Zac approached the entrance and noticed Skye struggling with a wheeled cooler. Well, more accurately she was struggling to drag the thing across the broken, pitted ground without making it too obvious that she could just yank the thing straight into the air and carry it under one arm.

He scooped the other handle and lifted, and sure enough even though it was large enough to hide a body and shifted like it was full of ice and drinks, he barely had any weight on his side. Skye grinned over her shoulder at him. 

They coordinated their steps up onto the porch entryway and through the door. Zac expected to feel a chill down his spine or something, from all the warnings he'd gotten about the place. All he felt was a shift from bright daylight to still, stale air. Nothing beyond the physical. Was the place dormant during the day? Had whatever made it an “active kill zone” stopped? Or was Skye doing something to protect him? That last one was the most likely. He knew he wouldn't be aware of it; he hadn't realized she was blocking him from feeling near heart stopping pain for hours on end. Her magic was subtle and oddly delicate given its source. 

Zac and Skye lowered the cooler onto the smooth marble floor of the hospital lobby and looked around. Skye was right; the place was amazing. It looked more like the reception lobby of a high end but outdated hotel. 

The floors were white marble, glittering even under the layers of dust. There was a wide, circular desk taking up most of the center of the room, with empty plant stands rusting on either side of its ebony curve. The light fixtures were dangling chandeliers rather than practical inset florescent bulbs. Two long, dark hallways branched off from the back and right sides of the lobby, with wide, painted metal double doors on the left announcing the location of the kitchen.

Derek waved from the doorway of a small room tucked next to the hallway entrance on the right. A sign above the door discreetly labeled it as a “G ft Sh p,” presumably the gift shop. 

“Snacks! Now we officially have a base,” Derek said. He paused. “That's not too heavy for you to pull, is it?”

“Nah,” Skye said, “Floor's smooth.”

Zac watched her maneuver the cooler through the door and wondered exactly how strong she was. She'd once lifted his entire weight from one arm while dangling over a collapsed staircase, and barely seemed strained. Was it the Reaper's influence, or whatever made her a Crimson Dancer? Zac was stronger than he should be based on his size and build, but he was an elf. Was his strength just a species trait or was he unusually strong and just unaware because he hadn't seen another member of his race in over a century? After all, he was apparently still an adolescent by Elvin standards, if Skye's information was correct. 

Why was he questioning this now? 

He shook his head and followed Skye into the empty gift shop, which the ghost hunters were rapidly transforming into a surveillance base, at least that's what he guessed all the monitors, little blinking lights, and masses of wires were for.

It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, frankly. Zac panned the camera around, figuring their fans might like a look at the base. He thought having more footage to edit videos from was the best idea. Although, if he understood Skye and Jake's discussion, her main goal was to convince these people that this was a terrible idea and that they should leave.

She was currently perched on a counter next to Nora, who was eagerly showing her short video files on one of several battered laptops each bearing an LSPI sticker. Zac heard Nora enthuse about some of the things they had captured on film, including several 'orbs' and 'misty apparitions.' Skye pointed to something on the screen and asked a question about video resolution. She didn't seem to be making much effort to convince these people to stop their investigation.

Well, she probably figured she needed to get them to trust her before she made any suggestions like “give up on this chance to explore a building you needed a call from the mayor to get into.”

 Zac wandered over to join Skye, curious what they were talking about so avidly.

“Here's an exciting EVP we found,” Nora said.

“EVP?” Zac asked. He'd heard the acronym but wasn't entirely sure what it stood for. Why did humans love to speak in code so much?

“Electronic Voice Phenomena,” Nora said. “The theory is that ghosts speak at a frequency the living can't quite hear, but recording devices can sometimes pick them up. We caught an exciting one on our last job.”

“Really? Can we hear it?” Skye asked.

“Sure,” Nora said, and pressed a few keys. "Listen close. Tell me what you hear."

Zac nodded, curious. He tilted his head towards the device as a hissing sound emanated from it. The sound of footsteps echoed clearly through the static, and then a voice began to speak.

"What's that?" a man's voice asked.

There was a pause, and then a woman's voice answered, "I think it's part of the chimney, an old vent maybe." The voice sounded like Nora, accounting for the distortion of a recording device and the laptop's small speakers.

"It looks like someone glued a paper plate to the wall and painted over it," the first voice stated.

There was a pause, in which a third voice said, "I'm right here."

The recording ended. 

"It sounded like a conversation about a painted over chimney vent," Zac said, "and then someone said they were right there."

"That's what it sounds like to me, too," Nora said with a grin. "I was the woman speaking there, and George, that's our normal camera guy, he was the other one talking. We were alone in that room, I am absolutely sure of it. The only other person in the house was Derek, and that voice sounds nothing like him. I think it's a woman's voice, don't you?"

"Could I hear it again?" Zac asked.

Nora nodded and replayed the segment.

"Most definitely not Derek, even distorted by distance or a wall," Zac agreed. "The sound quality here is good. That's a different voice from either of the others."

"I know!" Nora squealed. "Isn't this exciting? It's our best EVP yet."

Zac looked down at Skye, who shrugged behind Nora's back. She didn't know if the recording was genuine or not. Interesting. So she couldn't tell if a voice in a recording belonged to a ghost or not? 

"It's fascinating," Zac said, "I wonder why she, whoever she is, said that?"

"Maybe she was frustrated we couldn't see her?" Nora guessed.

"Could be. I mean, if ghosts aren't aware they're ghosts, it must be so... confusing." Skye piped up. "They see you just fine, but you just don't see them, or acknowledge them? And they don't know why."

"It would explain the violence of some poltergeist phenomena," Nora agreed. "I'd throw books and plates if every living person in my home ignored me."

Zac agreed. He wondered if many ghosts didn't know they were dead. Skye mentioned sending many of them on to the next world. How often did she have to be the one to inform some poor soul that they were, in fact, only a soul and no longer a living being?

Too bad he couldn't ask her about it at the moment, but he added it to the growing mental list of things he really needed to discuss. 

“Okay, party people,” Derek said, “We've got around about an hour and a half until sunset. According to the stories Nora collected for us, this site becomes most active after dark so I want our equipment set up before then, to maximize our chances of catching something really good. This is a big site, so we're going to have to split up, but I want us to stay in teams because this is a big site and it would be way too easy to get lost. So who's pairing up with whom?”

“We're odd numbers,” Nora said, “but I figure Zac can float between groups, recording a little with each one. I call dibs on Skye as my partner.”

“Sounds good,” Derek said. “Amy, you and Tate work well together. Bob, you cool working with me?”

“Sure,” Bob said. 

“Okay." Derek put his hands on his hips. "Nora, you and Skye set up the cameras for this floor, Zac, you start recording with them. Bob and I will take the second floor, Amy and Tate you take the third. We'll meet back here once that's done. Nora, Skye, don't go into the ER yet. We'll set that one up on camera all together."

"Do you think something will happen in the ER?" Skye asked with an eager smile.

"It's the most active location in the reported incidents," Nora told her with a matching smile. "Activity has been reported there even when the hospital was in use."

"And there are multiple police reports from people passing by who swear they saw lights inside," Tate added, "but no one was ever found inside, and there were no signs of entry."

"Cool!" Skye chirped.

Zac marveled slightly at her acting. She knew for a fact that the hospital was haunted. She knew all about the reported sightings and activity. But she looked and sounded exactly like an excited kid hearing a ghost story.

"Don't worry," Tate said as he rustled through a box of small electronic devices, "there's plenty of stories about the rest of the first floor, especially the kitchen and cafeteria. There's a good chance you'll see or hear something while you're setting up."

"About that," Amy said, "I don't think anyone should go into the kitchen itself. Skye in particular."

"Why?" Skye asked.

"Well, I don't believe that any spirits are evil," Amy said, "but some can be actively malicious. The kitchen was the site of multiple sudden deaths. That kind of thing can lead to confused, even violent spiritual activity. And, well, ghosts are often drawn to the energy of the young."

"So you think I could get hurt in the kitchen?" Skye asked.

"It isn't likely," Amy rushed to say, "but we want to be safe. Just being here is risky, for purely physical reasons."

Bob nodded fervently and muttered something about an electric grid and elevators.

"We don't want to do anything too dangerous on top of all that," Derek finished for Amy.

"On that note," Bob said, "I've got a couple of warnings for everyone. This place still has active electricity. No idea why, it should've been cut off ages ago. That's good because all your little spooky machines will work fine. It's bad because the wiring is ancient and hasn't been maintained in at least a decade. So don't touch any outlets that I haven't checked first. Avoid any wires you see; they could be live. If something crackles or sparks, get away from it fast. Do you have fire extinguishers?"

Tate nodded and pointed to a small, red canister.

"Good. Okay," Bob took a deep breath. "The elevators might or might not work. I don't care. Don't use them. Don't push the buttons. Don't get within arm's reach of the damn things. This place is not structurally sound and those elevators are literally death boxes."

"I hope you got that little lecture on camera," Derek muttered to Zac, who nodded.

"No wires, no elevators," Tate said. "Anything else?"

"I'm gonna advise you to avoid the basement," Bob said. "It would be a miracle from on high if black mold is the worst thing down there. We don't have the proper protective gear for that."

"Got it," Derek agreed. "I'm sure we'll get plenty of good material without going near the basement. And even if we don't, it's not worth the medical bills."

Skye bounced in place just a little bit. "Are we ready to go?"

She sounded eager and excited. Bob flinched, and Zac recalled the cold eyed girl who'd off handedly admitted to killing several men in brutal ways.

Which was the real Skye? The coldly practical Agent Reaper or the sweet, excitable Skye?

Did she know herself?