The Piano || 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘣𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬

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Ashley groaned as the back of her head hit the wooden floorboards. Everything felt tingly, and yet she was quick to push herself up to check on Colby who had rolled off her. Sam ran closer, helping his best friend up, while Nick offered Ashley a hand which she gratefully took.

Colby let out a pained groan, and she quickly looked over to him. Half of is weight was put on Sam's shoulders, and he kept his right foot off the floor, putting no weight on it. Shit.

„Everything alright?" Ashley asked with concern.

„No, I think I twisted my ankle," he muttered, holding onto Sam's shoulders. „Shit, that hurts."

Then his gaze came up to meet Ashley's. „Are you alright?"

„Yeah, my head just hurts a bit where I hit it. That'll pass;" she replied, still scanning his every movement to make sure he was otherwise okay.

„I didn't mean that," Colby said.

„Oh."

„What happened?"

She hesitated. Sam looked from Colby to her and back. „I'll tell you later," she decided. „We need to get you to a hospital to check on your ankle." The way he held it, it didn't seem like he'd only twisted it. 

Sam nodded. „Alright, let's get going. No more investigations tonight." They started walking through the lobby towards the big double door.

„You should go too," Nick said, nudging her forward. „Because of your head."

„Oh... yeah, right," Ashley said, shooting him a quick smile before following Sam and Colby. From the corner of her eye, she vaguely registered Matt holding up a camera.

Following Sam and Colby to Sam's car, she tried to make sense of what had just happened. Colby had tripped. Just like her, last time. But this time, no one had been there to catch him – early enough, anyways.

The engine of the car was running already, and Colby was sitting in the back seat, outstretching his leg as far as possible. But the second Ashley set foot in the car, it stopped. She froze immediately, looking over to Sam.

"What the..." he muttered, switching it off and then on again. Nothing happened, and Ashley slowly retreated from the backseat.

Her hand left the door, and she stared at the car for a few seconds, horrified. The engine wouldn't turn on again, and Sam got increasingly frustrated.

"We'll take our car," Matt said after a moment, stepping up beside the driver's door. He'd probably given the camera to Chris or Nick. Ashley didn't care to check.

Sam agreed and got out to help Colby so he wouldn't have to step on his ankle. They limped over the parking lot to the other car, where Matt had already started the engine. Colby glanced over his shoulder and saw that Ashley was still standing in the same spot.

"Ashley?"

"You go, I'll stay here," she called out, taking a few hesitant steps in his direction.

"No, come on, you need to-"

She shook her head. "No," she said again.

She was making herself go crazy. Paranoia and stuff. Right? She was just seeing connections even though there were none. It wasn't what she thought.

But she needed to make sure.

"I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt, I promise." Liar. An upcoming headache was slowly sneaking behind her temples.

Colby hesitated, glancing at Matt, who was sitting in the driver's seat and Sam in the passenger seat. "Okay," he eventually said. "If you say so."

The door closed with a bang, and Matt drove the car off the parking lot until they disappeared into the darkness of the forest that surrounded the hotel. Ashley crossed her arms in front of her chest, suddenly feeling a shiver run up her back.

It's going to be fine, she told herself. Just one more night. But it didn't feel fine.

Her eyes travelled back to the hotel's front doors, and she saw Nick and Chris still standing there. Slowly, she started making her way to them.

"Wow, that was... something," Nick said after a second.

Ashley nodded but stayed silent.

"So, I guess we're going to stay the night?" Chris asked, looking at her as if she knew the answer.

As if she knew anything. 

But she shrugged, because she didn't. She didn't know anything, and neither did Chris or Nick or Matt or Sam or Colby. They didn't know what had happened tonight, or what was going to happen. She didn't know what to believe, to think, to want.

She only knew that it was real.

The realisation wasn't a relief, like she'd originally expected it to be. It was overwhelming. Because with it came the knowledge that there was something more than anything she could ever understand, or even begin to know what there was to understand. That her mind would be incapable of processing it.

One's whole life revolves around just that: their life. So, what does one do when they know there's more? That the most significant thing to oneself is insignificant, worth only a fragment of the whole?

She tried to shake the thought off. She would be fine. She would be alright, and life would go on. It's not that dramatic, she told herself. You just need some sleep.

"Let's go to the rooms," she decided, because she did know some things. Like, for example, they wouldn't be getting out of here with just one broken-down car and none of them carrying a driver's license.

Chris and Nick nodded, and they entered the lobby. But before they could get to the staircase, Ashley quickly rushed to gather the stuff she'd left at the couch and the coffee table: the spirit box, flashlight, and her phone. Chris was still holding the camera as Nick went into the ballroom to get the devices Sam and Matt had used, since neither of them was here anymore.

None of them was in the mood for filming, for obvious reasons, so the camera just hung at Chris's side, dark and lifeless as they entered the room.

But when Ashley stepped over the threshold, a stabbing pain flashed through her abdomen, and she had to resist the urge to double over. Her hand grasped the door frame, and she froze, fists clenching. A breathy string of curses left her lips as she tried to calm her breathing.

Until she felt stable enough to move again, Nick and Chris had obviously noticed that something was wrong. They exchanged worried glances, but Ashley tried to put it off with a smile.

"Period cramps," she muttered. "I'm fine."

Yeah. Today was not her day. But it had started out so great; what changed?

Too tired to think about it, she excused herself to her part of the room and locked the room behind her, resting her forehead against the wood for a second. Then she resisted the urge to go straight to bed and walked over to the bathroom instead, choosing to take a shower for her own sake. Clearing her mind was absolutely needed, or she wouldn't be able to sleep.