|21| Fucking jump scares. You know I hate them.

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In the video, they were returning to their hotel rooms, but before they came far, the piano's cover fell shut. Jerry visibly jumped next to her, and Ashley let out a giggle.

"Shut up," he muttered. "Fucking jump scares. You know I hate them."

A clip came on screen that Ashley didn't know. It was Colby and Sam, walking a little behind the girls, Colby leaning over to Sam. She couldn't help but smile a little and roll her eyes as she heard the concern in Colby's tone.

"He asked me all the time if I needed a break," she told Jerry. "Like, I was fine, but he would come up to me and ask if everything's alright."

The group in the video joked about the piano and then decided to do the Estes method. Ashley was especially curious about this part, to see how they had reacted to what she had said. She sighed, as she witnessed what Ilse had wanted to do from the outside. Out, alone, red. It was pretty obvious. And then Colby reached out to touch her, but she said his name. She sucked in a breath from between her teeth. The way she said his name was scary, without hesitation.

Kris getting shocked and her not feeling it was just as eerie. Ashley wished she could recount better what exactly had happened while she was wearing the headphones. She let out a dry chuckle when Colby said he "had a bad feeling about all of this."

The video cut to a dark background, displaying the text "We went out to get a break... But soon Ashley realized she was missing something..." And the next clip was them, looking for the ring in the snow, Sam asking when she saw it last. She almost laughed at how dramatic the boys had made it. They definitely knew what they were doing.

Sam, insisting that it was Ilse's fault made a stale taste in Ashley's mouth come up. She wished that he hadn't been right, that he was imagining connections where there were none. Then they returned to the warm room, discussing how they wanted to continue. All of them were making jokes about how Ashley was being targeted without actually saying it.

The video cut to all of them, saying good night to each other. But, of course, the next clip was black again, with white text, saying, "But before we could go to bed, Kris alerted us that Ashley had run out of the room for some reason."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. Jerry next to her didn't seem half as amused, he was gripping her hand tightly.

Then the video cut to Kris, Sam, and Colby, running down the stairs, Kris yelling her name. Ashley was standing in the lobby, just turning away from the reception. The explanation of what she had seen wasn't interesting for her, because she could still see it every time she closed her eyes. "We decided to try another method," was the next text. The video cut to Sam, explaining what a psychomanteum was, while the others were setting it up in the background.

Jerry's reaction to the fog on the bathroom mirror was an unbelieving laugh. "That's so random," he stated. "Why would a spirit do that?"

"I don't know!" Ashley replied. "But I drew a smiley in it. And Ilse did too, later."

"No, she did not," he said with wide eyes. "You're kidding me."

"I'm not, she actually did it."

Next, they decided to go and search the ring. Jerry was shaking his head. "Jesus, every time I think this was it, this was the best part, there's more," he sighed.

"That's exactly how we felt," Ashley laughed. "And just wait for it. There's still more coming."

When the clip as they all gathered in the middle of the room came on, Ashley felt her stomach drop. It was completely unedited, only speeding up the part where they searched the room. Then she saw herself jump up from the chair and gasp.

"No," Jerry breathed just at the same time the video-Ashley started speaking. "You're fucking kidding me. That can't be real."

"It is," Ashley promised.

Ashley freaking out and the apology was left in, the part where Colby had turned off the camera obviously wasn't there. Now she could see how strained the smile looked, how hard she was trying to conceal her fear and disbelief. She usually wasn't a bad actress, but in that moment there was no way that she could've hidden the fear. In the room, the candle burning and their explanation for it, it all was there.

After the video showed their reactions and how they went back to the room to review the clip, it showed the clip again several times, in slow motion and in original speed. Zoomed in or in normal size. It was always the same. Sam, says, "Imagine we actually found it here." and the ring appears.

They were freaking out. "I say, this is the craziest amount of different evidence we've ever caught," Colby said, and Ashley laughed out loud.

"If he only knew how much more we were about to get," she muttered, more to herself. As if reading her thoughts, the video soon displayed the text, "We didn't know yet that we were far from done. After this, we went to sleep but woke up to bad news..."

Sam and Ashley appeared on the screen, telling the bad news, and how they would continue from there. The walk they had made wasn't recorded except for a few clips and pictures that were shown while Sam and Ashley were talking so that the viewers would know how the bridge looked.

Next, there were only Sam and Ashley anymore, walking around the hotel. The library clip was bad because Sam had lowered the camera so as to not annoy anyone, but you could still see some of the other guests, staring at them with frowns, until the two left the library and made fun of them.

The atmosphere went back to serious when Ashley saw the painting and they returned to the ballroom. For this, she had been most excited because she had almost no recollection of what exactly had happened while Sam was gone.

The clip was underlaid with scary music as the doors closed and Ashley was left alone. At first, she seemed relaxed and just comfortably looked around. She said Ilse's name, loud and clear. It echoed through the room. Then her whole posture stiffened, and she stopped turning and letting her gaze wander, her eyes were now fixed on the piano. She repeated the name a second time, quietly this time, silent enough that you could think she was only moving her lips.

And then she walked forward, determined and without hesitation. It didn't look like anyone was pushing her or forcing her to go, she opened the piano voluntarily, sat down, and started playing. She didn't glance at the camera once.

The melody was beautiful, that was the first thing Ashley noticed. Then she felt the grief creep up her chest, and she swallowed. Why did she still feel it? She wasn't at the hotel anymore. She shouldn't be feeling like this.

"You alright?" Jerry asked, seeing her pained expression.

"Yeah, just watch the video. It's so weird."

It was barely visible for the camera, but tears were dwelling up in video-Ashley's eyes, and suddenly streaming over her face. It was motionless crying, she was neither sobbing nor blinking, the tears were just flowing.

Then the others barged into the ballroom. She didn't even react until Colby was behind her, touching her shoulder. Her head snapped up and she hit his chin with full force, he quickly took a step backward. The panicked reaction was enough to even freak Ashley, who knew that it had ended well, out. The confusion was so inevitable that she quietly shook her head.

And then, after some time of discussion, came the banger. "And what if the lover wasn't a he? What if Ilse was in love with a she?"

The others reacted just like she remembered. And of course, the atmosphere went back to more or less fun when they were in the lobby, even though all of their eyes were tense and exhausted. The part about the greenhouse was left out because they couldn't enter it, but the séance was at full length, with a little bit of speeding up in the moments where they were waiting.

The crash made even Ashley jump even though she knew what it had been. Not as badly as Jerry though, he grabbed her shoulder as it happened. Another black screen, and another white text, saying, "We didn't get anything more, not even with the spirit box," followed by a short clip of them asking a question without getting an answer.

The next clip was Kris, closing their door and locking it. It was the typical mood of leaving a place after sleeping there, only that they probably were a little more excited to get away.

Video-Ashley freezing on the third floor was only recorded from the moment that Colby asked what was going on. Sam must've turned the camera back on as he heard it. She could now see why he'd said that she was freaking him out. Her eyes were glazed, her gaze fixed on the painting before she ripped herself out of it and spun around.

Ashley leaned back on her chair as she knew what was coming. But as she tripped on the video, it almost seemed like she fell over something... but there was nothing on the floor. Jerry's nails dug into her skin until Colby caught her. Ashley felt kind of bad for just disregarding him with a, "I need to get out of here," but she hadn't been able to think straight.

The cleansing and the outro were just like she remembered. All of them had dark circles under their eyes, Kris, and Colby more than Sam and Ashley, and looked equally tired.

But that wasn't it, Ashley knew it. Before the video could end, another white text was displayed, saying, "But our day wasn't over yet. In the evening, Ashley called us..."

They had left the whole clip of the call in, overlaid by the picture Ashley took as they saw the engraving. Then the sound and recording faded out, ending the video in a black screen.

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