12:50 PM

All Thorn could do was stand still in ghastly silence. Waiting. Waiting for whatever was on the other side of the door to make its move, unsure if each subdued breath and hastened heartbeat would be her last. Yet the entity remained in the hallway as if waiting for the Hex Girls to make their move before striking.

How long she stood there, Thorn did not know. It couldn't have been more than a minute or two, but it felt unending, like a nightmare she couldn't wake up from, and with each passing second, she suffered. Physically, she fought to keep herself from vomiting from the stench of rot and decay that permeated the room. But the mental anguish was worse. She brought Dusk and Luna here, all because she thought that a fantastical light would bring her to safety. And now she could barely look at them. Luna covered her mouth in an attempt to keep herself from hyperventilating, no doubt on the verge of a panic attack. Dusk cowered behind them with a look of pure terror on her face. A single tear fell down Thorn's face. She told them she'd protect them. And she failed to do so.

The sound of scratching caused Thorn to flinch, jostling her out of her thoughts. The entity outside clawed at the door. But to Thorn's surprise, it wasn't an attempt to break the door down, which she reasoned it could easily do, but rather it was a careful, systematic score. After another unnerving minute of confusion and fear, the scratching stopped. The floorboards creaked and the smell faded as the entity slowly crept down the hall, returning to where it came from.

Thorn let out a long sigh of relief as she hugged Dusk and Luna.

"I'm so sorry," Thorn said, hugging her friends tighter.

"It's...alright," Luna replied with an exhausted sigh.

"Hey, we're still alive, that's gotta count for something," Dusk said, cracking a smile that failed to mask her anxiety.

They remained embraced for another minute or so before Thorn released them.

"I shouldn't have brought us here," Thorn said.

"No, I think you were right about that light," Luna said between short breaths. "I think it was protecting us from whatever was scratching at the door. That's why you felt safe, and probably why the thing outside didn't break down the door."

Luna had a point and was likely correct, but Thorn shook her head. "I mean the Regal Hotel. We should've just stayed at our hotel and prepared for the interview." Thorn paused and looked away from her friends. "It's become too dangerous and I've failed to keep us safe. It's best we just get out before things get worse."

"Hold up," Dusk said. "Didn't the Broken say bad shit was gonna happen if we didn't find the treasure?"

"Are ghosts and...whatever was on the other side of the door not bad enough?" Thorn asked. "I've already screwed up and put you both in harm's way. I'm not doing that again."

Thorn walked toward the door with her head hung low, passing her friends.

"Wait," Luna said before Thorn could leave. "As much as I hate to say it, we have to stay."

"You're the one who didn't want to come here in the first place," Thorn scoffed.

"I know," Luna said. "But after this...incident…I think there's more going on here than we realize."

"Woah, I thought I was the one into conspiracies," Dusk said with a slight chuckle.

"The only reason we're alive is that Thorn followed a random light into this room," Luna said. "We're either the luckiest people on the planet, or something intervened. And based on what happened last night, I'd say it's the latter. Possibly the Broken or something sent by the Broken."

Thorn scoffed at that idea. Sure, the Broken had intervened on their behalf before and was the reason they were even here in the first place. But to save them from some unknown ghost or monster? He didn't save them from the ghost in the basement. And when he gave her instructions to find the treasure, he didn't give her any helpful information regarding the treasure's specific location or even what it was. Hell, she still didn't know the Broken's true motive for helping her.

"Yeah right," Thorn said with a dismissive laugh.

"Unless whatever was outside was messing with us, I don't know how else to explain what just happened," Luna stated. "I think Dusk's right, there's something supernatural going on. And I'm not just talking about the ghost in the basement."

Thorn shook her head as she reached the door. She heard her phone vibrate. A quick check revealed that they were nothing but some email alerts, but groaned upon seeing the time. 12:54. They had just over two hours to find the treasure and were nowhere near locating it.

"If the Broken wants us to find this treasure, then he needs to give us another miracle cause we're never going to find it in time," Thorn said as she grabbed the doorknob. Unlike last time, the door opened with no effort.

She stepped into the hallway. At the end of the hall, she saw the metal doors were torn off their hinges, now twisted into a barely recognizable shape. Thorn shuddered. It was time to go, the treasure be damned. She headed down the hall, intent to go down the stairwell they originally came from.

"Hey, there's something on the door," Dusk called to Thorn.

Thorn turned around. Dusk and Luna were examining what looked like simple claw marks on the door. But as she got closer, it became clear that it wasn't just scratch marks. She shuddered at what she saw. Scratched onto the door were three words:

I FOUND YOU

"We're leaving now," Thorn nervously stated. She grabbed both Luna and Dusk by the arm, ready to drag them out of the hotel if needed.

They didn't get far before Dusk and Luna freed themselves from Thorn's grip. Luna motioned for Thorn and Dusk to halt as she quietly moved to the opposite wall.

Thorn glared at Luna. "We need to le-"

"Shhhh!" Luna hushed.

"What is it?" Thorn whispered.

Luna didn't answer. Thorn and Dusk shot each other a confused glance.

"Listen," Luna whispered.

Thorn listened. While they were separated by several rooms, Thorn could hear footsteps coming from the first hallway they walked through. They were softer, nothing like the footsteps they heard earlier. Luna tiptoed to the door across from the room they had been trapped in and opened the door. Thorn and Dusk followed as Luna entered the room. To Thorn's surprise, there was a person-sized hole in the wall that led into the room where the door slammed shut when they first reached the third story. As they walked into the second room, the footsteps became more distinguishable.

"There's a person by the stairwell," Thorn said.

Luna nodded as they reached the far door. Luna cracked the door open and Thorn peeked through. She couldn't see anyone, but it was clear that someone was on the stairwell.

"Who is it?" Luna quietly asked. "The foreman? The police?"

"I don't know, I can't see them," Thorn replied.

There was a loud creak as the stairwell door opened and someone entered the hallway.

"Shit! Don't let them see you," Dusk said as she closed the door.

Unfortunately, Dusk pulled the door with more force than she should've, causing the door to shut loudly. The person outside gasped in surprise. Judging by how the person sounded, Thorn guessed it was a man.

"Damnit, Dusk! Now they know we're here!" Thorn scowled.

"Will you two shut it!" Luna responded.

Whoever was outside slowly approached the door.

"Fuck! What do we do!?" Thorn gasped.

"Let's go back to the other room and wait him out," Luna suggested.

Thorn nodded as she and Luna quietly backed away from the door.

"Fuck that, I'm tired of running away. We have the element of surprise for once. Let's jump this fucker," Dusk said with a devilish grin as she drew her dagger. "I bet he's the one scaring us."

"You can't be serious," Luna said shaking her head.

Dusk grabbed the doorknob and braced herself against the door. The person outside stopped outside the door. As the doorknob began to turn, Dusk made her move.

"Dusk, don't do this," Thorn pleaded, but it was to no avail.

"AHHH!" Dusk shouted as she threw the door open with as much force as possible. There was a loud thud, and the man shouted. Thorn only caught a glimpse of the man from behind Dusk. The man stumbled backward before regaining his balance. He then took off running down the hallway in the direction of the rubble.

"Are you fucking crazy!" Luna shouted.

"Come on, we can get him!" Dusk said, ignoring Luna.

"No! Let's leave before we screw up anything else," Thorn said, trying to salvage their terrible situation.

But Dusk was already out the door in pursuit of the unknown person, dagger drawn and ready to fight. "Thorn, go the other way and cut him off!" she shouted before disappearing around the corner.

"Dusk!" Luna shouted as she chased after her.

Thorn grunted in frustration as Luna left. Dusk just assaulted someone, and they lost their best chance to leave. Without much of a choice, Thorn turned around and ran down the other hallway. Maybe she could catch the guy before Dusk caught him and made their situation worse.

Thorn ran as fast as she could down the hall. Even with several rooms between them, she could hear Dusk shouting at the poor bastard she pursued. Though as she neared the end of the hall, she wondered who exactly they were chasing. She doubted it was the police, and from what little she saw of the guy, he didn't look like the foreman. What if he's the cultist the Fallen sent? What if he's the one who scratched 'I Found You' into the door? She shuddered at that thought before shaking her head. 'No. He couldn't be a cultist. Why would he run? And the creature went down a different stairwell. No, he's someone else. I hope.

"OW!"

Thorn fell backward and hit the ground hard. There was a thud, followed by a crack of some electronic device. Thorn groaned as she sat up, rubbing her head. Outside of maybe a bruise, she was fine. But her concern quickly shifted to the person she ran into. Laying before her was a guy with brown hair, roughly her age, wearing a dark blue t-shirt with a white ghost logo that reminded her of the Ghostbusters with the letters M.A.P.S written in a squiggly and spooky font. A black jacket, a pair of jeans, and work boots completed his outfit. More curiously, he wore a belt with numerous electronic devices and was holding a flashlight and a camcorder.

"Ugh," he groaned as he sat himself up.

"Are you okay?" Thorn asked as she scrambled to her feet and helped the guy up.

"I'm fine," he muttered. "But my camera's seen better days." He raised his camera. The lens was cracked, and there was a large dent on the side that hit the floor.

"I am so sorry," Thorn said, cringing at the sight of the camera that she broke.

"GET BACK HERE!"

Both Thorn and the man jumped as Dusk came running around the corner. Dusk skidded to a stop upon seeing Thorn.

"Good job, Thorn, you caught him," Dusk said with a smile as Luna finally came around the corner, winded from the sprint.

But before Thorn responded, Dusk pointed her knife at the cameraman. "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"

"Jeez, you can't just threaten people," Thorn said, stepping between the two.

"I could ask you the same thing," the guy said, looking past Thorn and at Dusk, unfazed by the blonde's actions.

"I asked you first," Dusk demanded.

The man crossed his arms. "My name's Brian Kent. I'm a paranormal investigator with M.A.P.S., the Mid Atlantic Paranormal Society. My team and I were hired to look into reports of a ghost scaring construction workers. I was going to check in with the foreman when I heard screaming upstairs, so I went upstairs to investigate." He glared at the three girls. "Then I was assaulted with a door, chased by a crazy chick with a knife before another girl broke my camera. Now I'll ask you three the same thing: who the hell are you three, and why are you here?"

Thorn's face reddened with embarrassment. Jeez, we fucked this up. "I'm Thorn, this is Luna and Dusk." Thorn flinched as she mentioned their names. She regretted not giving him their birth names and keeping their identities safe, but if Brian knew they were the Hex Girls, he made no indication of it. Thorn uneasily brushed her bangs aside. She didn't want to tell him the entire truth about why they were here, as she doubted he would believe her. "We were in town and wanted to see if the hauntings were true and we, um, scared ourselves."

"And we were about to leave," Luna quickly added, her face also a tad flushed. "Again, we're terribly sorry for what happened here." She elbowed Dusk.

"Yeah, um, I'm sorry for um, chasing you with a knife," Dusk said as she lowered her knife, seemingly as awkwardly as possible.

"Do you three even have permission to be here?" Brian asked with a stern look.

"Er, no," Thorn reluctantly replied.

"So you're all trespassing."

The three girls were silent.

"I'm going to the foreman and reporting this to the police," Brian said, walking past the girls.

"No! Please don't," Thorn pleaded, grabbing his hand.

"Your psychotic friend threatened and chased me with a knife and you broke my camera," Brian replied, pulling his hand from her grip. "And you all are interfering with my work."

"I...I'll pay for the camera," Thorn said, lowering her voice.

"Yeah, you will," Brian said without looking back as he headed toward the room that made passing the collapsed ceiling possible.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Don't let him call the police. Her mind raced with possibilities to stop him, including just running away, but none of them would work. Thorn turned to her panicked friends. "What do we do?"

"I don't know," Luna said, trying to remain calm and collected. "But if he presses charges, we're screwed."

"Ugh, Gus is gonna kill us," Dusk groaned.

"None of this is helping!" Thorn fumed.

"Okay, okay!" Luna stammered, rubbing her head. "Let's think this through."

"Thorn, just flirt your way out of this," Dusk nonchalantly suggested.

"Doubt it'll work now given how pissed he is at us," Thorn said with a sigh.

"The ghost!" Luna blurted out. "We can show him where the ghost is!"

Thorn smiled with excitement. That just might work. She quickly turned around and motioned for her friends to follow. She entered the room and ran after Brian, who had made it to the adjacent room.

"Brian wait!" Thorn called out to him.

Brian kept walking without looking back. "What now?"

"We saw the ghost," Thorn said.

Brian stopped. "You did?"

"Yes, we saw it about an hour ago," Thorn answered as she, Dusk, and Luna caught up with Brian.

"Where?" he asked, turning around.

Thorn finally had leverage. As much as she didn't want to be manipulative, she couldn't have him call the police. "We'll show you, but you can't call the police."

Brian crossed his arms and grimaced. While she put on a confident facade, Thorn was worried. All he had to do was say no, and they'd be screwed. She looked back at her fellow Hex Girls. Luna shot a worried glance at her and was about to whisper something but Thorn raised her hand to tell her to wait.

"Alright, if you can lead me to the alleged ghost AND I find evidence of it, I won't call the police," Brian said, crossing his arms.

Thorn's eyes brightened, and she ever so slightly smiled, as she tried to contain her excitement and relief while maintaining her confident persona. Things were starting to look up for her.

"But you still owe me for the camera," Brian stated before pointing at Dusk. "And I want her at least six feet away from me at all times."

"Done." Thorn swiftly affirmed. "I'll get you the money for the camera."

"And...I'll behave," Dusk said, raising her hands to show him that she had sheathed the knife as she took two large steps backward.

"Good. Now show me where the ghost was," Brian said, motioning for Thorn to lead the way.


"This is it," Thorn said as the four of them stood before the now-closed basement door. She ran her hand through her hair as she nervously watched Brian open the door. She didn't want to be here. Not that she had much of a choice. She had briefly toyed with showing Brian the broken stairwell doors on the third story and telling him about whatever found them upstairs but decided against it. She wanted to be as far away from that...thing….as possible. So it was reluctantly off to the basement Of course, the ghost was an issue but to her surprise that wasn't scaring her. But the magic she felt, and how she almost used her magic, scared her. Even after everything she went through today, she still wasn't willing to use her magic.

"Wow, that door is heavy," Brian said with an exhausted sigh upon opening the door.

"Yeah, it took two of us to open it last time," Thorn said, putting on a confident smile.

But her confident smile quickly faded once she gazed into the darkness. The only reasons why she didn't run off were that Brian would call the police and that she couldn't sense any magic.

Brian turned on his flashlight and proceeded down the basement steps, though stopped only a couple of steps down.

"Basement's pretty big, can one of you show me the specific spot where you saw the ghost?" he asked.

"Um, Dusk was the one who got the best look at it," Thorn said.

"Hey, don't throw me under the bus," Dusk scolded. "You saw it down there too and you can sens-"

"And Brian doesn't want you anywhere near him," Luna interrupted before Dusk could reveal that Thorn had magic, much to Thorn's relief. That was another thing she was worried about. What if Brian (or anyone else) found out about her magic? She was only comfortable with just Dusk and Luna knowing.

"Fine, I'll show him," Thorn sighed. She headed down the basement steps, with Luna and Dusk following her in that order. She passed Brian and led them into the basement. With the brighter flashlight, Thorn was able to spot a light switch, but she frowned when flipping it did nothing.

"I guess we're stuck with flashlights," Luna said.

"Hmm, now where was the ghost?" Brian asked.

Thorn shrugged. "I don't know, it just appeared randomly all over the basement."

"And it even appeared at the top of the basement steps," Luna added.

Brian scanned the basement with the flashlight, revealing numerous boxes, furniture, and other assorted items. But no ghost.

"We need to find those X's," Dusk said. "That's where I first saw the ghost."

"And where are they?" Brian inquired.

"Along the wall," Dusk replied. "But you go down there, the ghost is gonna get pissed."

"Yeah, it chased us out of the basement," Thorn said, hoping that this information would convince Brian to head back upstairs.

"Interesting," Brian said as he moved closer to the wall and motioned for the Hex Girls to lead the way.

Thorn only had a vague memory of the X's as she was more preoccupied with the magic she felt. Surprisingly, Thorn still couldn't detect that magic. Perhaps that meant the ghost wasn't here. That thought brought her some comfort as she moved farther into the basement. Yet with each step, she was certain that either the ghost would appear or she'd sense the magic. But neither happened.

She was so engrossed with her worries that she would've passed the yellow X on the wall had her companions not stopped.

"Here it is," Dusk said, pointing out the marking.

Brian leaned down and examined the marking. "Do you know what it means?"

"We're not sure," Thorn answered. She thought about telling him about the treasure but stopped herself. She didn't want to reveal their motive for being here, partially because saying they were looking for a treasure was weird and could be interpreted as looting, but also because they didn't know Brian or trust him.

"It could be something left by the construction workers," Luna quickly countered, breaking Thorn from her thoughts.

Brian examined the X for a few more moments before standing back up. "Hmm, I wonder if this might have to do with the treasure?"

"Wait, you know about the treasure?" Thorn asked, a small smile spreading across her face.

"Yeah, I do my research before investigating a location," Brian said with a smirk. "According to most stories, the people who built the Regal Hotel, a group of mystics or cultists depending on the variation, hid a bunch of valuables somewhere on the property. And as with most urban legends, what the treasure is varies with whoever's telling it, with some of the more common suggestions being money or important religious artifacts."

"Did you happen to find out where it's hidden?" Thorn asked.

"Not really," Brian said, shaking his head. "Pretty much every room has been suggested at one point."

"Oh," Thorn said with a frown. She thought perhaps they'd be able to find the treasure if Brian had additional information to help narrow the search. But that idea quickly went up in smoke.

"Anyway," Brian said. "Is this where the ghost was?"

"Yes! This is where the ghost appeared," Thorn affirmed.

Brian shined his light around, searching for the ghost. He then pulled what looked like a TV remote with a screen and a few buttons. He pressed one button and the screen lit up, showing a bunch of numbers. He held the device out, and after a few moments, the numbers changed.

"Hmm, EMF readings are normal, but we'll wait a minute to be sure," Brian said.

"Hmpf."

Thorn turned and saw Luna trying not to laugh.

"What is it?" Thorn whispered.

"He's using an EMF reader to detect ghosts," Luna scoffed.

"And? Isn't that normal for ghost hunters?" Thorn replied.

"Yeah, but that doesn't make it reliable," Luna said crossing her arms. "That device isn't designed to detect ghosts, only electromagnetic radiation emitted by electrical appliances. Wires, and even our phones, could set off a spike. The entirety of hunting ghosts with technology like EMF readers is based on using random errors, glitches, and confirmation bias to get results. It's garbage."

"Well this 'garbage' just found something," Brian said with a snarky tone.

Luna stuttered and silenced herself, and under normal circumstances, Thorn would call Luna out on being wrong, but her curiosity got the best of her; she quickly turned and saw Brian pointing the EMF reader at the ceiling.

"Is it the ghost?" Dusk asked as she tried to squeeze between Thorn and Luna so she could get a better look.

Brian walked a few feet away from the wall and stopped at some boxes.

"There's something behind these boxes," he said, shining his light at the suspicious area.

Thorn approached the spot and it was clear that several boxes were positioned to cover something. She went over to go remove the boxes

Thud!

They all turned toward the source of the noise, and Brian shined his light at the spot. About sixty feet away was a box that had fallen to the floor.

"This is what happened when I first saw the ghost," Dusk warned.

"There's your evidence, now let's get out of here," Thorn said as she started backing away from the boxes. The memory of what happened the last time flooded her mind, and she was worried that she'd accidentally used her magic and hurt someone.

"A box falling isn't evidence of anything," Brian asserted. "I need more."

"Um, d-does that count as e-evidence," Dusk stammered as she pointed behind him and Thorn.

Thorn's heart raced as she and Brian slowly turned around.

"GET OUT!" the hooded phantom screeched as it rose into the air.

Thorn could feel her magic flowing through her. Small sparks of green energy crackled around her hand. No! She clutched her hand and pulled it to her chest, the sparks of energy dissipating.

Brian sighed and turned to face the ghost. "So this is the ghost, huh," he said, looking at the ghost with pure curiosity.

"What? We need to leave!" Thorn shouted as the ghost raised a macabre arm, ready to strike at them.

Yet Brian remained there, and Thorn could've sworn she saw him frown like he was disappointed. Thorn brushed it off as an effect of the low-light level and pulled him out of the way of the ghost's strike.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" Dusk shouted as she and Luna quickly ran back to the stairs.

Thorn didn't need to be told to do so, as she was right on her friends' heels. She briefly looked back as she didn't hear Brian behind her, but sighed with relief as he came running into view. But that relief quickly faded as the ghost was behind him, screeching and swiping at Brian.

"Go!" he shouted.

Thorn reached the steps and could see Dusk and Luna reach the relative safety of the top. She rushed up the stairs, nearly tripping over the steps from the darkness, before tumbling into the light.