In the blink of an eye, Adja got dressed and prepared herself to make intruders flee. I will be the one who makes them leave, Sylvana goes too far. They exchanged a look, but the invaders were not overexcited teenagers.

'Mom?' Adja whispered, raising her eyebrows.

She cleared her throat, ready to speak through the spirit box. Her mother turned the device on and placed it in front of her. Any trace of sadness had disappeared from her face.

'Adja, can you hear me? Are you in this room?'

'Yes,' she hesitated, with uncertainty. 'Is there something wrong?'

'Your father is currently asking for a mortgage loan to buy this house and turn it into a tourist attraction.'

Adja coughed in surprise and looked at Sylvana. Is it a good idea? Do you want to spend your death frightening teenagers? She thought Sylvana would be angry about it, but her girlfriend's smile reached her ears.

'We could do better than last time!' she exclaimed, her eyes shining with joy.

Adja had seen Sylvana melancholic, encouraging, angry, but never filled with hope at the idea of making her future more exciting than expected. Her happiness was so contagious that she forgot the anguish and the numerous questions she wanted to ask her mother. How do you think you can reimburse all of this? Do you want to make people sleep in the bed that held my dead body? This will prove to the rest of the world that paranormal exists, is it a good idea?

'That's great!' Adja said, smiling politely as if her mother could see her.

'We're going to move here too, so we can take care of the house, and...'

A concerned wrinkle appeared in the middle of her forehead.

'So we can meet you again, if everything goes well.'

'Mom...'

'And everything will go well.'

Adja sat on the floor, groggy. She hadn't thought a lot about her future in the Maison Dormeaux, apart from living with Sylvana and being separated from her family for ever, accepting her fate with sadness.

'Take this opportunity.'

Sylvana was smiling at her.

'I did not enjoy life with my grandfather very long here, and I think you are lucky that you can spend time surrounded by people you love.'

'You're okay with sharing your house with strangers?'

'I will learn to know your parents and grandmother, Adja. What do you take me for?'

'As long as you don't get jealous if my mother mentions my cousins...'

Sylvana opened her mouth to retort, but her eyes darkened and she looked away. Adja hesitated before talking to her, worried.

'Sylvana?'

'My family was never how I imagined it. Years and years spent with my relatives, and then...'

She put a hand against her chest, where her father had stabbed her.

'There was nothing, before me. No one real, tangible. My mother died when I was four, I can hardly remember her. She was the only one who loved me without ending up thinking I was possessed.'

Adja wanted to comfort her, but her mother had started tapping the spirit box to make sure it was still working.

'Mom?'

'Oh!' she jumped. 'Yes, sweetheart? Do you agree with our idea?'

'It's a great one! When are you moving here?'

'Oh... Well, in one of two years. This house hasn't been bought nor renovated yet.'

After a few goodbyes, her mother left with a big smile.

'She's pretending that everything is normal,' Adja muttered. 'I hope she's not in shock and won't break down...'

'She loves you and wants the best for you, without a doubt,' Sylvana said.

Adja didn't want to talk too much about mothers with Sylvana and changed the subject:

'According to you, what could we do to scare the ones who will sleep here? Without making them leave forever, of course. My parents would be broke.'

'Writing messages in the dust?'

'They will clean up!'

'Then... Writing messages in the mist on windows?'

Adja burst out laughing and nodded. When the sun set, they had found so many techniques to make paranormal as funny as scary that they felt emptied of any intelligence, any reflection. They didn't share a word and pretended to sleep in Sylvana's bed. Adja felt way better at dawn, and almost believed she had slept.

With Sylvana's help, she picked the big photo album she had looked through without any context at the beginning of her exploration. She smiled at Sylvana and pointed to the first photograph.

'Tell me everything. Your family existed before the disaster.'