'Hello everyone, it's Adja Hunting! Today, we're together again for a new video in an abandoned hospital...'

Her assured voice echoed in the little apartment in Dunkirk. Adja was watching her last video, from the first second to the last, a necessary step before posting it online. She was always scared of missing something in the final cut, of leaving an artifact that would make her look like an impostor. Adja had been hunting ghosts with her camera as a weapon for two years now, and she didn't intend to cheat – on the contrary!

The young woman had never immortalized any paranormal event during her numerous escapades, and this new video was no exception. She didn't transform images or sounds and only bet on the quality and the dynamism of her editing. Luckily, her subscribers appreciated her videos for their atmosphere and rarely criticized the lack of supernatural content.

The occasional visitors, though, didn't hold back when they expressed their discontent. Adja couldn't count anymore the disparaging remarks on her onscreen behavior. She talked too quietly, too loudly, didn't spend enough time in each room, didn't visit fast enough... The critics were endless and devoid of any logic.

Adja finally reached the end of her one-hour-long video and uploaded it on two different websites. She announced her new production on several social networks and sighed with concern. I hope this one will please them... They didn't like the one with the clinic that much, so the hospital... Well, you never know. She got up to fetch some noodles and code a few lines during the evening – her real job. Adja developed softwares and created websites for clients who paid her enough to survive. Her videos gave her a little amount of money that she used to buy ghost hunting equipment, no more.

After coding until midnight, Adja dared to look at her notifications while sipping on orange juice. The most difficult moment was the start... The comments were varied, as usual.

'Nice orb at 14:38... or was it light diffraction on dust?'

'Not much, once more, but eh, I like the way you record the images and it tells a story...'

'Great, Adja! You should show yourself more often like in the intro, you're very beautiful ;-)'

'As insufferable as always, you should let the professionals do it! MarkGhost does it better'

'This hospital is so creepy, I love it! Do you know the abandoned one in Marseille? You should test it!'

'You should do makeup tutorials instead'

'Cool! '

'Not only is it bad as hell, you have that ridiculous strong accent so it's pathetic to watch'

Two viewers had protested under this last comment, accusing him of being racist. Adja decided to ignore the energumen who was already being taken care of by her fans. She was rarely singled out for her skin color outside of the internet, and you had to listen very carefully to notice her accent... unless you had malicious intents. Adja's father, a Breton, didn't transmit her any accent. Sometimes, though, she couldn't help pronouncing certain words like her Senegalese mother would.

Adja kept on reading a few comments and lost herself until the end of the night on videos featuring puppies and other cute animals. She loved working on her editing software and investigate supposedly haunted places, but her audience's reactions made her anxious to no end. They were not that negative, though! People's gaze scared her, she guessed. Way more than the spirits she never met in her videos.

Besides where on Earth could they go, these spirits? Adja had visited the same haunted house as two American teams and hadn't seen anything. Not a single weird noise. Nothing. There were so many things to hear and see! Adja had spent at least four hundred euros in hunting material, and until now only her camera and microphone had been useful...

Adja fell asleep with a dry throat, stressed out after only one upload and reasing some comments, angry about the lack of ghosts. Maybe she was cursed... or maybe not enough.

~

On the next day, around one in the afternoon, Adja got down again to reading comments, in order to find recommendations of new locations to visit. In order not to get compared to more successful hunters, she didn't want to go to renowned places anymore. Her gaze stopped on a rather enticing message:

'I sent you a rare place by DM, it would be cool if I could have an exclusivity for my favorite hunter ;-)'

Adja opened her DMs and read a name she had never had the pleasure to see.

'Hi, I put a comment on your last video, if you haven't seen it! I traveled to the Var and heard about a haunted house. Two old men were talking about it and saying that no one had been there for a long time. It's called the Maison Dormeaux, just next to Toulon! The whole Dormeaux family died there, apparently. They showed me the place on a map, here is a link with GPS coordinates. Bye!'

Adja warmly thanked her fan and immediately researched the decimated family. Nothing! Not a word about this house! It's encouraging, I'll be the first! In the meantime, her savior had sent her another message.

'Great! And be careful, no one wants to go there because it's apparently VERY haunted. Everything is in good condition or not far from that because it was renovated, but no one ever reclaimed this place. A mayor considered turning it into a local attraction, that's why it's a little rebuilt, but the visitors were terrorized. It was before the internet, so it's not that famous! Enjoy!'

Adja coded more quickly than ever to finish all her projects before booking a hotel in Toulon. Within a day, I'll be there! She packed some clothes and equipment and stamped with impatience. There were ten whole hours between Dunkirk and Toulon. I have enough money to stay two weeks, she thought while putting her hotel bill inside her backpack. It's more than enough to shoot as many scenes as possible! Worst case scenario, I'll have a nice trip to show my subscribers.

Adja recorded a quick video to inform her fans of her absence.

'Hi everyone, it's Adja Hunting! I will be gone for two weeks in a city that I'll keep secret for the moment. I hope the house will be haunted as it can be, fingers crossed for me, please! Be right back for the best video of the century!'

Adja hoped she wouldn't have to regret her words. If it's extremely bad and there's nothing to see... I will have to turn into a Top 10 channel.

Adja took a short nap before taking the wheel, all her equipment crammed on the backseat. Everything was ready: her devices that could capture electromagnetic fields, temperature and special sounds, her cameras that could record in the dark, her Ouija board...

While driving, Adja thought that she would never have the infinite patience she had in her first videos. All those hours spent on my Ouija board for nothing... The wooden planchette had never moved half a millimeter, not even with a reflex of her finger. Adja had never doubted the existence of spirits: she was rather convinced that they avoided her. Maybe someone had blessed her family!

When she had asked her mother if a Senegalese wizard could have protected her, she had only received insults and had been ordered to lay the table. Her mother found her passion dangerous and almost insulting to real afterlife traditions. Adja's paranormal was a cinema belief, according to her mother, nothing more, and she shouldn't compare it to millennial African cultures.

Adja thought she wasn't wrong... but not totally right either. There were things that could not be explained in the Occident, and studying electromagnetic fields brought some answers to these mysteries! Anyway, I know bloody well that mom watches my videos and advertises them... Adja couldn't change her mother, after all. She just wanted to check that she wasn't putting herself in danger.

Adja parked her car several times at rest stops before reaching Toulon. She settled in her hotel room and took her computer out. So, it's only ten in the morning and I drove all night... should I sleep or go out a little? She didn't have time to choose as she collapsed on her bed, exhausted. The sheets had a soft scent of apples that knocked her out.

When she woke up around six in the afternoon, her stomach was so empty that she struggled to get up. Adja stuffed herself with crisps to calm her cramps and had dinner at the hotel restaurant, cursing the emptiness of her first day in Toulon. What a pity..., she thought while climbing the stairs back to her room. She unpacked her belongings and laid the Ouija board on her knees, thoughtful. It's only at twenty minutes, if the road is empty...