“Us?” Priya said, raising an eyebrow.

Xander straightened up. “Hey. Where’s Li?”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Priya said. “She ran off.”

“Where?”

She pointed back at the dark hospital.

“You mean she’s still inside?” he asked.

“Yes! She said she wasn’t going to leave Omar behind.” She looked down for a moment before continuing. “Xander. You know what we have to do. We have to go back.”

Chapter Seven

Xander stared at his friend in disbelief. “Priya, why didn’t you grab her?”

“You don’t think I tried?” she shot back. “And what about you? You ran out of there so fast I’m surprised you didn’t leave your sneakers behind.”

Xander couldn’t look Priya in the eye. “Well, never mind who did what. We have to figure out what to do now.”

“I know exactly what we’re going to do.” She pulled a phone from her back pocket. “We’re calling the police.”

Xander grabbed her wrist. “Wait. Not so fast.”

“Our friends are inside, Xander. Who knows what’s happening to them right now?”

Xander pleaded with her. “Think this through for a second. What are you going to tell the cops? That ghosts are in the haunted hospital? They’ll just laugh at us. And then they might charge us with trespassing.”

“No they won’t.”

“Imagine you’re a cop listening to this story,” Xander said. “ ‘Officer, we were sneaking around the haunted hospital, and some ghosts grabbed our friends. Can you save them from the spirits?’ After hearing that, would you want to help?”

She lowered her phone. “I guess not. What do you suggest we do?”

“To be honest, I don’t have a clue.”

She glanced at the building, then back at her phone.

“Even if we did call the cops, it would take them forever to get here. We need to figure out a way to—hey!” Xander called after Priya, who was racing toward the building.

“I’m going back in!” Priya shouted.

“Wait for me!”

Xander caught up to Priya at the window entrance. She climbed in. Xander followed, lighting the way with his headlamp. He wasn’t crazy about being back inside. He sincerely hoped they found their friends before the ghosts found them.

Priya snapped on her lamp as they stepped into the hallway. The gurneys were still stacked beside the counter at the nurses’ station. Xander remembered the stories he had read about poltergeists—bratty spirits that liked to move furniture around and knock on walls. He wondered if they had rearranged the gurneys. Could they also grab people?

“It looks like the ghosts don’t want us to go this way,” Xander said.

Priya veered toward the unblocked hall. “The last time I saw Li, she was running this way.”

Priya jogged in the direction of room 176, but instead of turning the corner, she headed straight toward a set of double doors.

“I think she was going toward the children’s unit,” she said.

Xander raised an eyebrow. “How do you know where that is?”