Xander let out a sigh. “I thought the cops bought our story. I’d hate for Quest and his friends to lose their home.”

“Let’s check out the morgue,” Priya said. “Maybe they moved back down there.”

They dashed down the stairs and made their way toward the basement. However, as Xander approached the corridor leading to the stairwell, he noticed something different. The cabinets, gurneys and chairs that had been stacked up as an obstacle course were gone.

“You think the cops cleared this out?” Xander asked.

“I don’t know,” Priya said. “I suppose they could have.”

They went down the empty corridor and reached the stairwell. Now barbed wire was strung across the staircase.

“No way anyone could have replaced the barbed wire that fast. They’d have to get a crew in to do this,” Xander said. “What’s going on?”

“Only one way to find out,” Priya said.

They lifted the barbed wire, crawled under and went down to the basement. When they reached the morgue, the doors were wide open, and the room was empty. Dust covered the floor, body lockers and examination table as if no one had been in the place for years.

“You sure this is the right room?” Xander asked.

Priya pointed at the sign over the doors. Morgue.

The kids searched the other rooms. No sign of Quest or Rainbow or anyone else. They returned to the morgue and stood in the middle of the empty room.

“It’s like they were never here,” Priya said, her voice echoing off the walls.

“Did it suddenly get cold in here?” Xander asked.

“Maybe we should go. I’m sure Quest and Rainbow’s group will be okay.”

“Yeah. I guess,” Xander said as he turned back to the hall.

“Hey, thanks for not telling Li and Omar about my time here,” Priya said.

“I figured some things in the past are meant to stay in the past.”

“You mean like the ghosts of the haunted hospital?”

He smiled. “Yeah, right.”

“You belong to us,” a ghostly voice answered.

Xander spun around, his hair standing on end.

Priya laughed, holding up her phone. She clicked on the screen and replayed the eerie voice. “You belong to us.”

“Har, har,” Xander said. “Not cool, Priya.”

“Made you jump.”

He rolled his eyes. “No way. I knew it was you all along.”

They strolled out of the room while still arguing about whether or not Xander had been scared. The morgue doors swung closed behind them. Written faintly in red across one of the metal doors was a message:

Catch you on the flip side.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Michelle Chan, Wei Wong, Tanya Trafford, Arlene Lipkewich, A. Blair McPherson School, Kathy Oster, Delton Elementary School and all the students who begged me to write a scary story.

Excerpt

Par couldn’t join me for my training session on Sunday. His dad had grounded him for breaking the lamp. So I was on my own to go over the drills and routines for my “lesson.” I went down to the local rec center.