OTHERSIDE.

     ‘ You can see them, ’ she says, very softly. Andy swallows, licks her lips to buy herself a moment’s thought. ‘ I’m sorry, I’ve just never -- I’ve never met someone else. ’ 

     She follows Clara, and the feeling doesn’t go away but at least it gets better. Quieter. Andy sits down in some old chair in the study and lets her eyes fall closed for a few moments. ‘ Don’t you just hate old houses? ’ 

     ‘ You’re not serious. ’ Andy can’t help but laugh, less because it’s funny and more because she’s surprised. ‘ There’s bus tickets, wages, the equipment, the hotel, we’re paying them to let us film here, I -- Are you the government or something? ’ Ghosts are very much real. Even if there are plenty of people lining up to prove her dad’s a fraud -- for all the wrong reasons -- that still remains a truth. She wouldn’t put it past the government to know that, though, and have some weird, very American team they send out to stop people from exposing it all. ‘ I’m sorry, we’ve got a whole schedule. I -- ’ She could ask if he’d like to talk to him himself, but she knows Dad won’t listen anyway. He’s obsessed with this old hospital. Earnestly, now, and with no trace of her former smile: ‘ Look, we’ll be careful. He really wants to help. I don’t know if you’ve seen the show, but -- ’ But he stands there in a room and he calls out to things he cannot see or feel or know, and he takes what she tells him and runs a mile. By the end of the night, she will be exhausted and every spirit that lingers will just... She smiles now. ‘ I think it’s all silly, but he says he helps them find peace. ’ 

     ‘ I mean, it’s just a silly TV show. ’ Her smile is uncertain, like something she can’t quite make herself commit to. Of course she can’t. He tells her that they’ll make things worse, and she wants to scream I know, I know, get me out of here, get me back home and away from all of it. But Dad would lose everything, then, and even Andy has to admit that she doesn’t have much else. He would never forgive her. Nor would he listen to her -- or this stranger, who seems so convinced of what a bad idea this is -- if she asked him to just pass up on tonight. It’s the Adam McRae show. They’re just extras. ‘ Look, I --  I can ask if you can stay? But my dad’s not gonna just leave, and, y’know, we’ve spent all this money getting out here and getting set up, and we can’t really afford to just -- throw it all away. I really am sorry. ’ 

     ‘ W-- I mean, I’m not in charge here. That’s my dad, um -- ’ She glances awkwardly back over her shoulder, like she’s expecting him to materialise out of thin air from wherever it is he’s gotten to. He’s never around when you need him, though, and Andy has to turn back to the stranger with an uncertain look on her face. (Everything feels bad here. Miserable and horrible and awful, sitting on her chest like a nightmare. It’s not hard to see why the place has a reputation, and why Dad would bring them all here when things seem to be escalating, as the stories tell it. It just makes it so hard to concentrate. How do you tell someone to leave because you have an awful tv show to film?) ‘ He’s, uh -- If you stay, he’ll be right mad about it, and it’s really not worth it? We’re only gonna be here for, like, a night. Just one night, and then maybe you could come back and -- we won’t be here? ’ 

but i also know she has very gay energy so i’m sure she has fans online who comment exclusively upon this 

     ‘ Wait. You know he’s here too. Don’t you? ’ It’s always strange, feeling feelings that aren’t her own, but this is even stranger. What is usually a two-way conversation suddenly has an extra player. It’s all shifted somehow, and Andy doesn’t feel like she’s underwater anymore, doesn’t feel overwhelmed. For once, something else makes her hands shake. 

     ‘ Oof, ’ he at least has the grace to laugh. ‘ Not a fan then, I take it? Alright. Not for everyone. ’ Something of an irritable look flashes across his face, though it’s only brief. Adam wishes he hadn’t said anything at all, almost. It wouldn’t be very him not to carry on lightly and jokingly, however, so he asks: ‘ Nothing personal, I hope? I do badmouth the occasional old relation, so I’m told. But I do only ever say what they tell me, eh? ’ 

     ‘ Go on, then. You can say it, that you recognise me, y’know. ’ Sometimes he plays modest, but not today. Adam sits himself up better in his seat, trying not to disturb Andy, who is currently asleep with her head on his shoulder. There’s lots of travelling and just as much waiting in their lives, lately. With a charming smile -- or it’s meant to be, at least -- and something of a laugh, he continues: ‘ Unless I’ve misread all this. ’