The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

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

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.