Our plan to drive as far away as possible lasts about fifteen minutes. There's logic behind it, and it's strongly based on Ava's newfound trust in me, which while I am appreciative of, may be a critical mistake on her behalf. I'd started rambling about getting Annabel to remember the whole dead family scenario instead of me, which Ava perceived as a good idea, but it turns out there's a severe lack of understanding about the way a spirit's memory works.

Spirits themselves often have a far better grasp of that sort of thing, to which I mentioned the one I encountered at the haunted manor house. When I revealed said spirit must've been from at least two centuries ago, Ava nearly had heart palpitations.

Despite the fact almost every ghost story ever involves dead folk from centuries past, it turns out a spirit that old is actually extremely rare, and often extremely knowledgeable. So that's where we're headed. It could be an entirely fruitless mission that'll get us all brutally murdered, but I'm remaining optimistic. That's worked so far. Sort of.

Between the time we set off and the time we pull up to the manor house, we encounter no murderous ghosts, so I'd like to think the journey is a success on the whole. The ticket queue isn't too long, but five minutes after joining it, Jamie is already whining.

"Must we pay for our tickets? Frankly, ten pounds each is extortionate for such a poorly orchestrated tour, and even if it was of decent quality, I image it's exactly the same as last time."

He keeps talking, but I'm too mentally drained to tell him to stop, while Tom and Carmen are too focused on me to even really notice him droning on.

"... Just wait around the outskirts of the building in hopes of what we're searching for will come to us. Is that not feasible? I'm still reeling over the horrid conditions at that bed and breakfast. I mean, honestly, how can they expect anyone to sleep when the bar remains open until ridiculously late? The last thing I wish to be doing right now is queuing for an unreasonable length of time to spend money on something so--"

"Shut up," Ava finally interjects. She shoots Jamie the warmest smile I've ever seen, then turns back to face the front of the queue. She really is a beacon of light in an otherwise hellish world, sometimes. Jamie stammers, but shuts up, to which Ava responds to with a "thank you."

Around ten minutes later, we're inside. It smells older than I remember. Like burning wood. We just bought regular entry tickets instead of a guided tour, so much to Jamie's relief, they were seven pounds instead of ten. We immediately begin scouring the building for an empty room, which ends up proving tricky due to the fact barely twenty percent of the house is open to the public, and so most areas are filled with tourists.

At the realisation that finding an empty room will be impossible, I take the next logical step. We're in one of the long hallways, and towards the end of it is some rope with a 'no entry' sign placed in front of it. After checking there's no one else around, I duck under the rope, and wave my hand for the rest of the group to follow.

"You can't go in there!" Jamie whispers in a way that makes it sound like he's shouting. It's actually quite impressive.

"Call me an anarchist," I reply sarcastically. "C'mon, before anyone else shows up."

My friends glance at each other, but soon follow my lead as I turn down a hidden part of the house. Jamie complains the whole time, naturally. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this hallway looks no different to any of the areas open to the public.

"How do you summon these things?" Tom asks, and what I can only perceive as an attempt to answer his own question, he begins bobbing his head around while whistling and clicking his fingers.

"We're not looking for a dog, you imbecile," Jamie snaps.

"I'm hoping she'll recognise him," Ava replies somewhat absentmindedly as she scours the hallway. By 'him', I'm assuming she's referring to me. Bit rude.

All the hallway doors are shut, so we risk it, and Carmen subtly pokes her head into one of the rooms. She turns back to us, nods, and steps inside. I'm assuming that means the coast is clear. We follow Carmen into the room, and it's nothing special. Well, as non-special as a room in a fancy manor house can be, anyway. It's a bedroom; not an especially bland one, but nothing outstanding either. Carmen inspects the door as everyone sits down and makes themselves comfortable, then turns back to us. She's chewing her lip.

"Can you get your, uh, thingy--I mean, your--Annabel. Could you get Annabel to keep watch or something? There's no lock." Carmen asks me, followed by an awkward laugh.

I'm silently pleading this tip-toeing around me shit doesn't last much longer because it's excruciating. I nod, and before Annabel has the chance to whine about it, cast my eyes over to the bed where she's landed herself. She mutters something inaudible, then disappears. I'll just assume she's guarding the door outside. Tom, Carmen and Jamie are sitting on the bed, while Ava sits on the floor. I'm too fidgety to sit, so stand above Ava.

"Do we need to get the Ouija board or some--"

"No," Ava replies before I can even process Tom's query. "Please no. Really no. Indisputably no."

I think that's a no.

"Right, go ahead," Ava says, looking up at me.

I glance around the group, but they look as confused as I do. "I might need a clue," is all I say.

"What? How can you not--" Ava stops herself, then closes her eyes for a second. "Sorry, sorry, I--Whoa, I just, I'm still in the process of figuring out the depth of your understanding."

"It's about as shallow as Tom's understanding of nuclear physics, as I think is well established by this point," Jamie mutters.

Is this pick on Felix day or something? Screw these guys, I'm feeding them to the demons next time.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Tom retaliates. "I was only a few marks off a C in my Physics--"

"Can we do this later, please?" Carmen interjects. "Kinda have other priorities right now."

Tom clamps his mouth shut, but the silence doesn't last long as Ava starts questioning how I know if there's a spirit around, how far my ability to sense stretches, and all kinds of spiritual crap like that, and I don't know how to tell her I can't sense shit. The only reason I ever know there's some poor dead bastard around is because I physically see one. When I inform her of this, her eyes widen.

"Whoa, so you've literally never been able to sense a spirit without seeing one?" she questions, to which I shrug and shake my head. "Hm, that's not ideal," she mutters, then suddenly perks up before I have the chance to be offended. "No worries, I'll focus on that. I imagine the spirit has picked up on your energy by now anyway, so just keep an eye out."

All eyes are on me as Ava shuts hers, and I'm not too sure what I'm waiting for. Is the dead lady just going to poof into the room out of nowhere? I mean, that's literally what ghosts do, I guess, but I don't see how whatever the hell Ava's doing can aid that. Just as I'm about to question the whole thing, the small boy I met last time I was here appears about a centimetre away from my face, and I absolutely shit myself.

I trip backwards, almost falling, and for a moment consider the possibility that I might have to add a heart attack to my medical records. The boy is laughing his guts out, while everyone gapes at me, perplexed. It's a perfectly reasonable response on their part because to them, I literally just jumped about a foot backwards, almost collapsing right into the enormous wardrobe behind me.

As I regain myself, I realise that whatever the hell Ava was doing worked. Tugging at the boy's arm to pull him back is the female spirit we trekked here for.

"Robert!" she says, smacking his arm. "What did I say?"

Ava is asking me what's going on, while the wary faces of Carmen, Jamie and Tom grow more concerned by the second. I turn back to the spirits to see the boy still receiving a telling off, and Ava's asking me more questions. Multitasking is hard, man.

"They're here," I say to Ava before grabbing the spirits' attention. "Hey, uh, hi. Yeah, sorry to show up unannounced. You good?"

You good? Am I all right? Jesus, I'm severely unqualified for this.

"Apologies, he's been awfully bored of recent," the female spirit responds, finally addressing me. She raises her eyebrows at the boy, then nods to me. "Robert?"

Robert stares at the floor, shuffles his feet, then mutters what sounds like a "sorry" in my direction.

In fairness to the kid, if I was dead, I'd literally do the exact same thing.