The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

|50|

"Ashley," Colby said after a moment of silence. "You are actually insane." Her smile got even broader, and she beamed at him. Getting a reaction like that from him made it even more rewarding than the others' speechless expressions.

Sam stepped closer to zoom in on the ring, to give the viewers a better look at the initials. "Yeah, that's the one," he said, letting out a chuckle.

She held it higher up in the air and then set it down on the piano, the smile still playing around her lips. "That's the one," she repeated.

"Ashley," Jerry chimed in. "If our apartment gets haunted, I'm blaming you."

Sam and Colby laughed, nodding. "She's going to get you two haunted one day," Colby said, patting Jerry's back. "Just you wait for it."

Sadie had tilted her head and crossed her arms. "It's just a ring," she laughed. "It's not like it's lethal to touch it or any-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Sam let out a hiss. "Come on, man," he groaned. "The camera! Again!"

"You're kidding me, right?" Colby asked, taking it out of his hand and pressing the on/off button. "The battery's almost full, why does it keep doing this?"

"I don't know, it's fucking weird!"

Colby started recording again but no one could say anything before he lowered the camera again. "It's going crazy," he muttered. "It's overheating. We can't record like this."

"What do you mean, overheating?" Sam asked. Colby held out the camera for him to touch it, and Sam did so, pulling his fingers away only a few seconds after laying them on the plastic. "What is going on?" he asked, frustrated with it.

Colby pulled out his phone, most likely to record with it. He set the camera down on a table, and Sam held up the light he had taken off the top of the camera so that it would be visible on the phone.

"The camera turned off a second time," Colby explained to the viewers while Ashley, Jerry, and Sadie were uneasily standing a few steps away. "This time, it's like going completely crazy, though. It's overheating and we need to wait for it to cool down if we don't want to break it."

"Not even kidding, I feel really weird right now," Jerry said. "It's probably just the stress and fear, but my heart is literally racing, and I don't feel welcome at all."

"It's so different from yesterday," Ashley stated. "She was all friendly, but today, it feels like she's super... I don't know, almost aggressive."

"What made her change her mind?" Sam asked.

"Maybe she doesn't like us," Jerry replied, shrugging. "Me and Sadie, I mean. Or she's just got a bad day. We all have those, and people wandering around asking you questions ain't helping."

This made Ashley laugh, but Sadie shook her head in disapproval.

"Well, we're sorry if you're just not in the mood today," Sam said a little louder, for the entire room to hear. "We'll leave the ballroom now, give you some space if you need it. When you're ready to talk again, we'll be in our room, yeah?"

"Sounds like a plan," Colby said. "I don't really want to risk breaking our camera just because we keep crossing lines. Let's go."

He put his phone back into his pocket and motioned for the others to follow him. Sam picked up the camera before they started to walk towards the ballroom's doors.

Ashley hesitated, looking at the piano glistening in the light coming from Sam's light. It looked eerie, and she could still see the ring on top of it. For a moment, she debated whether or not to take it with her, but eventually, she decided to leave it there. If she was being completely honest, she should've left it at the hotel last time. It had only stressed her out at home.