For a moment, Hayato and Natalie stood frozen.

“What was that?” Jin’s voice came crackling with static from a walkie talkie on Hayato’s belt. Natalie jumped and yelped. When the source of the voice registered, she put a hand to her pounding heart and took a deep steadying breath.

“Sorry,” Jin’s voice managed to sound sheepish even through the static. “I glanced at the monitors and I thought I saw you two reacting to something.”

Hayato pulled the walkie talkie off his belt and pressed the button down to talk.

“We heard a tapping sound. I’m going to see if I can get it to happen again.”

“All right,” replied Jin. “Be careful.”

Hayato clipped the walkie talkie back to his belt and reached out toward the wall.

“Wait! What are you doing?” Natalie hissed.

He tapped very deliberately on the wall, once, twice, three times, and waited. Natalie put a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.

Nothing happened.

Hayato tried again, tapping once, twice, three times.

They waited.

Nothing. Natalie let her hand drop to her side.

Hayato tried a third time.

Nothing.

After another moment, Hayato pulled the walkie talkie off his belt and spoke into it.

“No response,” he said simply.

“All right,” came Jin’s voice. “Come back to base and we’ll lay out a plan.”

Hayato clipped the walkie talkie back to his belt, gave the camera one last check, and headed back to the living room carrying the second camera with him. Natalie started to follow, but stopped still when the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Her heart started to race, and her breathing sped. It felt like someone, or something, was watching her. She turned slowly.

The room looked just as it had before — bookcases, filing cabinets, desk, computer, window. Natalie couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She gave herself a mental shake and turned to leave the room. As she stepped into the hallway, she thought she heard something behind her, very faintly, the sound of a little girl laughing.

・・・・・

Natalie sped through the living room door as though something were chasing her. Jin and Hayato both looked over as she came in. Lightning sat up and stared, his gaze focused behind her. It wasn’t particularly reassuring.

“Are you all right?” asked Jin.

Natalie nodded.

“Just got a little spooked is all.” She smiled.

Hayato snorted and turned back to coiling cables. Natalie glared at him.

“It’s normal to get spooked your first time on the job,” said Jin. “It gets easier.”

Hayato barked a laugh.

“Does it?” he asked. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Not helpful,” said Jin.

He sat at a folding chair he’d set up in front of the table they’d brought which was now completely covered in cables and monitors and boxes with blinking lights. A keyboard and mouse just fit between the edge of the table and a set of large, external hard drives.

One of the monitors showed a normal looking desktop. Another showed a single view from one of the cameras. Still another showed a split screen with views from all three cameras they’d already set up and blank squares where views from more cameras could go. Natalie noticed that the single view monitor seemed to be cycling through all the cameras.

“This is impressive,” she said.

Jin looked at the equipment proudly.

“We’ve been doing this for a while now. You should have seen us when we first started. Just a couple of tape recorders and a single camcorder.”

“How long have you been doing this?”

“Oh… I forget how many years exactly. A long time though,” said Jin, his eyes shifting back to the screens.

Hayato smirked and started for the hallway with a camera case in either hand.

“Where are you going?” called Jin.

“Haven’t set up cameras in the bathrooms yet.” Hayato tossed his answer over his shoulder, not slowing even in the slightest.

“Take Natalie with you!”

Jin gestured for Natalie to follow. Natalie sighed and trotted forward to catch up. Hayato left one camera by the door to the first bathroom and carried the second all the way down the hall to the bathroom off the master bedroom. He pulled out a tripod and had the camera set up in the blink of an eye. Every movement was quick and sure. Not a moment was wasted. Natalie couldn’t help feeling useless, or, even worse, in the way.

A few minutes later, Natalie and Hayato were back in the living room, all the cameras set up and rolling.

“What do we do now?” asked Natalie.

“Now,” said Jin, “we wait. We’ll take turns here at base and going into the rooms throughout the night.”

“Sounds good.”

“Oh, and I want you to stay close to either myself or Hayato tonight. We can’t have you wandering off.”

“Wandering off?” Natalie smiled, amused. “It’s not like this is a big house. I’m not going to get lost or anything.”

“No, I suppose not,” said Jin. “Still. Better to stay close. Just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“In case of the unknown,” smiled Jin.

Natalie nodded thoughtfully.

“I know you’re a bit shaken by your experience,” said Jin, “but that was a fairly mild first encounter.”

Natalie’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? That was a mild encounter?”

Jin nodded.

She hesitated a moment, then asked, “what do you think it is in the walls?”

Jin sat back and thought. “I’m not yet certain. There are a number of possibilities.”

“Would rats be one of those possibilities?”

“Afraid not,” smiled Jin. “Lightning is very sure that there aren’t any rodents or insects causing the noises.”

“Right,” said Natalie. “Well, if anyone could be certain, he could.” She paused a moment, then asked, “What about the knocking?”

“The knocking is, as yet, inconclusive. Based on that evidence, there may or may not be ghosts in this house.”

“Do you think it’s ghosts in the walls?”

Jin thought a moment, his features contracting downwards.

“It’s too early to tell,” he said.

・・・・・

The sun set, and the air grew cold. Natalie got to do an EVP session in the living room. Jin lead it and asked most of the questions. They walked through the house once every hour or so using flashlights so they could keep the room lights off. Nothing unusual happened.

Natalie found herself getting sleepy.

“There’s some instant coffee and tea bags in that duffle over there,” offered Jin, pointing. Natalie shot him a grateful smile, got up, and started rummaging through the bag.

“Do you want anything?” she asked, surfacing with a travel mug and black tea.

“I’m fine, thank you,” said Jin. Natalie nodded and headed into the kitchen.

The kitchen was only separated from the living room by a a set of cabinets, half of which formed a counter while the other half hung from the ceiling. She supposed it would be convenient for a party. You could set up a buffet on the counter and people wouldn’t have to leave the living room to get their food.

Natalie shone her flashlight over the counters and cabinets, looking for a hot water pot, or a drip coffee maker, but didn’t see one. She was going to have to go old school. Hopefully, Mr. Beckett had a kettle. A search of the bottom cabinets yielded nothing, so she moved to the top row. She’d just opened the first one, when a flood of plates came crashing down on her.

Dinner parties. Laughing voices. Clinking glasses. Mr. Beckett in his thirties, beaming down at Mrs. Beckett — a woman with perfect blonde curls and a smile that was just for him. Mrs. Beckett washing these dishes, her hands growing older and older as the dishes grow thinner and more faded. Still she smiles.

“Natalie! Are you all right?”

Natalie opened her eyes to find Jin crouching over her. She scrambled away from him, up into a sitting position.

“Slow down,” said Jin soothingly, holding up his hands. “Are you all right?”

“I think so,” answered Natalie slowly, rubbing her head. It didn’t hurt. Actually, nothing hurt, she was surprised to note. She looked at the floor around her. There were plates everywhere.

“I’m glad they didn’t break,” she said. “Mrs. Beckett loved these.”

“Mrs. Beckett?” Jin’s glasses glinted, reflecting a stray fragment of light, hiding his eyes. “How would you know something like that?”

Natalie’s mouth hung slightly open as she searched for a plausible answer.

Hayato appeared at the edge of the kitchen. He quickly took in the scene.

“What happened?” he asked. “I heard a crash.”

“Nothing,” said Natalie, standing. “I was looking for a kettle and all the plates fell off the shelf.”

Hayato and Jin exchanged a glance. Lightning leapt up onto the counter and began investigating the cabinet the plates had come from.

“What was that look just now?” asked Natalie.

“What look?” Jin’s expression was the picture of innocence. Natalie crossed her arms.

“You know what I’m talking about. What’s going on?”

Jin looked at Hayato. He shrugged. Jin sighed and began stacking the plates.

“It is unlikely that these plates would simply fall off the shelf,” he said.

Natalie frowned.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“It could be something. It could be nothing,” said Jin, standing and setting the plates on the counter.

“It isn’t nothing. I saw that look you guys gave each other,” said Natalie. “What is it?”

“They might have been pushed,” said Hayato.

“Pushed? By who?”

“By whatever’s in the walls,” Hayato smiled.

Natalie shivered. Goosebumps rose along her arms. That thought was much too creepy. Because, if something pushed those plates over on her, and the something was the same thing that was in the walls, then that something was definitely not rats.

A little girl’s laughter. This time, they all heard it.