The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

|18| Give me a break.

Colby dropped his bag and caught her, holding her by her shoulders. She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving and her eyes burning.

"I need to get out of here," she choked, brushing away his touch, not even noticing how close they had been. Her bag had fallen to the end of the stairs, now lying on the second floor next to a horrified Kris and Sam.

For the rest of the stairs, Ashley was the one to walk in front of the others. Her steps were insecure, and she always had her left hand on the railing, not letting go of it once. When they got to the lobby, she didn't even spare Justin a glance, she immediately walked out of the door. Kris followed her while Sam took care of the check-out. Colby took the camera and trailed behind the girls, giving Ashley a moment to calm herself down.

She had a water bottle in her hand and took sips out of it occasionally when he left the hotel. Her breathing was still quick and the opposite of calm, but her gaze looked a lot steadier.

"I'm so sorry for overreacting like that," she sighed. "It was just so fucking weird. The morning, then seeing the painting... and then I tripped, and for a second, I was convinced that this was it." She pinched the bridge of her nose with her right hand. "And now I have this massive headache. God, I'm such a mess right now. Thank you for catching me, by the way. I'm sorry I ran away so quickly afterward. I just freaked out."

"Anyone would. What you experienced in these two or three days was crazy. I think this had to be by far the most intensive investigation ever." Colby gave her a comforting smile and she felt herself reciprocating it immediately.

Sam walked out of the doors. "You alright, Ashley?"

"Yeah, it was just a lot." She wasn't going to tell them about the feeling of not having control over her own body. Or the horror she had felt while staring at the painting. If she kept believing that was her mind overreacting, that would be true in the end, right?

"You're so pale right now. Do you want to sit down?" Colby offered. "We don't have to hurry."

"No, let's just get over and done with this. I really want to go home," Ashley said with a tired chuckle.

"Cool. So, I have the sage here, let me just set the camera up." Sam took the camera from Colby and turned it on again. The group walked down the stairs until they stood in front of the well. Sam carefully set it on a small ornate stone pillar belonging to the decoration around the well and flicked on the lighter. The sage quickly lit on fire, emitting a thick grey smoke.

He walked around all four of them, but before he got to Ashley, she frowned and started moving her shoulders, as if shaking off something on her back.

"What are you doing?" Colby asked.

"There was just, like, a tingle all over my back," she said, trying to look over her shoulder.

Sam hurried to stand beside her. "Put your arms out to your sides," he instructed. She obliged, despite the frown on her face. The blond quickly walked around her, making sure the smoke touched. It didn't go unnoticed by Ashley that he was more careful to get it on as much of her as possible than with the others.

"What is going on, why'd you react like that?" she asked.

"Attachments," Colby answered, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "If a spirit tries to attach itself to you, you'll feel pain or a tingling sensation on your back."

"Oh, fucking hell," Ashley groaned. "Ilse. You stay here. You cannot come with me. You cannot follow me." She was glaring at the air in front of her while rotating in a circle, even raising her finger to point at it. It caused Kris to let out a nervous chuckle.