Xander’s feet suddenly felt like he had stepped in wet concrete. He raised the phone and aimed the beam of light at the closed doors again. No sign of the eyes.

“Must have been my imagination.” He turned on the recorder app. “If I can figure out how to make something that looks like reflecting eyes, Li will lose her mind. Note to self—buy marbles and string.”

Xander willed his feet to move forward. He inched closer to the doors, keeping the light trained on the windows. His legs tingled with anticipation.

He carefully pushed one of the doors open. A rush of air and dust swirled up. He shone the light down the hallway.

“Whoa. The gang is going to love this place.”

Xander thought for a second about whether he should continue to explore. He swept the flashlight beam along the walls and doors. Two gurneys were off to one side, some large cardboard boxes on the other. The hallway looked pretty much like the others. He decided he had seen enough and turned away.

As he made his way back through the maze of corridors, he switched his camera to video mode and filmed everything. A video map of the hospital layout would be useful for planning their stories.

He neared a corridor blocked off with a web of yellow hazard tape, and the stench of mold and mildew shot up his nose. He shone his light through the web. Parts of the ceiling had fallen down, and water dripped onto the floor. The floor was shiny with some kind of gross green gunk.

He spoke into his phone. “Watch out for places with yellow warning tape. Parts of the building aren’t really safe. Try to score some hospital gowns and bedsheets for set decoration and wardrobe. Maybe at the thrift store? Ooh, yeah. If we can find some surgical masks, definitely get those.”

He stepped away from the yellow tape.

“Working my way back to home base,” he said. “Rooms 176, 148, 112 and 129 are all great. Need some chalk to mark off the halls so people don’t get lost.”

He continued to film until he reached the nurses’ station. Then he checked the video. Although the images were dark, they provided enough sense of the layout to help him plan out the missions.

Xander’s chest tightened. Did he just see what he thought he saw? He rewound the clip. They only appeared for a second, but yes, he was almost certain he had captured a second set of eyes in a window as he filmed his return to the nurses’ station. But it must have been a trick of the light. Maybe all this talk of ghosts was making Xander see things. He didn’t really believe all the stories he told. He just loved getting his friends worked up.

Xander looked around, unable to shake the feeling that he was being watched.

“If there are ghosts here,” he shouted, “show yourselves!”

The cat growled from behind the counter.