From the moment she woke up Giovanna felt that something not quite alright was about to happen. Something has been scratching her witchy intuition. And it did not feel pleasant. Giovanna has been trying to figure out what she was feeling, but just couldn’t tell. So she decided to return to that after she eats breakfast. She went to the kitchen and took cheese and ham from the fridge. When she was reaching for bread she felt her phone vibrating. She looked at the screen to see the notification. It was from YouBroad. The channel named Fratelli Orrori has posted a new video.
“I still have them in my subscriptions?” Giovanna said, surprised.
Fratelli Orrori was a channel made by two Italian brothers who were making videos about urbex and hunting ghosts. Giovanna loved watching their videos when she was younger. But with time she has been enjoying them less and less. When she was younger she found them scary and terrifying, but also entertaining and comforting. As she grew older she came to see them as disgusting and lacking in understanding. Who would have thought that she would be the first of the three to understand that ghosts have their own problems and that they too deserve fixing them. It were those unsolved problems that kept them from moving to the afterlife after all. And it was that lack of understanding that made ghosts dangerous in the first place.
“Whatever. I’ll just unsubscribe them,” Giovanna thought.
She opened the YouBroad app and went to the Fratelli Orrori channel. But when she pointed her finger at the subscription button she felt something strange that prompted her to watch the new video first. But it was not curiosity nor nostalgia. It was the same feeling of intuitional anticipation she has been feeling that morning. And it was at its spike.
“Interessante…,” said Giovanna.
She felt that whatever her intuition had been trying to tell her would be explained once she watched the video. And so she played it.
The video wasn’t anything special. The brothers were exploring some kind of haunted castle. They were using all the classic stuff in their repertoire. Keeping themselves safe using salt circles. Random cryptic messages deciphered with a ghost radio. Not even an attempt to actually communicate with the spirit. And of course the crew got out right as the situation got dangerous. Giovanna felt a mix of boredom and anger and started to wonder why she would keep them in her subscriptions. There was however something unusual. The whole video was filmed in a hospital in Poland. Giovanna has never seen any video where the brothers left Italy. And when the video was ending everything became clear. The older brother named Bartolomeo revealed it all.
<<I have to say I have been enjoying our Europe trip so far,>> he said.
Fratelli Orrori were in Poland because they were on a trip. Now Giovanna was a bit impressed. But she still found them not worth watching. Not only were they ignoring the obvious tragedy behind the spirits, but also they were provoking situations dangerous for them and their surroundings. Then the younger brother, Nicola, took the microphone and finished the outro speech.
<<First Doksy, then Otwock, and our next destination is Oftenhides. We’re gonna visit some cursed remains of a hotel that never got built. Make sure you don’t miss that stop! And as always… Like, comment and subscribe!>>
Giovanna immediately knew what her intuition was pointing towards. They were coming to Oftenhides to record a new video.
“Splèndido,” said Giovanna sarcastically.
And then she started thinking. Weren’t the brothers technically bringing danger to the city? They always seemed to anger the spirits to the brink of breaking out of their turf. That could put many people in danger. They always got out of the place at the last moment of course. But what if the Oftenhides ghost had just too little patience? She had a chance to react. And she felt like she had to do it. Maybe she would even convince the brothers to start showing some respect to the spirits. Who knows? She finished eating her sandwich and texted her friends to meet her after school.
Sarah, Ursula and Angelo found themselves in Giovanna’s room. They only knew that Giovanna invited them because she had some kind of problem to discuss.
“So why did you want to meet here and not in some more meetup friendly place? Like MacBeth’s?” asked Angelo.
“Do you suggest that my home is not a meetup friendly place?” asked Giovanna.
“Not at all. I’m just kinda surprised.”
“I thought so,” said Giovanna. “Besides, I wanted to have access to my laptop. It will make planning easier.”
Giovanna turned the laptop on and opened the browser. As she was putting letters into search bars, Sarah was looking around her room. She saw that the majority of her stuff was black or dark blue. Rugs, bedding, tablecloths and windowblinds. It felt kind of dark, but also kind of elegant. In contrast with posters of stars like Seoul Motel or Ephemerality. Those seemed to be little rays of fangirling and fun casted on an otherwise perfect picture of elegance and feng shui. Actually there was one more thing catching her eye. A plush shark lying on Giovanna’s bed.
“Wow, Giovanna, I wouldn’t ever think you’d like plushies,” said Sarah referencing the shark.
“That’s because I don’t,” said Giovanna with her face still in the laptop. “But Bláhákarl’s different.”
And right at that moment Giovanna found the video she was looking for.
“There is this YouBroad channel called Fratelli Orrori,” she started explaining. “They record videos about ghost hunting, but they are so disrespectful that they always anger the ghosts to the point of making the situation dangerous for themselves and their surroundings.”
“I see… But what is it that picked your attention?” asked Ursula.
Giovanna fast-forwarded the video almost to the end. Exactly to the moment when Bartolomeo made his announcement.
“Prima Doksy, poi Otwock e nostra prossima destinazione è Oftenhides.”
“Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow…” Angelo has paused the video. “Giovy, you forgot you’re the only person in this room who can speak Italian.”
“Vero…” said Giovanna, realising her absent-mindedness. “Anyway… They are saying that they are coming to Oftenhides.”
“And you would like to meet them?” asked Ursula.
“Are you a fan?” asked Angelo.
“I wouldn’t agree on that,” said Giovanna. “I simply want to make sure they leave the city without an angry ghost demolishing the neighbourhood.”
“Wait… How do you want to face a ghost?” asked Sarah who didn’t know that much about ghosts.
“We’ll talk with them and see if we can do what they want us to,” said Giovanna. “Ghosts are people who stay in the living realm due to unfinished business.”
Sarah couldn’t tell whether or not Giovanna’s explanation made sense to her. Giovanna seemed to know a lot. But this whole concept was completely new to Sarah. So how could she know?
“Do you have any idea of where we may find them?” asked Angelo.
“Kind of,” said Giovanna. “They mentioned some haunted hotel that wasn’t built.”
Ursula immediately knew what building they could be referencing.
“The Skeleton Hotel!” she said. “That abandoned construction site near the city centre.”
“That would make sense,” said Giovanna. “It was indeed supposed to be a hotel.”
“Well… That solves the mystery,” said Angelo. “Now… How shall we see if they arrive?”
Giovanna had an answer for him.
“Can you, please, watch the Skeleton Hotel for us?”
“Why me?” asked Angelo.
“As far as I remember you finished high school last year,” Giovanna said.
“I have a job, you know?” said Angelo.
Which was true. He did have some jobs to do for Mr. Ovid. His contract expected him to do four more tasks. Mr. Ovid just needed to phone him.
“Your boss hasn’t phoned you in days, did he?” said Giovanna.
That also was true.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” said Angelo, sighing. “But as soon as Mr. Ovid calls, I'm backing out.”
“Thank you,” said Giovanna. “Call me as soon as something happens.”
That evening Sarah was helping aunt Caitlyn make the supper. The kettle had whistled and Sarah took it off the fire. As she poured water to the pitcher she remembered about the plans of her and her friends. She thought that maybe aunt Caitlyn could help her prepare.
“Aunt Caitlyn, do you know any ways to keep yourself safe while ghost hunting?” asked Sarah.
“You’re going ghost hunting?” asked aunt Caitlyn.
“I guess so,” said Sarah. “I don’t know. I’m still kinda new to the concept.”
“I see… Well, protecting yourself from a ghost isn’t hard,” said aunt Caitlyn. “Just be polite to them and try to genuinely figure out what’s troubling them.”
Sarah wasn’t sure what to think of that answer. She wasn’t expecting it to be so short and simple. She thought there was something more about it.
“That’s it?” she asked.
“If you’d like some extra protection then you can wear a salt necklace,” aunt Caitlyn added.
“OK. Thank you.”
That was closer to the answer Sarah was expecting.
“Where are you going to look for ghosts if I may ask?” said aunt Caitlyn.
“I think Ursula called it… the Skeleton Hotel,” said Sarah.
“Ah, right,” said Caitlyn. “Well, just make sure nothing bad happens to you. And don’t do something stupid or act like a yob.”
Sarah felt a bit more ready for her quest. But telling whether or not she was really ready was hard to tell. However it might have really been she could only wait.
