Li dialed her phone and waited. The first few bars of the Star Wars theme sounded down the hallway.

“Omar!” Li said.

“I knew it,” Priya said.

She stepped out of the room and scanned the corridor. The theme song started over. Her headlamp swiveled from one door to another as she advanced toward the sound. Xander and Li were only a few steps behind her.

Priya got as close as she could to where the sound was coming from. She glanced around. On the floor, tucked behind an open door, was Omar’s phone. She knelt down and picked it up. The caller ID showed Li calling.

Li grabbed the phone from Priya’s hand. “He would never leave this behind. Not for anything.”

“Maybe he’s in one of the other rooms,” said Xander. “We should split up and search them.”

Priya’s eyes widened. “Haven’t you ever watched a horror movie? You never split up! We stay together.”

“Okay, okay, but we need to check all the rooms.”

“Then let’s get started,” said Li. “Omar! If you can hear me, say something!”

“Leave this place,” a ghostly voice moaned.

Xander froze. “You both heard that, didn’t you?”

Priya nodded. Li shone her phone light down the hall. No sign of anyone.

“Leave now,” another ghostly voice moaned.

“They’re all around us,” Li said.

A chorus of voices. “Leave this place.”

“I think maybe we should listen to them,” Priya said.

“We can’t leave without Omar,” Li said.

A rhythmic beating of metal on metal echoed in front of them. Xander backed up, keeping his light trained on the passage in front of him.

“Return to the home base,” he ordered.

“What about Omar?” Li asked, refusing to budge.

Priya grabbed Li’s hand and hauled her back. “If he’s smart, he got out of here already.”

The beating got closer. A shadowy figure emerged from one of the rooms down the hall. At first Xander hoped it might be Omar, but this figure was too short. Another figure emerged from a different room. And a third appeared from yet another room.

“Run!” Xander shouted. “Now!”

He pushed the girls ahead as he broke into a full-on sprint. The chorus of ghostly voices shouted behind the trio.

“Leave! Go! Never return!”

Xander sped around the corner. At the nurses’ station, three gurneys had been stacked on top of each other to form a barricade.

“This way!” Xander screamed as he scrambled to the room with the window they had entered through.

“Xander, wait!” Priya called.

Xander couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of his own panicked breathing. He crashed into the room, zipped toward the window and squeezed through the gap. Then he streaked across the lawn to the metal fence.

He looked back at the haunted hospital, resting his hands on his knees and sucking the crisp air into his burning lungs.

Priya finally caught up to him. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?” she said.

He panted for air. “No. I…was…too busy trying to save us.”