A/N: Hello, my lovely, lovely readers! I'm so sorry for the long break! There was a lot of personal nonsense going on that I won't delve into and while my life is still crazy, it's somewhat more manageable at the moment. I'm going to try very hard to keep this thing going. The hardest part seems to be tracking down my muse and duct taping her to a chair so I can focus on writing a chapter. Anyway, this was a pretty fun one to write, so I hope it makes up for my absence!

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It turns out Natalie didn't really appreciate being pelted with snowballs. Well, slushballs really. The snow was still fairly wet and didn't form a shape very well. She shrieked in the parking lot as Matt got her right in the center of her back.

"Matthew Parker Anderson," Natalie screamed at the top of her lungs. Asteria laughed as Natalie continued to yell cuss words from behind a binder.

"Oh, come on Nat," Rachael laughed as she threw one at Asteria. Asteria ducked in time and threw one back. "Enjoy life a little!"

The parking lot had turned into absolute chaos as students rushed into a snowball fight, or else to edge their cars through the icy parking lot. It appears faculty gave up and didn't bother to attempt controlling them. Asteria rushed to the relative safety of a pine tree on the edge of the lot that still allowed her to throw snowballs at Damien, who was currently giving Rachael everything he had.

Asteria successfully hit Damien dead in the chest and started laughing. Her success was short lived, though. A perfectly formed snowball hit her backpack and smashed apart, covering her whole face with wet flecks of snow. She looked over to see Emmett and put two and two together.

"That was such a cheap shot," Asteria yelled at him. "Not fair!"

"Cullen," Damien yelled. "Help me out!"

Emmett shrugged before grinning and forming another snowball. Asteria knew her position was lost and booked it through the parking lot. She slid on a patch of ice and felt her feet give out from under her. The momentum from her running meant she skidded roughly four feet and somehow ended up underneath a parked truck.

"Are you okay," Emmett asked as he offered her a hand to pull her out.

"That depends. If I take that hand are you gonna hit me with a snowball when I get up," Asteria asked.

"It's like getting a cat out of a tree. Just take the hand," Emmett said.

"Well now I'm offended. I'm just going to stay down here," Asteria said. That decision lasted all of a second before a strong arm gripped around her wrist and dragged her out from her hiding spot.

"You're alright though," Emmett asked her. Asteria was almost touched at his concern.

"Yeah, I think-," Asteria started. She hadn't even gotten the whole sentence out before he gently placed a snowball on top of her head and patted it down so it crumbled to pieces and had bits fall into the back of her shirt.

"Emmett Cullen," Asteria yelled at the top of her lungs after his retreating form. She didn't have to wait long for revenge though; he was so distracted by his own laughter he missed the snowball Jasper threw. It hit him square in the face.

"Thanks Jasper," Asteria called across the lot. She was sure it was enough with vampire hearing. He grinned at her before Emmett play punched his arm.

Soaking wet from the half-melted snow, it became a general consensus among students for the fight to come to an end.

"You know, Charlie's working a late shift tonight," Asteria said. "Why don't we all go home to change and then meet at my house for a movie night?"

"I want pajama pants, hot chocolate, and cookies," Natalie announced.

"Who are you, Mariah Carey," Damien asked her.

"Uh, no. I'm the person that has to put up with your asses, and that deserves special treatment," Natalie said.

Asteria rolled her eyes dramatically. "I think I can fulfill your demands. You have to help bake the cookies though."

"Great," Rachael said. "Burnt cookies it is."

Asteria got home and changed quickly. It worked out well that Charlie was gone so they could use the house; the protection spell at the house gave her peace of mind. She shot a quick text to Charlie explaining the plans for the night. He was pretty cool about having company over so she wasn't concerned.

Her phone buzzed and Asteria picked it up figuring it was Charlie's response. Instead there was a text from Alice. Have fun tonight. I hope you're being careful.

I'm fine, Alice. We're spending the night watching movies here. Nothing exciting, she responded.

The phone buzzed again almost immediately. Have fun! See you in the morning at ten.

Asteria could hear a car pull up outside. Based on the awful backfire of the engine, she figured it was Matt's beat up truck. The others arrived soon after, and the laborious task of agreeing on a movie was started up. Choosing a promising looking spoof horror movie, they settled in on the couch.

The sound of another car pulling in surprised them halfway through the movie, and Asteria pulled back the curtain to see the cruiser. Perks of being a small town cop: Charlie could show up wherever while on duty.

"Hey guys," Charlie said as Asteria opened the door for him.

"Hey Charlie, what's up," Asteria greeted him.

"I just wanted to drop by. See what's going on," Charlie said.

"We're just watching this awful movie. Asteria has horrible taste," Rachael said.

Charlie chuckled. "We never agree on movies either. You kids all set for the night, then?"

"Yeah, we were about to order some pizza soon. Other than that we're just going to bake some cookies and watch a few movies," Asteria said.

"Sounds great," Charlie said. He pulled a twenty dollar bill out of his wallet and gave it to Asteria.

"Hey now-," she started.

"Just save me some cookies," Charlie said. "I'll get out of your hair. Have a good night guys." He had gotten to the front door before pausing and turning back around. "Everyone goes home by eleven."

"That man is a blessing," Rachael said.

"Have you seen that mustache? The man's a legend," Damien said.

Asteria rolled her eyes before ordering a pizza. She made sure one of them was a meat lover's so she could save some for Charlie. The pizza came and went, and then Asteria insisted on watching Natalie attempt to make cookies. It was equal parts entertaining and terrifying; she had never baked before and Asteria called instructions from her spot on the couch.

"Okay, so what you want to do now is just turn the mixer on medium and then dump all of the dry ingredients in at once. Just go ahead and toss the whole thing in there. It's very important that the mixer is on first," Asteria said. The resulting scream from the kitchen was more than worth it. She fell into a fit of laughter as Natalie rounded the corner covered head to toe in flour.

"You did that on purpose," Natalie accused.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," Asteria said between laughter. "But yeah, I totally did. How do you not know how to use a mixer?"

The joke was worth the twenty minutes she spent cleaning the kitchen and making a new batch of cookie dough. The rest of the night blurred by and it was a little after eleven before everyone finally hit the road.

Ten in the morning was way too early to schedule things on the weekend, Asteria had decided. Her late night with the others had meant she didn't have time to make a new dream pillow, which meant restless sleep and her nightmare plagued her. She pulled up to the Cullens' house while stifling a yawn and regretfully turned off her music. She had just gotten to the good part of 'Trouble' by Bellstop.

"Hello," Alice greeted her brightly. Asteria suppressed a glare.

"Why are you always so chipper," Asteria asked as she sipped her coffee.

Emmett laughed as he entered the room. "I have never seen Alice in a bad mood, and I don't think I want to. Anyway, let's go over everything."

They spent maybe an hour detailing out a script, showing off props and equipment, and going through Alice's wardrobe. It all went smoothly, although Asteria did have to put her foot down on some of Alice's choices.

"Over my dead body am I wearing heels," Asteria told Alice while looking her dead in the eye. "It's going to be dark. I'm going to trip, and then I'm going to get like a million splinters. No way."

"Why are you so difficult," Alice asked while carrying away the offensive heels. She returned a millisecond later with some stylish leather boots that had the smallest of heels on it. "Better?"

"By 'better', do you mean 'will you be able to navigate stairs in the dark without dying'? Because that answer is yes," Asteria said.

The two bickered good naturedly for several minutes while Emmett loaded things into the Volvo and Asteria made several protection spells. The first went around the Cullen household, and the other two went in a bag Asteria had brought. Alice gave her an odd look as Asteria steeped basil, black pepper, and garlic powder in a water bottle.

"Please tell me you don't intend to drink that," Alice said. "It looks revolting."

"You'll see," Asteria said mysteriously and refused to comment on it further.

"Are you sure you won't come with us," Alice asked Edward as he sat in the living room with a book. Asteria couldn't tell which book though, because it was in Russian.

"I'm positive," Edward said. Asteria could just barely hear the sarcasm, which she considered to be an overall improvement to his character. "Go have fun."

Alice, Jasper, and Asteria rode in the Volvo while Emmett and Rosalie elected to take the convertible. Asteria figured it might be a little too crowded if they all took the Volvo anyway. It turned into the most ridiculous game of leap frog ever as the Volvo and convertible kept passing each other while Asteria clung for life in the back seat. Alice was delusional if she thought the little Volvo was ever going to win.

"Well that was completely unnecessary," Asteria said as she closed the Volvo door. They were parked behind the convertible, which was the surest sign of defeat.

Emmett laughed from where he leaned against the convertible. "You should know better. Rose is always going to win."

"Yes, alright, you two love each other very much. Let's go inside," Asteria said. It wasn't awfully cold, but there was a wind that had kicked up and it was not very pleasant.

They went in with trash bags and started to pick up any debris that showed it was a party house. Emmett looked around the house with that same forlorn sense Rosalie had, but Alice and Jasper were unaffected. They had never been there before, after all. There wasn't much they could do about the graffiti, but they figured it added to the abandoned feeling of the house. Asteria had maybe picked up five empty bottles before the others had completely cleaned the rest of the house.

"Alright, let's set up the cameras first," Emmett said. "Asteria, do you want to put your spell up now?"

"On it," Asteria said. She grabbed her bag and spread the little satchels of herbs in each corner of the house. The candle was placed in the downstairs bathroom; with the door was closed there was no way a draft could blow it out, and it would remain out of their camera shots. She shook the water bottle full of herbs, but decided it could steep a little longer first.

"What's the water bottle for," Emmett asked.

"She refuses to say," Alice said with a hint of frustration.

"It's just something I'm working on. I'll let you know when it's ready," Asteria said. It was way more fun to let them guess anyway. "So who's reading the introduction? I elect Emmett; he has a better 'public speaking voice'."

Emmett rolled his eyes. "You just don't want to do it."

"Uh, yeah. Pretty much," Asteria said.

They waited for the wind to die down some before going outside to get a shot of the front of the house in the daylight. "The Fields house," Emmett started. "Built in 1841, it stands abandoned today in the little town of Ford, Kentucky just fifteen miles from the Battle of Richmond. During the Civil War, it saw a lot of bloodshed as both sides clashed over the border state."

"In the middle of a war torn state, Sarah Fields struggled to raise her newborn child while nursing men wounded in the fight. She was only nineteen at the time, but learned to stitch up wounds and fight off infections while her own husband joined the fight," Emmett continued. Asteria decided changing Brigid's name would be appropriate, but otherwise kept a lot of the facts as authentic as possible.

"Many soldiers passed away in this house. After Sarah's passing, it's said you could still see her moving from bedside to bedside, helping the poor souls of injured soldiers that were stuck like her. The house was abandoned in 1943, but passersby still claim to see candlelight from the windows, hear the calls of wounded soldiers, and even see Sarah at the windowsill, waiting for her husband's safe return," Emmett continued.

They added on some more facts about the Battle of Richmond, included statistics on casualties, as well as accounts of other women in Kentucky that they had previously researched. All in all, it was a good intro: definitely attention grabbing, at least.

They took a break while the sun was setting. It gave Asteria a chance to eat something while the rest of them explored the house. She was eating a bag of chips while sitting on a folding chair at their "command central" in the living room. It was something all the ghost hunting shows had, with a few laptops set up to monitor cameras and a walkie talkie to communicate.

Asteria took another bite of her chip while watching the others on the camera as they looked around upstairs. She was sure Rosalie was telling them about her time there. A floorboard creaked several times in the kitchen.

"Oh hell no," Asteria said.

"What," Alice called from the top of the stairs. Asteria forgot they would be able to hear her.

"I told you there was a raccoon or something in here," Asteria called up at Rosalie.

"I don't smell anything," Alice said as she joined her.

"Didn't you hear that sound from the kitchen," Asteria asked.

"No," Jasper said while joining them. "But we weren't paying too close of attention. Maybe it was just the house settling."

"If I see a mouse or something," Asteria started.

Jasper grinned. "Afraid of some little mice?"

"They carried the plague, which killed twenty five million people," Asteria countered. "So yeah, they have kind of a high body count."

Emmett laughed as he joined them. "If I see one, I'll get rid of it for you."

"Why do I not trust you," Asteria asked him with a suspicious look.

"Because you're smart," Alice said.

"I'm glad you say that, because it's time to show my excellent idea," Asteria said. She decided it was officially time to prepare her secret weapon and brought out the water bottle. Asteria shook it up a bit before grabbing the water gun she used back in September with Natalie and Rachael.

"What exactly are you going to do with that," Rosalie asked.

"Well, the idea is to shoot the spell straight at the entity," Asteria said. "It should be strong enough to at least weaken the thing."

"Was this in your book of shadows," Alice asked her with furrowed brows.

"Uh, no. I came up with this the other night when I couldn't sleep, but it sounds promising," Asteria said. "I feel like it's gonna work."

"Let's just hope you don't have to use it," Rosalie said critically.

"Alright, I guess it's time for the plan," Emmett said. "Rose and I will be team one. Alice and Asteria are team two. Jasper will be the tech guy at command central. We'll get a few shots of us walking around the house, ask a few questions, and then when we edit the footage we can add in a few responses."

"Who came up with this idea in the first place," Asteria asked.

"I believe it was you," Rosalie said wryly.

"Oh, yeah. Talk me out of it next time," Asteria said as she looked around the house with potential disease carrying rodents.

Emmett laughed. "Alright, I guess we'll break it up from here. Remember, the camera's are in the kitchen, the parlor, bedroom one at the top of the stairs, and bedroom three along the south wall upstairs, plus the one at command central."

Alice and Asteria elected to go into the kitchen, much to Asteria's displeasure. "There's really not a mouse in here, I promise. I would know," Alice told her.

"Fine," Asteria sighed before clearing her throat and speaking louder into the voice recorder they were using as a prop. "Is there anyone here with us?"

She paused for a decent time before continuing. "If you're here, could you give us a sign?" Two distinct knocks rang out, and Asteria jumped for a second before realizing Jasper was probably just helping them out a bit.

"Woah, okay," Asteria played along. "Can you-,"

"Hey, team two," Jasper said. "That wasn't me."

Alice and Asteria exchanged looks before going back to command central. "That wasn't you," Alice asked.

"I can't tell if you're acting or not," Asteria said.

"I'm honestly not," Jasper said.

"It wasn't us," Rosalie called from the top of the stairs.

"If someone is trying to pull a prank right now I'm gonna throw my shoe at them," Asteria said.

"What do we do now," Alice asked.

"We've already got most of it; let's just finish up our filming and get out of here," Emmett said. "It was probably just the house making noise."

"Okay, this sounds super," Asteria said.

"This was your idea," Emmett pointed out once again.

"Please stop pointing that out like you aren't equally responsible for going along with it," Asteria said.

They made their way back to the kitchen. "What's your name," Asteria asked. She paused for a shorter length of time before adding, "Why are you stuck here?"

"Sarah," Alice called out. "are you here? Can you tell us what it was like to have all those soldiers in your house?"

Asteria thought she saw a hint of grayish white move out of the corner of her eye and whipped her head around. "Did you see that," she asked Alice.

Alice shook her head.

"I think I saw someone," Asteria said as she tried to shake the weird feelings. "Who are you?" At this point it felt dead stupid to be asking more questions, but somehow their fake investigation had become real.

"Team two," Jasper said. "I think we got something on the video."

Emmett and Rosalie were coming down the stairs as they all met in command central. Jasper played back the video from a minute ago and you could see the blur of grey at the edge of the camera as it blinked in and out of disappearance.

"Holy shit," Emmett cussed.

"My spell is keeping evil out, I'm sure of it," Asteria said. "Whoever this is, I think it might be an actual trapped spirit."

"What are we supposed to do," Alice asked.

"I think we should keep going," Asteria said. "Do we have all the footage we need to make the video?"

"We got enough usable shots," Emmett said.

"Alright," Asteria said. "I guess we're doing this thing for real now."

"Is that a good idea," Jasper asked.

"Well, we know whatever's in here isn't bad, so they must be lost," Asteria said. "I was reading through Ailis' accounts in the book of shadows, and she had a few run ins with lost spirits. Most of the time she was able to help them pass on."

"Pass on? To where," Rosalie asked skeptically.

"Listen, we've got like five different things going on right now," Asteria said. "A healthy debate over spiritual belief isn't going to help."

Asteria pulled her bag out again; thankfully she had packed quite a few witchy essentials for her spells at the Cullen house so she was well stocked.

"Alright," Asteria said. "It's time to go full Ghost Adventures."