𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 • 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤

bonus chapter :)

in honor of hitting 300k, 3 years after finishing this story, i have decided to cook up a little bonus chapter for you guys!
hope you enjoy it, and thank you for everything. ♡

(disclaimer: this chapter isn't based on any of their videos– it just comes straight from my imagination. it's set about a year after the epilogue, which means around today irl– october 31st, 2022.)

happy halloween!!

• • •

"I regret the day you decided to become YouTube's resident ghost hunters," I muttered to Colby, one hand clinging onto his arm as the other held onto my flashlight.

We were visiting some abandoned hospital, or a sanatorium, or whatever this place once was in its glory days. Now, it was just a gigantic maze of concrete floors and walls – and the frequent creepy wooden door.

He chuckled, pressing a kiss to my temple. "Be glad I didn't send you up here by yourself, as the initial plan was."

I glared at him. "Ever been flung from a fourth-story window? Because you're about to find out what that feels like. What's one more ghost in this place?"

"You know the banter only turns me on," he grinned as he walked on, pulling me along.

I rolled my eyes. "God have mercy on me. And Sam, who's gonna have to edit all of this out."

The longer we walked, the less graffiti lined the walls, the spookier it got. Peering into some of the dark rooms with my flashlight, I saw nothing but wooden chairs and the empty, rusted frames of long forgotten beds. We must've been nearing the stairway at the far end of the floor, where we would go up one last floor, to the highest one in the building.

Colby suddenly stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide. "Did you hear that?"

"Did I hear what? I didn't hear anything!" I spoke rapidly, pressing myself into his side.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, shaking his head. "I don't know. It sounded like something fell above us."

"You're just trying to spook me," I replied, breathing through the pounding of my heart, trying to slow it down.

"No, I swear! I can't believe you didn't hear that, it was so loud," he added. "We do have a camera stationed up there, maybe we could go take a look?"

"We were headed that way regardless, so," I sighed. "Please tell me we can get out after that floor?"

"We will, I promise."

Side by side, we walked up the stairs, carefully trying not to tumble down them in the dark. My flashlight felt like a lifeline as we proceeded, the old wood creaking beneath our feet. I silently prayed this rickety old thing wouldn't collapse on us and send us crashing down four floors and a half.

I cringed immediately when we at last reached the landing. "Ew, what is that smell?"

"I don't know. It didn't smell like this earlier, did it?" he replied, his face scrunched up in a similar fashion.

I shook my head. "Absolutely not."

I directed the beam of light towards where we'd stationed the camera in hopes of catching something on the most haunted floor of the building. "No fucking way."

Colby followed the direction I was looking in, swearing under his breath as he strode over to the camera – the camera that had been knocked over and was now lying on the floor. "This must be the crash I heard."

I hurried over to him, not wanting to be by myself for a second. "How does that happen?"

"It does not," he replied, examining the area. "This tripod does not fall over like that on its own."

"Maybe we should check the footage?" I proposed, glancing around. There truly was no one here, and Sam and Katrina were three floors down.

Colby righted the tripod and pulled the latch that released the camera from where it was held, handing me the other camera he was holding. "It's still recording, so we should have it."

He rewound the footage, up until the moment right before the camera fell, and played it. I watched as the scene of the dark hallway in front of us tilted– slowly at first, until gravity did the rest and tugged it all the way down. Nothing showed on screen, nothing to indicate who – or what – had thrown over the tripod.

"Uh, yeah, can we leave? I'm kinda over this," I told Colby nervously, tugging on his arm.

He looked around, shaking his head. "What the hell? How did this happen? We need to show Sam."

"I agree. Let's go," I urged him. "This was the final investigation of today anyways, I'm sure it's okay if we leave now."

"We'll do a quick, final sweep of the floor to make sure no one's actually here, and then we'll go, is that okay?" he asked, eyes moving over my features. Making sure I was truly fine.

I nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

We traded cameras – him handling the recording one again, me holding onto the one we'd just retrieved – and started walking. He tucked me into his side, his arm securely around me as we checked room after room for anyone, anything.

"There's nothing here," I whispered when we were at the end.

He stopped the recording on his camera, guiding me into the stairwell. I shuddered. "I like the ghost hunting, don't get me wrong, but knowing that something has the strength to push over a heavy ass tripod with camera? That's scary. I don't think I've ever witnessed anything like that happen before."

"I know, Ellie. We'll leave, and you don't have to join us anymore in the future if you don't want to," he said. "I love it when you join us, but I love you more. It's up to you."

"If we weren't on a third floor landing of one of the most haunted buildings in the US, I would kiss you," I smiled.

"You've never let that stop you before," he grinned, and walked us over to the wall, where he pinned me against it. His lips found mine, and I couldn't help but laugh against them.

"You're impossible," I smiled in between his kisses. I threaded my fingers through his hair as he trailed down my neck, to that sweet spot right beneath my ear. I breathed out, "Oh, you tease."

He laughed against my skin, the sound reverberating through me. When he came back up, I softly pushed him off me. "We'll continue this when we're somewhere else. Somewhere less creepy and spider-filled."

"That's a deal," he said right before kissing me one last time. "Our hotel room sounds like the perfect spot."

I bit down on my bottom lip, and he walked us all the way down and out of the building, calling out to Sam and Katrina in the process.

"What's up?" Sam asked, when we were outside at last.

"I heard this crash when we were on the fourth floor, and when we got upstairs the tripod had been knocked over," Colby explained. I handed the camera from the top floor over to Sam, so he could check for himself.

"Jesus," Kat said as she looked at the footage over Sam's shoulder. "Ew, no, I hate that. This just happened?"

I nodded, and she shuddered. "Yeah, okay, time to leave."

"I was gonna say, maybe we should do one last investigation there?" Sam proposed, staring up the building towards that top floor.

Colby looked over at me, the promise of the deal he made moments ago shining in his eyes. A lazy grin spread across his face, eyes not leaving mine as he said, "Nah, I think we're done here, dude."

Sam just shrugged. "Well, then help me gather our gear into the trunk."

I diverted my gaze, could feel the warmth spread across my cheeks. I turned, acting like I was gazing towards the building while hiding the redness of my face. I'd known him for years, and he still made me blush like a schoolgirl.

Sam and Colby finished collecting whatever stuff they'd brought here, and then we piled into the car and left for the hotel.