'Take a picture, take a picture!'

'But... We won't see anything!'

'Turn the flash off!'

Adja laughed and pushed Sylvana's shoulder gently.

'You did your best, there.'

'They wanted a show, they got one,' she replied with a fake smug look.

The two sisters photographed what Sylvana had traced in the fog of the bathroom mirror, scared but excited to be in the same room as two ghosts. Rachel and Maëva were the two residents of the first week of All Saints, with their two parents and a nosy aunt.

'They'll think you want to kill them, with that skull,' Adja said.

'Maybe that is what I am going to do. I am tired of these children looking for the great shiver.'

Adja shot her a worried look, but Sylvana was smiling.

'I am joking, it is so funny to see them shake...'

Sylvana decided to wake the parents up by throwing wood chips at them, a method Adja didn't really like. It's better than stones, but still... Why does she always want to throw stuff in people's faces? Even if Sylvana had weird habits when it came to terror, eternal life by her side was mostly perfect. They were not constantly surrounded by Paranormal Tourists or scientists, and could spend time talking about sweet nothings, like an old couple.

Adja's family had faced hordes of journalists and experts when they opened the Maison Dormeaux to visitors, and the news had spread to the whole world. Three years later, no one doubted the existence of supernatural events. Other haunted places had quickly offered the same type of holidays to the public. Adja felt extremely jealous that she couldn't stay a week in an abandoned hospital, confined in the house without being able to walk far from it.

'Your parents will come back for Christmas, right?' Sylvana asked her after spreading terror and wood in the parents' bedroom.

'I hope so. They're very busy, nowadays.'

'A new house opening?'

'An entire forest! I wish I could see that...'

Sylvana grabbed her by the waist and kissed her on the cheek.

'There, there, we have all we need here. Do not forget that we are celebrities! Picture all these ghosts, all over the world, who can see through phones that there are houses where people care about the afterlife... But not in their own home. They must feel very lonely, and I know what I am talking about.'

Adja snuggled against her, glad that she wanted to comfort her, but still bitter. I'm afraid that, in ten years, it won't be enough for me anymore. She was convinced that her family would not spend the eternity with her, because her relatives would die in a hospital like most people. Her existence would be a long nightmare until people would stop caring about the afterlife. As if she had heard her, Sylvana hugged her tighter.

'If we are fed up with all of this, we can always stop defying God.'

Adja couldn't see herself disappear. Losing her fake body was not a sacrifice more terrifying than having her consciousness disappear in the void. She didn't answer and thought that this decision would be a form of suicide. Dying randomly had not been a very nice experience, but leaving on purpose... The difference with life is that it has a natural expiration date... She clenched her jaw, unable to find a solution. I'll think about it in five centuries, not before.

'Your brain could not stop for a few minutes,' Sylvana remarked.

'It stopped. Do you want to go see the aunt, now?'

'As long as we do not traumatize her too much, it is fine. I would not want to share this house with her ghost, what we are doing here would shock her.'

Adja rolled her eyes and sighed. Incorrigible.

~

Three days later, Rachel and Maëva's family packed and went back to Finistère. More satisfied clients! They had even asked Sylvana to recount some details from her life with the spirit box, something so rare that it had to be celebrated. Most of the residents waited for some slammed doors, nonsensical conversations with the Ouija board, nothing too deep. Entertainment had replaced the shock of the afterlife being real.

Adja was ready to greet the next tourists, but a luxurious and well-known in the media car parked in the redesigned central alley.

Léon had become one of the youngest entrepreneurs of the paranormal field. He originally wanted to help Adja's relatives, who didn't like to be under the spotlight, and had enjoyed the marketing part of their project. Léon had lost any trace of skepticism and didn't hesitate talking with spirits in every house they had opened to the public, sorting enthusiastic ghosts from mean ones. When a spirit couldn't find peace but wanted to, he helped them understand the circumstances of their death to make them rest.

Léon came in without knocking, wearing the same jacket as usual. Only his car proved that he had enough bills to fill the entire house and lack oxygen. He took a Ouija board out, which surprised Adja and Sylvana.

'Why?' Adja said, shaking her head. 'We have extremely qualitative spirit boxes, now, and he's using a board?'

Léon asked them out loud if they were here. They pushed the planchette to answer positively.

'So,' Léon said, crossing his arms. 'I don't have questions to ask, I just wanted to be sure that you were both here. It was hard booking six rooms without annoying future tourists, but you'll be able to test my new service before anyone else... The TYGO, Take Your Ghost Out.'

Adja's eyes widened but didn't let hope drown her. What she hoped would be a weak consolation, given the void of her existence. It wouldn't look like my real life and projects, I could have done so much instead of staying here... Adja would never get over her death.

'I looked for a counterpart for years, to make ghosts satisfied to work for me for free. And then, I remembered my own mistake, when I took Sylvana with me without her consent with the Ouija board.'

'We're going to go somewhere else with a tourist who won't tell us goodbye!' Adja exclaimed. 'We're going out!'

Sylvana was beaming.

'A lot of clients wrote to me... They said they wanted to make ghosts meet together and listen to their conversations,' Léon explained. 'You're all international celebrities, people are even writing fanfictions about you... I think this service would be a breath of fresh air for everyone. What do you think?'

Adja and Sylvana fought with the planchette to express their joy.

'So, are you ready for your honeymoon?'

The planchette crashed on the 'yes'.

'Therefore, I will not salute you,' he concluded, slipping the board in his bag.

--------

Author's note

Thank you for reading this novel until the end! I hope you liked it.

Personally... I don't believe in paranormal stuff at all. I watch ghost hunting videos with great pleasure, mostly for the atmosphere and the editing (like Adja, but I prefer it when the hunter doesn't die onscreen...).

Of course, don't try to die to see if there are gorgeous blondes on the other side of the tunnel. My goal isn't to glorify death, it's a FICTIONAL NOVEL. Adja would have wanted to live her life to the fullest, enjoy it too! ;-)