Adja summarized what they had to do in the house.

'We're going to search Georges Dormeaux's bedroom, and also his brother Jules'. Then we will go back to Sylvana's room to try to open the wardrobe. Can't we buy some sort of hook to open the locks without her help, by the way? Otherwise, it would take three days for the three wardrobes...'

'I think a hammer would be enough, I saw that online.'

'Sounds illegal!'

'We're talking about an abandoned house, Adja! We can break locks!'

'No,but... your internet history... Why did you want to know how to open a lock without the key?'

'Don't laugh, okay?'

Adja was slightly worried. I hope it's not shady...

'No, I won't laugh.'

'I wanted to start a ghost hunting channel too, to prove that nothing was real. I needed to enter locked up places.'

'Really?' Adja smiled. 'And you never did?'

'No, I found guys who looked like they were taking drugs... I ran away and never tried to go anywhere else. I would have never come here if you hadn't proven the house was empty!'

Adja could see Léon infiltrating a deprecated house and leaving it without a sound, alarmed. I guess I can understand him, since that was also one of my fears, but it's sadder for these people than for him. Léon hadn't found drug addicts in Toulon, as he wished, but he had encountered something actually dangerous.

'Today, your only risk is getting cursed forever. I guess that's better than talking to a heroin addict, right?'

'Damn...'

'I'm making fun of you. Alphonse Dormeaux will not hurt you. He can throw objects at you, but not hard enough to kill you.'

'Are you completely sure about that?'

Adja shrugged.

'No, of course. So let's not anger him.'

'We should talk about our theories on the disappearance of the family. I think Elisa killed everyone, personally.'

'Elisa? Not Sylvana?' Adja wondered. 'I thought you believed she had done every bad thing on this planet.'

'Hey, don't sass me!'

'I think we should remember that the only spirits in the house are Sylvana and Alphonse, not Elisa.'

Léon stayed silent for a few seconds, then asked:

'Is there a list of reasons making deceased people stay in their home as ghosts?'

'It's not an exact science, but I would say that someone who doesn't know how they died will never find peace.'

'So Alphonse and Sylvana don't know why or how they died? That's strange, though. If they stayed in the house looking at the rest of the family living their lives around them, they surely understood what was going on.'

'Maybe the situation wasn't clear. We will have to ask Alphonse after exhausting Sylvana.'

Léon offered to broadcast loud music so that Sylvana wouldn't hear them thinking about Alphonse Dormeaux. Adja wasn't sure this would work, but she listened.

'It would be nice to fight a little, too,' Léon added. 'Otherwise she'll have a jealous tantrum.'

'Yeah... right.'

'I'm glad you realize that she doesn't react the sanest way.'

'I can understand her, you know. She won't get very far like this, the entire living world is an adversary for her.'

Léon frowned, finishing his breakfast.

'So, you think she's sincerely in love with you? Don't you think she's using you to investigate on her death?'

'You don't know how nice she is when you're not there. She's actually a kind person.'

She reminisced the night she almost spent with Sylvana before accidentally making her leave. The spirit's proximity still made her shudder. No one had dared to lie next to her before Sylvana. And, even if it didn't make sense, it was invaluable for her: someone wanted to stay with her. As for Léon, he didn't seem to find it amusing.

'I don't even want to know what you're doing together, even if I don't expect it to be concrete.'

No, it's not very concrete, that's true. In any case, what more could she do? Even if she found Sylvana good-looking and fascinating, her interactions with her would always be limited. Talking to her with a machine blurring half of her sentences, getting hit in the face by flying objects... feeling cold at night, also... Great.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Adja prepared her material and bought a hammer with Léon in the closest supermarket.

'Hide it,' she asked him in the car. 'I don't want her to believe that we came back to destroy everything.'

'You're behaving like you have an abusive partner.'

'I'm behaving like she's a ghost who scared her own grandfather.'

Léon nodded. He seemed relieved that she made sense. Thanks, really.

~

Adja parked in front of the house and asked Léon to turn his phone on. Let's try the music strategy.

'If Sylvana can already hear us from outside, it's too late.'

They could talk to each other the music, but it was almost impossible to concentrate more than five seconds. Adja took a step inside and shouted:

'Sylvana! Sylvana, we're here but Léon has decided to add music to make the videos more interesting! He's extremely annoying!'

Léon stared at her with a desperate look, appalled by her lack of talent for acting. Adja bolted with her camera in Georges' room – or Jules, she didn't know.

'Sylvana, I'm using the K-II! One blink for 'yes', two for 'no'! Is it Georges' room? Well, I mean, your father's?'

The K-II didn't respond. Adja wondered if they had gone too far with the electric guitars, on top of speaking very lightly of her father, who most likely died with her.

'Sylvana?' she asked, very worried.

Adja turned to Léon and saw objects flying towards them.

'Sylvana!' she repeated, screaming. 'Sylvana, stop! Do not attack Léon!'

The young man yelled when small rocks fell on him at such a high speed they left holes in his coat. Adja felt her heart racing, faster and faster. This was a gross mistake! We should have never done this!

'Léon, stop the music! We have to explain everything!'

The stones fell on the floor. Léon turned his phone off and stroke his right cheek, smearing blood on his hand. His eyes were filled with terror, but also acknowledgement. We have to do it.

'Sylvana, are you listening?'

The K-II diode blinked once.

'I think we can trust you not to lose your temper, alright? You deserve to know how the rest of our investigation is going to unfold, because we won't leave until we've helped you. Please don't worry.'

Adja sat on the bed to feel more at ease. She was shaking from head to toe, like a little girl who made a big mistake. I'm being sincere, Sylvana. Listen to the little voice in my head... I'm here to tell the truth, today.

'You are not alone in this house. Someone else wants to know what happened here, and they can't find peace. This person is hiding from you and fears you a lot, certainly wrongfully. Would you be ready to meet them and not hurt them in any way?'

The K-II did not react, but the small rocks began to move. Léon thought he would get them in the face and protected his cheeks and glasses, but the stones rolled to form three letters: BOX. Adja grabbed her spirit box and feverishly turned it on. I'm listening, Sylvana, tell us everything.

'Tchtchtchtchtch... who is this person? Tchtchtchtch...'

'First, I would like to tell you again that this man fears you terribly. He thinks you provoked your whole family's death, and that you won't tell him the truth. But you can tell us everything, I swear. Did you... are you responsible of...,' Adja hesitated, unable to finish her sentence.

'Tchtchtch... No! Tchtchtchtch... I did not die last, I think... tchtchtchtch...'

'I see,' Adja said, sighing with relief. 'It changes everything, you can't have done it if you weren't the last one standing! The ghost inhabiting this house with you is Alphonse Dormeaux.'

In the middle of the spirit box's wall of noise, Adja thought she heard sobs.

'Sylvana, are you crying?'

'Tchtchtchtchtch... Grandfather... tchtchtch...'

'Don't cry, Sylvana! You will see him again, aren't you happy?'

'Tchtchtch... sobs... tchtchtchtchtch... I am! Tchtchtch...'

Adja let herself think about everything that had happened with Léon since the day before, so that Sylvana could decipher her mind and understand that she shouldn't worry: he was not a threat, nor was Alphonse. Everything was fine.

'Sylvana,' Léon suddenly asked. 'Can you show or tell us what happened before your death? Do you remember something in particular?'

'Tchtchtchtch... I know... tchtchtch... died, but not why... tchtchtchtchtch...'

'Tell us,' Adja pressed her. 'Tell us everything you remember.'

'Tchtchtchtchtch... I can try to show... tchtchtch... enter your head, if I can... tchtchtchtch...'

Adja had no idea what she meant, but she decided to accept it. Go on, Sylvana, show me. She was ready to face a brand-new experience, something extraordinary.

Suddenly, Adja felt an intense pain in her chest, extending to her back. Her lower jaw was heavy. She couldn't breathe.

'S-S-Sylvana?' she stammered, grabbing the skin above her heart, desperate.

The sound of the spirit box sounded more and more distant. She saw Léon run to her and shake her shoulders, horrified, screaming incoherent things. What...? The world was spinning, but Adja didn't feel like she was on the merry-go-round anymore. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, in more pain that she had ever experienced.

Then, unexpectedly, she felt a lot better. Her thoracic cage didn't trap her in a tight corset anymore, and her back was finally at peace. She breathed deeply and opened her eyes, relieved.

'Sylvana, you scared me like hell... I thought I was having a heart attack! Don't do this ever again, it was incredibly scary. Are you alright, Léon?'

Adja leant on her elbows and wiped the tears off her eye corners. She turned to Léon, who started screaming in despair, pushing on her chest. What are you doing, Léon? She could see his hands go through her torso and hit her spine, but there was no sensation whatsoever. What? Adja rolled on her side, refusing to accept the idea blooming in her mind. I'm not dead, I'm not dead, I'm not dead! She faced her own corpse, unable to pronounce a single word. Her black hair was clumsily spread on her face, flanking her fixed gaze. Léon tried hopelessly to resuscitate her and was crying his eyes dry.

'Léon...,' she whispered. 'The spirit box, Léon, the spirit box...'

Adja tried to kick the device that her body was still holding, but her efforts couldn't move it a single millimeter. She felt like she had no strength at all, fighting an iceberg instead of a small machine. She came closer to the spirit box and yelled:

'Léon! Léon! Léooooon!'

But the young man's screams covered every other noise in the room. What can I do? Adja knew her heart should have been racing, her breath shorter, but none of that was happening. Her only sensations were her feelings and the exhaustion of trying to move the spirit box. A wave of panic took control of her thoughts before she could focus on anything else. My parents... Grandma... They will never see me again and they will accuse Léon... She collapsed on the floor, whining. Never had she suffered so much. Mom, Dad, Grandma, I'm so sorry... Her eyes didn't produce fresh tears, but her new enveloppe seemed to fill up with sadness from top to bottom, free of its usual functions, fully dedicated to her despair.

Adja couldn't even touch the floor. Nothing under her new hands was actually solid, half of her left knee was sinking through the ground. When she got aware of it, her leg went back up and seemed to stay above the wooden floor. It's... I don't get it...

All of a sudden, Adja felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw the one she was waiting for, the one with whom she had dreamed to talk – but not like this, not dead on the floor, leaving everyone behind! Her endlessly long fair hair, exactly like on the photographs, her cold blue eyes, her lace dress: everything was in front of her, everything perfectly in place. Amid her annihilation, the faintest light of hope dawned in her heart.

'Sylvana...?' she gasped.

'I do not know what I have just done...,' she muttered. 'What have I done...?'

Adja reached for Sylvana's hand and was surprised to find it lukewarm. It wasn't the best moment to care about such details, but she was too lost to focus on something more relevant.

'Why... why isn't it cold?' she was finally able to ask.

'Death is not like one imagines it,' she said, staring at Adja. 'Do I still frighten you?'

'No... No, I was never scared of you, that's the issue, I guess...'

Adja was ready to lose herself in Sylvana's pale eyes for hours, maybe for the rest of her eternal life, but there was an urgent problem at hand.

'I have to tell Léon that I'm okay.'

'You are not okay, Adja,' Sylvana replied, and her own name was beautiful to hear in her voice, despite the horror of the situation. 'You are deceased... I do not know what I have done to kill you, but you are deceased...'

'We'll talk about it later, I just want to tell him that I'm still here, and we can keep on investigating.'

'Is that your priority?' Sylvana asked, her mouth a thin line.

'Investigating?'

'No, Léon.'

Adja shook her head.

'I don't intend to spend centuries proving that I don't care about Léon that way. He's a friend, maybe even less than this but anyway... He doesn't deserve to cry on my body without knowing I am one meter away from him, alright? Help me raise the spirit box so he can hear us.'

Sylvana pouted but walked closer to the device. She grabbed it with both hands and gritted her teeth. A protruding vein appeared at her temple, and she would have sweat if her body had still been functional. That demands the kind of strength I don't have... Maybe Sylvana had spent decades practicing this type of miracle, after all. How was opening a lock easier than this, though?

'It was still difficult,' said Sylvana with a blank stare, her eyes lost in the effort.

'Can you still read my thoughts?'

'No, but I can guess them.'

After four painfully long minutes, Léon finally noticed the spirit box floating in front of him. No part of his body was free of convulsions, and he still pushed randomly on Adja's body with shaky fingers. He ran a hand on his sweaty face. Adja yelled in the spirit box with all her might.

'Léon! Léon, can you hear me?'