So. Uh. They just heard footsteps upstairs.

She turns the camera around, showing everyone sitting in the living room, eyes upturned toward the ceiling.

"Shh, shh, shh," Gary shushes, turning the lamp beside him off.

"What are you doing?" Sunshine whisper-yells.

"I want to make them think it's night."

Lionel laughs. "He's a genius," he says in a hushed tone. "That's why I love this guy!"

Gary stands and everyone follows. "This is what we've been waiting for," he says, heading towards a glass door. Lionel follows, bag of chips in hand.

"You need the Doritos?" Sunshine asks, unamused, instinctively handing the camera off to Nolan.

Lionel doesn't answer, just digs into the bag, takes a chip, and crunches loudly.

Gary turns. "Shhh," he says, brows furrowed. He then begins heading up the stairs, walking slowly and quietly, glancing around the darkening room. Only a yellow lamp across the bed illuminates the open space.

The door downstairs slams.

Everyone jumps, Nolan most of all. He whirls on his feet and stares wide-eyed down the stairs, clearly caught off guard.

"Of course the door slams," Sunshine mumbles. Still, she doesn't really feel anything. There's no tug in her gut, no whispered words in her ear. It's weird. Still, she has to distract herself from her feelings with some amount of sarcasm. "Next the power's gonna go out."

Everyone stares at the lamp.

Nothing happens.
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
Sunshine and Lionel are playing chess. She's white, he's black.

"You go up two and over one, or over two and up one," Lionel explains, sitting cross-legged across from Sunshine, wearing Spongebob pajama bottoms.

"Okay," she says, moving a knight. "Oh, no. Beat that. Your turn."

Gary sighs and slides from the gray chair, laying next to the chess board on his side. He has a stuffed animal clutched in his hands. "Guys, this is very difficult for me to watch. I was the treasurer of my high school chess club, so it's difficult for me to watch amateurs—"

Lionel moves a pawn sideways, capturing Sunshine's.

"You did that wrong," she points out.

"No, actually, that's right—"

"Mmm-mmm," she disagrees.

"—you can—you can kill on a diag."

"Kill is such a strong word for chess. You just take 'em," Gary says.

"Okay," Lionel nods.

"Just, like, capture them."

"Guys," Sunshine interrupts, realizing that a certain know-it-all isn't shoving his chess knowledge forward. "Where's Nolan?"

Everyone looks around. He's gone.

"Where is Nolan?" Gary frowns.

"Nolan?" Sunshine calls.

There's a low moan from... somewhere.

"What was that?" Sunshine demands. What the hell?

"Did you guys hear that?" Gary asks, voice quivering.

Lionel shushes them, placing a finger to his lips.

Another long, drawn-out moan.

"Okay," Gary jumps up, "all right, there's definitely something."

"See, I told you, that same thing in the room—"

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah," Gary shushes Lionel, pausing.

"Nolan is gone," the voice groans again.

Sunshine smirks to herself, glancing up at the vent.

"And he's not coming back," it continues, "till I gots me some sweet, sweet Doritos." The voice deepens towards the end.

Sunshine can't help it and splutters out a laugh.

"Nolan," Gary admonishes. Lionel tucks his Doritos close to his chest. "Nolan, is that you?"

Sunshine continues laughing. Nolan continues talking.

"No, it's not funny," Gary says, picking up the camera and glaring at the vent. "We really—"

"It's a little funny," Sunshine giggles.

"It's not funny at all, you're lucky we didn't quickly take out our equipment and—"

"I'm so afraid," Nolan groans sarcastically, "of you two professional ghost hunters."

"You should be!" Lionel laughs.

"Just... amateurs," Gary tells the camera.

Amateurs indeed.
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
It's finally night and, wouldn't you know it, doors are slamming upstairs. "You guys hear that, right?"

"Yeah," everyone says. As usual, they're in the living room.

Gary frowns. "It's loud... but this is what we've been waiting for. We should take the flashlight, do you have that?"

"Yeah," Sunshine nods, clicking the flashlight on as she reaches the stairs, leading the way upwards.

"It's so dark up there!" Gary says.

Hopefully Lionel's training will come in handy.

She continues walking until she reaches the upstairs, shining the flashlight around, trying to discern what's been slamming back and forth.

"It doesn't look like anything's happened," Gary whispers.

Sunshine turns toward the front room and pauses, ice rushing through her chest. "Um." The attic door is open, when it had very clearly been shut before.

"Oh. Man," Nolan curses.

"No no no, someone's gonna have to go in there," Gary rushes out.

"Nolan," Sunshine and Gary say in unison.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You're up," Lionel says.

"What happened to the two professional paranormal investigators?" Nolan asks.

"Well, we can't afford to lose one of the professionals at this point," Gary explains.

Lionel nods. "Right."

"It's too early in the night."

"And I went last time, so." Lionel throws his arms out. "You're up."

"No, but, I—" Nolan looks nervous, but it's hard to see in the dark.

"Don't worry, very rarely do people get killed in situations like this," Gary says.

"Fine."

"I'm sure it's really safe."

"I'm going."

"We'll be right here," Gary calls.

"You guys suck." Nolan attempts his best glare. It's not very formidable.

Gary smiles. "Thank you, Nolan."

Sunshine feels a twinge of worry, but there's no way in hell she's joining him over there. So, she instead opts to point the flashlight at the door, trying to see into the attic.

Nolan pauses at the mouth of the door. "Yeah, we're clear, it's fine," he brushes off.

"Go!" Sunshine exclaims.

Gary nods. "You have to go inside."

"Okay," Nolan says, voice cracking slightly, "but stop telling people that get you into trouble!" He practically throws himself into the room, quickly running down the steps and disappearing into the attic.

Silence.

Silence.

More silence.

Jesus, what's he doing in there?

Suddenly, Nolan backs up to the door, staring wide-eyed into the attic. "I think we're okay."

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, Sunshine most of all. It's tinged in slight annoyance, though. Does he always have to be such a baby?

"Let's move on," Lionel says.

Sunshine turns and startles when she sees Gary's Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal toy on the bed. "What's that?"

"What?" Gary asks, breath suddenly cutting off when he realizes what she's pointing to. "Pooh!" He picks you the stuffed bear. "What are you doing up here? Scaring us all like that. What are you doing up here—" A pause. "Wait a minute." His voice suddenly gets serious. "A stuffed animal couldn't get up here all on his own, could he?"

"No," Lionel says shakily.

"...This is getting serious."

"Very."
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
It's Ouija board time.

"We don't think we did it right last time," Sunshine whispers to the camera, glancing at Gary, "so he's reading the directions."

"'What do I do now'—okay," he reads. "Players take turns asking questions and all should agree to the question being asked. Ask only one question at a time, ask a question slowly and clearly and wait to see what the planchette spells out for you. Okay."

"What's a planchette?" Nolan asks.

Sunshine raises a brow. Seriously? Even she knows that.

"I've never heard that word before, but I'm guessing it's—" Gary points toward the totem.

"Oh! The acorn thingy," Nolan clarifies.

The acorn what?

"Uh, what is our question going to be?" Gary asks.

"Uh, who's haunting the... house?" Nolan suggests.

"Who is haunting the house?"

"Or what is haunting the house? Wait, no no no—is there a haunting in the house?"

"Is there a haunting in the house?" Gary clarifies.

"No, no, no, but we need to know what the haunting is, we already know that there is a haunting."

"Let's find out—who else besides us is in the house?" Lionel cuts in. "You know what I mean?"

"Yes," Gary nods.

"Wait, wait." Nolan places a hand out. "If you're gonna start talking to this, guys, you gotta approach 'em with the proper amount of respect, you understand?"

"Yes," Gary says.

"Okay."

"We're professionals," Lionel nods. "We get it. Thanks."

Everyone—except Sunshine—places their fingers on the planchette, positioning themselves next to the board.

"To whoever listens—" Gary begins.

"Close your eyes, everybody," Nolan quickly interrupts. "You too, Sunshine."

She glares at him.

"Oh mystifying oracle," Gary starts. Sunshine has to hold in her laughter. "Who else, besides the four of us, is in the house right now?"

The planchette begins to move but stops when Lionel takes a hand off and eats a Dorito.

"Lionel—Lionel!" Gary reprimands. "You have to keep your fingers on the—it's not gonna work!"

"Uh," Nolan quickly says, "we apologize spirit, um, on behalf of Lionel, he knows not what he does."

"Lionel," Gary sighs.

"Alright! Alright," he relents.

"Clean your fingers," Sunshine advises.

He scrubs his hand back and forth and licks off one of his fingers.

"Awhhhhh," Sunshine says, disgusted. "There goes my... cleanly... ness."

"I dried 'em!" Lionel says.

"It's fine, it's fine," Gary says.

Nolan looks at them. "Are we ready to go? Professionals?"

"Would you please ask the question?" Lionel asks.

"I will again." Gary nods, clearing his throat. "Oh mystifying oracle—"

"I'm sorry, guys," Lionel whispers.

"—same question," Gary finishes.

"Thank you."

The planchette begins to move once more, sliding to 'F.'

"It's gonna be this again," Nolan mutters. "This Frank guy... I'm liking him less and less...!"

"Maybe he lived here or somethin'," Lionel suggests.

"It just passed the... 'R,'" Sunshine says.

Nolan raises a brow. "This is new."

The planchette slides to 'A'.

"F...A," Nolan slowly spells out.

The planchette quickly moves across the board.

"Wow," Lionel whispers, "this thing is really speaking."

It stops at 'K.'

Next is 'E.'

"Fake," Sunshine says. "My videos are not fake."

"Okay, now this Ouija board is just being kind of a jerk," Nolan shrugs.

"Well that's not necessarily what it's saying," Gary cuts in. "Maybe... it just... didn't know how to spell Frank, I don't know."

Sunshine angrily mutters to herself.

"I think maybe we need to try it again," Gary says, "ask it a different question."

"Frank...Fake." Lionel shakes his head. "How do they tie?"

"This thing is broken," Sunshine mumbles.

Nolan nods. "I hate this thing, it's never worked for us anyway." He clears his throat. "All right. I'm going to sleep."

Well, that sucked.
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
So, it's late, and Sunshine's been awake for a really long time. And, of course, she's the only one.

Everyone is sleeping. Clearly, by the snoring.

"Look at Lionel," Sunshine whispers, pointing her camera, "he has his hand... on Gary's butt. And then the other one in the chip bag. And he's snoring."

"You can't... you can't..." Gary begins mumbling in his sleep. "No, Pooh, it's too dangerous, you can't come. Not every case is appropriate for you... if something happens..."

"He's talking about Pooh," Sunshine whispers, laughing lightly. She rolls her eyes and turns, showing Nolan sprawled face-down on the couch, one arm hanging off while the other is wrapped around a pillow. "And then there's Nolan, sleeping like a baby... with his boots on. Who does that?"

She snickers and points the camera back to herself, looking around. "I'm glad everybody else can sleep like a baby. Ridiculous!"

In the background, Lionel eats a chip.

Sunshine laughs. "It's insane!"
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
It's probably, like, 3 AM now and Sunshine still can't sleep.

She's gonna go outside because she's tired of hearing people snore. Opening the door, Sunshine wanders out on the porch, glancing up at the light posts in the distance. It's quiet, even though the river is nearby, and Sunshine is happy for the moment of silence.

"What's up, Buttercup?" a voice says from behind her.

Sunshine's heart swells and she giggles, turning towards Nolan. "Nothing."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I just...I kinda wish the house was more haunted than it really is," she confesses. "Is that bad?"

"No," he says, clearly tired, but for some reason he followed her out here anyway, "but... I mean, not everything is gonna be super haunted. Sometimes, things are just kinda haunted and we just have to make the best of that, you know?"

"True..." She says, looking out across the blanket of shadows swallowing the earth.

"Wooooooooooo!" Someone suddenly bursts out from inside, like they're some kind of Hollywood-esque ghost.

"What the f..." Nolan turns.

"What is that?" Sunshine asks.

"Sounded like a... possum or something," he says.

"No, it sounded more like a ghost, but. Sure. Possum works, too."

The minute they step inside there's snoring.

"And they're still asleep, aren't they?" she says.

"Yeah," Nolan mutters as Sunshine closes the door behind them. They both head towards the stairs.

"I heard footsteps," she whispers, looking around. Nolan leads the way up, shining his flashlight, frowning deeply. Once upstairs, Nolan stops in his tracks and stares at the floor. "What in the Sam Hell?"

"Woooooo!" someone says loudly, crouched on the floor, leaning over the vent.

"Hey!" Nolan says. "Hey, what are doing in there?"

The person stumbles to their feet and turns around, revealing a white sheet over their body. They groan loudly and Nolan rips the sheet off, and suddenly they're chasing each other around a white post and Sunshine can't keep up. "What is going on?" And then Lionel is there!

"Stop—stop—come here, now," Nolan demands, still chasing the person.

Lionel cuts off the person from one side and Nolan grabs the man from the other, dragging him into the dark room and shoving him roughly up against the wall. The man groans and writhes against Nolan's grip, looking around.

"What are you doing?" Nolan demands, glaring at the man.

"The caretaker?" Sunshine exclaims. What the fuck?

"Oh!" The caretaker groans, shaking his hands into fists, "I was just trying to scare her away so I could buy the house for cheap!"

Lionel groans.

Jesus, this really is like a Scooby Doo episode.

"Okay, you have to stop!" Nolan exclaims, keeping the caretaker pressed against the wall. "Please! Just... chill out a little bit, okay?"

Gary is suddenly on Nolan's side.

"You need to find a new hobby, okay?" Lionel slaps the caretaker's shoulder. "Really."

"But..." He frowns. "I was just trying to scare her away so I could—"

Everyone begins talking at once, a plethora of, "Yeah, yeah!" and "We got it!" and "Yeah, okay!" filling the room in unison.

Sunshine absolutely cannot believe this.

"Look, if it happens again we're gonna have to call...somebody, the..." Nolan sighs.

"What do we do with this guy?" Lionel asks.

"We'll call, uh—the CDC?" Nolan suggests.

Seriously? The Centers for Disease Control?

"That's—" Gary shakes his head.

"Has anybody seen my hat?" the caretaker asks.

"Uh... no," Nolan says.

Gary turns. "Yeah, here it is."

"I'm goin' back to bed," Lionel sighs.

⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
It's nearing dawn and they're playing cards. Behind them is the caretaker, hat pressed over his head, body bent awkwardly.

"Who's got, uh," Lionel chews his Doritos, "I've got a chicken leg."

"I have... meatballs?" Sunshine says, placing the card in the middle.

"This is..." Gary tilts his head. "Open ketchup and mustard."

"I have one of those! Here, you can have two."

Nolan frowns. "I have a children's drawing of a jester on a birthday cake...?"

"Stop it," Gary says. "Let me see."

"Oo! Me too! It's shiny, too," Sunshine says.

Lionel holds up a card. "I got a Santa Clause guy eatin' lunch."

"I have a small white boy eating a sandwich and a large African American gentlemen eating a sandwich," Nolan cuts in.

"Dog eating a sandwich." Gary places a card forward.

"He does kind of look like Santa, though," Nolan nods.

"I have three different anchovies," Sunshine says.

"You have to keep those, nobody wants them," Nolan says, grinning at her.

"You guys know what?" Lionel smiles and eats a chip. "This is the best slumber party I've ever had. Honestly."

"The only slumber party I think I've ever had..." Sunshine mumbles.

Behind them, the caretaker begins to slowly stand up, trying to inch towards the door.

"Hey, hey!" Nolan exclaims, staring at the man.

"Sit!" Sunshine growls, pointing at him. He quickly sits back down.

"I will call animal control on you, sit down," Nolan says.

"We will feed you, don't worry," Lionel says, chucking a chip at the man.

"Can I have a Dorito?" Sunshine asks.

"Yeah," Lionel nods, giving her the bag.

"You know what though? Seriously," Gary chimes in, "this was fun, we should do this again."

Lionel smiles. "That's what I love about you, man, you're always workin'."

"Gummies," Nolan says.

Sunshine raises her brows, looking at her cards. "Me too!"

⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀
It's the next day and Sunshine, Nolan, and Gary are sitting across from Georgia. Looks like they're gonna have to break the news.

"All right," she says, frowning, "I know something happened. Something's different, it feels very different, tell me what happened."

"Go ahead," Nolan says, motioning towards Sunshine.

"Well," she starts, "there's no ghosts of any kind in the house."

Georgia raises her brows. "Hmm..." She says, surprised.

"But, um..." Sunshine continues, "Your caretaker? He kind of... caused some problems."

She narrows her eyes. "My caretaker? Frank?"

"Yeah, unfortunately," Gary sighs, "he was the ghost, and when we discovered that and confronted him last night, he explained everything to us. He said—" Gary imitates the anguished 'Agh!' Frank made, "'I just wanted to scare her away so I could buy the house for cheap!'"

"That was... that was nice," Sunshine nods.

"Thank you," he says.

"Buy the house for cheap," Georgia echoes, scoffing. "Hmm. You know, he's been working for me for years and—at one point we were a little closer than we are now, and I was thinking about leaving the house to him in my will!" She leans back in the rocking chair. "Well, that's not gonna happen now!"

Gary sighs.

Sunshine really can't believe what happened last night.

Georgia gasps. "And do you know what else I just realized? My friend was right. I did meet a young lady who was going to change my life, and there was someone around who couldn't be trusted! But it wasn't someone with you, it was someone with me."

"Yeah," Nolan nods.

"Hah," Georgia laughs.

"Well, sorry about that," Gary says, "but I'm glad we could help."

"Yeah," Sunshine laughs.

"Yeah. So." Gary purses his lips. "Good case. Good case, everybody. Although, Sunshine." He frowns.

"Yeah?"

"...The Ouija board was right."

I LOVED THIS ALSODNDBD i absolutely did not remember that the caretaker was the 'ghost,' for some reason i thought it was raccoons?? oh well, anyway yaya! we're done with the season guys! it was a quicker run than part 6 and i'm so excited to move on!

( also i died laughing at the part where nolan chases frank that was so funny, and i thought it was lionel doing the noises the whole time!!! )

annnyway, next up we're combining seasons 8 and 9! then, after that will be season 10...and the end of this book!! i'm absolutely not ready to finish this and the ending will be sad af but!! fret not, i'll be working on spinoffs after the finish as well as a few oneshots here and there!

as always, thanks to my one reader, and stay tuned for the next part!!