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"Alright," you conclude. "I'm staying at Kate's--nothing against your place, Cici, just..."

"Mondol," Cici says simply.

You nod. "...Yeah. Mondol."

Kate gives a nod, as well. "I'll text Mom so she doesn't think you're a burglar or something."

You take one last, long look around the room.

Your weird, inappropriately sized living room with its big, blank walls.

Kate smirks, taking a short drag of her level. "You're still hung up about the laundry room, huh?"

"I am still hung up about the laundry room," you admit.

Cici shrugs. "We got time, right? Maybe we can find it now that we all remember the backyard."

...She makes a good point. Maybe you've awakened enough to see the rest of the house, or... something. "Yeah," you say quietly, before adding a more confident "Yeah. Let's take another swing at finding it. There HAS to be one, we're just not seeing it."

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Given that it's a long ride out to the sticks and there's other people riding the bus tonight, you retreat to your book for the majority of the trip. The first section talks about the distinction between houses that are haunted and haunted houses.

The book says that ghosts can be anywhere; in fact, according to some ... vaguely attributed research, the fundamental ingredients of ghosts are everywhere. Ghosts are animated moments, like a hologram of an especially strong emotion or event from the life of the deceased, brought into existence by some unknown confluence of energy. They are not a fully fledged individual, nor are they the remains of the dead they are based upon--they are, to put it succinctly, a happening. They are not people, but phenomena, like the reoccurring eruptions of a volcano.

Ghosts, typically, are sentient but not sapient. The ghost can act outside its fixed routine, but is still mentally limited to the moment it represents--an angry ghost tends to stay angry, and know little beyond anger, as an example. Ghosts that are fully formed enough to communicate often come off as confused, knowing only bits and pieces of who they used to be. Regardless, though, the ghost is independent--a ghost can move, even follow a family they've grown attached to into a new home. If a house the ghost is haunting is destroyed or somehow physically relocated, the ghost can exist in the same place without it--though, such an event may "upset" the ghost. To return to the volcano comparison, tectonic shifts can prompt a volcano to erupt if the volcano's own conditions are right.

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To summarize, a ghost doesn't need to haunt any particular location--a ghost haunts wherever a ghost happens to be active, if the ghost is active at all. The book also makes a note that ghosts shouldn't be confused for other paranormal entities, like evil spirits, but that going into that would take up an entirely different book.

All of this is entirely different from a true haunted house, wherein there may not even exist a ghost at all, per se--because the problem is, itself,

the house.

"We've reached your destination, Plaire," the bus chimes in.

You stand.

Hesitate, just a second.

"Thank you," you tell the bus,

and you step out into the night.

The shittily paved road was unnerving enough in the daytime. Now, it is somehow simultaneously dead silent and terrifyingly loud. Shuffling in the distant grass and the sounds of birds that you know have to be birds but don't really sound like birds and bugs that will not shut the fuck up

it all blends together into an indistinct slurry, as difficult to penetrate as the dark and it is real fucking dark.

The bait shop is still open, with two cars and a pickup parked in front of it. You're relieved for the light pouring from its windows, but also fully aware that it still being open at this hour is going to bother the shit out of you later.

You stop as you pass the second field, as a sound begins to cut through the buzzing and screeching of the countryside--a low grumbling, whining, hissing noise that rises, builds, until all of the background is drowned out.

. . .

It's

probably an oil pump or something.

It does not sound like an animal.

Nonetheless, you wait a few seconds after the sound has abruptly stopped before you continue walking.

You eventually reach Kate's house.

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