Chardi ended up taking a greyhound bus early on a Friday after his last exams were completed. The bus took him to the nearest town to the girl's school, Furnace Valley. It was a rural town built into the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. All the streets were on a slant, most of the houses had ten to twelve steps to get up to the front door, and a burbling mountain stream flowed beside and sometimes underneath the main street. The trees were tall and straight, much taller than all the buildings, and with only a few brittle brown leaves clinging to the topmost branches.

  In town, Chardi walked from the bus stop to a nearby gas station that looked like every other gas station in Pennsylvania. He bought a handful of jerky from a glass jar on the counter along with a big bottle of water and a bag of roasted peanuts that he hoped would last him until the next time he could eat. With that done, he took a seat on the curb where Derek had told him a car would pick him up and gnawed on his jerky while he waited.

  It didn't take long before a beat up silver Toyota Corolla rolled up with an Uber sticker in the front window.

  "You, Chardi Sodhi?" the driver asked, mangling the pronunciation of his first and last name so bad that Chardi briefly felt bad for putting the man out by not being named John or something.

  "Yeah," Chardi said and crawled into the backseat.

  The driver made stilted small talk that Chardi made the bare minimum attempts at returning.

  When they pulled up to the weed choked drive with a weathered sign declaring it ST AGNES GIRLS PREPARATORY SCHOOL, the driver looked doubtfully back at Chardi. "This is the address. Are you sure this is where you want dropped off?" he asked.

  Chardi shrugged. "I guess. Thanks for the ride."

  Without looking back, Chardi started walking up the overgrown road that he hoped would lead him to the abandoned school. The drive was probably an impressive at one time, but nature had steadily been taking over the gravel drive, plants muscling the slowly deteriorating gravel apart until it was almost unnoticeable. The woods were also encroaching in from the sides, long branches and vines reaching into the road for what little winter sunshine they could catch. The woods were surprisingly loud too. Chardi wasn't someone who spent a lot of time in nature and he had expected the walk to be eerily quiet. Instead, he heard all types of bird calls coming from the tops of the trees, saw and heard squirrels scampering up and down the trunks of trees and at one point had to jump out of the way of two little chipmunks who ran across the road in front of him. Despite the empty cold feeling of the naked trees, the forest was obviously alive and thriving.

  Just when Chardi started to wonder if he would ever reach the school, the building from Derek's photo loomed up from between the trees as if summoned. The road widened and then split into a circular drive. Trees and shrubs still squeezed in as tight to the building and road as they could, but the growth here looked newer than what Chardi had been walking through. The plants here were smaller and softer looking. There were also two black vans parked in front of the school with a handful of people milling around them unloading things and talking among themselves.

  Derek quickly separated himself from them when he saw Chardi. "Mr. Sodhi! So glad you could make it!" he enthused with a wide charming smile that nonetheless didn't reach his eyes. He clapped Chardi on the back heartily when he reached him.

  "Yeah, well," Chardi grumbled and shrugged his way out from under Derek's hand as subtly as he could manage.

  By this point most of the people around the vans had slowed down if not completely stopped to come meet him.

  Derek put his arm around Chardi's shoulder, his grip much tighter the second time around. He steered Chardi toward the two vans and the knot of people around them.

  "Everyone, this is Chardi Sodhi, a-" here Derek glanced at Chardi for a second and Chardi did his best to give him a look that promised a lifetime of pain if he said what he thought he was going to say "an experienced investigator that has agreed to help out," Derek amended with a magnanimous smile in Chardi's direction that grated on every one of his nerves.

  "Chardi, this is Brad Kennedy. He's doing double duty as our Gaffer and Key Grip for this show," Derek went on, gesturing at a fit middle aged man with a warm friendly face and a plaid button down shirt.

  "Mr. Sodhi, it is so nice to meet you," the man said as he put down the heavy looking plastic case he was carrying to heartily shake Chardi's hand. His hand was warm and just a little calloused and his smile looked sincere. It was a little disarming.

  "Uh, yeah," Chardi coughed. "Nice to meet you."

  "And, this is the illustrious Elijah Griffiths," Derek said, turning Chardi away from Brad by his shoulders to face a very pretty woman. She had long flowing hair and big dangly earrings and subtle makeup, but her carefully curated appearance was marred by a stressed smile. She nodded at Chardi, but crossed her arms under her ample chest to indicate she didn't intend to shake hands. "She's our associate producer for this shoot. She's the one who actually makes things work, so if you need anything, she's your gal." Ms. Griffiths smile got even tighter at that, so Chardi took that to mean she absolutely did not want Chardi coming to her with questions or requests.

  "And, this is..." Derek said, gesturing to a short muscular person with short cropped brown hair who was aggressively wrapping cable around their shoulder and elbow.

  "Imogen Nelson," the person bit out, looking up at Derek with an unimpressed look. She had a nose ring and slightly unwashed look about her, but at least looked close in age to Chardi. She didn't bother to make any further introductions and instead went back to organizing cable.

  "Right, yes, Imogen Nelson. Our boom Op," Derek added halfheartedly.

  "And, I'm Cooper Holmes!" a large man boomed as he stepped out from around one of the cars. He threw his arms out like he was going in for a hug, but something about the way Chardi stiffened up and briefly looked panicked had him transitioning to an over the top handshake instead. "Derek's told me a lot about you. Really happy to have you on this investigation."

  Chardi shot Derek an angry glare, but Derek just smiled placidly back. What the fuck was Derek telling anyone about him?

  "I was the one who taught Derek everything he needs to know about paranormal investigation. He's a real go getter, but I guess we know where he gets that from," Cooper said with a booming laugh that no one, not even Derek, joined in on. Chardi frowned at him. He couldn't really get a read on this guy. "I'm assistant investigator on this, but with you here Derek probably won't even need me, huh?" Cooper gave Chardi a conspiratorial wink, but Chardi just frowned back at him in confusion.

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  "That's our team," Derek said, putting another obnoxious arm around Chardi's shoulders as he began to usher him away from the vans. "It's small, but it allows us to be a lot more mobile. We were just starting to-"

  "Hey, what did I miss?" another voice called from the entrance to the school.

  Derek turned them both around to face a guy about Chardi's age. His relation to Derek was pretty clear from first glance. This new guy had white blonde hair, a few shades lighter than Derek's, cut short and tousled in a way that looked more real and a lot less artful than Derek's. He had the same eyebrows and the same wide but thin lips, but his nose was upturned compared to Derek's aquiline nose. He also had a spray of freckles across the bridge of his nose and cheeks that was unfairly charming. And, where Derek had sleeves of tattoos on his arms and climbing up his neck, this younger man instead had a crosshatching of scars on his forearms that Chardi just got a glimpse of before he rolled down his shirt sleeves. He also had one big scar that licked up from the corner of his jaw to the middle of his cheek, dark red and vibrant against his pale skin.

  "Oh, Billy. I almost forgot. Chardi, this is my little brother Billy. He does Cam Op on our team," Derek said dismissively, already starting to turn Chardi back around.

  Billy was walked toward them quickly. "Who's this?" he asked, sounding friendly, though his eyebrows were pulled down over his eyes in frustration.

  Derek kept walking toward what Chardi quickly saw was a circular campsite that was still in the process of being set up. "This is Chardi Sodhi. He's another investigator," Derek said, barely glancing over his shoulder as his little brother hurried to catch up.

  "Cooper's friend?" Billy asked, hustling to keep pace with Derek.

  "No. Mine," Derek said shortly, finally reaching the campsite and stopping. All traces of the genial smiling man Derek had been at the vans was gone. He looked at Billy coldly and Billy, on his part, looked confused and off kilter. He stared at Derek, glancing occasionally at Chardi. Chardi felt like he should explain, but he had no idea what to say. What Derek had said was basically correct and he wasn't in a hurry to tell some complete stranger that he was there because his brother thought he was psychic when he was absolutely not.

  After an uncomfortably long pause where the two brothers looked at each other, Derek finally spoke again. "I need to keep an eye on the crew. I left the extra tent for Mr. Sodhi here. Help him set it up," he commanded. With that short order delivered, he let go of Chardi's shoulder and turned back to the vans without a backward glance.

  It was Billy and Chardi's turn to stare at each other. Chardi adjusted the straps of his backpack on his shoulders. Billy looked upset, but he also looked like he was trying hard to hide that he was upset. Chardi glanced back at the vans and caught Elijah and Brad looking at them, but they both quickly looked away when they saw Chardi looking.

  Chardi looked back when he heard Billy sigh and start moving through the dead leaves. "The extra tent is over here. Come on."

  Following Billy, Chardi saw that there was indeed a pile of camping gear tossed in the leaves beside another tent that was already set up. Billy crouched down to start pulling out the tent, a plastic tarp, a sleeping bag and a little fold out cot.

  "Is there anything I can do?" Chardi asked awkwardly.

  "Do you have experience setting up a camp?" Billy asked as he opened the tent and started to lay it flat on the ground.

  "Uh, no," Chardi admitted. He had been sent to Christian summer camp a few times by well meaning foster families, but they always had cabins for the kids to sleep in. He had never set up a tent before.

  "Then, no," Billy snapped, pulling on the tent too hard and moving it out of alignment. He huffed to himself and walked around the tent to pull it straight again.

  Chardi watched Billy work in frustration for a while. Billy was being a dick, but obviously it was because he was mad at Derek, not Chardi. Still, Chardi felt somewhat responsible. He didn't know why Derek didn't tell Billy about Chardi, especially when he apparently told that everyone else. Billy probably had the right to be mad at Derek. Chardi himself could tell from what little interaction he had with Derek that he was an asshole. He didn't particularly want Billy thinking he and Derek were pals, but couldn't think of anyway to explain why he was there without sounding scummy. 'Hey, don't blame me. I just need your brother's money and he offered to pay.' Yeah, that wasn't going to work.

  "Listen, I'm sorry about Derek. He's a dick," Chardi grunted.

  "He's my brother," Billy snapped back, sharp eyes giving Chardi a warning look that had him stepping back.

  That was obviously the wrong thing to say, but Chardi was never one to gracefully remove his foot from his mouth.

  "Yeah, but he should have told you about me. I don't know why he didn't."

  "It doesn't matter!" Billy shouted, tossing down the tent in frustration. He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath while Chardi grimaced to himself. "Let me guess. You're a special effects guy or something, right?"

  "What?" Chardi frowned, "No, I'm not."

  "Then, what, you met him at one of his stupid conferences?"

  "No."

  "Then, what do you do?"

  "I'm a student," Chardi spat. He didn't say that it wasn't any of his business anyway, but he wanted to.

  "Anyone can be a student," Billy scoffed. "But, what are you actually? Are you, like, a medium or something? A psychic?"

  Chardi felt the blood rush to his cheeks and his tongue turn to stone in his mouth. He desperately hoped that his dark skin was enough to hide his flush, but by Billy's unimpressed expression he guessed not.

  "Right," Billy sighed. "Listen, we don't have to be friends. I'm just Derek's tag along little brother, right? All you've got to do is tell me where to point my camera and I'll do it, okay? We don't have beef, I don't care what you're doing here, just do whatever it is you do and I'll make sure it looks good on camera. Got it?" Billy rattled off.

  "I'm not," Chardi choked out. "I'm not any of those things," he said, but his voice sounded strangled, his words uncertain and unconvincing even to his own ears.

  Billy rolled his eyes, which made Chardi's face burn even hotter. "Like I said, I don't care what you are. I'll set up your tent. Why don't you go see if the other guys need help unloading the equipment?"

  It was clearly a dismissal, but Chardi stayed rooted to the spot. He burned with anger, but under that was a nasty mess of shame. He wanted to shove Billy to the dirty ground, he wanted to yell in his face that he was wrong, wanted to make him take it back. He wasn't a psychic, he wasn't a medium, he wasn't any of that shit and he was getting fucking tired of listening to snotty white boys try to tell him he was.

  But, he was only a few weeks from graduation. He just needed rent money until after he graduated and could get a real job. He needed this job, even if it meant swallowing shit from stuck up assholes.

  Chardi turned to leave, when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned back to Billy and that was when he saw her.

  It was a girl, maybe twelve or thirteen. She was peaking out from behind a tree maybe ten feet behind Billy. She looked as solid as Billy himself, but the sight of her sent a chill down Chardi's back that was too familiar to be mistaken.

  She was wearing a white and gray school uniform complete with pleated skirt, knee high socks, loafers and a gray scarf tied around the collar of a starched white shirt. She had pale blonde hair cut in a severe bob just past her ears and stormy blue eyes framed in thick pale eyelashes. And, she was staring intensely at the back of Billy's head. He didn't seem to notice her at all.

  Chardi froze, half turned, his eyes as big as he looked at this ghostly little girl staring at the boy he had just had been entertaining kicking the shit out of. He had barely been at this school for five minutes, he thought to himself. This couldn't be happening.

  The girl's eyes snapped up to meet Chardi's and he turned on his heel and walked as fast as he could in the other direction before anything else happened.