" It's horrible. It's as if they are imprisoned to the place. They are tied to it, and they can't leave " she told Alec absentmindedly. " But don't worry, it'll be alright " Rose added to lighten their mood. Although she had to agree that something really wasn't right. She barely knew about the abandoned City, but many people had tried to uncover the mystery and solve it, but usually they failed.

" I'm not weird! You are! " Rose told him with a smile. It would be no use to sulk in a place like this. She chose to join the investigation team after all. Right now, she had to do what she had to.

" Besides, I really can't believe that you can smile! " she added.

Alex had been driving for hours. When he finally saw the old billboard of a soda drink, he knew that the have arrived. Alex looked beside him and saw that Damien and Meredith were talking to each other, which was a good sign. Looking through the mirror, he saw that Rose and Alec were also getting comfortable with each other. As Alex passed the broken wooden gates, he saw the line of abandoned house, and parked the van in front of the most decent house that he saw. It almost feels like someone was living in it. Alex killed the engine and informed everyone that they have arrived.

True enough, a middle-aged couple was living in the said house. " Excuse me, madam. But may I know why you did not vacate this town? " Alex asked the woman.

" That is because we are just near the gate and the other towns, the really mysterious part of this town is on the middle area. No one lives there. But here in the outskirts of the town, there are also several families staying " the woman told him.

" You may come in, of course. This house i bigger than it seems. I can let you borrow three rooms. " the woman added with a smile as she lead the group.

" Meredith and Damien, stay in one room. Same goes for you. Rose and Alec. I'll be setting up the equipments in my room. And also, Damien and Alec, never leave Rose and Meredith, alright? " Alex told them.

While he was talking with Meredith, Alex told them that they arrived.He got out from the van, he put his sunglasses and coughed, looking at his clock. Damien followed Alex, then gasped at the building.He looked with a curious face at the old woman as she introduced them the house.When he entered in the misterious house, Damien felt something ussual for him.Just one world full of meanings: ghosts. But the feeling was stronger as they were passing through the hall.He started looking at the walls and it seemed that the house was indeed very, very old.He continued moving around with his baggage on his shoulder.
When Alex told them the pairings, he remained surrised.Why to stay with the girls.In that moment, he knew that something is really happening.Something dangerous.He tried to speak to the woman who had the house:

"So, what happened in this hou exactly? Can you tell us the history, if I'm not disturbing you, madam.And thank you for the warm welcome.But, I can see in your faces tath something happend..."

Alec just shook his head when Rose commented about his smiling. It wasn't that big of a deal. He smiled all the time, or rather...he grinned. To him there was no difference, but perhaps for others there was. He patted her on the head before walking out of the van and into the town.

The first thing he noticed about the place was that it was dead quiet, no pun intended. That was eerie to him, the whispers were louder now, but there were so many of them he just couldn't understand what they were saying. He got a few words here and there, but nothing that was worth commenting on to the rest of the group. For the sake of his own sanity he was glad that he could almost turn down the volume in his head, so that he could think without all the chatter of dead people. The only thing was, when he did ignore them their feelings hit him like a brick wall. He kept his mouth in a stern line and his eyes blank. It was best not to have any sort of expression.

He glanced at Rose when they said they would be staying together, in the same room. It was an odd room arrangement, but he wasn't going to say anything.

He didn't like this town and his whole being was screaming at him to leave it. Telling him he shouldn't be here, that he needed to leave, it wasn't safe.

"Alex, why exactly are we here?" He asked, looking over at him and crossing his arms over his chest. "What is here?" Because it wasn't like anything he had ever felt before.

As they arrived at the periphery of the town, and were offered a place to stay, Meredith remained silent. Was Alex avoiding all her questions, not having answered any of them besides the experiments formerly held in the van? He had not told them how long it would take to get there, how distant it was from their hometown, or what his possible abilities were. She was surprised by the room arrangement, and immediately objected to this. "Excuse me, but I would much rather stay with Rose. I do not feel very comfortable undressing next to a guy, and as what we are up against will most likely not affect us physically, I don't think I need the protection of Damien. I am fully capable of protecting myself." she said in a moderate, yet stern tone.

What seemed more surprising to her than the room arrangement was the hospitality of the old lady. She hadn't travelled much, so she wasn't sure if people living in rural areas were always this hospitable, but...being offered to stay without even asking, and in such a perfect place, with a perfect number of rooms... Meredith frowned slightly as she plunged into her own thoughts. The other members seemed tense already (Were they picking up on things that her metal barrier was blocking? That was most likely the case. She would attempt to plunge into the "layers" as soon as she settled. In the same room as Rose, of course.), and Alec had even asked Alex why they were there. She wasn't expecting Alex to know; after all, they probably wouldn't have needed a paranormally gifted salvage team if they knew what was going on - and if they had really known from the start, wouldn't holding a briefing before coming all this way so that everyone could prepare their own strategies and communicate with eachother have been better? Or was it that the mission was so dangerous that they were afraid that the volunteers would chicken out if they were to find out?

She rather liked Damien's approach. Well, he seemed to be a sensible person in general. Her lips automatically lifted into a faint smile as she began to watch the conversation between him and the owner of the house, but as soon as she realised that she was smiling and staring at the way Damien's profile looked and what kinds of expressions he made as he spoke, she immediately covered her mouth with a hand, trying desperately to erase the smile and to replace it with her usual serious look.

When Rose entered the house, it was rather old but cozy. She immediately covered her mouth with the back of her hand. There were lots of spirits trapped in the house, or rather, trapped in the town. ' What happened here? ' Rose thought as she glanced around the room. When she heard the room arrangement, she quickly glanced up at Alex. Hearing Meredith's protest, she seemed to agree. But looking at Damien and Alec, they seem to have no problem about the room arrangements.

Pulling Meredith aside for a while, she whispered to her, " Meredith, I think that Alex is hiding something from us. And in this house, everything is not right. We were told that all the people suddenly disappeared, right? And how can they possibly live here? There are no mini-marts here, and they would have to go a long way just to go back to our town, which is the nearest. And, do you feel something bad here? "

Rose knew that she had to talk to Alex. Something is clearly not right. And she knew that she had the right to know because she was a part of the investigation team. And something was seriously creepy about the husband of the woman.

As Meredith had been waiting for an answer from Alex, she was pulled aside by Rose. Once she had listened to what the other girl had to say, she nodded and replied in a very small whisper that would be inaudible to anyone but Rose, "Yes, I have considered the possibility of Alex hiding something from us, too. He has been avoiding or ignoring almost all my questions. About the disappearance of the people... Spirits may sometimes be tied to a certain place, and have a limited radius of movement if they are bound by their very strong emotions. If that is the case here, it is possible that we are currently outside this radius. As for how they survive..they could have a gigantic freezer in which they store food, and yet...I also feel that something is off. I'm not sure if it has to do with this house, or if it's from the center of the town." She glanced at Alex, to see what he was doing, and sighed. She was hoping that he truly did not know anything, but even so, what about all those times when he had not replied to her?

"Rose, maybe at this point we should try to find things out ourselves rather than to constantly expect ready answers. I'm going to dive into the other planes; it won't take long, it will only be a survey, but during that time I will probably neither see nor hear what is going on here. If something happens that I should know, please pinch me, and that will signal me to come back." She moved to the side so that her back was against one of the old walls with the cream coloured, flowery wallpaper almost beginning to peel off. Laying down her bag next to her, she took a deep breath, exhaled, and began to remove the mental barrier she had been upholding. As soon as she had reached the top layer, a very loud wailing coming from perhaps hundreds of souls reached her ear. She could not see them, as they were coming from the direction of the city. It was very disturbing, yet she remained there for a moment to be able to perhaps understand if anything was being said; however, it was impossible - it was almost as though the wailing consisted of one voice through the unification of many. She shuddered at the images coming into her mind - could it be that most of the souls she was hearing had lost their sense of individuality, and had been swept up by something like an avalanche?

Her mind moved deeper in the planes of existence; as the wailing began to fade out due to the depth, and her vision of everything around her began to darken, she sensed a presence. It was close, perhaps in the same layer as her; suddenly there were more of what she felt to be spirits - four in total. They were out of her sight, which meant that they were probably somewhere else in the house, highly likely to be on the second floor somewhere. She plunged deeper, and as the presence of those spirits faded out, the presence of another one, a rather strong one appeared. Although this one was also out of sight, it seemed to be hovering somewhere close to them, probably right beyond the first door to their right. She took a step towards the door, but as soon as she did that, she heard a very deep yet shrill, almost ear-piercing cry. Startled, she immediately pulled herself up through the layers, gasping as she had reached the surface, and placed back her mental barriers once more. The cry she had heard was still on her mind as she approached the others, her eyes widened. It had sounded almost as though it were the cry of an animal, like that of a predator in pain...who, or what would scream like that?

Damien realised that Meredith was having problems.She seemed to be detached from the real world like a forgotten shadow.He was worried for her and he wanted to help her.But, he thought better, and he realised that she was having a vision.A very deep vision.But in that moment, he saw that the others were tensed too.Damien got an headache and in that second he put his hands on his head.The ghosts were there and they were worried about something, but he didn't know why.Even if he couldn't hear them, he knew that they were screaming due to his headache.He closed his eyes and bit his lips.Everyday, he was seeing ghosts, but now it was different.It was more powerfull.What they wanted. If he wasn't strong enough he could felt on the floor...

After five minutes, everything was back to normal.Like they all disappear with a big " poof" Maybe they were scared.He coughed, trying to forgot that horrible feeling, and he asked Meredith:

" You felt that?? It was such a powerfull feeling.Are you ok? "