching the cut of the newest YouTube video that Liam had put on the screen while he¡¯d run to get me a cup of coffee with extra rosemary and oregano oil (because honestly, hopefully, you never have to have it, but if you do, coffee does an actually okay job of masking the god awful flavor of it). I guess watching isn¡¯t really the right word - I was too tired to fully digest what I was seeing on the screen, but even having the video on in the background created a sense of normalcy that I had been missing. Even though I had to admit, it felt crazy that this had already registered itself as my new normal. Liam quietly walked into the room as Luke was giving a brief history of the Queen Mary. He handed me a cup of some nondescript pale tea with a light smile. ¡°I was half hoping that you¡¯d be asleep,¡± he said, just loudly enough to be heard of Luke¡¯s explanation. ¡°It¡¯s late, and you¡¯re supposed to be rebuilding your strength.¡± ¡°Then what¡¯s with the cup of tea?¡± I asked, lightly blowing on the hot liquid in the cup. ¡°Optimism,¡± he answered with a shrug, sitting next to me on the couch. In a matter of moments, he¡¯d winded his arm around me and dragged me closer to him. ¡°What do you think of the episode?¡± I shrugged, taking a sip of what was apparently a bad chamomile tea. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say it¡¯s groundbreaking in the field of ghost studies or anything, but I¡¯ve seen enough ghost videos to know that the Queen Mary is a fan favorite, so I assume it¡¯ll go over well with the viewers.¡± ¡°Such a fake fan,¡± he joked lightly, then sighed. ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve got something that I need to talk to you about.¡± I felt my heart sinking quickly, only for that feeling to be stopped a moment later when he continued. ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t say it¡¯s really me who needs to talk to you about it, but Caitlin basically told me that if I didn¡¯t talk to you, she would, and she¡¯s never been known to gently say anything about the videos before.¡± I let out the breath that I¡¯d subconsciously started holding. ¡°My dude,¡± I said, taking another sip of chamomile tea because lord knows I needed something to calm my nerves, ¡°you don¡¯t say something like that to someone you¡¯re kind of seeing. I thought you were breaking things off or something.¡± ¡°Kind of sort of seeing?¡± he asked, raising one eyebrow as he looked down at me, then he gave a quick shrug. ¡°I guess we haven¡¯t really had the talk about making this official or anything. I just hope you don¡¯t think that I let every woman I fuck live in my house and come on ghost hunts with us.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°You only let me come on ghost hunts because I can see ghosts,¡± I argued back, completely unable to think of any reason why I would argue his point. ¡°Originally,¡± he admitted, ¡°although we haven¡¯t even caught that much evidence of you seeing ghosts on film. Which, I guess, comes to the crux of Caitlin¡¯s issue - the audience doesn¡¯t believe you anymore.¡± I rolled the last few videos we¡¯d filmed through my mind as Liam quietly held me, clearly waiting for me to have some sort of a comeback. He was right, of course - I¡¯d seen a few ghosts when we were actually on location, but other than the couple of ghosts at the prison, I hadn¡¯t seen many while we were actively filming, and really the only tangible proof that I had seen something were the bodies. And while it was obvious that we were talking about them, Luke and Liam had made sure to cut any footage that actually showed the bodies because we¡¯re not Logan Paul or anything, so there was nothing other than our word to say that we actually found anything at all. Luke and Liam had grown their audience up from the ground, and as such, their audience had a lot of trust in them. But there was only so far that they could stretch that trust, and their audience had just met me. ¡°So they don¡¯t think I¡¯m actually seeing ghosts?¡± ¡°They don¡¯t,¡± he confirmed. ¡°When you first got here, they seemed all in on you. We even had a couple of people saying they wanted a spin-off with you doing solo investigations in places. But then we started getting into this whole demon thing, and it seems the audience thinks it''s¡­¡± he cringed as he finished the sentence, ¡°overplayed.¡± ¡°It is overplayed,¡± I agreed, and Liam visibly relaxed. ¡°I don¡¯t know how many creators I watched before I ended up calling you guys, but basically everyone was possessed by a demon at least yearly. It¡¯s a big part of why I thought it was all for show, too.¡± ¡°It might be for a lot of them,¡± Liam admitted. ¡°After having seen this actual possession, I¡¯m honestly not sure if we were actually possessed every time we claimed we were. It was never anything like this,¡± he said, loosely gesturing toward me. ¡°Luke and I have ended up in the hospital because of ghost hunting before, but it¡¯s always because we were being dumbasses. Demon attacks are a first.¡± ¡°There¡¯s probably plenty that weren¡¯t actually demons, but for the audience who isn¡¯t here living it, I don¡¯t think it really matters.¡± We sit silently for a moment, watching Luke walk through the hull of the ship, talking to nothing but thin air. ¡°Does Caitlin have any ideas on how to fix it?¡± I finally asked. ¡°Oh she¡¯s always got ideas,¡± Liam answered sarcastically. ¡°Her first option was to kick you off the channel and bring it back to just Luke and I, and I told her that that was never gonna happen.¡± He squeezed me lightly with the last three words as emphasis. ¡°I mean, if it would help the channel..¡± I started, but Liam immediately shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re not removing you from the channel because you have one rough spot with the audience. Especially when your rough spot is just not lying about not seeing ghosts - it¡¯s not like you were part of a scandal or something. Besides, I already talked to Luke about it, and he¡¯s in agreement, too. You¡¯re staying on the channel, whether Caitlin likes it or not.¡± I let out a long breath. ¡°When what are her other suggestions?¡± Liam shrugged. ¡°Well, the main one is that we bring you to places that are undoubtedly haunted. After you¡¯re done healing, of course. And in the meantime, I was thinking that maybe we could watch some other YouTuber¡¯s videos, just to see what ghosts are even in places. If we find somewhere that¡¯s got tons of ghosts, you¡¯ll be bound to see something. And then, when we get there, maybe you hype it up a little more than necessary. Not lie,¡± he said, cutting me off when I opened my mouth to protest. ¡°Just exaggerate your emotions a bit. You¡¯re very matter of fact about the ghosts being there, but you¡¯ve got to remember that the rest of us, including the audience, isn¡¯t seeing what you¡¯re seeing. Even if it¡¯s mundane to you, you could act excited about seeing it, or give us some great detail or whatever.¡± I thought about it for a moment. Lying about seeing ghosts for a YouTube video was something that I had never even considered, but Liam was right - acting excited about something I was actually seeing is nowhere near the same as lying about seeing a ghost. ¡°Alright,¡± I said after too long in silence. ¡°I can act up for the cameras.¡± ¡°Perfect!¡± he said, planting a small kiss on my temple. ¡°I¡¯ll make up a list of videos for us to watch this week. In the meantime, let me know if there¡¯s anything that I can change about this Queen Mary video, because there¡¯s something about it that feels a little uncanny valley to me.¡±