dire engagements

it feels like we're ready to crack, these days, you and I

There are much less crew than last week.

With Remi, Isla and Ronin already accounted for, only two more technicians are in tow, which means when the medium pulls up out front of the Halliday house, Isla is alone at the van. Inside, Ronin and the techs are already making the recap, and their silhouettes can be seen moving and flickering through the dining room window. The light in the children's bedroom is also on.

"Oh! Hey." Glancing up from her monitor, Isla turns towards Remi with a quick smile and a cursory look up and down, as if she's confirming everything that Ronin has undoubtedly fed back about him. "Don't worry about it, please. We were just getting worried more than anything." Worried about losing our pull from the audience is what goes unsaid, but it doesn't mean she hadn't not been worried for Remi's wellbeing too.

"Are you good for tonight?" she asks, nodding up at the house. "I'm not gonna lie, this place scares the shit out of me. It doesn't feel like the other places we've been. It's probably just because we know so much detail about what happened here, but... ugh." She wrinkles her nose. "I'm looking forward to moving on."

when it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I'll be

Remi nods, one hand lifting in a quiet gesture of acknowledgement, though the way he rocks a half-step back and tucks his shoulders inward is apologetic enough on its own. "Yeah. I’m good," he says, even if it comes a little too easily.

As Isla speaks, he folds his arms across his chest—not defensive, just comfortably tucked in—and leans against the side of the van, his eyes drifting to the silhouette of the house. The windows catch the glow of the dining room lights like they’re watching back. "In my experience," he murmurs, "just knowing a place is supposed to be haunted is enough to start a feedback loop. You expect weird shit, so every creak or draft confirms it. Doesn’t take much for that to spiral." It’s an oddly casual take, considering the week he’s apparently slept through and the fact he was last seen hiding in the upstairs closet.

Remi glances at the upper windows again, then back to Isla with a slight smirk, as if trying it on for size. "I bet we go in and the worst we find is a couple cold spots and a busted vent. Maybe some bad insulation. Nothing we haven’t handled before."

but there's a light in the attic and I swear it's calling me

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

it feels like we're ready to crack, these days, you and I

Giving Remi the sort of smile that says me too, and we're both liars, Isla sighs and glances back at her monitor before angling it away, as if watching whatever Ronin and the two techs are doing is distracting enough on its own. It's about at that time when Remi tries on his comforting monologue, and she raises her eyebrows at him, mildly surprised. "I really took you for a believer, you know. You do a great job," she says, slipping down from the van and straightening up.

"After this show airs, I'd not be surprised if you get a call from the producers," she adds. "They'll probably want to offer you a real contract." Big boy money, advertising, the works. "Doesn't really matter how the rest of the episodes pan out. This one's gonna be something special, I think."

The light in the children's room has turned back off.

"Hey - I think we're good to go in here!" That's Ronin's voice, and he appears in the front doorway dressed in a plain white tee with a blue plaid button-up thrown over it. "Glad you made it," he adds with a smile, nodding down at Remi.

when it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I'll be

Remi doesn’t argue the point, though his smile turns a little lopsided instead, as if agreeing out of convenience rather than conviction. There’s no need to defend his beliefs, especially not when it's just as well that Isla doesn't understand how deep his core convictions really go, if only so that the why of it all isn't raised.

At the mention of producers, though, his brows lift. That earns more of his attention. Pressing his tongue to the inside of his cheek, he glances sidelong at Isla. " Do you think it’d be worth it? Signing on, I mean." He shrugs one shoulder. "I could use the money...and I like working with the crew here, but is it a good gig, overall?"

Her comment about the episode being something special lingers in the air, and Remi’s smile grows a touch too slow, a touch too faraway. The sea-glass of his eyes clouds faintly as he murmurs, "I think so too."

Ronin’s voice calls him back. With a lift of his hand in quiet greeting, Remi pushes off from the van, offering Isla one last, flickering smile over his shoulder before heading toward the house. The porch creaks under his weight. Pausing on the bottom step, Remi glances up at Ronin and arches a brow. "Since the dining room table’s already flipped over once," he says dryly, "I think maybe table-tipping’s probably a bit on the nose. Maybe we should just start in the basement."

but there's a light in the attic and I swear it's calling me

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

it feels like we're ready to crack, these days, you and I

"Oh, god yeah," Isla says immediately, of signing on for the show. "These sorts of things are hot right now, and even though we're just starting out, we've been a hit. I feel like after these few episodes we'll know the trajectory a little more, but it's good to join when things are on the up. Especially as a medium." She says the last word like it belongs in a ghost story, winking at Remi and closing up the van.

"Truthfully, it's still a side hustle for me," she admits. "I'm in school to become a paramedic, but that only racks up more bills. My mother was a filmmaker, so I learned a lot of this from her."

Alas, further bonding with the crew will have to wait - there's an episode to shoot, and Ronin is beckoning them inside. "I couldn't agree more," he says with a grin. "You and I can get the go-pros and head down to the basement. Isla can keep an eye on the cameras and help the other crew with... ouija, I think. That's what they'll try on the dining room table."

Stepping inside, Ronin can't help but glance at the shadows pooling at the top of the stairs; with a curl of his lip, he hurries down the corridor to the dining room and the basement beyond.

when it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I'll be

Remi chuckles, hands tucking into the pockets of his jacket. "Well, if I get a call, I’ll think about it," he says, voice light but noncommittal, as if the idea were already half out of reach. It all felt a bit too good to be true, especially with the PAST DUE bills lining his countertops at home. Still, her sincerity earns a glance and a softer smile.

The paramedic comment pulls his brows up in surprise. "No kidding? That’s impressive." He pauses, thoughtful. "My mum wasn’t quite a paramedic, but...our village was so small, and the nearest hospital so far, she ended up being the one everyone came to. Broken arms, bad births, you name it." His smile turns a little nostalgic before he nods toward Isla. "Hopefully we’ll have you around a little while longer, at least." He doesn’t press further, doesn’t ask where Isla’s from or what made her choose this strange limbo between paramedicine and ghost shows. Whatever drew her here, it probably isn’t far off from whatever brought him, and surely there wil be time for that later.

When Ronin gestures toward the house, Remi doesn’t hesitate. He breezes inside without the apprehension that clung to him before, stepping through the entryway and into the dining room like he’s lived here all his life. The air is close and low-lit, but he only glances around with a mild curiosity, drifting toward the chair that had once belonged to the mother of the house. He leans against it, one arm slung along the wooden back.

One of the techs hands over the GoPro and Remi straps it on, adjusting it with practised ease. The red light of the REC mode clicks on. Glancing at Ronin, his sea-glass gaze bright with something that almost passes for excitement, he raises his brows. "You good to go?"

but there's a light in the attic and I swear it's calling me

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

it feels like we're ready to crack, these days, you and I

"Oh, really?" Isla lights up at that as she follows after Remi. "That's more impressive than studying for it if you ask me. Women have a long history of being healers, no matter the time or place." She drops the conversation as they step into the house, Isla switching immediately from casual chit-chat to getting shit done, and by the time both Remi and Ronin have donned their cameras, she's already setting up the ouija board and positioning the cameras around the dining room.

"I am always good to go," Ronin says with the charm of the show's host, apparently having flipped that switch back on for the evening. It's a mile away from his flustered blushing at Remi's apartment door, and he gestures at the black hole of a doorway leading down into the basement.

Trilling for the crew to wish them luck, he also sets his camera to record and clicks on his flashlight, stepping down into the cold, muted dark. "I let them set up down here earlier without me," he says to Remi over his shoulder. "I wanted this to be my first impression."

The steps seem to trundle down much, much longer than they ought to, but at last Ronin is squinting into the dank space. The air feels damp and stale, but he can see a couple of cameras beeping up in the corners near the beams. "It almost feels too big down here without any stuff in it," he mutters, beaming the flashlight to the far end of the basement, where a covered well that may as well be spraypainted OMINOUS sits in wait. A few buckets sit nearby, filled with clear water.

when it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I'll be

Remi huffs a quiet breath that might pass for a laugh, eyes rolling with mock disdain as Ronin lays on the easy charm as though trying to shake off the smile that threatens at the corners of his mouth. He doesn’t respond, at least not out loud, but his body shifts with the kind of exaggerated patience Italians have perfected over centuries, all sighs and raised brows and small, theatrical shrugs.

At Ronin’s comment about the crew already having set up, Remi raises his brows, smirking faintly. "Very method of you. I’m impressed," he says, voice low and unbothered, footsteps falling soft against the bare wood. It should feel claustrophobic, the way the light from the house gives out so quickly and the shadows swallow the stairs whole. But Remi moves as if the dark is something he’s already made peace with.

When they reach the basement floor, he doesn’t hesitate. Instead of pausing to orient himself, he turns immediately toward a thin chain dangling near one of the support beams; impossible to spot in the gloom unless you already knew it was there. Reaching out, he gives it a tug. A bulb somewhere overhead rattles but stays dead, and with a shrug that says well, worth a try, Remi turns back.

His flashlight clicks on, beam cutting through the damp, stale air. The concrete is cracked and uneven beneath their feet, dust softening the hard lines, water damage curling the edges of the old foundation. It’s quiet; not in the way of silence, but in the way of breath held just out of reach. His light drifts over the covered well, lingering for a half-second longer than it should.

"Well?" he murmurs, tilting his head as he glances toward Ronin, seaglass eyes catching the reflection from his own lens. "How’s it doing for a first impression?"

but there's a light in the attic and I swear it's calling me

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

it feels like we're ready to crack, these days, you and I

"Why thank you, Remi," Ronin says with a grin over his shoulder, though he can't quite turn to face the other man properly due to the narrow staircase. He's taken a few steps into the disorientating gloom when the dead click of a switch sounds, causing him to whip around with the flashlight. It focuses first on Remi, then the swaying chain he'd pulled, then the bulb overhead that has given up the ghost (lol). "How did..."

Opting not to ask - it's probably medium stuff - he follows the beam of the other flashlight across the worn floor and to the well; there are a few sets of footprints in the dust that might have been of interest if Ronin hadn't sent the techs down before him. He doesn't investigate them, which means he completely misses that one pair are smaller - a woman's, perhaps - and barefoot.

"It's definitely ticking all the boxes for creepy and haunted," he mutters. "Alright, I'll do an intro over by the well, we'll uncover it and do some poking around, and then if nothing has scared the shit out of us by that point, we could try you with the Estes method?"

when it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I'll be

The flashlight beam hits Remi square in the face, and for the briefest flicker of a second, it casts too many shadows, one trailing out behind him, long-limbed and wrong, stretching toward the wall like it wants to keep going. But then he flinches, blinking hard against the sudden glare, and it’s just him again. Just a man and his shadow.

"A blind medium probably wouldn’t seem all that convincing to your viewers," he mutters dryly, rubbing at his eyes with the back of one hand before tossing Ronin a look of theatrical exasperation. "Try not to disorient me before the spirits do."

He strolls forward without hurry, shoulders loose, feet stepping with unconscious precision into the faint barefoot prints on the concrete floor. Not once does he look down, but his steps align all the same. At the edge of the well, he peers at the symbols carved into the side, before drifting to the buckets beside it. "Oh good," he says softly, almost to himself. "They brought the water."

Straightening, he glances back at Ronin and nods. "Estes sounds good—assuming we get enough signal down here to make it interesting." With a shrug and the hint of a smile, he drifts aside, slipping out of the frame so that Ronin can do his thing. "Go on, then. I'll just be over here."

but there's a light in the attic and I swear it's calling me

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

it feels like we're ready to crack, these days, you and I

The best and worst part about Remi's shadow antics is that Ronin can play it all off as nothing - and he does, because ha ha ha fuck that shitttttt - but later, when they review the footage, it'll all be there on his go-pro. "Sorry." He chuckles. "Though let's be honest, if these flashlights go out it's not like we'll be seeing much anyway. The cameras have night-mode on them at least."

Deciding not to think about what it would be like to try and navigate out of this creepy murder basement via night vision and nothing more, Ronin approaches the well - sealed tight, but with tools available for them to pry it open if and when the time comes. "Yeah, they did," he agrees mildly of the water, shining his flashlight at the symbols carved into the well foundations. "Though given that it's natural, you'd expect there to still be water in it, no?"

Either way, Remi ducks out of shot and Ronin takes a long, deep breath and nods. "Right, got it," he says. Detaching his go-pro so he can hold it aloft, he wastes little time with a hushed all too convincingly tense overview of where they are and why. They're in the basement of the Halliday residence, where the mother had murdered her husband and stuffed his body into the well just over Ronin's shoulder, mere days before setting the table for five and butchering her two small children. He explains the runes and some of their possible meanings - summoning, sacrifice, infernal associations - and then steps slowly aside and introduces Remi back into the mix.

"Arguably the bravest among us," he says warmly as he focuses the camera on the medium. "Even I'm feeling how heavy it is down here, so I have no idea what it must be like for you."

when it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I'll be

Remi wrinkles his nose, expression flickering somewhere between amusement and lingering unease. "I saw Silence of the Lambs way too young," he murmurs, flashing Ronin a tight smile over one shoulder. "The idea of stumbling around in the dark while something else sees you perfectly? Yeah, no thank you. That gave me nightmares for years."

He turns back to the well, gaze trailing along the base where runes have been crudely carved into the stone. Ronin’s flashlight casts them in sharp relief, but Remi doesn’t linger there. Instead, he arches a brow at the comment about water. "It isn't to go in the well," he says under his breath, tone clipped, as if the very suggestion annoyed him. As if Ronin had missed something obvious.

As Ronin finishes his segment and turns back to Remi, the medium is already crouched beside the well, its heavy cover inexplicably gone. The slab, which had been sealed tight just moments before, now rests neatly off to the side, despite there being no sound of movement, no creaking or scraping of stone. No one else had come near it.

Remi doesn’t acknowledge the movement or whether or not he was the one to somehow shifted it himself. Instead, he’s got one hand braced on the lip of the well and the other carefully dipping just past the edge, trailing a fingertip along the inner stone. When he straightens and looks back, the beam of Ronin’s flashlight flares off his irises, making his sea-green eyes flash pale and ghostlight white for a breathless second. "Look," he says simply, holding up his hand. There’s blood on his finger—thick and dark, with a tacky sheen that hasn’t yet dried.

but there's a light in the attic and I swear it's calling me

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

it feels like we're ready to crack, these days, you and I

"And yet, here you are, making stumbling around in the dark a living," Ronin says with a lopsided smile and a shrug. "Still, it could be worse I guess. You could--" His remark goes unfinished, the words evaporating from his tongue as he swings the go-pro around in time to see Remi crouched monstrously beside the well, its cover miraculously having teleported to the side. "Whoa," Ronin blurts, unable to help himself.

This time he does notice the way the light flares off of Remi's too-pale pupils, and he clicks the camera back into place on his harness to keep his hands mostly free. "How the hell did you manage that?" he half whispers - and that's before the dark, metallic sheen of something catches on his flashlight beam.

"No way." Ronin wants to take a step back but his feet carry him forward again towards the well's edge, and he drops to one knee in a crouch beside Remi to get a good look. "Is it sediment in the water?" he wonders.

when it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I don't know who I am, I don't know who I'll be

Remi doesn’t answer, he just looks at Ronin—eyes still too pale in the flashlight’s glare, unreadable in their stillness—before slowly shaking his head with the sort of quiet finality that carries the weight of something already known. He turns back toward the well, wipes the blood from his finger onto one of the runes carved into the stone like he was merely cleaning his hand, as if the symbol was nothing more than a cloth on a wall.

Upstairs, the sharp clatter of voices breaks through the quiet.

"You did that!"
"Did not!"
"Well how did it spell BLOOD then?!"

Remi exhales—or perhaps inhales, it’s hard to tell—the sound shallow and reversed, the way a candle flame sometimes pulls inward just before it dies. His head tilts, gaze shifting not quite toward Ronin but just past him, and his voice slips out in a whisper so quiet it feels stolen: "We shouldn’t be down here."

The moment holds like the still eye of a storm—then BANG—the basement door slams shut above them. Hard. Definitive. A sharp echo rattles down the stairs like bones on tile. The flashlights flicker.

but there's a light in the attic and I swear it's calling me

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3