“And you said the spirit is weak?” Yunho frowned incredulously, the dark haired man currently perched on a chair on one side of the bed where Sooyoung was laid, still unconscious and pale.

Yoona was seated on the other side, the brunette actually in between the beds of her long-time friend and the likewise sleeping Amber. Heechul was on Amber’s other side with Jessica’s bed right next to him. After the grim spectacle events of the early evening, which rendered Sooyoung, Amber, and Jessica all unconscious, the boys had pulled three mattresses into the base on which all three women were laid, Kris grumbling under his breath as he fussed over all three of them, the blonde man looking and feeling rather very stressed. A short exchange of information between those in the kitchen and those in the base when the events occurred showed that both Amber and Sooyoung heard the same things while Jessica had most probably fainted due to the stench and sight of the blood and maggots, which disappeared a few seconds after it appeared, Kris figuring that she would be the first of the three to wake up.

 “Yes, it is.” Seohyun replied patiently. “And after that stunt it pulled, it’s grown considerably weaker.”

He shot her a disbelieving look. “Seriously?”

“If it was really strong enough to begin with and wanted to cause harm, then all of us would’ve been subject to all the screaming.” The raven haired medium pointed out then. “It’s like it wants to communicate with us. The spirit knows and can see that we’re here to help and it wants to tell us something but it couldn’t quite go all out.”

“Someone died here though. That much we can tell from what happened.” Kyuhyun spoke without removing his eyes from the monitors. He and his brother had been going over the tapes to see if they missed anything. “Of course we’ll need the spirit to confirm it but the blood, the maggots… it’s a dead giveaway already, no pun intended.”

“Murder then?” Heechul asked.

“It would explain the negative energy in the kitchen.” Changmin tapped a finger to his chin in thought. “If it was some sort of accidental or natural death, it wouldn’t have left the kind of energy and aura behind. I’m thinking murder, homicide… maybe even suicide.”

“But if it’s any of those three, how come no one knows about it? Not Ryeowook, not the staff… I’ve checked family records and there’s nothing like that.” Kris placed a couple more herbs and bottles on the table beside Jessica’s bed. “This restaurant has been with family for heaven knows how many generations. How is that possible?”

“Maybe it was kept secret?” Kyuhyun offered, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “We’ll need to do a séance.”

Yoona let out a sigh. “Which the spirit should’ve waited for if it really knows we’re here to help and wants to communicate with us. Rather pointless for it to do what it did and render three of us unconscious.”

Heechul exchanged a look with Seohyun before he replied. “About that… well, séances consume a lot of a spirit’s energy actually. It’s more because of the possession than anything. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but only spirits with a very high amount of energy can possess another person without the aid of the séance.”

“Many spirits won’t be able to do it without a medium or a ritual, though of course séances are mostly done out of convenience for paranormal investigators and communicators.” Seohyun continued. “During a séance, the energy coming from those performing it helps the spirit possess the medium. Energy sharing, if you will.”

“Is it possible then that this spirit is too weak to talk to us?” Yunho questioned, absently frowning at how cold Sooyoung’s hand was to his touch.

“Not really.” She shook her head. “If it’s too weak, we’ll just need a lot of energy.”

“We need to research.” Changmin spoke out of the blue. “Family records, hospital records, list of employees, news clippings about this place since the 1950s… maybe even beyond that. We need to know if there’s something here that was kept hidden.”

“Yunho and I can go.” Yoona volunteered. “We’ll contact Siwon.”

To the team’s surprise, both Changmin and Kyuhyun shook their heads. “No, stay. We need both of you here.” The younger of the two grinned slightly. “We know people who’ll be up for it.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

As she opened her eyes only to be met with an infinite amount of darkness once more, a part of her wondered if have some source of light to begin her visions with was too much to ask.

She walked and walked, her feet stepping nothing she could see, and for a moment, she wondered if this was all