“Let’s try calling out to the spirits,” Jeongyeon suggested. They had covered every inch of the basement now and encountered nothing out of the ordinary besides a seriously creepy looking clown doll that Nayeon had covered with a sheet so she would no longer have to see its terrifying face.

“Okay, yeah, let’s all join hands,” Chaeyoung ordered, setting down her camera. Nayeon anxiously set her flashlight down so that it was still illuminating the main large room they were in. They stood in a circle, facing each other. Jeongyeon looked over at Nayeon, who looked slightly pale, and winked.

“Relax,” she told the older girl.

“I’ll relax once we’re off this freaking property,” Nayeon muttered. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Um, so I’m not exactly sure how this works but from what I’ve seen in movies…” Chaeyoung began.

“That you illegally downloaded online,” Jeongyeon added, smiling smugly.

“Yes, that I illegally downloaded online...geeze, what is up with you and your sense of moral superiority? I’m a poor high school student, okay? Anyway, I guess I’ll begin. Spirits, if you can hear us, please give us a sign.” Chaeyoung closed her eyes. Nayeon could feel the palms of her hands growing sweaty and she hoped the other two girls wouldn’t notice. Chaeyoung opened one eye, looked around, and sighed. “Close your eyes, you two. You have to believe.”

Jeongyeon whistled the X-Files theme song briefly, earning a swift kick from Nayeon. Chaeyoung cleared , looking at the two older, taller girls expectantly. Nayeon sighed but did as she was told, so did Jeongyeon. All three of them had their eyes closed now. 

“Spirits, we call to you from the land of the living. We would like to communicate. We want to know your stories. If you can hear us, please give us a sign.” Chaeyoung opened her eyes again and saw nothing.

“Try being a little more authoritative,” Jeongyeon suggested. “Spirits, reveal yourselves to us! Give us a sign!” Jeongyeon’s voice level rose. Nayeon just shook her head in embarrassment.

A slight sound made the three girls’ eyes snap open. It was a rustle, nothing more, but it clearly came from one of the other rooms in the basement. A slight gust of wind blew through the room, making the hairs on Nayeon’s arm’s stand up. She gulped. Jeongyeon let go of Chaeyoung and Nayeon’s hands and reached to grab her flashlight, shining it in the direction of the noise. “Well, you guys coming?” she asked, taking a step towards the door.

“I’ve watched enough scary movies to know that going towards the strange sound is never a good idea.” Nayeon crossed her arms, as her hands were beginning to tremble. “Let’s go back upstairs. It’s freezing down here.”

“I’m not leaving until I get a ghost on film,” Chaeyoung declared, moving to join Jeongyeon. “Suspicious noise, sudden chill, there’s a 99% chance there’s a ghost down here somewhere.” Nayeon watched them walk away for a moment before she sighed, grabbed her flashlight and followed them.

“Idiots,” she muttered.

Jeongyeon shined her flashlight into the storage room, and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary until she noticed the clown doll directly in her line of vision. She nearly jumped back at the sight. “Nayeon, didn’t you cover up the clown with a sheet?”

“Yeah, why—” Nayeon stopped abruptly, seeing the clown, uncovered, staring at the three of them standing in the doorway with an almost malicious expression. But there was something else in the room as well, in the corner. A dark, shadowy figure standing with its back turned to them.

“No sudden moves,” Jeongyeon whispered, slowly beginning to back away. Nayeon covered her free hand with , repressing a scream. Chaeyoung could only stare with wild eyes, pointing her camera directly at the figure. The three stepped backwards in unison, trying to be as quiet as possible.

“So come on come on come on, come on come on come on,” Nayeon’s iPhone was suddenly lighting up, playing Closer by Oh My Girl softly. Nayeon scrambled to silence her phone, seeing Sana’s contact lighting up the screen. She’d make sure to kill the younger girl later, but by the time the ringtone subsided, much to Nayeon’s horror, the dark figure had picked up it’s head and turned around to face them.

“Run,” Jeongyeon breathed, and the three girls were booking it towards the stairs, running as fast as they possibly could. There was a whir of black, and suddenly the figure was standing right in front of them, blocking their path to the stairs. The three girls screamed collectively. The figure, human-like in makeup, stared at the girls and made a sound that grew in volume until it was practically a screech. The girls covered their ears and dropped to their knees, too scared to even move.

After a minute, the screeching stopped, the figure regarded them for a moment longer, before it shot up the stairs, disappearing out of view.

The screams echoed up from the basement, causing Dahyun to freeze mid-sentence. Then there was a terrible screech and Sana practically jumped into Tzuyu’s arms, gasping. Tzuyu rolled her eyes at the blonde but didn’t pull away. “Was that Jeong, Nayeon and Chae?” Dahyun asked, voice low, gripping onto the taller girl’s other arm. They were standing in the kitchen, in the middle of filming, when suddenly the room felt like ice, and a gust of wind blew Tzuyu’s hair into her face, only adding to her annoyance considering she couldn’t brush the hair out of her face with a girl on each of her arms.  

A shape, a whir of something resembling a human, flew into the kitchen, getting close to the three girls. Sana screamed, Dahyun wailed, and Tzuyu just stood open mouthed as the thing grew closer, close enough for them to make out some semblance of a face, before the thing turned around and flew right back out the kitchen from where it came from. The three girls stood there for a moment in disbelief before Dahyun broke the silence. “What...what was?”

There were pounding footsteps on the wooden steps leading down to the basement and suddenly Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung, followed by a breathless Nayeon, appeared in the kitchen doorway. “Did you see that thing?” Chaeyoung cried, face flushed.

“That...thing, yeah we saw it.” Tzuyu confirmed. “It flew through here but headed back towards the foyer.”

“,” Jeongyeon muttered, and raced back towards the foyer. “Jihyo! Watch out up there, there’s something…” she yelled, praying they’d hear her. Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon flew up the stairs two at a time, while Nayeon remained in the kitchen, still catching her breath.

“What happened?” Sana asked, still clutching onto Tzuyu’s arm.

“We...we tried to communicate...with the spirits...you know? But something...we saw...a ghost...it flew around for a bit but it went right up the stairs...we almost died…” Nayeon huffed, bending over slightly and bracing her hands on her knees.

Tzuyu would’ve questioned Nayeon’s sanity if she hadn’t seen the ghostly figure herself. She began to move towards the foyer, dragging the two girls clinging to her arms along with her. Nayeon linked arms with Sana and silently followed behind.