The hostel that Han Byungwook owned was, despite not being commercially famous or any of that sort, clean, spacious and appropriately decorated.

And currently very empty.

The owner of the business had decided to close down the hostel until the case had been solved, not wanting to put any guest in danger should things get more serious. Only staff members remained but that was only until they were finished being interviewed by the team; Han Byungwook giving them permission to go on break unless there were those who wished to stay and assist the PRIC team in their stay in hostel. Nonetheless, the team had the entire building to themselves.

They arrived early the following morning after they accepted the case. The sun was barely shining and the entire street where what once was Endless Night stood was silent, nearly eerily so. There were a lot of things that needed to be done, interviews that had to be conducted, equipment to be hauled in and the base that needed to be set up as soon as possible. But the members stayed outside, looking at the worn down, soot-ridden building with sadness on their faces.

Yunho sent a quick prayer up to heaven and did the sign of the cross before turning a questioning gaze to Seohyun, Heechul and Jessica. “Can you guys sense anything?”

“Not much.” Jessica replied. “There are a lot of them inside. I’m not sure if the spirits of all one hundred and fifty victims remained… but there are a lot of them.”

“There’s one though…” Seohyun’s eyebrows furrowed. “He seems stronger than the rest, but I don’t know why.”

“Interesting…” Changmin murmured, moving to head inside the hostel. “We should set up base now.”

Amber was a few a steps behind him. “Min, are we going to set up cameras in the club?”

Should we already set up cameras inside the club? What do you think, Kyu?

His twin brother, who happened to still be outside by the van to help with the unloading of equipment, shook his head a touch. I think we should wait.

“I think we should wait.” Changmin repeated to Amber. “Let’s wait until the evening… the exact time the fire happened ten years ago.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Once the base was set up an hour later in the largest communal space they could find, which happened to be the receiving area, the team split off to various parts of the hostel. Amber, Yunho, Yoona and Sooyoung convened the hostel’s staff in the communal lounge for the interviews while Heechul and Seohyun assisted Jessica in posting charms all over the premises to keep the establishment and its occupants safe. For their part, Kris, Changmin and Kyuhyun stayed in the men’s communal bedroom, seated on their respective beds and in deep discussion about a certain brunette downstairs.

“Is there any way that we can make sure that her visions have no long term negative effects?” Kyuhyun asked.

“I’m sure there is. It’s just the matter of finding it.” The blonde healer paused thoughtfully. “She isn’t experiencing anything out of the usual, right? She just feels weak after each vision but that’s it so far?”

Changmin nodded. “Not that I know of. I already spoke to Yunho and he agreed to keep a closer eye on her in case she’s hiding from us.”

“Which we all wouldn’t put past her.” Kris grimaced. “Do you think I should look into permanently stopping her visions?”

Kyuhyun snorted. “You could try but I swear on Changmin’s life that she wouldn’t agree and she’d hate us for it.”

The taller twin shot his brother a withering glare before returning his attention to Kris, “She won’t agree to that and as much as I hate it because we know how she struggles with her visions, they’re a great help to every case, and she’ll use that and her martyr tendencies against us.”

“Damn.” A gentle knock on the door prevented him from saying any more on the topic. “Come in.”

The door swung partially open and Yoona poked her head in. “Sorry to interrupt but Siwon just arrived.”

The three men nodded, detaching themselves from the comforts of the bed to follow Yoona back to the base. They knew that Sooyoung had made the call to Siwon to ask his help gathering police records for the case, which the dark haired man easily agreed to and even offered to bring to the base. With the incident already a decade old, there wasn’t much that they themselves remembered about the fire and they sure as hell would need all the accurate facts they could get.

“Great, you’re here.” Siwon sent the trio of males and Yoona a smile when they entered the base. “Find a place so we can start.”

It didn’t take too long for them to arrange themselves; Kris sitting himself beside Amber and smiling when she handed him his laptop, already and ready to go. “What did you find out?”

“The Endless Night fire occurred on the fifth of July 2003 at 11:45 pm.” The officer began without preamble; Kris typing away on his laptop while Yoona and Amber took down notes by hand. “Survivors said that they saw sparks coming out of the DJ’s booth before the fire and that they also saw smoke, but they thought it was part of the DJ’s special effects. Fire broke out within minutes and grew and spread quickly. A fireball burst across the central dance floor and the fire became too much for the sprinklers and the fire extinguishers waiters used to try to minimize the fire.”

Jessica frowned heavily. “What about the exits?”

“Naturally, people rushed towards the main entrance in order to escape.” Siwon ran a hand down his face. “The bouncers of the club thought a riot was going on inside so they locked the doors from outside.”

“What the ?” Heechul growled in disbelief. “They locked them inside?”

“Unfortunately.” The dark haired man nodded. “Many broke the windows and tried to escape through them. Many succeeded but there was just so much panic that people were trying to get ahead of each other and pulling people away from the windows in their desperation. Those who escaped were the ones who informed the bouncers of the fire but when they opened the doors, it was too late for most of the people. Many died from injuries due to being trampled on o asphyxiation. The bodies were piled one on top of the other and the height was around ten bodies high.”

“Oh my god.” Jessica paled. “How about the other exits?”

“The staff decided to bolt the side doors shut so that people can’t enter without paying.”

A string of curses left Yunho’s mouth as he buried his face in his hands. “You must be joking.”

“I wish I was.” Siwon shook his head. “There were more people than they usally had that night.”

Seohyun trembled slightly. “All those people…”

“All those deaths would’ve been avoidable.” He confirmed grimly, glancing at Sooyoung from the corner of his eyes before he shot Changmin and Kyuhyun a questioning look. “So what are you guys planning to do?”

“To be honest, we were hoping that we just have to help those people accept their deaths and move on.” Kyuhyun pinched the bridge of his nose. “But it might be wishful thinking at this point. Maybe we can do it for some but I don’t know if it’ll work for everyone. It’s been ten years. It’s a possibility that there’s something that’s keeping these souls here, more than their refusal for acceptance, despair or regret.”

“Do you think that the strong soul Seohyun detected earlier has something to do with it?” Yoona asked.

Changmin’s shoulders lifted in a slight