The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

#10

Ashley sighed. "Of course," she muttered. "This room is haunted. Of course." She laughed.

Colby crossed his arms in front of his chest. "So, this was Ilse too?"

"If you actually blew it out, how else would it be lit? Candles don't just turn on like that," Ashley said, turning back to the psychomanteum. "Hey, where did you put the lighter?"

"Next to the candle, why?"

"It's on the floor, right beneath the table." Ashley walked out again, running a hand over her face.

Sam was holding up the second camera, already recording. She couldn't tell how long he had been filming, but she was relieved that he did. It made all of this seem more like a joke, something unserious.

"Should we review the footage?" Kris suggested as it had become weirdly quiet in the room. Ashley quickly walked over to the others, leaning forward a little to see the screen of the camera. Then Colby pressed play.

"How does the ring look?" Colby's voice on the recording was asking.

"A little forward," Ashley instructed. Their gazes were all pinned on the instrument, shining in the green light of the night vision camera. Colby obliged, fast-forwarding the video a few minutes.

"Imagine we actually found it here," video-Sam's voice was then heard. They all held their breath, staring at the instrument. Sam was on the left side of the video, slowly walking to the center. Ashley was already sitting on one of the chairs in front of the table with the camera, absentmindedly staring into the room.

Then Sam walked past the piano. And as soon as the black instrument was back in view, they all saw the little piece of jewelry on top of it.

"What the fuck!" Colby shouted, quickly replaying the moment. Sam walked past the piano, and suddenly the ring was there.

"Wha- How?" Kris asked, stepping away a little. "What the fuck?"

Ashley was just staring at the small screen, trying to see anything more. But it was only that; Sam walking and the ring appearing. That was it. No matter how often she rewatched it, there were no other movements in the background, nothing.

"What?" she whispered. "What?"

"I don't know!" Colby said. "I don't- seriously, what the fuck? It just appeared?"

"I have full. Body. Chills right now," Kris said with an unbelieving chuckle. "Look at that." She held out her arm, covered in goosebumps. "This is insane. Insane."

There was a moment of silence where everyone just tried to process what they just saw. The little voices in their heads, insisting that this couldn't be real had all gone silent, leaving them with racing thoughts and rapidly beating hearts.

They were all standing a few feet away from each other, just staring at each other's faces.

"Every time," Colby finally said. "Every single time we think that it can't get worse, it just does."

"It's all happening," Sam said. "Ashley gets touched. A mark is on her neck. She sees someone running who wasn't there. Her ring disappears and reappears inexplicably. The heat in the room gets turned up. The candle is lit. The answers from the Estes sessions just make perfect sense."

"The only thing missing is that we hear her," Ashley chuckled.

"Don't jinx it!" Kris said, staring at her. "I don't want to wake up because of the piano at like six am!"

"I say, this is the craziest amount of different evidence we've ever caught. And I say that this is it, we go to bed," Colby said, shaking his head unbelievingly.

"Yes... Ilse Hoffman, if you're still with us..." Sam began, raising his voice a little to address the whole room. "Thank you for communicating with us. Thank you for telling us your story, and, uh..." Sam hesitated for a second, "thank you for returning Ashley's ring. I'm sure she's grateful for that."

Ashley smiled, her lips a thin line. "Yeah, I appreciate it. Even though you freaked me out."

Sam lowered the camera. "Well," he said. The room was silent again, the four of them just staring at each other with beating hearts. "Are we going to be able to sleep?"

"I'll need to try," Kris chuckled. "If you don't want me to collapse tomorrow."

"Ashley?" Colby asked, turning his attention to the redhead.

"I'll try too," she answered with a genuine smile. "What about you two?"

Sam shrugged. "It's worth a try?"

Ashley laughed exhaustedly and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Great, let's all try." Kris chuckled too at the absurdity of the situation.

"Are you guys sure that you want to stay in this room though?" Colby asked. "We can get you another room if, well... if you don't want to sleep in the most haunted room?"

"I think it's fine," Ashley said with a glance at Kris. "If Kris is here with me, I can convince myself it's just a normal hotel room in a normal hotel."

"Yep, me too," Kris agreed. It was silent again for a moment until Sam grabbed his backpack.

"Alright," he said. "For the second time today: Good night. Try not to dream of ghost pianists, yeah? Four more hours and we're out of here."

Both the girls chuckled tiredly, closing the door after the boys left the room.

They were both silent for the entire time they got ready for bed, changing into pj's and brushing their teeth, not having the energy or will to discuss anything they experienced today. Tomorrow would be enough time for that.

Ashley got the blankets from the makeshift psychomanteum, handing Kris hers and taking her own. Then she threw herself on her bed, sighing loudly.

"I'm so done for today," she muttered. "Can we sleep until like noon tomorrow?"

"I hope so," Kris answered, getting up to turn off the room's lights. The lamps on their nightstands were still on, so it wasn't completely dark, but she still hopped into bed as quickly as she could.

"Good night, Kris," Ashley whispered after turning off her lamp.

"Good night," she heard from the dark side of the room. There was hardly any light coming from the window, the snowstorm still covering the land, but she still saw enough to not feel suffocated immediately.

Surprisingly, she fell asleep merely a minute after covering herself with her blanket.