The drive to the hotel was long. It wasn’t like they had never traveled this far, in fact they had gone farther many times, but it had been awhile and six hours was a long time to spend on the road regardless. They were all very glad that they wouldn’t have to drive back immediately after finishing the investigation. About four hours into the drive they found a nice little family owned restaurant to stop off and have dinner at. It was a cozy looking place with decent prices that served a mixture of American and Korean style food.

The place wasn’t too busy so they were seated quickly, the six of them squeezing into a booth near the windows. Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Suho sat on one side, Kyungsoo, Kai and Sehun on the other. Their orders were taken by a cheerful young waiter named Jongwoon, who appeared to be the owners’ son. It didn’t take too long for their food to arrive, and soon they were all eating happily.

“So, Sehun…” Suho started, causing Sehun to freeze, chopsticks halfway to his mouth. They all knew that tone of voice, and usually when Suho talked like that, you did not want to be the subject of whatever he was going to say. “Are you ever going to tell us what exactly is going on with you and Luhan?”

“No.” Sehun glared at him, trying to fight back his blush. Suho asked him this question every other week it seemed, and he was getting sick of it. He just wanted to keep his private life private, but apparently that was too much to ask with his nosy group of friends. Kai wouldn’t leave him alone about it either.

“So you admit there is something going on then?” Suho asked, then had to dodge out of the way as a chopstick came flying towards his head. “Geez, okay, you don’t have to get violent.”

“I wouldn’t if you would just drop it,” Sehun replied, moving his glare to Kai who was snickering beside him (“A chopstick, really?”). The rest of the group was trying not to laugh, but it was always kind of amusing when Sehun got mad.

“I’m just worried about you, you can’t fault me for that. He’s nearly ten years older than you!” Suho said, sounding every bit the disapproving parent to this dysfunctional family.

“Yeah, twenty-nine, a whole two years older than you grandpa. Sehun is an adult, in case you forgot,” Kai defended, feeling a little bad for his friend despite his laughing. He knew how much Sehun hated when they babied him, he was only a year younger than Kai after all (though he did remain the only one in the whole group of twelve that couldn’t legally drink yet). Sehun was almost grateful for the support, but then Kai kept talking. “Otherwise I would be really disturbed by some of the sounds I hear coming out of his room when he and Luhan video chat.”

Sehun was mortified at that, face turning completely red. He shoved Kai’s shoulder in annoyance, and though there wasn’t much force behind it, it was enough to push Kai into Kyungsoo who in turn was pushed into the window. Kyungsoo winced, rubbing at the spot on his head where it had hit the glass. Kai, more annoyed that his boyfriend was hurt than anything, pushed Sehun back. He wasn’t really mad, so it was just a light shove, but by this point Sehun had moved his arms up to cover his face in embarrassment. When he was pushed, his elbow knocked into one of the plates that was close to the edge of the table, and all six of them watched in horror as it shattered into pieces on the floor.

It was silent for a moment as they all wondered what to do, and then Chanyeol started laughing. It seemed to be infectious, because soon they were all laughing, realizing just how ridiculous they were being. Throwing things, shoving people… it was just like a group of children. All thoughts of Sehun’s mysterious relationship with Luhan were forgotten, along with any tension that had developed between Sehun and the others. Thankfully Jongwoon, who had come out to see what was going on after hearing the noise, wasn’t at all bothered by the situation. He claimed to have broken many more plates on his own and cleaned up the mess without complaint, telling them not to worry about it. Once that was taken care of the group paid and headed out, deciding it was better not to risk staying and breaking anything else.

The mood was much improved in the vehicles after that, and the remaining two hours of their trip seemed to fly by. It was already dark when they got there, so they started setting up straight away while Suho, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun were toured around. The investigation was going to be a little tricky, because there were people staying in the hotel and they would have to be very careful about possible evidence contamination, especially when it came to voices and other sounds. The hotel had made sure to keep the rooms with the most activity open for them to investigate (and to sleep in), and they had also closed bar for the night since there were a lot of claims in there. They were starting their investigation late enough that other areas with reports such as the dining room and kitchen were closed for the night as well, so they had a pretty good part of the hotel open for them.

Before starting the investigation, they also dropped their stuff off in the rooms they were staying in. Kyungsoo and Kai were in room 408, Suho and Sehun in room 215, and Baekhyun and Chanyeol in room 330. All three rooms had various claims, including full body apparitions, doors opening and closing on their own, luggage packing itself, objects being moved, and sheets being pulled off the bed. In addition to the normal equipment used during their investigation, there would be cameras set up in all three rooms as they slept to catch anything that might happen overnight.

Suho and Sehun were the first posted at central command this time. Kyungsoo and Kai weren’t as likely to get… distracted… if they were actually out investigating, and Suho wanted a chance to pester Sehun more about Luhan, so he decided to let the two work together again. Baekhyun and Chanyeol had gone up to check out one of the supposedly haunted rooms (there were a few others besides the ones they were staying in), so Kyungsoo and Kai decided to head into the dining room and kitchen area. The first thing they wanted to do was try debunking some of the claims in this room.

“What exactly did they say happens in this room again?” Kai asked, sitting down at one of the tables. He hadn’t paid that much attention when they were told earlier, trusting Kyungsoo to have every detail memorized.

“Footsteps, banging noises, door to the kitchen opening and closing on its own, uneasiness,” Kyungsoo listed off, standing behind Kai’s chair. “I believe they also said that several guests were dining in here once when a man in a top hat walked through the room and then disappeared.”

“Alright… well, feelings of uneasiness, let’s do an EMF sweep then.” Kyungsoo knew that what Kai really meant was ‘you go do an EMF sweep,’ so he sighed and pulled out the EMF meter he had brought with him, going around the room to see if anything was giving off a high field.

“There’s a higher than normal reading along some parts of the floor, up to around an 8,” Kyungsoo said once he was finished. “Probably coming off of wires or something in the basement below us.”

“Yup, there’s your uneasiness.” Kai nodded absently, not at all surprised with that finding. “I’m not sure how to explain the man disappearing in the middle of the room, but I would be willing to bet we can debunk the other stuff. Why don’t I go walk around outside past the windows with my flashlight, see how the light play works in here.”

“Oh, so you do plan on working tonight?” Kyungsoo teased. “Go try it. With so many windows and that big glass chandelier, I can imagine it creating some interesting shadows.”

Kai stuck his tongue out before leaving the room to go outside. Once he got close to the dining room windows he radioed Kyungsoo. “Hey, I’m about to walk by, make sure you’re watching.”

“Got it.” Kyungsoo saw a shadowy figure walk by outside the windows, shining his flashlight around and into the room. The beam immediately started bouncing off of the chandelier, causing strange light fluctuations and shadows to appear in different parts of the room. Kyungsoo could definitely see how a car driving by outside or a security guard walking around with a flashlight at night could be misconstrued as paranormal. He called back over the radio. “Yeah, I think we’ve got a good explanation for the shadows as well.”

“Good. I’ll be back there in a few, while you’re waiting check out the kitchen door,” Kai replied, and Kyungsoo saw the shadowy figure in front of the windows again, heading back towards the front of the building.

“Yes sir,” Kyungsoo called back, rolling his eyes. He started to walk over to the kitchen door when out of nowhere he started to hear what sounded like footsteps, though he couldn’t tell exactly where they were coming from. Wondering if it may have been Baekhyun and Chanyeol walking around above him, he called them to check, but they were on the other side of the building and said that they had been sitting doing an EVP session for the past few minutes. They hadn’t heard any guests walking around upstairs either, though that didn’t mean it wasn’t a person. Frowning when he heard the sounds a second time, he radioed Kai again. “Kai, where are you?”

“I just walked in the front entrance, why?” Kai answered. Kyungsoo was certain the footsteps were at least coming from inside the building, and he hadn’t even heard Kai when he was walking right outside the windows, so that ruled him out. He was pretty certain Suho and Sehun were still sitting in central command, but he checked anyway. They both confirmed that they hadn’t moved for the past few minutes or heard anything.

“Kyungsoo, what’s going on?” Kai asked as he walked back into the room, making his boyfriend jump. He laughed when he saw the wide-eyed, deer-in-headlights expression on Kyungsoo’s face.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that,” Kyungsoo said, shooting the younger man an annoyed look. “I was hearing some odd sounds, like footsteps. I was just checking to make sure it wasn’t you. It sounded like it was inside, so it couldn’t have been, and it wasn’t any of the others either. I don’t hear anything now though.”

“Guess I scared it away.” Kai laughed, still amused at how easily startled Kyungsoo was. “Come on, let’s take a look at that door.”

The kitchen door was one of the ones that swung in both directions, and it really didn’t take much force to move it. It would still take something to move it though, so they looked around for a source for a possible breeze or something else that could cause it to open and close. After a minute they realized there was an air vent on the ceiling not too far from the door, which theoretically could cause the door to move whenever it cut on. Once they had that figured out, the pair spent a bit of time trying to debunk the noises and footsteps, but were unable to come up with a cause for those. They didn’t experience the sounds Kyungsoo had heard again either, so after awhile they decided to just go check in with Suho and Sehun, feeling good at least about the things they had been able to come up with alternate explanations for.

“I wish you could have heard those footsteps,” Kyungsoo said as they walked back to central command. There had been a mini DV in the room, so he hoped they would turn up on the audio there. “We haven’t had much going on in terms of personal experiences on these last few cases.”

“No, we haven’t,” Kai agreed. They had caught some amazing evidence for sure, but those had been the only major experiences in those last two cases period. “Actually, don’t you think that’s kind of odd? Everything seems to be happening to Baekhyun lately.”

“It’s happening to Chanyeol as well though,” Kyungsoo said, not sure where Kai was going with this.

“Suho joked that it was Chanyeol bringing us luck, but I’m not so sure about that. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of him, but the activity seemed to center around Baekhyun on the case before Chanyeol joined as well. I can’t help but think that maybe it’s him the spirits are attracted to.” Kai explained. He had chalked it up to beginner’s luck or something like that too at first, until he remembered that other case. “I don’t know why they would be, or what would cause it to happen all of the sudden, but it does seem a little strange that he’s been at the center of some major activity for three cases in a row.”

“I suppose you’re right, that is a bit weird,” Kyungsoo agreed. There was no way for them to be sure, and he had no idea why it would happen either, but it was definitely something to think about. “I guess we’ll have to see if anything happens here as well; at that point, I don’t think it could be considered a coincidence anymore.”

Meanwhile, the pair in question had just walked into the bar, after an interesting EVP session up in room 223. They hadn’t heard any verbal responses to their questions, but more than once they had knocked on the walls in a certain rhythm, then had the rhythm completed for them. They couldn’t be sure that it was paranormal, but the knocks had sounded like they were coming from within the room, and as far as they knew there was no one staying in the rooms on either side of where they were. They would have to check over the audio later and try to figure it out, as well as listen for any voices they may have caught. After awhile the activity died down, so they decided to head somewhere else. On their way downstairs, they ran into Suho and Sehun going up to the third floor, and were warned to stay away from central command. They didn’t need to ask why. They had heard some interesting claims about the bar downstairs though, so eventually they chose to head there.

“I have to admit, this place looks pretty creepy with all the lights off,” Chanyeol said as they walked into the room, looking around. There were lots of decorations on the walls that seemed to cast strange shadows when their flashlights were moving around, already giving the room a creepy vibe even though they knew it wasn’t paranormal.

“I agree,” Baekhyun murmured, already going around the room with a K2 meter. Only the first of the five lights lit up, indicating a relatively low EMF reading in the area, so that probably wasn’t creating the bad feelings in this room.

“They said someone was shot and killed in here, right?” Chanyeol asked, going over to examine the bar. There had been some reports of glasses shattering and things falling off the counter, and he wanted to try his hand at this debunking thing.

“A drunken bar fight gone horribly wrong, apparently,” Baekhyun confirmed, joining Chanyeol at the bar counter. “Check the shelves behind the bar and see how level they are, that might explain things falling from back there. I want to play around with a glass on the bar itself, see how well it slides around.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Chanyeol found a glass behind the bar and handed it over to Baekhyun, then began inspecting the shelves. A few of them did appear to be a little slanted, though he wasn’t sure if it was enough to explain things falling in the way the client had described.

Baekhyun took the glass with a nod of thanks, placing it on the bar. He tried moving it around a bit and found that it would slide, but not too easily. He went around to the sink behind the bar and wet the bottom of the glass a bit, then set it down on the counter. Sometimes if condensation built up on a glass and water pooled under it, every now and then an air pocket could form in just the right way to make it move across the surface. However, no matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to recreate that effect and couldn’t solidly debunk the claims. He also had no idea what to think about reports that a glass had just shattered on its own while it was sitting on the bar, in front of several witnesses who could confirm that no one had touched it.

“Hey, think we should do some EVP work down here too?” Chanyeol asked, finished with the shelves. Baekhyun had also given up on the glasses for now and nodded, pulling out the audio recorder he had brought.

“It wouldn’t hurt. Grab the mini DV and K2 meter for me, I set them down on that table over there.” Baekhyun turned the recorder on and set it down on the bar, waiting for Chanyeol to come back over with the other devices.

“Um, Baekhyun?” Chanyeol called, staring down at the table in front of him. “Are you sure you put them both down on the same table?”

“Yes, very sure, why?” Baekhyun asked, turning to look at his partner in confusion.

“Because the mini DV is on another table five feet away, and I sure didn’t touch it,” Chanyeol replied, pointing to where the camera was indeed sitting on a different table than where Baekhyun had left it.

“Well, that’s interesting.” Baekhyun blinked, having not been expecting that. “Is it still on? I left it recording, pointing towards the bar in case something happened.”

“Nope, doesn’t look like it,” Chanyeol said, going over to inspect the camera.

“Damn… but wait, that should have been in the DVR shot for this room right? We’ll have to make sure we look for that later.” Baekhyun really hoped they had caught it – seeing a camera move five feet by itself would be amazing, and seeing an apparition move it would be even better. “For now just bring those over here, I want to stay by the bar in case something happens with the glasses or bottles. They also said the murder happened right over here.”

“Yeah, it looks like it should be in the shot, so hopefully that didn’t get messed up somehow too.” Chanyeol picked up the camera and the K2 meter as asked, going over to join Baekhyun back over at the bar. He set the K2 meter on the bar next to the audio recorder, then turned the camera on and held it for now, aiming so that he had a good shot of the bar and the shelves behind it. Then they were ready to start.

“Who is in here with us?” Baekhyun asked, not bothering to ask if anyone was there – someone other than the two of them moved that camera. “Are you the man who was shot and killed here?”

“We’re not here to hurt you in any way, and we don’t want to bother you. We just want to talk, so if you could give us some kind of sign that you’re here with us, we would really appreciate it,” Chanyeol continued. They listened for a response, but so far there was nothing.

“There’s a device sitting on the counter, the one with all the lights? If you come close to it, it will light up, and we can use it as a way to talk if you would prefer th—oh, thank you.” Before Baekhyun had even finished speaking, the K2 meter lit up. “Can you move away from it now?”

“Great, thanks,” Chanyeol said once the lights had turned off again. “If it’s okay, we would like to ask some questions. If the answer is yes, light up the lights for us, and if the answer is no then don’t do anything. Could you do that for us?”

The K2 lit up again, so Baekhyun started asking questions again. “Are you the one who moved our camera? Yes, okay. Are there other spirits here? Yes.”

“Are you male? Or are you female?” Chanyeol asked. The K2 lit up after he said female. “Is there a man here? Besides my friend and I… yes.”

“Is he the man who was shot here?” Baekhyun watched as once again the meter lit up, suddenly feeling a little uneasy. “Is he angry about his murder? Yes… is that why he keeps breaking glasses? Yes.”

“Is he angry that you’re talking to us?” Chanyeol frowned, picking up on the uneasy air as well. Things had felt instantly different when they asked her about the man. He wasn’t surprised when they got another ‘yes’ response. “If he’s angry with you, you don’t have to keep talking to us, okay miss? We don’t want to get you in trouble.”

“Chanyeol is right, please don’t cause trouble for yourself to speak with us, it’s alright,” Baekhyun said, and he didn’t see the K2 go off again so she must have taken their advice.

“If you don’t want to talk to us or don’t want us here, sir, you can tell us that directly,” Chanyeol said gently, not wanting to anger the man any more. Of course he wanted to stay where the activity was, but if the man didn’t want them there they would respect that.

“If you want us to leave, then all you have to do is make a noise, or light up the device, or do something else to let us know and we won’t bother you again,” Baekhyun assured. Many spirits could co-exist with the living just fine, but some didn’t like people invading whatever they had deemed as their space. As investigators they always tried to be mindful of that, even if it meant not getting the evidence they hoped for. “All you have to do is knock, or – ah!”

Baekhyun gasped, instinctively ducking as the glass that had been sitting on the bar whizzed past his head, smashing into the wall behind him with a loud crash. A little shaken, he opened his mouth to tell the man that they would just grab their equipment and leave, but found he was unable to speak. It felt as though every bit of strength he had was being out of him, and he had to lean heavily on the bar just to keep himself from falling, black spots dancing in his vision. Soon he couldn’t even hold himself up that way and slid to his knees, his legs unable to support his weight any longer. It became more and more difficult to keep his eyes open, and he barely registered the arms that kept him from falling completely to the ground.

Chanyeol could only watch in horror as the glass barely missed hitting Baekhyun, then as the older man seemed to just collapse onto the bar and then the floor. There was a dull thud as Baekhyun’s knees hit the ground, snapping Chanyeol out of his trance. He rushed to help his partner, catching him just as he had started falling forward.

“Baekhyun? Can you hear me?” Chanyeol asked worriedly as he knelt on the ground in front of Baekhyun. The older man made a noise that sounded like a ‘yes’ but it was obvious that he was barely conscious. Chanyeol bit his lip nervously, looking around and wondering what he should do. He could call one of the others, but the spirit obviously wanted them out now and it would take too long for someone else to get there. Deciding to forget about the equipment for the time being, he carefully maneuvered Baekhyun onto his back. It was a bit tricky since Baekhyun couldn’t really help, but he managed, and once he was sure the other man wouldn’t fall off he left the room as quickly as possible.

The uneasiness that they had felt before was gone almost as soon as Chanyeol crossed the threshold out of the room. Judging by the claims and what had just occurred, the man’s spirit was pretty attached to that room, so he wasn’t too concerned with anything happening now that they were out of the room. Just to be safe though, he carried Baekhyun to the nearby lounge area and laid him down on one of the couches. By this point he was completely unconscious. Chanyeol checked him over quickly, making sure his breathing and pulse seemed normal, then reached for the walkie that was clipped to his pants. He called to everyone over the radio, asking them to come to the lounge area where they were. There were questions of course, but he didn’t want anyone panicking (even though he was on the verge of doing so himself), so he just told them to hurry and that he would explain when they got there.

Kyungsoo and Kai arrived first, having been in central command not that far away. When they saw Baekhyun lying on the couch, Kyungsoo gasped and ran over, Kai right behind him. They both knew he wasn’t just taking a nap in the middle of an investigation; something was obviously wrong.

“What the hell happened? Is he okay?” Kai asked. He thought back to his conversation with Kyungsoo earlier and wondered if this was related.

“I… I’m not entirely sure,” Chanyeol said, not taking his eyes off of his partner’s unconscious form. “I think… I think that somehow, spirits have been drawing energy from him to manifest. We had an encounter in the bar and he passed out immediately after.”

“I think you might be right,” Kyungsoo said, frowning. “Kai and I were talking earlier, and we realized that for some reason lately, a lot of activity seems to be centering around Baekhyun. At first I thought it might have been you, but there was an incident on the case before you joined too. This makes the fourth case in a row where something major happened to him, there’s no way that’s a coincidence.”

“What about those first two cases though? If the spirits have been focusing on him because they can somehow draw energy from him, why didn’t he get dizzy or pass out then?” Kai asked. Though, the question still remained as to why they were only going after Baekhyun.

“Well, now that you mention it… on that first case, Baekhyun told me he had fallen asleep in central command. He fell asleep in the van on the way home too, but I just assumed that was because he was… um… distressed.” Kyungsoo glanced at Chanyeol uncertainly at the last part, not sure if Baekhyun would want him to know about that.

“It’s okay, he told me,” Chanyeol said, smiling a little at Kyungsoo’s attempt to protect his friend’s privacy. “He didn’t fall asleep, but he did look really tired when we were in central command after the encounter during my first case. It could depend on how much energy they’re taking, though I’m not sure why it seems to be continually getting worse.”

“I don’t know… it’s honestly not a subject I’ve researched much, though I definitely plan to once we get back. For now I think the best we can do is get him to bed. I don’t think you two should stay in room 330 tonight though, we should keep him out of any areas that are known to be very active,” Kyungsoo said, pulling out his own radio to call Suho and Sehun. The pair had been rather far away on one of the upper floors, so it wasn’t a surprise that they hadn’t arrived yet. “Hey, Suho? Can the two of you go to the front desk and ask if they have a room for us that doesn’t have many reports of activity?”

“We can, but why?” Suho called back, sounding confused.

“Just do it, then meet us over here,” Kyungsoo replied. It took another five minutes or so for Suho and Sehun to show up, keys to room 130 in hand. They were both immediately concerned when they saw Baekhyun, but Kyungsoo decided explanations could wait. He told Suho and Sehun to help Chanyeol get Baekhyun to the room, while he and Kai very carefully went and got the equipment that had been left behind in the bar (Chanyeol had mentioned that the entity in there was angry). He felt a little odd giving out orders, but everyone followed without question, worry for their friend eclipsing everything else.

Once they had gotten Baekhyun into bed, Suho and Sehun went to get Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s stuff out of the other room, while Chanyeol stayed with Baekhyun. By the time they got back, Kyungsoo and Kai had also returned from getting the equipment out of the bar; they had decided to go ahead and take the DVR camera in there down as well, figuring their investigation was probably finished at this point. That way no one else would have to go in there for the night, just in case. When all six of them were finally in the room, Kyungsoo, Kai and Chanyeol explained their theory about what had been going on to the other two. Chanyeol also told the others exactly what had happened in the bar with the two spirits they had seemingly been conversing with. After hearing everything, Suho had wanted to just leave rather than risk anything else being drawn to Baekhyun, but eventually they all agreed that it would be better for him to sleep this off in a bed instead of the cramped back seat of the van. Still, they wanted to leave in the morning as soon as possible, so despite it being a bit early they left Chanyeol to watch over Baekhyun and went to go take down the rest of the equipment. No one really felt like investigating now anyway.