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“AH!” Mike jumped, snapping his head around to look at what touched his back, bringing his shoulders up to his ears and his hands balled up to his chest.
“Holy fuck, Henderson. You can’t do that.” Mike got out breathlessly, immediately pulling his shoulders down, elbowing him lightly.
“Sorry, dude!” Dustin called, awkwardly smiling while bringing his hands up.
“Whatever, just follow me.” Mike rolled his eyes, turning away from the smiling boy and back to where he was walking.
“We haven’t even found anything. Why are we still here?” Dustin groaned, throwing his head back.
“We need to keep looking. The EMF Reader has been yellow since the moment we stepped in. There has to be something here.” Mike said, turning around and walking backwards to face Dustin.
Dustin rolled his eyes but continued following Mike. He had a good point. As he looked down to check his Mel Meter, he heard a beeping, accompanied by a flashing red light.
Mike stopped dead in his tracks, spinning around on his heels. He knew what that noise meant. There was a ghost, a spirit, something next to them.
The noise and sound left as quickly as it came, meaning the ghost was moving. They spun in circles, their eyes quickly dashing from their in-hand equipment to the cat balls they had set down in almost every inch of the house.
They watched, mouths open, staring at the sight in front of them as the cat balls lit up as the spirit moved down a hallway to their left.
The two boys shared quick glances before immediately turning and jogging to follow the ghost's fast pace, dodging wall corners and furniture as the ghost led them throughout the whole house.
They entered a very open room that, contrary to the rest of the house, had almost nothing in it. They hadn't been in this room before, so they quickly threw down a couple of cat balls, one landing directly in front of Mike's feet.
They stared at the room, neither knowing what to do as they watched as the ghost seemed to circle the room, their equipment freaking out.
Mike couldn't tell exactly what it was but this felt weirdly different. He felt connected to the ghost, in a way he could tell Dustin definitely did not feel. Dustin reached to take out his radio, but the moment he set it down, the cat balls stopped.
“Shit, is it gone?” Dustin questioned, hurriedly trying to set up the radio.
Mike ignored him, knowing full well the ghost was still there. He could feel it. He glanced down to the EMF reader in his hand, and sure enough, it was on red.
He quickly shoved the reader into his pocket, hiding the color from Dustin, bending down to help Dustin set up.
They sat there for almost 20 minutes, waiting for the spirit to mess with the radio as they asked questions into the dark void.
“Nothing's happening, I'm leaving.” Dustin got up and grabbed the radio, turning it off as he did so. “We should come back tomorrow though, that was too close to just leave forever.”
“Huh? Oh- yeah, totally.” Mike mumbled, looking up to meet Dustin's eyes for a moment, flashing him a smile.
“You coming?” Dustin questioned, watching Mike stay put on the ground.
“Yeah, I'll be there, just give me a second.”
“Alright, I'll be waiting in the car.”
As Dustin turned to walk away, Mike quietly pulled out the EMF reader, even though he could feel the spirit was there. Still red. He smiled softly to himself, taking out the ghost writing book as well.
Waiting until he heard the front door shut, Mike started talking. He asked different questions then before, questions that Dustin would call him weird for asking. But it felt different to Mike, the connection was still there, and now that Dustin left, he could feel it even more.
He opened the book, pointing at the pages, instructing the ghost on what to do. He spoke to the spirit as if it was a real person standing in front of him.
“I have to leave now, I can't keep Dustin waiting long.” he spoke as he started putting his equipment into his backpack.
“We'll be back tomorrow, though. You should talk to us. It'll help us. Write in here. Sign your name so I can…” he trailed off, watching the once blank paper start to transform with ink.
He bent down and read what the ghost wrote. He froze as he took in the letters scrawled in handwriting all too familiar.
“hello!
W.B.”