Group Shotsss

“Well, I was thinking we place the REM where we did last time we were here with the guys and use that for answers for a bit before trying a few EVP sessions.” He glances behind Rayne, trying to make sure she doesn’t walk into a wall, but her backwards steps are straight and true down the hallway. “And it’s not just the equipment. With your sensing, I was thinking we could just use that for clarification in between. Especially since you’re more accurate in smaller spaces.”

“Oh, so I’m just your personal walkie-talkie to the dead, huh?” She quirks an eyebrow at him, trying-and failing-to hide her grin. “Glad to be a glorified spirit box.”

He laughs, reaching out to grab her shoulder and spin her back to facing forward. “Come on, you know what I mean. You’d do it anyway.”

“How do you know?” She tips her head back over her shoulder, though the camera still faces down the hallway. His smile is crooked to the side, just like always, as he looks down at her.

“Because you do it every time we’re on an investigation together and you did it again last night.” Dylan reaches out to flick her forehead. “It’s just how you are.”

“Hey!”

“Quiet, you’ll wake the dead,” he teases. With a roll of her eyes, she keeps walking until they’re in the solitary block. Dylan takes the lead, finding the same cell he and the others had been in on the last collab, setting the REM pod on the lifted bed portion of the floor, keeping the DR-60 in his pocket for the time being.

“Okay, professional, how do we want to do this?” At Rayne’s question, Dylan rolls his eyes.

“We both know I’m no professional.” At Rayne’s knowing look, he lets it drop. “Let’s just start with the questions. Do you want me to take the camera so you can be more open? I know it’s easier when you have nothing blocking you from the air.”

 “Yes, please.” She passes him the camera, adjusting her hoodie afterwards. “I’m surprised you even remember that, I think I said it like once.”

He shrugs, lifting the camera to film where she stands in the back corner of the room while he leans on the wall by the door, in the exact spot he’d been with Sam and Colby. “Just seemed important before and you almost never hold the camera. Either me and Steve do or you set it up somewhere.”

“Watching me, are we, Stevens?” He grins at Rayne’s little smirk. 

“Maybe.” The two share one final smile before he kicks off the investigation. “Alright, hello, is there anyone here who wants to talk with us? My name’s Dylan, this is Rayne. We were here last night, just up in the Attic, and I was here a few years ago, too.”

The REM stays quiet, Dylan keeping the camera focused on the device and the girl now crouching against the wall behind it. 

“If you remember us or want to talk, just grab the device on the floor and it’ll make a noise. It shouldn’t hurt you, it just needs to be touched.” Dylan’s voice carries through the space, no other noise answering. His eyes dart between the camera, the REM pod, and the hallway, waiting for movement. For some sort of answer.

“Something’s here,” Rayne murmurs. Dylan’s eyes go back to her to see that she has her eyes focused on the REM, but they’re distant. “I can feel something, I can’t pinpoint it, though. It’s…nervous almost.”

“You don’t have to be nervous,” Dylan calls out. “We’re not here to hurt you, we just want to talk. To understand the story of the prison a bit better.”

The REM beeps once before falling into silence once more. Dylan shifts a bit where he stands before glancing over to Rayne, who furrows her brow. He immediately picks up on what she’s doing, given that it’s her decoding face.

“What do you feel?” He zooms the camera in on her a bit, focusing on her face as she balances her chin on one hand, elbow on her knee. 

“I’m not fully sure, honestly. Just like last night, it’s not exact.” She huffs out a sigh, flicking her eyes up to meet his. “The most I can piece together is just that nervousness. Maybe some questioning, but I’m not getting super specific energy that I can put into words.”

“Do you think it’s still trying to evade specific answers?”

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I mean, if you were sticking to a story, would you change up all of a sudden with a different group of people you know will tell the others?”

“Fair enough.” He zooms the camera back out to capture the whole room. “Well, if our friend in here doesn’t want to talk, what do you say about moving into the hall to try and talk to a guard?”

“Whatever you want, man, I’m just here for the vibes.” Rayne stands from her crouch and immediately pauses, leaning fully against the wall. “Okay, I can’t tell if I stood up too fast or our friend isn’t happy that we’re thinking of leaving.”

Dylan raises his brows at that, taking a step closer. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good, just got dizzy.”

“Do you need to head back? I don’t want a repeat of last night.”

She cuts him a glare, to which he raises his free hand in surrender. “I’m fine. I’d tell you otherwise. Let’s just go and see what happens.”

“Point taken.” He grins as he says it, Rayne scooping up the REM pod, turning it off before it can scream at her proximity. The two shift to be just outside the cell door, agreeing to put the REM pod in the doorway before standing across the hall from it, a few feet from each other.

“No, I think it was the fact that we left the room. I still feel a little off.” Dylan turns the camera to face the girl who once again crouches with her back balanced against the wall. Her arms cross between her chest and her knees as she focuses on the cell in front of them. “I still can’t tell exactly what’s around, though. It’s strange.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen your sensing be this ambiguous before,” Dylan says. She shrugs, looking up at him.

“Most of the time it’s like this, actually. The places we’ve been with you guys are just very open to communicating. This one is closed off. Secretive. That’s why it’s always evading questions and just asking the same thing.”

He hums in answer, running the information through his head before speaking again. “Do you think it’s just this one or anything that still hangs out in here?”

“I’m not sure.” She pauses, turning down the long end of the hallway to her other side. “I mean, I can definitely feel other pulses of energy in here, but none of them are calling out. Whether that’s because they don’t want to be known or simply don’t want to answer questions, I can’t tell. The whole building is busy but it’s quiet.”

In an answer of its own, the REM pod lets out a few short beeps before falling silent again. The pair turn to watch it for a moment. With their silence, it lets out another, longer sound.

“Hello,” Dylan says. “Would you like to talk with us?”

“That’s a solid positive on that one,” Rayne tells him. “The energy just, like, perked up. Got excited.”

In tandem, the REM goes off again, another longer one before stopping. “Alright, cool, thank you. Again, my name’s Dylan, this is Rayne next to me. We just want to learn more about you, if that’s okay.”

A short beep answers, Rayne speaking up next. “Were you a guard here?”

Another quick burst of the REM seems to affirm. Dylan grins.

“You’re the first guard we’ve spoken to in here. It’s nice to finally talk with one of you.” He shifts the camera to his other hand, reaching into his pocket to grab the DR-60. “I’m going to use this little box, okay? It should let us hear your voice. Just come up close and try to speak into the light as loud as you can.”

He does a quick count down before hitting record, asking the first question. “How long were you a guard here?”

After the allotted silence, Rayne asks the next one. “Did you die here? Or were you called back once you died?”

“Did you always walk solitary?”

“Was the prison as bad for you as it was for the prisoners?”

Dylan does another count down before finally stopping the recording. He crouches down at Rayne’s side before lifting the box between them for them both to hear and hitting play. Both of their first questions go by with no whispers between. After his second question, there’s a muttering of a few words neither of the two can make out, even after replaying it three times.

It’s the final question that holds an actual answer. As soon as the word “prisoners” leaves Rayne’s mouth, a shout follows. 

“Oh damn,” Dylan says, rewinding it immediately. Rayne simply leans closer to him, listening more intently. As it plays again, she jolts back, almost cracking her head against the concrete wall.

“Did you hear what I did?”

Dylan shakes his head. “I only hear a yell.”

“It sounds like it’s saying ‘Shut up.’” Her eyes are wide, an excited gleam underneath. “Almost like the guard doesn’t want to talk about the conditions or the prisoners subject to them.”

“Hang on, let me listen again.” Dylan plays it two more times before nodding. “I kinda hear it.” Then he says to the camera facing the two of them, “if you guys at home hear something different, put it down in the comments and let us know.”

Rayne snorts. “You’re such a dork with that.”

“What,” he grins, “with asking for more opinions?”

“No, just the way you say it.” The two laugh a bit before the REM goes off again, this time holding the sound for a long time. “Can you step back from that, please, so we can use the recorder again?”

It takes a second before following her direction, ceasing the sound. She turns to the man next to her as she talks. “I think this time, we just let it go. No questions, just see what it picks up.”

“Works for me.” This time, Dylan sets it on the ground. He does another count down before hitting record and just letting it go. They wait what feels like almost a full minute before stopping it, the REM emitting a few short bursts of beeping here and there. This time, the recording is dead silent the entire time. He lets out a sigh. “Well, such is the way of investigating. I think it might be a bust down here tonight.”

Next to him, Rayne shakes her head. “I can still feel something. Two somethings, really, but only one wants to talk. The other is just heavy. Like a warning.”

“Similar to that one at Madison?” Before she can answer, he glances to the camera, shamelessly plugging. “Guys, if you want to see what we keep referring to, go watch our video on the Haunted Nights channel with Ray and Lia at the Madison Seminary.”

The girl snorts again. “Shameless. But no, not like Madison. It’s still more ambiguous. That warning before it attacked Lia was an angry heaviness. This one could be angry or it could be fearful. I still can’t pinpoint it.”

“That’s so strange to me,” Dylan says. “Do we want to just wait and see what happens, then, rather than keep asking questions that lead to nowhere?”

“I mean, it’s worth a shot,” Rayne nods. She shifts to fully settle onto the floor, legs crossed. Dylan joins her a moment later, their knees touching. “I wonder if the one that wants to talk just doesn’t have the energy to. If it’s our friend, they used up a ton of energy last night between our two groups. Plus we’re more spread out tonight. If it’s still trying to talk to multiple of us at once, that has to be taxing.”

“True. Or if it’s someone new, it could just be they haven’t really been active in a while.”

“That, too.” 

The two fall into silence for a while, just letting what happens happen. The REM continues to let out a few short beeps every once in a while, but nothing else really happens. They try another EVP session with no results before fading back into silence. About fifteen minutes later, Rayne shifts, taking her hoodie off.

“You okay?” Dylan asks.

“Yeah,” she says, “just got hot all of a sudden.”

With her Built Different hoodie now in her lap, it’s easy to see her black Ouija board shirt. One Dylan has to poke fun at. “That’s an interesting shirt choice for an investigation.”

Rayne smiles. “When in Rome.”

The silence that follows is more tense, the air heavier somehow. Both feel it, though Rayne scowls at the floor in front of her. This time, it’s only a couple minutes before she says something.

“It’s getting heavier.” Dylan’s eyes shoot to her, worried.

“How so?”

“There’s definitely anger now, but there’s also fear. The two energies are way different now.”

“Can you tell which is which? Or where they’re coming from?”

She shakes her head. “No. But I have a guess.”

“Do I really want to know?” Despite his joking, Dylan’s still tense.

“Think. If you’re a guard in a prison and there’s two people just sitting on the floor in the hall, wouldn’t you assume they’re prisoners not in their cells? And if you were in solitary, wouldn’t you be more afraid of an angry guard?”

Dylan takes a breath. “Do you think we should move back to the cell? Just to see what happens?”

“I’m honestly not sure if I can stand without getting dizzy right now.” She blows out a long breath. “Dyl, it’s settled on my chest.”

“I don’t like the sound of that. At all.” He pushes to his feet, sliding the DR-60 back into his pocket. “Here, let me help you. Let’s see if going back into the cell helps a bit.”

Rayne nods, reaching up to take his hand, leaning on him as they move back into the cell before plopping down onto the bed portion of the floor. She crosses her legs and leans her elbows on her knees, chin in her hands.

“It’s already better, but it’ll probably be a few minutes until we can really tell,” she says.

“Take all the time you need. Other than what you’re getting, it’s quiet in here tonight. I don’t think we’ll get much else, anyway.”

“Paranormal walkie talkie to the rescue.” The joke falls flat as three clear footsteps sound from the hallway. Startled, she looks up at Dylan, who peeks into the hall with the camera.

“Nothing’s there,” he says. “That timing, though. That was insane.”

“Yeah, no, for sure. I don’t know how I feel about that.” Down the hall, another couple steps echo. “I hate to jinx it but that sounds like it’s walking away.”

“I’m not sure that’s much better, honestly.” Dylan moves back over to her, crouching down. “How are you feeling?”

“Honestly? Kinda unsettled. This whole place is freakier than anywhere else we’ve been. And we’ve been to some freaky places with you and Steve.” He reaches out a hand, rubbing her shoulder in comfort. “The feeling isn’t leaving, though. The fear’s just changing. The anger is still there, but the fear…”

She trails off, unsure of where to go. Dylan sits down in front of her, setting the camera to the side. “Do you want to head back to the staff room before it gets worse?” He checks his watch. “It’s only 12:50, though.”

“No, I just…” She sighs. “I only wanted to come back tonight to see what was up last night. To try and figure it out. Even if a lot of the time I don’t get exact feelings or words or anything, I can always figure it out at some point. I couldn’t figure it out last night and I wanted to see if I could tonight, but so far, nothing.”

“You don’t have to prove yourself, you know.” His hands find hers, holding them lightly. “Not to me, not to any of the guys, especially not to Lia and Vi. Not even to the viewers. They can go look at our videos and see you’re telling the truth.”

“No, it’s not that.” She grips his fingers, needing him to follow where she’s going. “It didn’t feel super malevolent last night. It didn’t want to attach, it didn’t want to attack, even if it said it did. I could feel it. And the constant begging for help? I just-”

“You had to see if you could help.” He finishes the thought for her as her mouth pulls into a frown. “You forget that I know you, Ray. Same as you know me.”

“Even if it’s all just some twisted trick, I had to see. I still want to.”

He nods. “Okay, then. We’ll stay till the time’s up. Just to see. I just don’t want you to end up how you did last night, okay?”

“I won’t, I promise. If I’m really feeling it, I’ll let you know and we’ll leave.”

“Deal.” They share a grin before Dylan leans back against the wall, still keeping Rayne’s hands in his. “Do you want to leave the REM pod on?”

“Yeah, it’s the only thing other than me really getting anything. I do think the EVPs are a bust, though.”

“I think so, too. Do you want to stay there or move against the wall?”

“Here’s fine, I think. I honestly don’t really want to move until I have to right now.” He nods again and reaches over to angle the camera to see the both of them, keeping one hand in hers. 

Silence wraps around them, only broken by occasional noises from the REM. No more footsteps, no slamming of cell doors, no disembodied voices. Just their breathing and the light ticking of both of their watches.

The whole time, even though it’s on camera, their hands stay linked, free hands in their laps. At one point, Rayne asks Dylan to turn off the light on the camera, enveloping the two in darkness. 

In the dark, the silence becomes heavier again, if only because of the unease of losing one of the vital senses. Both lose track of time, just sitting in the quiet, sharing check-in whispers here and there. Eventually, Rayne whispers something that sets Dylan on edge.

“I don’t like this.”

“What are you getting?”

There’s a pause before she answers, needing to ready herself. Her voice drops even further, barely audible. “There’s something watching us. The angry one. It’s been getting heavier this whole time but it’s like right next to us.”

“We should go.” His voice is just as soft, but his hand grips hers tighter. “I don’t think you’re going to find what you wanted.”

“It got worse when you mentioned leaving.” A hint of fear tinges her voice now. “It wants us to stay.”

“I’m not letting you stay when you’re the only one who can feel it. It has to be close to the meetup time, anyway. The others will come looking.” He shifts to the side to turn on the camera light.

Just in time for invisible nails to rake across Rayne’s throat, burning in a way that makes her scream before she begins choking.

“It’s your video, man.” Steve still sports his shit-eating grin, making Nick laugh as Colby groans.

“Alright, alright, fine. I’ll do it.” He turns back around and continues walking. He turns the camera to a horrific angle of his face, whispering into it. “Guys, you better like and subscribe.”

Both other men laugh as they finally come up to the chair room. The door sits open, darkness within, the chair sitting in the middle of the room. It feels ominous. Almost like a forewarning for the night.

“That’s not terrifying at all,” Nick states. 

“This should be fun,” Steve adds. Colby looks at the two of them, unable to hide his smile.

“You guys suck.” 

The three step into the room, Steve pulling the estes equipment out of his hoodie pocket for Colby as the latter closes the door behind Nick. With the room sealed, the only light is that from the camera. 

“This is awful,” Steve laughs. “And we’re going to have the lights off entirely.”

“Welcome to what I had to do alone, man,” Colby jokes. 

Steve laughs while Nick just glances around the room, uneasy at the dark, cramped space, especially now with the door closed. Colby shivers, remembering what it was like last time on his own. 

“Alright, let’s get this going. We’ve got only the estes equipment so hopefully this is a good session.” Colby grins as he says it, moving to sit in the chair in the middle of the room. “Sam and I didn’t really think of anything else for if the session doesn’t show much.”

“I mean if that’s the case, we can always just run down to the break room and get something. You guys brought everything, right?”

Colby looks at Steve, nodding. “Yeah, it’s all in the backpack.”

“Cool, then, problem solved.” Nick nods as Steve says it, speaking up next.

“I volunteer to not be the one to go get it if we have to.” The other two laugh while Colby passes the camera to Steve and takes the estes equipment. 

“I can go,” the eldest says. “It’s kind of fun walking around in here.”

“That’s terrifying.” Nick eyes him with a mix of horror and raw respect. “But good for you, I guess.”

The three laugh before Colby ties the blindfold around his eyes. Nick turns the light on the camera off at the same time, plunging them into darkness that only the camera can see through. As soon as he goes under, Steve takes charge with the questions, jumping straight in. “Is there anyone here willing to talk to us? My name’s Steve, this is Nick, and that’s Colby in the chair. Anything you say to Colby he’ll be able to repeat to us.”

Nothing happens for a long moment, causing Nick to shift on his feet, adjusting the angle of the camera to capture both Steve and Colby. He whispers to the eldest, nervous. “I don’t like how dark it is in here, especially with the door closed.”

“At least we’re not doing it alone like Colby did last time,” Steve jokes. However, the thought makes a chill run down Nick’s spine. 

“I would rather die than do this alone.” A light chuckle comes from Steve, Nick able to see him shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket through the screen on the camera.

Suddenly, Colby speaks up. “Hello?”

“Hi,” Steve calls. “Do you want to talk with us?”

“Maybe. Don’t know.”

“That’s okay, you can take it slow.” Steve’s voice is soothing, meant to encourage. “We don’t mean you any harm.”

“Dark,” Colby says.

“It is very dark in here. Do you not like the dark?”

Another long silence follows, prompting Nick to speak up instead. “Do you want us to turn the light back on?”

“The chair.” Colby pauses for a second before shaking his head. “There was something else after that but I couldn’t make it out.”

“Colby’s the one in the chair,” Steve says, “do you want him to stand up so you can sit there?”

“No. Not safe.”

“The chair isn’t safe?” Nick asks. 

“Or is it just not safe for you?” Steve adds. The box goes silent, though, leaving the vague worry floating in the air. “Okay, do you not like the chair? Or something attached to the chair?”

“Someone else…knows.” Colby sits a bit more hunched as he says it, fingers twitching against the headphones. “Many.”

“Others know that the chair’s not safe?” Nick steps a bit further away, not fully conscious of the movement.

Steve shakes his head at Nick’s question, realization dawning on him. “You’re talking about the portal in this room, aren’t you? The one that seems to be attached to the chair.”

“Yes.” Colby’s response is instant, sending another chill through Nick’s body. “Others come through.”

“Who comes through the portal?” The eldest pushes. “Are they bad people?”

“Sometimes.”

“Okay, that’s freaky.” Nick huffs out a breath, changing the hand that holds the camera. 

“At least it only said sometimes,” Steve shrugs. “Could’ve just said yes.”

“Yeah, no, not thinking about that.” Steve laughs while Nick asks the next question. “Who are you? Were you one of the guards of the prison?”

Colby doesn’t say anything else, prompting Steve to look in Nick’s direction, only finding him by the blinking red recording light on the camera. “Have you noticed that? None of the spirits here ever want to answer that question. They all just want to talk and ask us for help with something, but never want to introduce themselves.”

“Haven’t most of the questions for help been about escaping here or following us out, too?”

“Yeah. I wonder why.”

“Well the conditions here were terrible, right? Like, they had rats and cockroaches and never had the right temperature.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Steve nods. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. I mean, I’d want out, too, if I was stuck where I had rats and bugs crawling all over me all the time.”

“Ew, I don’t want to think about that, either,” Nick jokes. As soon as he’s finished saying it, Colby pipes up again.

“Rats everywhere. Bites, claws.”

“I’m sorry there were so many rats,” Steve amends. “And that they bit and clawed at you guys. That couldn’t have been nice at all.”

“Did any of the bites get infected?”

“Cells worse,” Colby says, rather than answering the question. “Halls were better.”

“That would make sense,” Steve says to Nick. “The guards wouldn’t want the rats near them. If there were any traps they had to have been wherever the guards occupied rather than the cells.”

“Were you a guard?” Nick asks again. “Or a prisoner?”

Again, whatever they’re talking to doesn’t answer the question, remaining anonymous. Both take a second to think of another question, but the spirit beats them to it.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Steve,” he repeats, “this is Nick, and that’s Colby you’re talking to. We just want to talk to you.”

“Why?”

“To learn more about the prison and who was here,” Nick says. “We want to know the story of what it was really like here, whether that’s as a prisoner or as a guard.”

More silence from Colby, pushing Steve to speak up again. “We’d really appreciate if you kept talking to us. We’d love to tell your story.” 

“No story to tell,” Colby says. “Boring job.”

“So you were a guard,” Nick says. “If it was boring, why’d you stay?”

“Had to.” He pauses for a second. Steve opens his mouth to ask more, but Colby elaborates. “Sick mother.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nick says. “Why’d you stay here after you died? Did you die on the job?”

“Came back here.” Colby’s voice shakes a bit as he says it. “Called to chair.”

“So the chair really is a portal,” Nick says, looking at Steve through the camera. “That’s so freaky.”

“That’s so cool, though,” Steve says, staring at where Colby’s voice is coming from. “From what we’ve seen, portals are like a spot on the floor or a wall or sometimes even an actual doorway. I’ve never seen a specific object act as a portal.”

“What about mirror vortexes?”

“I think it’s different.”

“Don’t like mirrors,” Colby interrupts. “Bad.”

Steve glances back to Nick, to the blinking red light of the camera, before speaking. “Why are mirrors bad? Is it because they can create vortexes?”

“See too much.”

“What do they see?” Nick’s voice wavers, hesitant to actually hear the answer.

“Everything.”

“Well.” Steve blows out a breath. “That’s not vague or terrifying at all.”

“Windows,” Colby keeps going, “open everywhere.”

“Mirrors are windows?” Steve asks, brows furrowing.

“Looking glass.” Once it’s said, Colby falls silent. The other two men wait, seeing if any other answer will come forth, but none does. Colby sits dead quiet, not even twitching. Nick looks at Steve, feeling his fingers shake a little. 

“I don’t like any of the answers we’re getting,” he says.

“They’re interesting, but they are a little weird,” Steve answers. “And it’s beginning to feel a bit weird in here. That I don’t like.”

“Can you sense it like Rayne can?” Steve shakes his head quick and hard.

“No, not even close. I can just kind of tell when something isn’t as peppy. Usually it’s only places I know pretty well, but it feels weird in here right now and I don’t enjoy it.”

“Should we go back down early?” Nick pulls out his phone to check the time as he asks it before jolting. “Holy shit!”

“What?” Steve steps closer, trying to see. 

“It’s already almost 1:30”

“You have to be kidding, we’ve only been up here for maybe thirty, forty five minutes!”

“No, it’s 1:23.” Nick turns on the camera light to be able to actually look at Steve, both men wearing an expression that could only be described as dumbfounded. “How in the world is it already that late?”

“I have no idea,” Steve murmurs. “We should pull him out, though. It’s going to take a few to walk back to the staff room and we need to all meet up by 2:00.”

Nick nods, but Colby speaks before Steve can tap him out. “Don’t go. Not enough.”

“Not enough what?” Steve prods. 

“Answers.” The response is immediate and simple. It makes Nick’s skin crawl. 

“We do have enough for what we wanted.” Steve almost laughs at himself arguing with the air, but keeps it together for Nick’s sake. “Thank you for talking with us.”

“Stay,” the spirit fights. “Mirrors.”

“We don’t need to talk about the mirrors any more,” Steve pushes. 

“More to know.”

“We can figure it out later,” Nick says. “We have to leave now.”

“Stay.” Colby shudders in his seat. “Guys that one sounded really angry. I didn’t like hearing that.”

“We can’t stay any longer,” Steve keeps fighting. “We have to go. Thank you for talking with us but we need to leave.”

He again reaches forward to grab Colby’s shoulder, this time stopped by Nick, who simply stares at the man in the chair. Steve gives him a cursory glance but Nick only points with his chin and whispers. 

“Look at his hair.” Steve followed the triplet’s eyes and focused on the loose strands of hair against Colby’s forehead. On the strands of hair moving, as if there were a breeze.

“Looking glass. See all, know all.” Colby says the words in rapid fire, barely pausing to take a breath. “Be wary, don’t trust.”

Without waiting another second, Steve grabs Colby’s shoulder, startling the man. Colby reaches up to take off the headphones and blindfold, squinting into the light of the camera. “What was all that?”

“I have no idea,” Nick shakes his head. “But it got really weird towards the end.”

“How so?”

“How long do you think we’ve been up here?” Steve asks instead. Colby pauses for a minute before giving an answer.

“I don’t know, maybe an hour? Feels like less, though.”

“It’s 1:30.”

“No shit, seriously?” Colby’s eyes widen and he jumps to his feet, pulling his phone out of his pocket to see that it is, indeed, one thirty four in the morning. His mouth hangs open for a moment before he finds his words. “That’s insane.”

“That’s what we thought, too,” Nick says.

“What was all that about mirrors, though?”

“No clue,” Steve says. “We were talking about the portal that’s pretty much confirmed to be from the chair itself and Nick mentioned vortexes and it started talking about mirrors. I couldn’t really make sense of any of it, though. And then when we realized the time and that we needed to get back down to meet the others, it didn’t want us to leave.”

“So that explains the angry voice,” Colby says. “It sounded almost demonic.”

Nick and Steve share a look before the eldest speaks up. “Well, right before I tapped you out, Nick noticed something, too. Did you feel a draft at all?”

“No, why?” Colby looks between the two, unease pooling in his chest.

“Your hair was moving like it was being blown in the wind,” Nick tells him. “It was weird.”

“I didn’t feel anything.” Almost as if he were checking, Colby touches the hair over his forehead, brushing it to the side. “That’s crazy.”

“It feels really weird to me, too,” Steve says. “Like, the room just feels gross now.”

“I think I feel what you mean,” Colby nods. “Let’s get out of here and back to the others. At least one group has to be back by now.”

The other two nod, Colby holding the estes equipment tight in his hands as Steve leads the way to the door, tugging on the handle. 

But it doesn’t move.

“The door’s stuck.” He doesn’t elaborate, doesn’t look back, just stares at his hand on the doorknob, yanking it again. 

“Is it locked, maybe?” Nick asks, changing hands with the camera again, angling it to see the door over Steve’s shoulder.

“No, the handle wouldn’t move if that were the case.” Steve shakes his head, clenching his jaw as he tugs again. “It just won’t open. Like it’s jammed.”

“I don’t think that’s happened before,” Colby says. “Not that the guide told us, at least.”

Steve grabs the handle with both hands and braces his feet before pulling with his full body weight, but the door still doesn’t budge. Colby swaps places with him, handing Steve the estes equipment before grabbing the handle and pulling as hard as he can.

Almost like his touch was what it needed, the door pops open with a squealing creak. The dark hall beyond beckons with uneasy silence.

The three men share a look, none of them really ready to make the walk in the dark but also not wanting to stay in the chair room any longer.

“This is terrifying,” Nick sighs. “I’m not going first or last. You two can rock paper scissors for it.”

That pulls a short laugh out of the group before Steve takes the lead, Nick right behind, Colby trailing. Colby takes the camera from Nick, filming the two in front of him as they all walk. Nothing so much as creaks in the hallway until they reach the stairs. Right as Steve takes the first downward step, a slam sounds from behind them, echoing down the corridor.

All three turn back the way they came, waiting. None even dare to breathe for a moment until Nick’s the one to whisper. 

“Who wants to go check if my hunch is right and that was the door to the chair room closing?”

“Not it.” Steve and Colby say it at the same time, the three looking at each other with various uneasy expressions. 

“I’m just going to keep walking,” Steve says. “I don’t really want to mess with that after the weirdness we got.” 

“I’m on the same page,” Colby whispers. Nick just nods, following as Steve starts the downward trek. The walk is utterly silent but for their breathing and the scuffle of their footsteps. No other odd noises behind or around them, nothing seemingly following. Just the aftershock of what they had during their session. 

When they get to the staff room, everyone else is there, as it’s only ten minutes before 2:00. Everyone but Dylan and Rayne. As he realizes exactly who’s missing, Steve stiffens. Right before a scream faintly reaches them.

Lia jumps next to him before hitting his arm. “Don’t do that!”

“I’m just trying to see if we should go in!” He laughs nervously, poking at her side. She slaps at his hand, although it doesn’t hide her own fearful laugh. 

Since she’d been filming the whole walk, Chris held onto both the ovilus and the EMF reader. Now, as they hesitate in the doorway, he offers them out, one in each hand. “Which one do you want, camera girl?”

“I am not holding the freaky talking box, that’s all you, kid.”

“You can’t call me kid, I’m older than you!” While he whisper-yells rather than actually yelling, Chris’s voice still echoes in the concrete cell block.

“By two months, bitch!”

“Still!” The two fall into giggles, leaning on each other. After a minute, they gather themselves, peering into the darkness of Cell Block E. “Do you remember which floor Sam said he’d done the challenge on?”

“I mean…do we really have to go to the same creepy floor?” The two lock eyes as Lia keeps the camera leveled into the block. “Or even actually go in there?”

Chris laughs. “Ophi, you agreed to coming back and insisted on doing this challenge even though Sam and Colby were willing to swap you out.”

“Well I was ready until we stepped over here!” She turns back to the daunting task in front of them. “We did promise to go in.”

“You promised and dragged me with you,” Chris points out. She whips the camera to him to catch his wild grin. “You’re just lucky I like you.”

At that, the girl sputters, unsure of what to say. Chris guffaws at the stricken look on her face, luckily unable to see the furious blush that works its way from her throat to the tips of her ears. She opens and closes her mouth like a fish for a moment before starting to walk, muttering under her breath. “Not my fault I feel safe with you after last night.”

“What was that?” Chris asks, running to catch up. She clears her throat and speaks louder this time, for him and the camera,

“It was the fourth floor. But we have a couple hours, why not start on the less terrifying floors?” She keeps moving forward, albeit slowly. Chris bites back another laugh and teasing remark at the abrupt change in subject, walking on her left as he fiddles with the ovilus, turning it on. 

The two made their way further into the block, coming to the staircase. Chris looks up while Lia peers into the abyss in front of them. “Should we just start up top? Work our way down?”

“I honestly don’t really want to go any further.” Chris lets out a nervous laugh, looping his right arm through Lia’s left, careful not to hit the EMF in her hand. “Let’s start at the bottom. I don’t want to climb back up to the fourth if we’re saving it for last.”

“That works. South side first or north?” 

“I grew up on the south side so let’s do familiar territory.” Chris falls into a fit of giggles before tugging her towards the south edge of the block. Lia keeps the camera pointed in front of the two of them, pointing it towards each cell they walk past. “This is so creepy.”

“We still have lights on, too,” Chris whispers. “Wait until we turn them off.”

“Don’t say that!” Lia hisses, shoulder bumping him. “I don’t want to think about that yet!”

Chris laughs again, leaning against her as they walk. “We have to eventually!”

“Not right now.” The two keep shuffling down the block, both devices out in front of them. As the two fall silent, only their footsteps echo off the concrete, adding to the eerie feeling around them. Neither call out to anything for the first half of the block, just listening to their footfalls and peering into each cell.

Every now and then, the light from the camera trips both of them out, bringing about whispers of if it was a shadow or not. As the two pass the halfway mark of the south side, the ovilus scares both of them, causing them to jump into each other. 

“Cold.” After a couple seconds of silence, Lia speaks in a shaky whisper.

“It is cold in here, yeah.” Chris lets out a weird half laugh as he stares at the device in his hand, almost scared to keep holding it now that it’s spoken. 

“I don’t like that.”

“Me either.” They look at each other as Lia lets the camera drop, filming the floor for a moment.

“Let’s keep moving?”

“Stay.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Lia squeaks. The pair moves quickly, crossing the next seven cells in quick succession before slowing down again. The rest of the south side goes without another peep from the ovilus and nothing from the EMF. 

As they turn down the north side, Chris goes to let go of Lia’s arm but she tightens her elbow around his. “Please don’t let go of me. It’s way too creepy in here.”

“Okay,” he promises, “I won’t.”

Firmly arm in arm, they keep moving. The north side goes without incident, just silence and the false shadows being thrown by the camera light. By the time they get back to the staircase, both are firmly uneasy.

“Up to floor two, I guess.” Lia’s whisper hisses through the air, her breath fogging. The later the night gets, the colder it gets in the monstrosity of a prison. “Do we have to?”

“Unfortunately,” Chris whispers back. “And I don’t think we can walk next to each other on those walkways.”

“That makes everything so much worse.” Chris only nods, letting go of her and stepping onto the stairs first.

“I’ll lead since you have the camera.”

Lia hesitates before shaking her head. “No, I can’t have nothing behind me. Can I lead?”

He nods. “If you’re sure.” He puffs out his chest, tapping it with a closed fist. “I’ll protect your back, mamas.”

Lia instantly flushes, fighting back a face-splitting smile. “Thanks, C.”

“C?” She shrugs and starts climbing the stairs.

“It fits.” Both giggle, making their way up the stairs slowly. At the landing of the second tier of cells, Lia hesitates. “South first again?”

“Well,” Chris jokes, “you did grow up on the south side.”

The two laugh, both nervous sounds, as Lia starts moving to the south side of the block once more. This time, the south side goes without incident. Just absolute silence and the occasional breathless laugh as Chris tries to make jokes about the situation. Right as she rounds the end of the block to the north side, though, she notices the EMF spike, letting out a small squeak and jumping.

“This just jumped to yellow!” She whisper-yells. Chris peers over his shoulder as the device does it again, flickering a few times as she points the camera at it. “I do not like that. Not at all.”

“Me either,” Chris admits. As soon as he’s done talking, the ovilus takes the spotlight again.

“Dark.”

“I don’t like that, either.” Chris’s voice is high-pitched as he says it, Lia squeaking again. She keeps her back to the wall as she turns to film the device, her heart hammering.

“Nope,” she whispers. They give it a moment before starting to walk again, the EMF spiking every few cells, never going above yellow. Each time it does, they pause, waiting a second until it stops before moving on. 

When they finally hit the stairs again, there’s no debate before they start along the south side of floor three. Their going is slow, steady, their silence permeated with fear, but the entire third floor is silent, neither device going off, nothing peering out of the cells. 

Back at the same staircase, Lia votes for a pause. “I just need a minute to calm down.”

“Take all the time you need,” Chris tells her. He takes the camera for a minute while she leans against the wall, trying to steady her racing heart. He keeps the camera leveled down the way they’d come, watching for anything.

They stay there for a few minutes, making no sound but for their breaths and their heartbeats they’re sure the other can hear. At one point, though, Lia notices Chris’s furrowed brow.

“Please tell me you didn’t see anything,” she whispers. 

“Well,” he starts. For a second he can’t find the words, swallowing. “I’m not sure, honestly. I thought I saw two red dots, like lights or something, but there’s nothing there now.”

“Oh, God, Chris, I said tell me you didn’t see anything!”

“It was probably just my eyes tricking me!”

“That doesn’t make me feel better! You said maybe and probably, that’s not a no!” 

“Okay, okay, I just thought I saw something but I didn’t.” He grins weakly, trying to get her to laugh. “Better?”

“Not really, no.” She pushes off of the wall, taking the camera back. “Let’s keep moving before your stupid maybe turns into a definitely.”

Lia leads their climb up the stairs, skipping straight past the fourth floor, stopping at the fifth. Keeping with the pattern, she goes down the south side, camera facing forward, light glinting off some of the shinier metal. Fifteen cells down the fifty cell range, the EMF starts spiking again as the ovilus rasps out.

“Free us.”

“Fuck no!” The two yell it in unison, their voices ringing through the block. Silence follows, the two looking at each other before bursting into terrified cackles. They give themselves a minute of silence to calm down before walking again, a little faster than before to get away from the voice begging to be freed.

More rushed and panicked than before, Lia and Chris reach the end of the block, looping around to tackle the north side. Around the same area as the opposite side of the range, the ovilus speaks again, causing the two to lurch into each other, Lia letting out a few nervous clicks under her breath.

“Help please.”

“I don’t like this,” Lia whines. Chris wraps his arms around her, trying to comfort the both of them. “This is so freaky and this isn’t even the most haunted floor!”

“It’s okay, ma,” Chris tells her. “I’m here with you.”

“You’re just as scared as me!”

“Yeah, but we’re doing it together!” He looks down at Lia, a goofy grin on his face, trying to look reassuring. It works a little bit, her heartbeat calming some. After a moment, the two keep moving, getting back to the start to get up to the sixth range. The sixth range is quiet as they move down the south side. 

It’s eerie, the silence after such a begging message, but the two try to quell their unease so that they can keep moving. As they round the north side, though, Lia jumps, squeaking. “The EMF just spiked again. Only to the other green, but still.”

As she focuses the camera on the device, it does so again, flickering between the two greens for a couple seconds before going back to its resting setting. The pair stares at it as they hesitantly continue walking, making their way down the range slowly. The whole rest of the walk back to the staircase, the EMF almost continuously flickers, getting up to yellow a couple times. Other than that, though, the walk is still quiet, only filled by the sound of their footsteps and panicked breathing. 

Back at the staircase, Lia stops filming just long enough to swap the camera battery. As she does so, Chris checks the time.

“It’s already almost 12:30.”

“Seriously?” Lia looks at him, eyes wide. The camera comes up to record his face, too, Lia’s arm steady.

“Yeah,” he nods. “I didn’t realize we’d been walking around for that long.”

“Me either. But that also means we still have over an hour to just walk around the fourth floor until it’s time to meet up with everyone.” Lia shivers as she says it, burrowing down into her hoodie. 

“Maybe if we do a few laps and get enough responses they won’t even care that we get back there early.” Lia eyes him for a moment, nodding.

“I’m actually so down for that.” In agreement, the two start their way down the fourth floor, starting on the south side just like every other range. It’s slow going, more so than any other floor, given that this is the true challenge. Sam had told them to do one lap with the light on and then a few with it off, so their goal was to get as much of a feel for the walkway path as they could before only having the little bit of moonlight from the windows to guide their way.

Their way down is spent with Chris holding onto the back of Lia’s shirt as he remembers the guide telling them to make sure the person they follow isn’t an apparition up here. 

Not very far across the south side, the EMF stars spiking again, causing the girl’s breath to speed up. It bounces up to yellow a few times before stopping. The pair’s feet are heavy as they keep moving, keeping watch on each cell in front of them. Halfway down the block, not long after the EMF spikes, she pauses.

“Did you see that?” Chris looks at her face as she says it, noticing her wide eyes. 

“See what?”

“Those two like red lights at the end of the row.”

Chris shakes his head as she turns to look at him. “I didn’t see anything.”

“Maybe I’m just imagining it?” Her voice is breathy, terror sweeping through her bones. “Yeah, I’m going with that.”

“I mean, it could’ve been a trick of the camera light?” Chris tries to reason, but it falls short as he remembers what he’d also seen. “I thought I saw two red lights upstairs, remember?”

“Ew, Chris, no, please don’t say that!” Her voice turns whiney in her unease, eyes wide enough to where it almost hurts. 

“I don’t really want to! It’s just weird we’ve both seen it now.” He glances down the range, trying to see if he can see what she just did. “Especially since neither of us saw it when the other did.”

“You’re not making this any fucking better.” In spite of the situation and the eeriness, Chris giggles. “Don’t laugh!”

“I can’t help it!” He laughs even harder as he says it, Lia slapping his arm with the back of her hand since she still holds the EMF. As soon as she does, the ovilus goes off.

“No fighting…cell block.”

Lia shrieks as the device speaks, jumping to the side, hitting the wall with her shoulder. Instantly, she bursts into terrified tears. “Fuck no!”

Chris had jumped, too, hitting the cell door rather than the wall. “That’s fucking terrifying.”

He turns to Lia, who remains against the wall, trembling as she cries, camera loose at her side, pointing at the floor. Immediately, he pulls her into a hug, letting her tuck herself into his chest. The two stand there for a few minutes, Chris holding Lia, unwavering. Once she’s finally collected herself, the two check in with each other before moving on.

“That had to have been a guard, right?” He eventually asks.

“I have no idea and, honestly, I don’t really want to know.”

Chris pauses for a moment. “I kind of do.”

“Chris, please, can we keep walking? I want to get this stupid challenge over with. We can ask it later.” She gives him a pleading look over her shoulder. It only takes a second for him to cave and agree.

The north side, surprisingly, holds nothing interesting the first pass. Even cell 13, where the guy had set himself on fire, was quiet through the whole ten minutes they stopped in it. Back at the stairs to loop around, Lia pauses, not wanting to turn out the light.

Chris notices her hesitation, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be right here with you the whole time.”

“I just don’t wanna be in the dark,” she whispers. “This place is scary enough with the lights on. I hate the dark.”

“We’ll do it together,” he says, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. 

“Promise?”

“Pinky promise.” He links his pinkie with hers around the EMF detector, keeping his eyes locked on hers, kissing the back of her hand in promise. A little reassured, she nods, reaching up to flick off the flashlight on top of the camera. The two stand there for a couple minutes, letting their eyes adjust as much as possible to the incredibly low lighting. 

“This is awful,” Lia whispers. Chris nods, even though Lia can’t see it as she looks forward. “Chris?”

“I agreed!”

“I didn’t hear anything!”

“Because I nodded,” he hisses.

“I wasn’t looking at you, kid, how could I possibly see you nod?” Now she turns, giving him an incredulous look.

“...oh.” Lia tries to smother a laugh at his silly little moment, but it doesn’t work all that well, a barely muffled snort ringing through the empty block.

A cough answers.

The two stare at each other, mouths hanging open in shock. Chris hadn’t made a noise. Lia didn’t have time to make any other sound. Worst of all, none of the others were nearby enough to mess with them. Lia drops the EMF, the plastic clanging against the metal as she grabs Chris’s hand, holding it like a lifeline. He grips hers back, tucking himself closer to her side.

“Nope,” Lia whispers. “No, fucking hell no, I don’t wanna do this anymore. First we both see random lights, now that? I’m done!”

“It could’ve been one of the others, right?”

“They’re all in their own spots!”

“But we’re over an hour in now, maybe some of them left early?”

“No, the rest all have at least one person who’s going to stay as long as possible even if they have no activity.” Chris mulls her words over for a second before squeezing her hand.

“Well, we better do a couple more loops and get out, then. I don’t want to be in here much longer, either.”

In agreement, Lia picks up the EMF and the two begin moving again, taking measured steps down the south side. The first entire loop in full darkness is surprisingly quiet considering everything that just happened. The second loop has a few EMF spikes and a couple whispers of “Help” from the ovilus, but nothing crazy.

It’s the third loop that has the two clinging onto each other, utterly terrified. 

The second they step onto the south side walkway, the EMF jumps to red for the first time of the trip. Both flip out, flying into each other as it does so a few more times before going back to base level.

“I don’t like this,” Lia says. “This is so not okay.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Chris tries to calm her around his own panic, running his hand up and down her back. “Let’s be done after this loop. We’ll head back to the staff room early, okay?”

Lia nods. “Okay.”

The longer they walk, though, the more uneasy both of them start to feel. Neither of them voice it, but they keep thinking they see those same two little red lights at the end of the range with every few cells they pass. 

Once they reach the end of the range and wind around to the north side, though, both stop seeing them entirely. But the ovilus picks that moment to let out a few words.

“Heat…hurt…all alone.”

“Oh my fucking God,” Chris hisses. Lia lurches forward and away from him, as that’s the way to get away from the damn speaking box. She spins around, aiming the camera at his face, back half to the wall. The camera’s aimed right at Chris’s face as he holds the ovilus in front of him, staring at it in abject horror. He keeps it out in front of him, refusing to curl his fingers around it like it would burn if he fully grabbed it.

“Fire…escape…prison.”

“Holy shit,” Lia whispers. “The fucking…the uh-the guy! The guy on fucking fire!”

“Oh, fuck, you’re right!” The two share a wide, nearly bug-eyed look, mouths open. 

“Trapped. Stuck. Here.”

“Okay,” Lia draws out, spinning back around. “We’re continuing. I want to leave.”

Chris follows her, too stunned to say anything in response. The fifty cells seem to stretch into eternity, the EMF spiking the whole way. When they finally get close enough to somewhat see the staircase, right as relief starts to set in, they both see it.

A whole person standing just outside cell 13, completely solid and blacking out the walkway.

With two piercing red eyes.

Lia screams and jumps back into Chris, who lets out a strangled sound as he grabs her. Just as soon as it appeared, though, the figure vanishes completely, ducking back into the cell it came from. Rather than continuing on, the two backtrack, silently agreeing to not walk past the hellish cell. 

The run back to the opposite side of the block and down the cell is filled with begging from the ovilus, “Help” being repeated the whole way. They go all the way back around the block, considering there’s only one staircase close to the door. 

Chris stays behind Lia the whole way, trying to somewhat protect her from the ominous shadow. Back on the ground, at the door to the East Block, they finally pause, catching their breath. Lia bursts into tears for the second time.

“Whatthefuck,” she wails, the words blending and repeating on loop.

Chris wraps her in his arms, holding her close after turning the still begging device off. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve got you, mamas. I’ve got you.”

“You saw it, too, right? Please tell me you saw it, too.”

“I did,” he whispers, speaking into her hair. “Breathe, then we’ll head back to the staff room.”

She shakes her head furiously against his chest, tugging away. “No, let’s go now. That was fucking awful.”

“Okay,” he agrees. He takes her hand, walking side by side all the way back to the staff room, checking over his shoulder every few steps. Finally in the safe room, the two sit on the floor with their backs to the wall, curled into each other, just trying to breathe and process what just happened.

One in the morning. Still an hour til everyone else gets back.

The elder man shoots him a look over his shoulder before turning to Vi. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. We said it probably got upset with Rayne for picking up on that weird energy when it didn’t want us to. None of us can do that so I bet it’ll be nicer tonight.”

“Don’t you dare provoke it.” Vi’s tone is firm, a thrill of fear shooting down her spine. “I am not walking out of here with something trying to follow us.”

“We’ll make sure it knows it’s not welcome to.” Matt brushes her arm with his, offering a reassuring smile. “As long as we make our intentions clear, we’ll be okay. Remember what Rayne said about her tarot cards last night.”

“I’m assuming I missed something?” Sam speaks up again, glancing over his shoulder again. Vi is the one to answer as the group makes their way up the stairs. 

“Yeah, after you, Steve, Nick, and Colby left, she started messing with her tarot cards. She said as long as we believe in ourselves and our own capabilities, nothing will happen.”

“Well I like the sound of that,” he muses. 

“She said something about hidden strengths, too, didn’t she?” Matt asks.

Vi nods. “Yeah, it was about whether we knew what we could do or not, just trust in it, I think.”

“Boads well for us, then.”

The rest of the trek was made in silence but for their breathing and the echoes of their footsteps. By the time they reached the final landing, all three were breathless, taking a quick breather before heading to the same spot they’d used the night before. Sam hands the camera to Matt, who focuses it on the blond as he takes out the estes equipment. 

“Alright,” the eldest breathes. “Where do we want to set up the music box?”

“I vote as far away as possible,” Vi deadpans. “I don’t want it to be like five feet away and to suddenly go off right next to me.”

Both guys laugh a little, prompting her own smile. 

“So how about over here?” Matt walks a bit away, towards the door, stopping about ten feet away from where Sam sits. “Far enough away to not be next to us but close enough to get a response if something comes over to talk to us.”

“I think that’s fine, though we might need to move it a bit closer at some point,” Sam nods. “Vi, is that okay?”

She crosses her arms and debates for a second before nodding her approval. Matt hands her the camera before taking the device from Sam and setting it up where he’d stood as Sam turns on the estes box. 

“Okay, it’s 11:34. We said to be back by 2:00, but I think if we need to cut it short, we can.” Vi focuses the camera on Sam as he speaks, Matt coming back over to stand at her side. “I volunteer to actually go under for the session, seeing as I’m the most used to it.”

“Are you sure?” Matt’s the one to ask, though Vi eyes the blond carefully. 

“Yeah, I’d rather it not be Vi since this is her first paranormal investigation and you said last night you didn’t want to do an estes session anyway.”

“I was joking but if you’re sure.” The younger man gives him a sharp grin. “I have no problem asking as many freaky questions as possible.”

“Let’s not,” Vi laughs. Matt eyes her, picking up on the discomfort she buries with her easy attitude. “But I appreciate it, I definitely do not want to go under after what happened last night.”

“Don’t worry,” Sam reassures, “I’ll do the hardest part. You guys just need to ask questions and film. If you really want to stop, though, just tap me out and let me know, okay?”

The girl nods, the camera bobbing with her. Matt steps back over to join, standing a few feet to Vi’s left, finishing the triangle. 

“You guys ready?” Sam asks. Vi just nods while Matt voices his affirmation.

“I’m excited to see if we can get more answers from what we had last night. Hopefully it isn’t feeling too negative with Rayne in solitary rather than up here.”

“It was talking to both of us at the same time,” Vi murmurs. “If that happens again we might get a similar reaction.”

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that,” Sam says. “Good catch.”

“I think we’ll be fine.” Matt shifts on his feet, crossing his arms. “We’re more spread out tonight. If it wants to talk to multiple of us, it’ll have a harder time doing so.”

“It was in here and where Rayne is tonight, though,” Vi argues.

“I just have a good feeling,” Matt shrugs.

“I mean we just have to be careful.” Sam’s voice does nothing to ease the tension that had been building in Vi’s shoulders. “If anything really weird happens we’ll head back early. I’d rather not risk anything after last night’s weirdness and considering last time we were here Nate had to leave early after being up here.”

“We were fine last night, though.” Vi swivels the camera between the two men as they keep going back and forth.

“There were more of us. Now that there’s only three of us rather than five, it might be a bit stronger and more willing to try to do whatever happened to Nate.”

The younger man laughs a bit. “You just said you were sure we’d be okay and now you’re arguing against it?”

“I’m not sure, but I have faith even if we need to be wary,” Sam shrugs. “You’re almost too confident right now.”

“I’m trying to help Vidia not freak out, man.” Matt grins wryly as he says it, cutting his gaze to the girl who holds the camera. “We will be fine if we trust what Rayne said in her tarot reading last night, we just need to be careful.”

“Then let’s just get started,” Vi cuts in. “I want to get this over with and just get back to the hotel.”

Both guys nod, Sam tying the blindfold around his eyes and sliding the headphones on. As soon as he’s ready, everything in the giant space around them goes preternaturally quiet. Matt carefully takes the camera back from Vi, pointing it at Sam. 

“Is there anyone who wants to talk to us?” he asks. It stays quiet for a moment, prompting him to speak more. “We don’t mean any harm, we just want to talk.”

“Who are you?” Sam asks. 

“I’m Matt,” he says, “this is Vidia next to me, and that’s Sam who’s able to hear you.”

“Only one day knowing them and you already take too many lessons from Steve and Dylan,” Vi grouses. Matt gives her a bright smile. “Rayne and Lia are the exact same.”

“Just trying to be friendly.”

“Hello. Help me,” Sam calls. 

“You said that last night, too,” Matt says. “Can you tell us what you need help with?”

“Get out.”

“You want help getting out or you want us to get out?” Vi glares at Matt as he says it, making him let out a small giggle. “We have to actually ask questions for this to work, you know.”

“I know, I just don’t like messing with this stuff,” Vi whispers. 

“Which is fair, but we are here, so we do need to actually talk with something.” Vi eyes the man next to her before sighing.

“Okay, okay, fine. Let’s just…be careful, alright?”

“We’ll be fine,” Matt says, giving her a crooked grin. “Just relax.”

“Need out. Want out. Please.” Sam’s voice mimics what he hears, sounding desperate and a tad fearful.

“Why do you want out so bad?” Matt asks. “Is it bad memories?”

“Escape. Stuck alone.”

“You’re alone?” Vi breathes. “Aren’t there others here?”

Matt joins in, almost excited. “Or is that why you were in multiple places last night? Because it’s only you and you wanted to talk to all of us.”

“Both.”

“Both?” Matt and Vi look at each other, both dumbfounded. 

“Alone. Not alone. Others, lonely.” Sam’s voice still holds that desperate edge, sounding almost anxious. 

“So there are others, just not up here?” Vi prods.

“Let me out.” 

“We told you yesterday that we don’t know how,” Matt says. “If you need help, you need to tell us how to help you.”

Vi cuts another glare in his direction but he ignores it almost masterfully. 

“Set me free.”

“We don’t know how to do that,” Vi repeats. “We’re sorry, but we really don’t know how to set you free from here. We don’t know how death works.”

“Why won’t you help me?” Sam sounds like he’s begging.

“If we knew how we would.” Matt’s voice is smooth as he says it, as if he were consoling a child. “But we don’t know how unless you tell us. Or do you not know, either?”

Sam falls silent for a minute, the static from his headphones leaking into the still air. Not even the music box goes off, leaving them in still silence. Vi and Matt stare at each other for another minute, unsure of where to go.

Matt’s eventually the one to take the step. “What’s your name? Do you know how long you’ve been here?”

“Long time,” Sam says after a second. “Not sure.”

“That’s okay, the prison’s been closed for a long time,” Matt nods. He adjusts his hold on the camera, panning over to Vi as she speaks.

“You didn’t answer the name question. Are you really the same person we were talking to last night?”

“Remember you. Downstairs.”

“So that’s a yes,” Matt jokes. Vi smiles a bit before falling back into an uneasy frown as Sam speaks again.

“Yes. You came back.”

“We did,” Vi says. “We wanted to learn your story. What’s your name? You keep avoiding it.”

“Help me.” 

“Stop repeating the same thing,” Matt calls. “We can’t help you because we don’t know how. Tell us about your time in the prison.”

“Bad. Cold and hot.”

“We were told that there were rats and cockroaches that would be in the cells with you guys, did you experience that, too?”

“Plugged ears.” Sam nods his head as he speaks, appearing like an involuntary reaction. “Avoided the floor.”

“I mean, I would too,” Vi grumbles. “Cockroaches are gross.”

“How old were you when you were here?” Matt continues. Sam, once again, says nothing. “Well, that proves the pattern we noticed last night. It avoids more personal questions. Only wanting to answer general ones about the building and experience.”

“Do you know why you’re still here?” Vi calls out. “Are you fulfilling your sentence even in the afterlife?”

“Stuck.” Sam’s voice wobbles. “Trapped. Help me”

“And we’re back in the loop,” Matt sighs. “Alright, fine, how can we help you?”

“Free me. Please, I want out.” Sam takes a shaky breath. “It’s getting more angry the more it talks. I’m starting to not enjoy the feeling of it.”

“We don’t know how to free you,” Matt keeps pushing. “You have to tell us how.”

“Not sure. Help me.”

Matt huffs out another sigh, looking at Vi. “How long do you think we’re going to keep going in circles like this?”

“Until it gives up or we leave,” she says. “Take a wild guess which one’s more likely to happen first.”

Matt laughs, turning back to Sam. “Fair enough. Alright, helping you escape aside, what can you tell us about being stuck here? Do you know why you’re stuck here?”

“Locked in.”

“Did you die in a locked cell?” Vi asks. “Is that why you’re trapped, because you were still in here when you died?”

“Below. Locked in, killed.”

“Could this be that guy who was killed by his cellmate down by solitary?” Matt asks Vi. The girl tips her head to the side, crossing her arms.

“I mean, it’s possible. There were a bunch of others who probably died in their cells, though, and since it doesn’t want to answer personal questions, we have no way of knowing for sure.”

“True. Let’s run with that theory, then, since it’s our clearest bet at the moment.” The two share a nod before Matt starts with another question. “Alright, then, do you think being killed in the cell is the reason you’re stuck here? You can’t leave because you’re still a prisoner even in death?”

Silence follows again, making both let out a sigh. Vi steps a bit closer to Matt, brow furrowed. “I don’t think it’s going to give us any answers on that front. All it wants to talk about is-”

“Free me.”

“That.” Despite everything, she laughs a bit. “Rude, he interrupted me.”

Matt chuckles with her, staring right at Sam. “We don’t want to talk about that anymore. Please answer our questions about the prison. About your time here. We just want to tell your story.”

“Let me out.”

“For the last time,” Matt huffs, “we don’t know how. And you said you don’t, either, so we can’t, okay? I’m sorry, but we can’t.”

“Follow.”

Vi’s eyes widen and she yells for the first time. “Do not follow us! You may not attach to any of us, do you understand me? You do not have permission to follow any of us out of this prison or even out of this room!”

“Damn,” Matt says, eyeing her carefully and aiming the camera at her as she pants from the outburst. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

“That’s for later. For now, I think we need to get Sam out so that we can leave before this thing actually tries to attach to us in order to escape the prison. This is the same one who kept saying they were framed for murder, then basically admitted to lying when they were here last time, and now it’s saying it was killed? I don’t like this at all.”

“I’ll hurt you,” Sam calls in a sing-song voice. “Let me follow.”

“You may not hurt us and you may not follow us, do you understand me?” Vi forces every ounce of power into her voice, channeling what she’s watched the guys do on video dozens of times. What she’s seen her channel-mates do on more than one occasion in their own videos.

“She’s right,” Matt adds, stepping close enough to brush Vi’s arm, “you’re not allowed to do anything to us. We told you we wanted to talk, that ends now, especially if you want to hurt us, which you cannot do.”

“Let me,” the voice argues through Sam.

“No,” Vi keeps pushing. “You are not allowed to, we won’t let you. You have to stay here.” She turns to Matt, pleading and worried. “Tap him out. I don’t want to go close to where that thing is.” 

Matt nods, handing her the camera and walking over to Sam, grabbing his shoulder right as the blond says the word “hurt.”

At Matt’s touch, Sam rips the headphones and blindfold off, looking between the two in front of him. “What the hell was that? Why’d it switch from needing help to attacking again?”

“Because it was trying to attach to us, Sam.” Vi’s voice shakes and she herself trembles. “And now it kinda wants to attack us for refusing to let it do so, so we should leave. Like right now.”

“Okay, yeah, let’s get out of here.” As Sam says it and pushes to his feet, the music box starts going off, all three whipping to face it. For a solid minute, it keeps going off as the group stands there in stunned silence. 

“Are we going to talk about how it’s going off right where we need to walk to get out of here?” Vi whispers. Sam hands the estes equipment to Matt, who walks up to stand next to Vi, placing a hand on her lower back. The action is both comforting and protective, especially as Vi shuffles a bit closer to him. 

Sam comes up to stand on Vidia’s other side, sandwiching her between the two men. The music box finally pauses before letting out one little note, almost taunting.

“I really don’t want to walk over there,” Vi says. “Not after it trying to attach and threatening to hurt us not once, but twice.”

“Unfortunately,” Sam sighs, “we do have to go that way to get out. After all that, I don’t really want to be up here anymore. We can debrief downstairs where it’s relatively safe, but we do have to go past that spot.”

“I’m glad you had us put it so far away, though,” Matt says to Vi. “Not that it’s gone off, I don’t want to be close to it, either.”

“I told you.”

“Okay,” Sam says, “I think we just walk steady but fast. Running proves we’re scared and Rayne said to trust in ourselves. As we go, I’ll grab the box and we just keep moving towards the exit and don’t stop until we’re in the staff room.”

“First, everyone take a few breaths,” Vi murmurs. “Rayne also said high emotions make us more vulnerable. Maybe if we settle ourselves just enough to get by, it’ll be okay.”

“I think that’s a good point,” Matt says. Together, they take a couple deep breaths, doing their best to fall into any sort of calm, false or otherwise. With a shared nod between them, they start walking towards the exit, Sam leading, Vi behind him, Matt taking up the rear as he nudges the girl ahead of himself.

As they pass it, Sam stoops and picks up the music box without so much as stumbling. As they reach the metal beams at the end of the hall, Vi pauses and turns around to face the gaping, empty space, calling out into it as loud as she dared.

“For the last time, you may not follow any of us out of here tonight and you may not try to hurt us. You have to stay here and find your own way out some other time without us.” She pauses, taking a heaving breath, aiming the camera into the darkness. “Thank you for speaking with us, but you are to stay here and not attach to us or follow us in any way.”

Happy with the boundary she’s set, Vi pivots back to the two men who both look at her with proud grins, Matt’s holding another emotion behind it that she doesn’t have the nerve to decipher at the moment.

Instead, she gives both of them her own smile and starts walking, taking the lead down towards the staff room. The dark, silent prison yawns open around them as they walk, but nothing emerges. No footsteps come running up behind them, nothing touches or grabs or hurts any of them.

Nothing seems to be clinging to any of them, either.

It’s just the three of them, their equipment, and the future Youtube audience through the camera as they make their way through the building. When they finally reach the staff room, Chris and Lia already sit in there. The two huddle together on the floor against the back wall, looking up at the three walk in. 

Vi hands the camera to Sam before going over to Lia, noting the paleness of her skin. Matt does the same to his brother after a second of staring after Vi, Sam setting the equipment down to pack it back up and checking his phone for the time.

1:23, just over a half hour til everyone else joins up for the final shot of the night.

“Either way, it’s you,” Sam tells her. “But, we have a twist. Tonight, we’re totally splitting up. While you and a partner walk the East Block, another group will be down in Solitary, some in the Chair Room, and, probably worst of all, a group will be in the Attic.”

“All at the same time!” Colby smiles wide as he says it, as if it’s not the worst possible idea to come out of their mouths. 

“Don’t tell me we’re having kickball squad picks again,” Nick groans. 

“Nope,” Sam says. “This time, everyone’s going to draw their partner’s name out of a hat!”

“Oh, fuck no,” Lia whines. “I’m gonna end up with your demon attracting ass!”

“Well, the good news is you get to pick your partner since you lost.”

“That…somehow makes it worse.” The group laughs.

“Who are you sentencing to walk the death walk with you?” Rayne asks. “It’s cold, I wanna start this hell if it just gets me moving.”

“Fuck, I don’t know!”

Colby speaks through his laughter. “Whoever you pick will help you run the hat draw.”

Lia debates for a minute, looking between everyone. When she opens her mouth, Sam speaks up again. “And it can’t be one of your channel partners.”

She huffs.

“Fine. Chris,” Lia finally speaks up. Steve locks eyes with Rayne, both grinning before Rayne turns to Vi, the two girls trying not to laugh and outright poke fun at Lia. Lia, however, takes the bait on herself.

“Me? Why me? I don't wanna do the death walk, Ophi, I had to hide!” Chris whines.

“Exactly, you got a get out of jail free card for this because of hide and seek. Besides,” Lia shoves her pointer finger into Chris's chest teasingly, “you got me in trouble with all of them.”

“How did I get you in trouble?”

“I fell off the bed, Chris!”

“I fail to see how that’s my fault.”

“You fell asleep on me first, that’s how.” The other two girls and the remaining triplets laugh the hardest, though Steve and Dylan are close behind.

“Actually you fell asleep on me first, remember? On the floor,” he teases.

“Technicalities,” Lia sputters. “You fell asleep on me on the bed first” 

“That's not fair!”

Sam interrupts their back and forth with a small chuckle, everyone else also holding back laughter and teasing. The other two girls share a look, Vi making a kissy face that causes Rayne to cackle. Sam interrupts them to get the ball rolling, failing to hide a grin. “Okay, let’s get the draw going.” He walks over to the car, pulling a sharpie and a pad of sticky notes out of his bag, quickly writing names down. “Colby and I have decided that since they’re still new, Rayne and Vi will be two of the three to draw. We thought we’d leave it up to the group to decide who else goes.”

“I want Nick to!” Rayne calls. “Girls and gay!”

“Girls and gay!” Vi, Nick, and Lia echo, the three giggling. 

“Alright,” Colby laughs, “Rayne, Vi, and Nick will draw. Whoever you guys pick is your partner for the night.”

“Aren’t there more of us than that?” Dylan asks. Steve piggybacks off of him, trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, that’s only eight of us. Are there more get out of jail free cards?”

“Obviously not for the ghosts,” Matt jokes.

“No,” Colby laughs. “The last two names will join a group of two since there’s no other location than the Chapel, but that room wasn’t very active last time, so.”

“Do I even want to ask how we’re getting room assignments tonight?” Vi asks, shifting in her spot.

“The three people who get their names drawn will get to pick the location for their group in the order they got drawn.” Sam grabs the bundle of named sticky notes, walking over to dump them in Lia’s hands. “So let’s get to drawing.”

Chris takes his baseball hat off to use for the drawing, Lia dropping the papers in. Colby directs her to stand between himself and Sam so that she’s centered as she calls out the assignments. “Nick, you draw first.”

Chris holds his hat out to his brother like a knight offering a gift to a lady. Nick reaches in, pulling out a card and reading it. “Steve. Yes! I get one of the professionals!”

Steve swaps places with Matt, grinning. Chris turns to Lia, silently asking who to go to next. “Rayne, you next.”

Chris does the same dramatic motion with his hat, Rayne faking a curtsey before reaching in. She lightly elbows the man next to her, smiling. “Looks like you’re stuck with me, Dyl.”

Chris moves to Vi next, who hesitates before reaching in. She giggles a bit, going red before calling out. “Matt! Get over here!”

The final triplet sends her a wide grin and moves over to join her as Chris shifts back over to Lia, squeezing between her and Colby. It’s that exact moment that everyone realizes Sam and Colby themselves are the ones that have to pick a group to join.

The teasing resumes, this time picking fun at the channel owners losing their own game. With a hefty sigh, Sam takes the papers back from the three who had drawn, tossing them back into Chris’s hat after taking out his and Colby’s own names.

“Maybe we should have done a get out of jail free,” he laments.

“Not allowed!” Lia yells. “I have to walk the creepy ass block!”

“And I have to do it with you now,” Chris whines. 

“Deal with it,” she tells him. “Sucks to suck.”

More lighthearted laughs roll around as Sam and Colby rock paper scissors for who gets to pick first. Sam wins this time, quicker than the rounds the night before. He reaches in, drawing Matt’s name, Colby drawing a paper right after. Sam grins at his pick. “Looks like I’m with Matt and Vi.”

“I’m with Steve and Nick. I’m fine with that.” The three girls eye each other in their silent game once more, barely holding back wild grins. “Alright, Steve, where are we going? The Attic, Solitary, or the Chair Room?”

“I didn’t get to do anything in the Chair Room last time, so I’d like to be in there.”

“Alright, Nick’s group in the Chair Room,” Sam says. “Dylan, where are you and Rayne going?”

“I want to go back to Solitary.” His voice is firm. “Maybe we can talk to the guard this time.”

Rayne nods at his decision, burrowing down into her hoodie.

“Guess that means we have the Attic,” Vi sighs. “If I get attacked because I have Sam, I swear to God.”

⫘⫘⫘

“Alright, the last thing we have before we split off,” Colby says, “is what equipment each group gets. Since we’ll be in the chair room, Nick, Steve and I will have the estes equipment.”

“Matt, Vi, and I will have the other set of estes equipment and the music box.” Sam holds up the smaller, coffin-shaped device, showing it to camera. “Dylan and Rayne in Solitary get the REM pod and the DR-60 for questions.”

“And since they’ll be walking the block, Chris and Lia get the ovilus and the EMF reader.” Colby finishes out the assignments, leaning forward a bit. He rubs his hands together, looking around the group. “Is everyone ready?”

“Absolutely not.” Lia and Chris say it at the same time, drawing out more laughs and sneaky looks.

“As I’ll ever be, I guess,” Vi says. The rest of the crew just nods, affirming their decision. 

“Alright, then,” Sam says. He looks straight into the camera, smiling. “Let’s get it.”

In one sudden movement, Dylan stands up and grabs Rayne by her ankles, yanking her to the end of the bed so that she can’t hide in the pillow anymore. “You jerk!”

He laughs as she kicks at him, flipping onto her back to get better leverage. He catches and dodges each kick, both of them laughing now. It’s a few minutes of giggles and scuffling before Dylan pins his hands on either side of her legs, leaning over her as she sits propped up on her elbows. Both breathe heavily, smiles taking up their faces.

The two stare at each other for a moment, taking in the position they’re in. One of Dylan’s legs is wedged between Rayne’s knees as he pins her in place. As they sit there, eyes locked and processing, both of their phones buzz. The two scramble away, grabbing their phones to see a message in the collab group chat. Both their faces burn bright as they read through the thread.

Colby had texted, asking who all was up and if they’d wanna meet up in the restaurant in the lobby for lunch. Steve’s the first to answer, saying he can be down in twenty. Dylan and Rayne both confirm, Nick and Sam not far behind. Matt answers next, adding in that he just has to wake Vi first and they’ll be down.

Dylan and Rayne share a delighted cackle at the knowledge that Vi never went back to the girls’ room, missing the irony of laughing at it themselves.

Everyone agrees to meet up at 12:30 to give time for the final two to answer and for people to get changed. Rayne looks down at her aggressively oversized shirt and the shorts that don’t even show under the hem before coming to a realization.

“Shit, I left my key in the room last night.” Dylan glances over from where he stands at his bag, sifting through for clothes.

“I have a spare pair of sweats, if you’d rather wear those until you can get back in.”

“Oh, my God, yes please, I am not going down there fully in my pajamas.” Dylan laughs at her, tossing her the pants. Rayne gets up to go into the bathroom to change. Before she closes the door, she calls out to Dylan. “Is it fine if I snag the hotel issued toothbrush that’s in here?”

“Yeah, you’re good, I have my own.” She nods, closing the bathroom door to change and brush her teeth. By the time she comes out, Dylan is dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and one of his army shirts. She sits on the bed while he goes to brush his own teeth, opening her phone to spam Lia and Vi in their own group chat, having not heard from either yet.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

In Matt’s room, he answers the group chat, telling the rest that he has to wake Vi before they meet up. He’d just woken up himself, not fully awake yet. As soon as he closes the group chat, Nick’s spamming him about Vi being in his room, his brother excited and teasing. Chris is still dead to the world, not a single text in the group chat. The two of them text for a few minutes as Vi still snores softly beside Matt, absolutely oblivious to anything happening.

Eventually, Matt starts ignoring Nick as he blows up his phone, getting up to get ready for the day. When he comes out of the bathroom in new jeans and a gray sweatshirt with Vermont stamped across it in big green letters, Vi still sleeps. Matt makes his way over to her, shaking her shoulder gently. When she doesn’t stir, he tries again, shaking her a bit more firmly. 

Still, the girl doesn’t wake, just adjusting her position a bit. Matt laughs lightly at the action, a soft smile on his face as he tries a third time. Slowly, he starts calling her name as he shakes her, finally waking her up after a good few minutes, running a hand over her hair.

“Vi, c’mon, everyone wants to meet up for lunch.”

“Wha’bout breakfast?” She murmurs. Matt laughs, sitting on the bed next to her as she starts to sit up, stretching with her eyes still mostly closed.

“It’s noon, it’s lunch time.” Vi makes a small noise, somewhere between a grumble and an affirmative hum. With a soft grin, he helps her sit up. “Come on, you should get back to your room before we go, anyway.”

Vi hums, not awake enough to do much more. She reaches for her phone, opening up her notifications. She skims through the group chat, adding in that she’s down for lunch before opening the one between her and her channel-mates, answering Rayne. The more she wakes up, the more she notices Lia’s absence, smiling to herself and voicing exactly what she’s thinking in the chat.

Her and Rayne blow up the chat for a few minutes while Matt sits on his own phone before she actually feels ready enough to walk back to the hotel room to change, realizing her oversized shirt and non-public shorts. “Okay, I’m gonna go get dressed, then.”

“Okay,” Matt says. Vi misses the note of disappointment in his voice but comes to a realization before she even starts to walk out of the room.

“Oh, shit, I left my key card in there last night.”

“In where?” Matt sets his phone down next to him, looking to where Vi stands just in front of him.

“In our hotel room,” she answers, typing furiously as she talks. She waits a moment before grumbling. “Fuck, Rayne forgot hers, too.”

“Rayne didn’t stay in there last night?” Matt raises his brows at the new information.

“Nope, she went to Dylan’s room. That means Lia’s the only one still in there and she’s still asleep.” Vi sighs, sitting back on the bed next to Matt. “Guess I’m going to lunch in my pajamas.”

“Do you want to get a new card from the front desk?”

“No, it’s okay, it can wait til Lia actually gets up.” Matt eyes her for a second before nodding. “Can I steal the hotel toothbrush?”

“Of course you can,” he grins. Vi thanks him with a smile and brushes her teeth before asking if they should start heading down as it’s just about 12:30.

“Yeah, why not?” The two get up and walk to the elevator to get down to the all-day restaurant just off the lobby. 

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Steve sits at one of the huge corner booths in the restaurant, texting his wife as he waits for the others to show. Dylan and Rayne come in first, joining him in the booth. Rayne takes her spot directly in the corner, the two men on either side of her. 

“How are you this morning?” Steve asks, setting down the conversation with Sid.

“A lot better. I just needed a break from there and to get some sleep, I think.” He nods at her explanation before grinning, deciding to tease.

“So, Vi in Matt’s room, huh?” The other two share his shit-eating grin. “How’d that happen?”

“After the rest of you left, it was just us four, Matt, and Chris,” Rayne starts. “Then, at some point, the two of them left for his room while talking about their ideas for what tonight holds.”

Steve hums. “Interesting. So was Lia still asleep when you left your room?”

“Well…” She trails off, fighting a smile. Steve looks from her to Dylan, seeing that he’s refusing to meet his eyes. A grin takes place on his face as his suspicion is proved correct.

“Oh, so that’s why you two showed up together.” The two are still silent for a moment, allowing the eldest more time to take notice of things. “And why you’re still wearing pajamas.”

“In our defense,” Dylan speaks up, “Chris and Lia fell asleep on the floor so we just left.”

“If they were asleep on the floor, you totally could’ve used the beds.” The two youngers share a look and shrug. “So,” Steve draws out, grinning wider at the two. For the moment, he decides not to tease them and target someone else instead. “That means Chris and Lia are alone together, huh?”

“And neither have answered the group chat,” Dylan points out.

“Interesting.” As Steve finishes saying it, Vi and Matt join the group, Matt sliding into the booth next to Dylan, Vi right next to him. “Hey, guys.”

“How are we all feelin’ this morning?” Matt asks. The guys answer him while Vi and Rayne just share a look, communicating in their little silent game again with raised brows and little faces. Vi raises one eyebrow, glancing from Rayne to Dylan and back again before pointedly looking at her sleep shirt. Rayne nods before flicking her own gaze between Vi and Matt, the same question in her eyes. This time, Vi nods.

“Rayne,” Matt calls, “how are you doing now?”

“I’m better. A little tired of answering that question, but better, I swear.” Steve and Dylan laugh as Matt puts his hands up in surrender.

“Alright, gotcha. Has Lia texted you guys yet?”

“Nope,” Vi says. “She’s still gone.”

“Dead,” Rayne adds.

“No longer with us.”

“No, but she’s with Chris,” Steve jokes. Both girls burst into laughter, Dylan with them. Matt just watches Steve and his self-satisfied smile. “The two of them were in the room alone last night, apparently.”

He throws a look at the two next to him, who both refuse to meet it, faces warming.

“Wait, where’d you go?” Matt, wanting to hear the answer from her, looks at Rayne who just points at Dylan. The latter voices the answer.

“We left the two of them since they passed out on the floor.” 

“Who passed out on the floor?” Nick joins the group, sitting next to Steve. Sam comes in a moment later, joining the conversation instantly, sitting on Nick’s other side.

“Chris and Lia in our room,” Vi says. 

“I knew it!” Nick’s voice rings through the mostly empty restaurant, causing a few people to glance over, Matt hisses at him to get him to shut up even as he has a wild grin on his face. “What? We totally called it last night.”

“Oh, Vi and I knew,” Rayne says. “Steve and Dylan have gotten to hear about her little crush on him before, too.”

“I’m the only one out of the loop then, cool, cool.” Everyone laughs at Sam, Nick patting his shoulder. 

“It’s okay,” Vi says. “Lia doesn’t like telling people about it even though she loves telling people about it.”

“Chris didn’t say anything,” Matt says.

“But he told it all with how he acts around her,” Nick finishes. The two start giggling again. “Calling her Ophi and everything. But you showed everything, too, Matthew.”

“Oh, Chris definitely did,” Steve adds, looking straight at the eldest triplet. “The two of them were almost as attached as the three of you.”

“Or the three of them,” Dylan says, pointing at the two girls present.

“Not to mention you two,” Steve says to Matt and Vi, grinning viciously. The two ignore him, failing to hide small smiles.

“Unrelated,” Rayne breaks in, “but wasn’t lunch Colby’s idea? Where the fuck is he?”

“Why are you changing the subject?” Steve teases. “Afraid we’ll tell everyone you and Dylan stayed in the same room?”

The girl slaps his arm, bringing about laughter from everyone but her and Dylan. “Vi stayed in Matt’s room, too! Why the hell are you calling me out!”

“You did change the subject,” Sam points out. 

“Only guilty parties get attacked here.” Matt falls into Vi’s shoulder as his brother says it, Nick laughing at his own joke. 

Both girls huff even as they smile. Vi is the one to speak next. “It’s a valid question, though, he did plan it, why’s he the last one here?”

Finally, the man in question comes speed-walking in, phone up to see his face. He slides into the booth next to Sam, still talking. “-everyone now.”

“Is that Malia?” Colby nods in answer to Sam’s question, spinning the phone around to show his girlfriend on facetime. “Hi Malia!”

“Hi, Sam!” 

“Sam!” Sofie appears as well, waving furiously to her boyfriend. Sam gives her a soft smile, taking Colby’s phone to talk to her a bit. 

When he hands it back, Colby pivots the phone back to himself but pauses like a scolded puppy at Malia’s tone. “What, we don’t get to say hi to everyone else?”

Colby grins and turns the phone more slowly so that she can see and wave at everyone who sits at the table before settling the camera back on himself. “Hang on, show everyone again?” Confused, Colby does as Sofie asks, Malia pointing out what both of them noticed.

 “Weren’t there supposed to be two more? I thought you said it was ten total.”

Colby finally actually glances up from the call, checking around the table. “Where are Lia and Chris?”

“Asleep in the girls’ hotel room.” Nick stage-whispers it to Colby and both girls on facetime, adding a suggestive wink. “And apparently Rayne stayed with Dylan while Vi was with Matt last night.”

Steve and Sam join in on Nick’s laughter while the two men glare and the girls drop their heads onto the table. Malia squeals from her end of the line, her and Sofie shouting encouragement to the girls. It makes both of them feel better enough to lift their heads, though their faces are red. 

After another couple minutes, Colby ends the call and the teasing continues. A waitress finally comes over, taking drink and food orders. Throughout the whole meal, the teasing of the pairs persists, the girls silently teasing each other to ignore the men doing so. Beneath the table, Dylan takes Rayne’s hand, Matt’s hand on Vi’s knee, both men rubbing circles with their thumbs.

When they’re all finished eating, they order to-go meals for Chris and Lia to take back up to the room, considering neither had answered any texts still. After Sam pays the bill, insisting, considering the incident from the estes sessions, the group leaves as one pod. Vi goes to grab a spare key from the front desk, since Nick and Sam poke fun at Rayne for being in Dylan’s sweats after Steve made fun of her for tripping on them. As she’s being tortured, Steve pokes fun at Dylan.

Matt follows Vi up to the counter and the two secure the key, leading the group back to the elevator.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Back in the girls’ room, Lia starts to finally stir. She’s confused by the breathing of the pillow for a second before realizing her head is cushioned on Chris’s chest, rather than him laying on her. Suddenly giddy, she goes shock still for a moment, simply staring at the empty bed across from her. 

She debates reaching for her phone to panic text Rayne and Vi but ultimately decides against it in case Chris wakes up. Instead, she just lays there, trying to breathe normally despite the fluttering in her chest. She does her best not to move for the next few minutes, waiting on Chris to wake up.

Eventually, he does, inhaling sharply in a poorly restrained yawn. As he does so, Lia drops her eyes closed, as if he can even see them. As his hand comes up to run over her hair, she takes that to pretend to wake up as well. 

“I can’t believe we fell asleep on the floor,” Chris mumbles, voice gravelly. 

“I can,” Lia says. “I like the floor.”

Chris giggles, stretching his legs out a bit further. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know.” Lia, reluctantly, sits up to find her phone, grabbing it off of the floor where it was abandoned. “Nearly two.” She pauses, looking at the sheer amount of notifications. “Holy fuck.”

“What?” Chris sits up, stretching his arms above his head. Lia pretends not to notice the way his white tank lifts above his waistband. 

“Apparently everyone went to lunch and we missed it. They were spamming us.” As she starts reading through the girls’ private group chat, Chris finds his own phone. Both scroll through the chats, catching up on messages, especially from brothers and honorary sisters alike.

Silence sits in the room as they try to catch up on anything. Enough to the point that the lock of the hotel door clicking open scares the hell out of both of them. Jumping at the sound, Lia falls off the bed, hitting the floor before following Chris’s line of sight towards the door as the rest of the collab group pours into the room, all of them with maniacal grins. 

Instantly, Lia’s face goes bright red, Chris’s similar. The two sit like children caught doing something they weren’t supposed to, Lia still on the floor. The whole group laughs, Vi and Rayne rushing to Lia, Matt and Nick doing the same to their brother. Steve and Dylan join the girls on the floor to check on Lia as Colby stops the recording on his phone, him and Sam immediately rewatching it as soon as Colby sends it to Malia and Sofie.

“I knew we shouldn’t have done this,” Vi tells her friends, voice soft. “I’ve never seen you guys like this before.”

“I’ve never had this happen after an estes session,” Rayne mumbles. She rubs the bridge of her nose with one hand, the other holding the side of her head. Lia sits with her head on crossed arms on the table top, muttering.

“And you guys said I would be okay.”

“I never said anything of the sort,” Vi argues. 

“Do you guys also feel the heaviness here?” Both other girls turn to Rayne, who glares at the table, both hands now wrapped around her styrofoam cup of water. “Like, that dark, nagging weight?”

“I mean, I feel uneasy,” Vi amends. “But not like what you’re saying. I’m mostly worried about you two and whatever the hell just happened.”

Lia nods from her slumped spot. “I feel weird but I think I’m mostly just terrified that it said our names.”

“It said our names to you, too?” Rayne glances at her, fingers tightening on the poor cup. Lia nods again. “In what order?”

“It said my name first, then it said yours.”

“Twice.” Vi looks at Rayne over Lia’s slumped form. “It only said Lia’s once.”

“It said my name first then said Lia’s twice.” She turns back to the table, squeezing her eyes shut. “Full name, too. Not Lia, but Ophelia.”

“It did that for me, too,” Lia whispers. “Our REM pod was going off like crazy, too.”

“During estes or after?”

“Both,” Vi tells her. “It started, like, screaming as soon as she took the headphones off. Like it wanted her to stay.”

“Ours did the same thing.” All three fall into an uneasy silence. The two who’d been under estes start to look a bit less pale but remain racked with shivers. Finally, Vi breaks their little silence outside of the chaos from the men.

“I don’t like that it said both of your guys' names to each other. And the fact that you’re both feeling like this, too. I’m worried.”

“Honestly,” Rayne says, “I am, too. Even when Lia and I were in Madison with Steve and Dylan and I got that weird, heavy feeling, it wasn’t this bad. Like, I felt a little nauseous there, but here I feel like I’m about to actually throw up from the weight in my chest and the darkness in my head.”

“Please don’t say it like that while we’re still in here,” Lia groans.

“How are you guys feeling?” Steve and Dylan come over to the group of girls, sitting across the table from them. 

Rayne just shakes her head, prompting Lia to speak up. “Freaked the hell out, honestly. We said a lot of the same stuff as each other.”

“Yeah, we were talking about that,” Steve says. 

“Lia,” Dylan asks, “how quickly did you start to feel weird once you were pulled out?”

“Not until we were leaving the cell, why?”

Rayne answers instead, tears building in her eyes-a rare occurrence. “I was feeling it about halfway through the session and it hit me immediately but got worse as we left.”

“That’s terrifying,” Vi says. 

“Do you think it’s because of your sensitivity?” The medium nods in response to Steve’s question, unable to speak around the lump in her throat. “I think we left our spots around the same time, too. The reactions have to be tied together.”

“Well, given that they said each other’s names,” Vi says. “I’d say the other answers could be coincidence but that part is scarily connected.”

“For sure,” Dylan says. 

The triplets join the group next, Matt sitting next to Vi, Chris between Lia and Rayne, and Nick next to Steve. Lia sits up a bit straighter as they sit but Rayne just slumps into herself, elbows braced on the table. Matt nudges closer to Vi until their shoulders are touching, waiting for her to pull away. Something that doesn’t happen.

Sam and Colby stand in the corner still, in a whispered debate as Chris checks on Lia, Matt, Nick, and Steve talk with Vi about results, and Dylan just quietly eyes Rayne with worry, given the final girl seems to be unable to bring herself to speak. One nagging thought runs through her head over and over but she’s afraid to say it until they’re out of the prison.

Vi fidgets with her evil eye bracelet, Lia and Rayne mirroring it with their cross and amethyst necklaces respectively. Eventually, Vi is the only one of the three to still be talking, voicing her worries to the men at the table, especially as the two usually more talkative girls remain silent.

Lia’s fear is more plain to see on her face, but Rayne’s blank look worries those that know her. Eventually, Sam and Colby come over.

“Okay, we think it’s best if we head back to the hotel,” Sam says. “We can reevaluate in the morning if we really want to do tomorrow’s investigation with all of us still. Especially given that Lia has the punishment of walking Cell Block E.”

“We’ll definitely change that to either Sam or I,” Colby adds. Lia surprises everyone by speaking up.

“No, I can still do it. Like, I’m terrified, but I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure, Ophi?” Chris places his hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, after that, you seriously don’t have to,” Colby promises. She shakes her head.

“I know. I kind of want to in a weird way? Prove that this didn’t scare me off entirely.” As she finishes speaking, she looks around Chris at Rayne, who hasn’t moved but for taking a deep breath. The other girl still stares at the table as she whispers her own answer.

“I’m coming back. I have something I need to test.”

“I don’t like the sound of that at all,” Vi tells her.

“No, not…not bad.” She frowns, picking at the rim of her cup, peeling off part of the styrofoam. “More just-I don’t know, I just need to see if it just wants to talk to us because we were under or if it’s just doing its best to scare us off. I can’t really explain it, I just need to come back.”

“Only if you guys are sure,” Steve says. 

Sam nods. “Yeah, we don’t want you guys pushing yourselves. Not for a video.”

“If they’re sure, they’re sure,” Vi tells him. “They’re not going to change their minds. They’re the two most stubborn idiots I know.”

Hesitantly, the rest of the group agrees, deciding to head to the hotel before anything else.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

“Who drove your car, Vi?” Sam looks at her, shouldering his and Colby’s backpack.

“Rayne did. And I’m honestly not great at night driving. Can’t see well enough.” Everyone debates for a moment before Steve is elected to drive the girls back to the hotel, Dylan taking Steve’s car. Everyone loads up, Lia in the backseat, Vi up front with Steve. Rayne ends up in Steve’s car with Dylan, joking that it’s only so he doesn’t fall asleep behind the wheel again. 

As he follows the line of cars out, Steve glances in the mirror to check on Lia. “How are you feeling?”

“Mostly just tired,” Lia says. She slumps in her seat, head leaned back on the headrest.

“You’ll be okay in the morning after you get some rest,” he reassures. “How about you, Vi? You still shaken up?”

“A little, yeah. That was crazy on our own but knowing that the others got a similar thing? It’s just…creepy. I don’t like how empty Rayne looked and I don’t like seeing Lia this shaken. No offense.”

“None taken,” the girl in the back mumbles.

“It is weird,” Steve nods. “We’ll all be alright, though. Rayne didn’t seem to sense anything really evil so I have faith.”

⫘⫘

In Steve’s car, Dylan and Rayne talk softly.

“Did you ever figure out what that weird feeling was?” Dylan asks. Rayne shakes her head, leaning against the window, staring out at the snow they pass.

“No, it was too muddled.” There’s a moment of silence before Dylan speaks again. He glances at her as he does, brows furrowed. 

“How are you feeling now?”

“Honestly, I’m not really sure.” 

“That’s…worrisome.” He fully turns to her as they hit a stop sign, concerned. She mirrors him, eyes heavy. “Do you still feel it?”

“I mean, a little, but I think it’s just residual. I’m just tired.”

Dylan turns away from her again, blowing out a heavy breath. “You’re still pretty pale, too.”

“Dyl,” Rayne jokes, “I’m always pale, c’mon.”

He scoffs, fighting off a smile. “Alright, you know what I mean.”

“I know, I know.” She sighs, turning back to the snow. “I think I’ll be fine.”

“You think?”

“Yes, worry wart, I’m fine. It’s Lia I’m more worried about.”

“Oh, I’m worried, too. For her first session actually being under, that’s crazy.” He pauses for a second before adding, even softer, “but I’m worried about you, too.”

⫘⫘

In their own car, Sam films his and Colby’s follow-up talk as the latter drives, both worried about the girls going back into the prison. 

“If both of them got such weird reactions, I’m worried about Vi, too,” Sam says. “Nate got sick when he was in the attic, and we have no idea where everyone’s going to end up on their smaller investigations tomorrow. What if it’s going for the girls? We didn’t have any with us last time other than the other guide.”

“I don’t know, man. I think we revisit it in the morning and ask if they’re really, truly up for it.”

“I just don’t want all three of them to get affected, especially Vi, given that she’s never done an investigation before.” Sam turns the camera to catch an extra shot of the building before it fades from view. “She might be more prone to it than anyone knows since she doesn’t have much experience.”

“Seeing how the two with experience reacted, you might be right about it targeting women.”

⫘⫘

The triplets all talk, too, worried about the girls, Chris especially so about Lia, Matt about Vidia. For once, their drive isn’t filled with laughter, instead with uneasy words and silence.

“I don’t think they should go back in,” Nick says. “Rayne is a medium and she’s feeling way off.”

“I’m worried about Ophi,” Chris tells him. “That was her first estes session. None of our first ones made us feel like that.”

“I think there’s something weird in there.” Matt breaks his silence as he takes a turn, following Colby. “Like, obviously there is, it’s haunted, but it feels worse than Farrar in there. Vi’s never done an investigation. This is her first one, unlike Lia. It makes me worry about her.”

“That’s why I’m worried, idiot,” Chris bites. “Vi doesn’t mess with this shit like Ophi does.”

“Just say you’re in love with her man,” Nick jokes. Chris balks, stuttering as both his brothers laugh, teasing him. 

“I so am not!”

“Denial is a river in Egypt.” Matt quips. 

“Guys, I’m just worried, you guys didn’t see what happened there.” His voice pitches more towards a whine at their poking and prodding. “And what do you mean denial! I saw the way you looked at Vidia!” 

“What!”

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Once everyone finds a parking spot, they group up at the front door, heading in and up to the elevator together. Rayne and Lia already look miles better, though Vi is a bit more uneasy than when they left. Everyone piles into the same elevator, the girls getting off first since they’re only on the third floor, the guys all on the fifth or sixth. The three step into their room, changing out of their jeans and hoodies into a collection of oversized shirts and shorts. None bother to shower, too tired from the investigation, yet none can sleep just yet.

“Chris is totally into you,” Rayne tells Lia, trying to lighten the mood. It works a bit, as Lia starts sputtering.

“What makes you say that!”

“Well,” Vi says, “he was the one to help you walk out of Solitary. He practically shoved me out of the way to help you.”

“Okay, but Matt was making eyes at you all night!” Lia whisper-yells, trying not to cause a noise complaint. “He liked your style!”

“Okay, bitch, but I wasn’t the one to get carried out of there like a damsel in distress.”

Rayne laughs as she flops onto one of the beds, pulling her legs up to sit criss-cross. Lia whips to her, not ready to be the only one suffering. “Don’t laugh, Dylan did the same with you! I saw him trying to rush you out of there!”

“Hey! We’ve done investigations before, he was being friendly, you fuck!” Vi laughs now, the tallest girl whipping to her. “But Lia’s right, Matt was making googly eyes at you, I swear. Had Steve not known about Lia and her thing with Chris, Colby was going to pick Matt, which means he would’ve ended up with you.”

“But he ended up with you!” she argues.

“Because Sam wanted a medium and Steve knows about Lia’s big fat crush!” Lia makes an offended huff, glaring at Rayne as the latter says it.

“You got Dylan and Matt with you,” Vi points out. “Both of you got your men and I just had to be terrified while Lia clung to me like a child! All because my man got moved somewhere else.”

“I did not cling to you like a child.”

“You definitely did.” The three laugh, feeling the worst of the weight slip off their shoulders. Lia and Vi sit on the second bed, facing their friend. Silence falls, though, Vi being the one to bring up the elephant in the room.

“You both really wanna do that again after tonight?” Both other girls look at her, twin looks of determination on their faces. 

“I have to see this collab through,” Lia says. “We’ve been dreaming of this for years.”

“Ophelia, not at the risk of your own well being.”

“To be fair, every ghost vlog we’ve done has been insane,” Lia tells her. “That was…unexpected and terrifying to say the least, but I really want to do this. I think we just needed a break.”

“All three of us are emotional,” Rayne says. “We’ve been excited for this collab, obviously we’re giddy about the guys and a bit delusional about them, too, it’s your first ghost hunt which is both exciting and nerve racking. Being highly emotional makes us more vulnerable. It’s part of why Sam and Colby get so many attachments. Sam doesn’t really follow rules of things but both of them freak out over every little interaction.”

“It draws spirits in. The negative ones feed off fear and vulnerability and that prison housed a bunch of murderers. They’re trying to get out so they’re targeting those of us who are more emotional tonight.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better, dumbass.” Vi gives her a deadpan look. “But if you guys are really sure, I can’t stop you and I’ll still go with you.”

“I have to see what that feeling I was getting is about.” Rayne finally voices what she’d been afraid to say in the reformatory. “It didn’t feel like it was trying to attach but it also didn’t feel like a possession type deal. It just felt so weird, I have to see if I get that feeling again and what it is.”

“I want to know why it made us both sick, honestly,” Lia nods. “Especially if you don’t think it was trying to attach.”

Rayne’s phone buzzes, distracting all of them. She picks it up, seeing a text from Dylan. “Steve and Dylan are wondering if we want to talk for a bit. They’re worried about us.”

“Honestly, I’m not even tired anymore.” Lia sits up a bit, stretching. “I’d be fine with it just so they don’t worry all night.”

Rayne nods. “Vi? What say you?”

“Sure. You guys have gotten pretty close with them, no harm in letting them check in on you.” With everyone in agreement, Rayne answers the next. A few minutes later, there’s a soft knock on the hotel room. Lia answers it, letting the two men in. The two had changed out of their investigation clothes as well, in plain tees and joggers.

“You guys look a lot better already,” Dylan notes. “You feeling okay?”

They follow Lia back over to the beds, Steve sitting next to Lia, Dylan next to Rayne. Lia nods. “Yeah, we both feel back to normal.”

“That’s good.” Steve leans around Lia to look at Vi. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. A bit uneasy about it all still, but I’m glad they’re doing better.” Steve nods at her answer before turning his attention to the final girl.

“What about you? I’ve never seen you go that blank before.”

She looks between him and Dylan before shrugging. “I’m fine now, just like the two of them said. I don’t feel anything lingering and neither of us are tired anymore.”

The five talk for a bit before the conversation shifts to getting to know Vi a bit more. Eventually, though, Lia’s phone lights up with a message from Chris. “The triplets wanna talk, too. Do we want to make this a party?”

All four others nod, Steve and Dylan cooing and poking fun at Lia about texting with Chris. The girl goes red as she tries to play it off and within minutes, the triplets are coming in, also in comfier clothes. Pajama pants and three different shirts-Nick in a tee, Chris in a tank, and Matt in a sweater. Matt flops down between Vi and the headboard while Nick finds a spot on one of the two desk chairs, pulling it up to the end of the bed. Chris takes Steve’s spot next to Lia as Steve moves to Rayne’s other side, the two sharing a knowing grin as he moves. Dylan and Vi do their best not to laugh at it, especially with how quickly Chris takes the spot. Matt and Nick share a cheeky smile, too, doing their best to not laugh, though Nick also glances between Matt and Vi, sporting a smug look that Matt ignores.

“How are you guys?” Chris looks at Lia as he asks it, though he spares Rayne and Vi a glance. All three girls confirm that they’re fine before the three guys their age begin with their normal chaos, chattering over each other.

“I’ve never seen that happen,” Nick tells them. “That extreme of a reaction.”

“Me either,” Matt and Chris confirm. All at once, the conversation shifts back to everything that happened during the investigation, the triplets asking question after question and giving theories about the estes session of the opposite group, Vi, Steve, and Dylan mostly answering, since Rayne and Lia still haven’t been fully informed on the questioning processes and activity that happened while they were under.

As the triplets get more and more invested, they’re barely breathing between questions.

Not even five minutes later, Vi’s phone buzzes. She picks it up and looks surprised. “Sam’s asking if he and Colby can come chat.” 

“Fuck it, the room’s big enough,” Rayne jokes. Matt eyes Vi’s phone with a jealous frown, Steve catching it. Lia and Rayne throw shit-eating smiles at Vi as they also clock Matt’s expression, Steve and Dylan immediately catching on. They might not know Vi well just yet, but they know Rayne and Lia well enough, finally putting together the silent games earlier in the night and the teasing Lia endured from all of them after Chris had texted her. 

It makes Steve glance between Rayne and Dylan, really noticing how close his friends sit together. It has him wondering if, just maybe, there’s something that the girl or his channel-mate haven’t told him yet.

Soon enough, Sam and Colby are with the rest of the group, Sam pulling the other desk chair up to the end of the second bed, Colby between Dylan and the headboard, the two in comfy clothing just like the rest of the group. The four on each bed sit shoulder to shoulder, but no one cares much. The girls all sit either criss-cross or in some sort of way with their knees tucked up, the triplets and Sam and Colby lounging. Dylan and Steve are the only two who sit in some semblance of normal.

“So, since we’re all here,” Colby starts, “are you guys really sure you want to go back in tomorrow? We were going to do harder challenges with smaller groups.”

“Dude, it was supposed to be a surprise,” Sam groans.

“I’d rather them know what they’re getting into than go in totally blind after all that.”

“We’re fine,” Vi reassures them, answering for her team. “The two of them are dead set on going back for some reason and if they’re doing it, I’m doing it.”

Both men nod before the conversation drifts back to the estes sessions once again. As the two girls saying each other’s names gets brought up again, Rayne has a realization. “Lia, did you hear a guy scream before it said my name a second time?”

“No, it just said your name, went silent for a second, and then said your name again, a little more desperate.” Even though Lia speaks, everyone’s eyes are on Rayne; Dylan, Matt, Sam, and Nick realizing what she’s connecting. “Then they pulled me out. Yours screamed? What the fuck?”

“Mine said your name, screamed, said your name a second time in that same, like, more desperate tone and then I got a bunch of indistinct whispers before I got pulled out.”

“Did it sound all angry when it said my name the first time? It was angry and then got desperate.”

“No, mine said it calmly then got desperate.”

“Wait, that’s insane,” Nick says.

“Why was it so angry with Ophi?” Chris looks at her as he asks it, brows furrowed.

“I don’t think it was angry with Lia,” Matt interjects. “It was angry while saying Rayne’s name. I wonder if it was angry with her instead. She started getting that weird feeling before the name thing happened and told us.”

“Why would it be angry that she’s voicing what it wants to get across, though, idiot?” Nick rolls his eyes at his brother, causing a small argument. 

“Because it didn’t want that part to be known,” Steve says. The brothers stop fighting, turning to the eldest in the room. “Think about it. Only she has this ability, out of all ten of us. When we ask it to interact with any of the equipment, it does so by choice. That feeling, though, that was just something she picked up on. It’s happened before.”

“Didn’t you say it only works if they want to communicate with you?” Colby asks Rayne. She shakes her head.

“I never said that. If they want to speak I can translate what they’re trying to say, but I pick up on any energy or heavy emotion.”

“So you just picked up the feeling,” Vi says, “it didn’t want you to.”

“Which means it might be more negative than we think,” Sam finishes. 

“I really don’t think you should go back in.” Chris sets his hand on Lia’s shoulder, causing the girl to send a panicked look to Rayne, considering it’d be too obvious to turn to Vi. Steve and Dylan notice it and fight to remain serious. Luckily, though, Rayne doesn’t have the issue of turning Lia does and translates the look to Vi, the two trying not to smile, considering the seriousness of the conversation.

“We’ll be fine,” Rayne says. “I’ll sage us before we go in tomorrow. I have some in my backpack-I can do it for everyone if we want.”

The idea soothes everyone, though Dylan eyes the girl next to him carefully. Steve notices the worried glance, cementing the theory forming in his mind. The group spends the next couple hours just talking over everything. Sam, Colby, and Steve start getting tired first, making their way out of the girls’ hotel room around three in the morning. Steve glances between the three girls and the men that sit next to them before he leaves, catching Rayne’s eye with a knowing smile. Her heart jumps, panicking and hoping he hasn’t figured out her girl-known secret, given exactly who it’s with. She gets no elaboration, though, as he just slips out the door. Nick follows not far behind the other three, leaving the girls alone with Chris, Matt, and Dylan. 

⫘⫘

At some point, Rayne pulls a tarot deck out of her bag, shuffling through it slowly. A card falls out occasionally and she tosses it to each person in the group. Chris and Lia had shifted to the floor, leaving only Vi and Matt on the bed while the card-bearer and Dylan remain on the other. 

Each person’s card shows a different version of a similar message.

“What do these mean?” Matt asks. Rayne draws one more card before setting the deck aside, glancing over the newest card.

“It means as long as we have the right mindset, we’ll be fine in the smaller groups. Chris has the Sun. Courage, optimism, trust, success. Lia has the Chariot. Strength, stability, willpower, triumph. Vi with the Queen of Wands; strong, courageous, wise, intuitive. You’ve got the Nine of Wands-perseverance, tenacity, determination. Dylan got Strength. Strength-obviously-control, confidence, balance, and courage.

“I have the High Priestess, showing wisdom, intuition, unseen influences, and hidden knowledge. And this one-” she holds up the last card, letting everyone see it- “The Ace of Pentacles. It promises achievement and the wealth that comes with it. I’m sure the others would’ve gotten similar cards. The message here is clear: Stay strong with yourself, trust your own abilities whether you know exactly what they are or not and we’ll be fine.”

“Sometimes I forget all the literal cards you have up your sleeve,” Lia jokes. It makes Vi and Chris laugh, the other girl just grinning. Rayne collects her cards, shuffling them back into the deck before just sifting through it as a sort of fidget. 

The six keep talking for a while longer, but near four, begin getting tired. At some point, the girls end up leaning on the guy next to them, the guys just letting it happen. Chris leans his head against the top of Lia’s, letting his eyes close. Matt’s arm goes around Vi’s shoulders to give her a more comfortable angle against his shoulder. Dylan twists his torso a little, letting Rayne settle more against his chest as his arm lightly goes around her waist.

⫘⫘

Eventually, Vi ends up leaving with Matt, the two talking about what might happen the next day as they walk out. The remaining girls grin at each other at the action. Not long later, Lia and Chris begin to fall asleep, still leaning on each other on the floor, causing Rayne to smile and snap a picture before she and Dylan leave for his room, Dylan inviting her so as not to wake the two on the floor.

Matt and Vi wander the halls for a bit before they make it back to Matt’s room he’s supposedly sharing with Chris, just down the hall from Nick’s, walking in to sit on one of the beds. Matt’s eyes soften as he looks at her. “Sorry, I know everyone keeps asking it, but you’re sure about sticking around tomorrow? I don’t want the same thing that happened to Rayne and Lia to happen to you, Vi.”

“I’ll be fine,” she tells him. The two sit on one of the beds, facing each other. “I’ve got my evil eye and I don’t plan on really messing with anything. I’m not going to be an idiot with questioning the ghosts like someone I know.”

There’s a mirthful glint in her eye, making him laugh. “Alright, alright, point taken. If you change your mind at all-”

“Won’t happen.” They both laugh, sharing easy smiles. With the terror of the night far behind them, it’s easy to fall into relaxed company. A while later, the two lay on their backs next to each other, Vi’s head leaning against Matt’s shoulder, his head tilted to touch the top of hers.

Despite their exhaustion, the two keep whispering, talking about anything and everything that comes across their minds. At some point, their hands link, fingers tight around each other. When the two finally start to fall asleep, they curl into each other, becoming a tangled ball of limbs, hands still together as they mold themselves to the other on top of the blankets.

⫘⫘

Rayne follows Dylan to his room, right next to Steve’s and down the hall from Sam and Colby. Having done these sort of late night discussions before with Steve and Lia, both drop onto the bed, laying side by side, staring up at the ceiling. Rayne fiddles with her necklace, causing Dylan to turn his head to the side to watch her.

“Ray,” he says softly, “you sure you’re okay? Even Madison wasn’t that hard on you.” She nods, turning to meet his eyes.

“I’m fine now that I’m away from it. I started feeling better the second we walked out the door. I was just tired and thinking while we were in the car.” She eyes him for a second before whispering. “I’m sorry I worried you again.”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re alright.” They share a small smile before she flips onto her side, curling up as she faces him. “Sure you’ll be alright to go back in, though?”

“I have to.” Rayne presses her forehead to the side of his shoulder, closing her eyes. He stiffens for a second before relaxing into it. “I have to see what that was all about. But right now, sleep.”

“Agreed. It’s been a long night.” Dylan reaches to pull one of the loose blankets over both of them before settling back with Rayne’s head on his shoulder, his arm firm around her.

⫘⫘

At some point, Lia and Chris wake up enough to clamber onto the bed behind them, barely noting the empty room. Lia lies flat on her back as Chris lays his head on her stomach.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Ophi,” he mumbles. “That scared me, though.”

“It scared me, too,” she tells him honestly. “But I do want to go back.”

“I won’t stop you. I just want you to be careful so it doesn’t go for you again.” Lia reaches down to smooth back some of his hair. “You looked like you were about to pass out.”

“You really know how to charm a girl, Christopher,” Lia jokes. Chris giggles into her shirt, his eyes closed. 

For another few minutes, the two just lie there, cracking jokes and laughing. As the sun begins to shine outside the still closed blinds, they descend into silence. Just as the first birds are waking, sleep finally pulls them both back under, Chris’s head still on Lia, her hand still in his hair. Just before he passes out, Chris flings his arm over Lia as well, hugging her as he sleeps.