As the girls seemingly encounter a ghost upstairs the downstairs group continue their rounds.

 

“So Steve, if I remember correctly when the needle starts moving that means that there is a ghost around. Is that correct?” Will says as he looks down at his EMF meter.

 

“That just about sums it up.” Will says as the group walks into the kitchen.

 

After aiming the flashlight around the room he turns to see if the others have picked up anything.

 

“Nothing.” Will says as Casey shakes there head no.

 

“Alright, now we check the left side of the house.”

 

They walk towards the first room on the left of the house and Steve opens the door.

 

“Anything in here?” Steve asks as he points the flashlight around the room.

 

“...I…I think I am actually getting something.” Will says as the needle on his EMF meters starts to move. “It seems to be faint, but there is definitely something up with this room.”

 

“Now we’re getting somewhere. Casey, do you see anything?” Will says as he scratches his chin.

 

They vigorously shake their head yes.

 

“Where?”

 

They point towards the middle of the floor and at an old ornately patterned gold rug with brown trim.

 

“Alright. Will, help me roll this rug out of the way.”

 

“Yes sir.”

 

The two of them roll up the rug and place it at the end of the room.

 

They now examine the now clear floor and see a small handle right where the center of the rug just was.

 

“...Hmmm…” Steve mumbles to himself as he reaches towards the handle “Let’s see what’s down here.”

 

Surprisingly enough the handle reveals a dark space below the floor of the room. Steve waves his flashlight around the hole to see what they were dealing with.

 

“There’s a ladder here. I’ll climb down first. You two keep watch for now. I’ll yell if I need anything.”

 

Steve makes his way down into the darkness.

The image on the thermal camera was unmistakable. Jacky and Rose were definitely the only two people in the room, but the screen was showing a heat signature that was in the shape of another human.

 

After a moment of the two girls standing in stunned silence one of them eventually breaks it.

 

“Well!” Jacky exclaims as she cracks her knuckles. “Here goes nothing!”

 

She steps towards the area of the room where the ghost should be and punches the air.

 

“...Huh…” Jacky says as she looks down at her hand. “...I didn't feel anything…Did anything show up on the camera just now?”

 

“Your heat signature passed through that of the ghost and the ghost is still in the exact same spot.” Rose says as she continues to stare at the thermal camera.

 

Jacky starts to wave her hands through the area where the ghost should be.

 

“...You know what…that makes sense…” Jacky says dejectedly.

 

“I could’ve told you that.” Rose says as she hands the camera to Jacky and pulls out the nozzle of the ghost vacuum on her back. “Now it’s my turn.”

 

She flips a switch and the vacuum powers on.

 

“...Um…Rose…” Jacky says as she looks through the thermal camera.

 

“What’s up?” Rose says as she continues to point the vacuum in the direction of the ghost.

 

“The ghost is moving!”

 

“Where? Is it moving towards me? Is the vacuum working?” Rose asks with what is probably a little too much enthusiasm for their current situation.

 

Before Jacky could respond the girls were cut off by another loud sound.

 

Jacky quickly grabs her flashlight and points it towards the source of the noise.

 

“These blocks definitely weren’t over here before!”

 

This time the letter blocks spelled out a word.

 

STOP

 

“Rose! Turn off the vacuum! I think we’re making the ghost angry!”

 

Rose flips the switch again and the vacuum quickly turns off.

 

The two girls stood in silence as they waited to see what the ghost did next.

 

After waiting for a moment, Jacky’s flashlight started to flicker on and off.

 

“How much charge did this have when we came in here?” Jacky says as she taps the side of the flashlight in an attempt to fix it.

 

“I made sure that everything was fully charged before we came out here. I even double checked all the batteries just to make sure.”

 

Soon after the flashlight started malfunctioning all of their other electrical equipment followed suit.

 

“What’s going on!” Jacky shouts as she tries to wrap her head around what was happening.

 

“Some people who’ve encountered ghosts have said that they can interfere with electronics when they’re feeling a particularly strong emotion…I’m assuming that the emotion this ghost is feeling is….”

 

Suddenly, all of the girl’s electronics shut off.

 

“...Anger…”

 

…They were now standing in darkness…They couldn’t even see their hands in front of their own faces if they wanted to…

 

As the inky blackness continued to consume the girls they started hearing something.

 

It was a faint, crackling sound that neither of them could identify.

 

…Despite this both of them knew exactly where the sound was coming from…

 

“...G...t…O…t…”

 

“Did…did you hear that?” Rose says as she tries to not let the fear consume her.

 

“...Yep…” Jacky responds as she tries to do the same.

 

The two girls continued to stand there as the darkness continued to consume them both.

 

They hear a loud crash as Jacky’s flashlight briefly flickers back to life.

 

The sound ended up being the wooden chest being thrown against the wall. It leaves a large crater in the wall as it falls to the floor with a loud thump.

 

Jacky’s flashlight turns off again.

 

The two girls, now aware of where the other was because of the brief amount of light, slowly walked towards each other until they were back to back.

 

A bright orange light suddenly appears behind the two girls as they both slowly turn themselves towards it.

 

“GET OUT!!!”

 

…The two girls didn’t believe what they were seeing…

 

What they saw in front of them was a large glowing orange figure. It took the stereotypical appearance of a ghost that one would see in a horror movie, but with the visual distinction of it also being made almost completely of fire. It also had noticeable glowing yellow eyes, a large mouth lined with sharp edges that looked like that of a Jack-O-Lantern, and long arms with giant claws on its hands.

 

Jacky jumps back away from the ghost…but Rose just stands in place frozen by her fear.

 

“Rose! Watch out!” Jacky screams out as the ghost raises one of its flaming arms over its head and swipes it down towards Rose.

 

Jacky quickly jumps towards Rose and shoves her out of the way as the ghost slashes her back.

 

“AAAHHH!” Jacky cries out as she falls to the floor writhing in pain.

 

“I…I thought you said that ghosts couldn’t touch us?!” Jacky asks through gritted teeth.

 

“I said that we couldn’t touch the ghosts. Not that the ghost can’t touch us.” Rose responds as she dusts herself off and stands up while backing away from the ghost.

 

“That would’ve been great to know earlier!” Jacky said as she slowly got back up on her feet.

 

“...I mean to be fair most of my knowledge on how ghosts interact with the corporeal world is theoretical…well, it was theoretical until now…”

 

“...Fair enough…” Jacky says as she takes a few steps back and assumes a combative stance.

 

“Jacky! What are you doing? I just said that you couldn’t touch the ghost!”

 

“Well, I don’t see any other options right now.”

 

“We could try to run away.” Rose says as she inches her way towards the door of the room.

 

“...That could work…but I don’t think that would work if both of us ran…”

 

“...Yeah…I think you’re right…” Rose opens the door and leaves the room. “...I’ll get the others…Maybe Steve knows how to deal with this…”

 

As soon as Rose closes the door she makes a run for the stairs and quickly makes her way down.

 

“...It would be great if my walkie talkie worked right now…” She said through tired breaths.

 

Back in the room the ghost started to make its way towards Jacky.

 

“Bring it on!” Jacky shouts out. “I’m not afraid of you!”

 

The ghost quickly flies towards Jacky and slashes downwards as she quickly dodges. The attack missed Jacky, but the ghost left claw marks that went through the floor.

 

Soon after the ghost made contact the floor caught on fire and slowly started spreading through the rest of the room.

 

“...Crap…” Jacky said as she rose back up to her feet.

 

The ghost turned around and started slowly making its way toward Jacky again.

 

‘What do I do?’ Jacky’s thoughts were racing as she tried to think of a way out of this situation. ‘I’m strong in comparison to other humans, but that doesn’t mean shit in comparison to a ghost.’

 

As Jacky continued to rack her brain for a plan she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

 

“...What?” Jacky asked herself as she looked down at her hand in confusion. “...Why is my hand glowing?”

 

For some reason a pink and yellowish light was flowing through her right arm.

 

As she continues to stare at the energy surging through her arm the flaming ghost seems to briefly disappear…

 

…Before quickly reappearing right in front of her…

 

‘Dammit! I wish I had a weapon right now! I don’t think that I could beat this thing bare handed…but it’s not like a weapon could touch this thing either…What should I do?’

 

She crossed her arms in front of her face in defense as she waited for the inevitable.

 

…Suddenly, the light that was previously flowing through her arm started to move until it eventually took the shape of a sword.

 

The sword formed just in time to block the ghost’s next attack.

 

‘...What the hell is going on?’ She thinks to herself as she uses the energy sword she apparently had to push the ghost back.

 

“Screw it! I can process this later!” Jacky yells as she points the everchanging  tip of the energy sword towards the ghost.

 

The ghost suddenly flew backwards away from the blade and folded its arms in front of itself.

 

“Oh! So now you’re afraid of me?” Jacky rhetorically asked as she threw the sword back over her shoulder.

 

Instead of the sword actually landing on her shoulder though the energy just kind of floated above it while still maintaining the shape of a sword to the best of its ability.

 

As the ghost continued to cower in fear it slowly started shrinking too. As it shrunk it also started to change color from red and yellow to white and blue.

 

The rest of the fire in the room followed suit and even started to shrink alongside the flames of the ghost until there wasn’t any fire in the room anymore.

 

‘...Huh…I guess that this is special fire that the ghost has full control of.” Jacky thought as the ghost continued to shrink further.

 

When the ghost finally stopped shrinking it was so small that Jacky had to move closer to get a better look at it.

 

When she was close enough to finally get a good look at it the ghost took the form of a small child.