The front parlor was as dark and dusty as could have been expected of a home abandoned for decades, and Eric coughed as the group took their first few steps inside.
"Wow..." Maria said, "It sure looks.... old." She slowly swept the camera around the room. "And creepy."
"I mean, old and creepy are what we're looking for, right?" Eric said, clearing his throat one last time.
"We're looking for a ghost," Carrie reminded matter-of-factly, handing him a flashlight as she continued digging through her backpack, which she had set on the floor for the time being.
"Right," Eric muttered, using his flashlight to examine the paintings left on the walls. "And what are you doing?"
"Setting up the equipment."
"Yeah, Eric," Maria said, "Don't you know how this sort of thing works? Now, move over a bit, I want to get a good shot..."
Voices. Footsteps. Heartbeats. The sounds of life, inside a house where none had been in so long. That was what woke her up from her longest slumber yet. She'd been Elizabeth Bertram, once, and on some level she still was. She still lived in the same house, after all, the hilltop manor where three intruders were currently making themselves known, disturbing the dust and silence with their youth and technology. There was one, a little larger than the rest, bubbly and vibrant like her sister, and a tall morose girl that reminded her a bit of her mother, and with them was.... Oh, my. A rather handsome looking man, breaking into her home, just as had happened so many nights ago. Well, perhaps now she could have some fun with these new little criminals. She stretched, and the floorboards of her home creaked, yawned, and the pipes shuddered. Tonight would be... entertaining.
"Did you guys hear that?" Eric shined a light around the empty parlor room that the trio had found themselves in, having heard a faint, strange sound coming from the walls.
"No, but good soundbite!" Maria said, "We can definitely edit that in somewhere...."
"What did you hear, Eric?" Carrie asked, pulling aside one of her headphones. She looked a bit ridiculous, waving around what looked like a jury rigged Geiger-counter.
"I... I don't know, I guess it was probably nothing."
"Hm." Carrie turned back to her search, running the wand over a painting with no discernable change in the whirs and clicks of her machine. None of them said anything, but as they continued their search in silence, each felt a chill pass over them. They explained it as a draft, as goosebumps from the creepy decor, but one of them felt it more than the others; Eric, who was about to have an unfortunate mishap....
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