"We were a little worried when the camera feed you were fixing came back to life but was all garbled," Phil said from next to Alex, his eyes scanning through video comments and emails on his laptop. "Glad to see you got it resolved."
"Haha, yeah you guys would be helpless without me," Alex giggled, leaning back in her chair. "Though you'll be helpless regardless..."
"What was that?" Phil asked without looking up from his screen.
"Oh, nothing. Don't mind me; I'll just keep watching the feeds."
The video coming from Jake's camera showed that the group was now walking down a hallway near the activity room while calling out for Officer Taylor. The eerie green glow of the camera's night vision mode created stark contrasts between light and shadow, adding to an extra creepy atmosphere. They passed by rows of solid doors that, if they even opened at all, led to abandoned bedrooms that contained simple, rusted beds with rotting mattresses. Some of them had a few more items inside, but most were just filled with trash and broken furniture.
Even after tracing their steps all the way back to the activity room, there was still no sign of Officer Taylor. Callie poked her head into the dark room and called out for her, but there was nothing she could see other than the blinking light from the camera in the corner. For a brief moment, she thought she heard something like a moan, but it was muffled and distant, so she shrugged and closed the door behind her, assuming the wind was just picking up outside.
"Damn, where the heck is she?" Camilla sighed, tiredly rubbing her face with her hands.
"Hopefully she didn't get hurt or something..." Callie replied, nervously chewing her lip. She checked her phone and noted that it was almost midnight, nearly the time they had promised to return to the lobby and wait. They had tried contacting Officer Taylor through her radio, but to no avail, and Alex was regularly checking in to let them know that she still hadn't seen anything on the cameras.
"We don't have time for this!" Callie exclaimed with a huff. "Let's just quickly get some more footage and return. I'm sure she'll be there when we get back." Everyone agreed. They pushed forward into the deeper parts of the asylum, checking air temperatures, doing more spirit box inquiries, scanning for electromagnetic frequencies, and the like, but nothing came of them... until Jake noticed something on his camera.
"Whoa wait guys! Hold up!" He whispered excitedly. "L-look at this! Quick!" He turned the camera around so that the digital display could be seen by the rest of the group. He hit a button to rewind the captured footage and stopped at a point where he had looked behind them to get a long shot of the hallway.
"What? What is it!?" Callie asked eagerly, practically stampeding over Amy to get to the camera. Her eyes lit up with amazement when she saw what was on the screen.
"Is that really anything to get excited about?" Camilla asked, a brow raised. It just looks like some dust or a digital artifact or something."
"No way!" Callie replied, shooting her an incredulous look. "That's clearly an orb!" Jake looped the video to make it easier to analyze. In the darkness of the recorded hallway, a single small, round speck of light could be seen moving lazily through the air at the far end for but a brief moment before disappearing.
"I can certainly sense a disturbance in that direction," Amy confirmed, gazing down the hall.
"I guess if it really IS an orb, that would be huge," Camilla admitted. "It's not often you see spiritual energy manifest like that."
"It's not!" Callie agreed with a smile. "This could be really big! C'mon, let's go get a closer look and scan the area back there!"
"You're the boss," said Jake, spinning the camera around again to resume recording as they quickly made their way back down the hall. Callie could barely contain her excitement, already pulling out gadgets to perform as many tests as quickly as possible so as to not pass this chance up.
Suddenly, as they passed an intersection in the hallway, Camilla stopped them all.
"Whoa wait, guys, did you hear that?" She said, shining her flashlight down the turn in the hallway that led away from their destination.
"Hear what?" Callie asked, practically skidding to a halt.
"I didn't hear anything," Jake added, pointing the camera down the hallway that Camilla was scanning. The green night vision simply displayed yet another empty, decrepit path with some broken signs hanging on the walls indicating that this was the North Wing of the hospital, where various therapy rooms were located.
"It sounded like radio static," Camilla said, stepping over a fallen IV pole to flash her light into some of the nearby rooms. "I'm pretty sure it came from somewhere around here. It could be Officer Taylor."
"Hello? Officer Taylor?" Callie called out, her clear voice echoing dully down the hall. There was no reply. "Huh, are you sure?"
"Eh, not really," Camilla admitted, "but I guess we should go check it out just to be sure."
"Aw what?" Callie pouted, we need to get back to where we saw that orb! We've lost a lot of time as it is standing around here! This could be the major break our channel needs!"
"Fine," Camilla sighed. You and loverboy go get the footage and Amy and I will go check real quick."
"I'm coming with you?" Amy asked in surprise, her feet shifting nervously.
"No way in hell am I going down this creepy-ass hallway alone in the dark. Besides, maybe you 'amazing psychic senses' will help us."
"Right..." Amy didn't seem too enthused by this idea. "Can't we all go and get the footage then come back together?"
"If it is Officer Taylor, she could have moved far away by then," Jake clicked his tongue. "I guess we can split up, but let's keep it brief -- make sure to check your radios, okay?"