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  Dad closed his eyes, and my heart sank. He didn’t believe me. And for good reason.

  “I’ll let you know when I decide what to do about this job offer,” he said quietly, opening his laptop again. “You’d better get ready quick if you want breakfast—the buffet closes in half an hour.”

  I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just nodded. Somehow, I made it to the bathroom before the tears spilled over.

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE THING ON THE BRIDGE

  Post: The Yongheng Bridge

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  Wow, I guess those two clue words were too easy! AntiSimon, Hailey, and presidentskroob (hi, Carrie!) all get virtual candy corn.

  We’re heading out to the Yongheng (“Eternity”) Bridge north of Beijing this afternoon. It’s too cold here for us to camp out overnight, so we’ll be doing most of our filming in the early evening, right after the sun sets.

  This bridge looks amazing, and I can’t wait to check it out. It’s about five miles long, and it winds around the sides of the mountains. In some places, it connects one cliff to the next—and the tallest section is over 1,000 feet high! The clouds hang particularly low over this mountain range, which means that even during the day, a lot of the bridge is shrouded in mist. And on some parts, we’ll be INSIDE the clouds.

  But that’s not the creepiest thing about this bridge. It’s the site of a demonic haunting. Construction on the bridge took twice as long as planned because workers insisted they felt a presence with them, hidden by the clouds. Some sort of force. It whispered to them, howled at them—even tried to PUSH them off the bridge! But unlike all the other places we’ve visited, there’s no story about someone who died here, no ghosts looking for revenge or anything like that. Whatever’s haunting this bridge was never human.

  That’s the legend, anyway. I didn’t believe in ghosts when I joined Passport to Paranormal, and I do now. But I’m still a skeptic! We’ll see what happens tonight . . .

  I pretended to sleep during most of the drive through the mountains, occasionally peeking through the window to take in the view. The fog grew thicker and thicker, and soon I could only catch glimpses of sky and rocks and grassy hillsides through the haze.

  Dad sat up in front next to Jess, helping her navigate as she drove. As usual, they were chatting animatedly about the area, its history, the architecture of the bridge . . . but I couldn’t help thinking Dad sounded a little subdued.

  It just didn’t make sense. I understood him worrying about me, and I totally got why he was upset about the whole Shelly Mathers thing. But all that stuff he’d said about how much work this job was? That wasn’t Dad at all. He loved working. Back in Chelsea, he’d get antsy after just one day off if we didn’t have plans to keep him busy. And he worked overtime at Rise and Shine, Ohio! a ton, coming up with ideas for new segments, trying to get bigger celebrities as guests.

  I’d gone over our conversation a hundred times in my head. And I couldn’t help thinking Dad was trying to convince himself he didn’t love hosting Passport to Paranormal as much as I knew he did. He’d told me he hadn’t made his decision yet, but it seemed pretty obvious to me that he had. He wanted to take the talk show job and move back to Ohio.

  It wasn’t what he wanted, it’s what he thought was best. For me.

  Maybe the thing that bothered me most of all was that a small part of me wondered if he was right. I’d agreed to go to my mother’s bridal shower in March, which was a huge step . . . but our relationship was still pretty damaged. And I was being haunted by a ghost version of myself. I’d thought a lot about why the Thing would shred Dad’s contract, and I suspected it was because it did want to go back to Ohio. After all, it was the me my mom wanted. I imagined pretty ghost-me floating down the aisle in my bridesmaid dress at my mother’s wedding and snickered, which I quickly disguised as a snore.

  Whether the Thing was actually real or not, I had some serious issues.

  After nearly two hours, the van slowed to a halt. I hung the Elapse around my neck and grabbed my backpack before hopping out. The cold air definitely had a bite to it, but it wasn’t nearly as frigid as New York had been. Just down the dirt road, I spotted an entrance to the bridge. Oscar slid out of the van and joined me.

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah.” The sun was just beginning to set between the mountains, and between that and the low clouds and fog, the sky was a beautiful haze of deep blues, purples, and pinks. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I could see bits and pieces of the bridge clinging to the sides of the mountains and disappearing in the distance, like it went on forever. Well, that explained why it was called the “Eternity” bridge. My fingers itched for my camera, but I resisted the urge to start taking photos. I didn’t need the Elapse’s weird anxiety aura kicking in any earlier than necessary.

  Oscar glanced over at the crew unloading equipment from the back of the van. “So, gonna give the thoughtography thing another try?”

  I frowned. “I don’t know. I guess I could try.” In truth, I was still so distracted by the conversation with my dad that I wasn’t sure I could focus enough.

  “I think Jamie’s right,” Oscar said. “It might not get rid of the Thing, but it’s a good first step to figure out how.”

  I smiled a little. “Unless I’m crazy, and there is no ghost.”

  Oscar looked at me sharply. “What?”

  “What?” I shrugged. “Come on. You know that’s a possibility. It’s like when I first told you about Sonja. You believed I thought I’d seen her, but—”

  “Kat, I believe you,” Oscar said firmly. “I believe it’s real. I promise.”

  My throat tightened a little. “Thanks. But just because I believe it’s real doesn’t mean it is.”

  I regretted bringing this up at all, because Oscar was starting to look genuinely concerned. “Why are you saying this all of a sudden?”

  “It’s not all of a sudden.” I tried to keep my tone light. “Just, you know, crazy people don’t usually know they’re crazy, right? Emily probably didn’t.” I cringed. “Sorry.”

  He waved dismissively. “Whatever. Look, Kat. You’re not crazy. I’m not just saying that to be supportive—you’re not. Neither was Emily.”

  I gaped at him. “What? Of course she was.”

  “She’s obsessive,” Oscar said. “And she’s dangerous. And she’s in a psychiatric hospital, so maybe she had . . . I don’t know, maybe she was sick, too. But . . .” He glanced over at the crew again and lowered his voice. “Look, a lot of people have called Aunt Lidia crazy. Between her seizures and her obsession with ghosts . . . when Levi died when they were teenagers, Aunt Lidia was positive his ghost was still following her around. Her friends called her crazy—even my grandmother did. But she wasn’t. And . . . and even if she had been wrong about Levi, if it was just that she’d been—I don’t know, traumatized by his death—that wouldn’t make her crazy, either. It’s not a nice thing to call someone. Including yourself.”

  I stared at Oscar. His gaze had drifted off to the sunset, and I had the distinct impression this wasn’t just about Lidia or me. “You’re right,” I said softly. “I’m sorry.”

  He lifted a shoulder, and I could see his face tense, like he was worried I’d say something else. And I wanted to. I wanted to tell him that his obsession with what had happened with Emily, the fact that he couldn’t let go of it, that it was making him paranoid—that didn’t make him crazy, either. But he clearly didn’t want to hear it, so I stayed silent.

  “Kat! Oscar!” Lidia waved at us, and I saw Jess and Mi Jin had their cameras out and ready. Oscar and I joined them, and Jess cleared her throat.

  “Okay! I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I’ve been told it’s easy to get lost on this bridge. There are spots to get onto and off of hiking trails roughly every three kilometers. This fog’s only going to get thicker—we probably
won’t even be able to see the van from that entrance in a few hours. We’re not going on any of the trails, so stick to the bridge, all right?”

  Lidia handed out walkie-talkies as Jess talked. “These have a twenty-mile range, so we should be good. You two,” she added to Oscar and me, “make sure you can see one of us at all times.”

  “We’ll do the intro inside the entrance,” Jess said, already walking. Oscar and I hung back as Dad launched into his explanation of the bridge, with Sam and Roland occasionally jumping in with additional observations (and, in Roland’s case, snark). Jess filmed them speaking, while Mi Jin took video from farther back, framing all four of them against the misty mountain backdrop. Then, as a group, we headed out on the bridge.

  It was wide enough for two people to walk comfortably side by side. Oscar walked next to the wall of grass and granite to our right, and I walked along the edge, trailing my fingers along the wooden railing. I could see what Jess meant about visibility; already, the entrance and our van had been swallowed by the fog behind us.

  We slowed our pace gradually, until the adults were out of earshot. Then Oscar nudged me.

  “Try it,” he said, pointing to my camera.

  I reached for it, then hesitated. “It’s going to make us feel lost, though. Remember?”

  “I know,” Oscar replied. “But we can’t actually get lost. All we have to do is just keep walking straight.”

  “True.” I exhaled slowly, then flipped on the Elapse.

  Immediately, my pulse quickened and I felt panic rising in my throat. Oscar crossed his arms tightly, his eyes darting around.

  “Once we take care of your ghost, we really need to do something about your camera,” he said, and I laughed nervously.

  “Yeah. It’s annoying.” Annoying wasn’t really a strong enough word for the anxiety coursing through me. “It wasn’t this bad at the Montgomery, was it?”

  Oscar shook his head. “Nope.”

  “I wonder why.”

  “More people?” he suggested. “Jamie and Hailey were in the elevator, plus the operator. Maybe the more people there are to . . . to absorb the negative energy or whatever it is, the weaker it feels.”

  I tried to laugh, but it came out shaky. “If that’s the case, remind me never to use this camera alone.”

  He smiled. “So . . . gonna try it?”

  Nodding, I wiped one hand on my jeans, then the other. There was a curve up ahead, and I could hear Roland’s voice just on the other side. “Stop,” I said, grabbing Oscar’s elbow. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was trying to break out of my rib cage. “Look out there, those two cliffs—do you see that?”

  Oscar squinted at where I was pointing. The light was growing dimmer by the minute, and the sky was rapidly darkening from ocean blue to black. From where we stood, different parts of the bridge were visible through the clouds. And one part—a very short part—connected the narrow gap between two staggeringly tall, spindly rocks. The drop below into the mist was dizzying.

  “Yeah,” Oscar breathed. “Wow.”

  I could still hear Roland and Sam talking, punctuated by Dad’s laughter. “They stopped, too.” I fumbled with the Elapse, my fingers shaking with completely unnecessary nerves. “Let me know when they start moving again.”

  I held the viewfinder to my eye, zoomed in on the space between the two rocks, and found the bridge. While the walking path it offered was straight, the gray stones that supported it beneath arched gracefully from one side to the other. The railings were about waist-high, and I was pretty sure they were also made from stone—carved into a cool, abstract pattern, but sturdy-looking nonetheless. The rocks rose up several feet higher than the bridge itself; there must have been tunnels cut through both, but they weren’t visible from this angle. The overall impression was that a tiny bridge had been sandwiched between two giant cliffs.

  I imagined the Thing standing on it. Clutching that railing, long hair fluttering in the breeze, staring right back at me. I imagined it trapped there. Forever. Watching me as I got in the van and drove away and never came back.

  “Kat.” Oscar squeezed my arm, his voice high and weird. I gasped, pressing the shutter button. Click.

  “What, did you see it?” I lowered my camera quickly. Then I realized Oscar was looking at me, not the bridge.

  “No, you weren’t responding. I said your name like five times. The others are walking; we have to follow them.”

  He was standing right next to me, but his voice sounded weirdly far away. I felt strange . . . like I’d just done a roller-coaster loop, upside down and around and back to where I started in a matter of seconds, but with my insides all swoopy and scrambled.

  Oscar reached out and turned off the Elapse. Then he tugged me forward. “Hurry, before they get too far ahead.”

  We walked quickly, and when we rounded the curve, I saw the cast huddled up not far from the section of the bridge I’d just been photographing. They were deep in discussion, staring into the tunnel I now saw cut through the first rock.

  “Better, right?” Oscar said, and it took me a second to realize he meant the lost feeling.

  “Oh. Yeah.”

  The anxiety that came with using the Elapse was gone. But I still felt weird.

  Oscar and I continued up the bridge, which inclined quite a bit, and stopped quietly a few feet from the rest of the crew. This was only a few feet higher, but the distance was startling; thick fog swirled around us, and white clouds hung so low I thought maybe I could graze them with my fingers if I got a running jump. Dad walked through the tunnel and out onto that small, high segment of bridge between the two rocks, Mi Jin right behind him. He was calling out, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

  “I’d love to know how they got ahead of us,” Roland said mildly. Next to him, Lidia gripped her walkie-talkie, her mouth a thin line.

  Jess swung her camera from the tunnel to Sam. “You didn’t see them pass us when we stopped a few minutes ago?”

  Roland snorted. “They aren’t ghosts, so Sam didn’t notice them.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Oscar asked, and the adults whirled around. I flinched at the sight of Jess’s camera aimed right at me.

  And Jess screamed.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  KATYA THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY GHOST

  Monica Mills

  Less than a month to the shower! All this planning is so exhausting, I’ll probably sleep through the wedding. ;)

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  Shonda Elfman, Christy Hopkins, and 21 others like this.

  Kat Sinclair at 11:24am

  Your real daughter will be home soon. And I’ll never leave you again.

  I’D heard Jess yell before. Shout. Gasp. Shriek with laughter, even.

  But I’d never, never heard her scream like this.

  Oscar and I gaped at her, too stunned to speak. Roland snatched her camera before it hit the ground. Jess tore her eyes off me as she grabbed it, and held it back up. “How’d you do that?” she demanded. Sam watched me closely, his mouth slightly open, and Lidia’s eyes were huge behind her glasses. Even Roland seemed a little rattled. Dad and Mi Jin came running out of the tunnel, coming to an abrupt halt when they saw me.

  Six pairs of eyes and two cameras, all pointed at me. My skin went clammy and cold.

  “What?” Oscar said, looking from them to me and back again. “Why’s everyone freaking out?”

  “Have you two been behind us this whole time?” Roland asked.

  “Yeah, obviously,” Oscar replied. “Like you told us.”

  “We saw Kat,” Jess said firmly. “Over there, through that tunnel.”

  “We thought we saw a girl,” Roland corrected her. “And you and Jack thought it was Kat.”

  “I’m telling you, I zoomed in on her face,” Jess argued. “I
t was Kat.”

  I struggled to keep my shock from showing. Had they actually seen the Thing?

  Dad walked over to me, eyes filled with concern. “You’re okay?”

  “Of course,” I said, though my heart was racing again. “Oscar and I stopped back there for a minute and I took some pictures. Then we followed you guys over here. That’s it, I swear.”

  Dad put his arm around my shoulders and turned back to Jess and her camera. “I thought I saw her, too, Jess,” he said. “But there’s no one on that part of the bridge, and Kat’s obviously right here, so . . .”

  “I zoomed in,” Jess repeated, her eyes flashing. All traces of fear were gone; now she looked excited. “It was her face. Look, I’ll show you the playback—”

  “No, keep it rolling,” Roland interrupted. “I think you’re all missing the point. We all saw something, right? Something potentially paranormal? And we’re supposed to be paranormal investigators, so hey. Let’s maybe investigate.”

  Snickering, Mi Jin followed him back to the tunnel. Jess and Lidia exchanged bemused looks, then headed after them. So did Sam, after giving me one last curious glance. Dad squeezed my shoulders.

  “You believe me, right?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” he said immediately, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “I really thought I saw you out there, though. It was the weirdest thing. I can’t wait to see what Jess got on camera.”

  Me either, Oscar mouthed at me, and I managed a small smile. But my heart was pounding again, even harder now than it had been when the cameras were on me. Proof. Proof. Proof.

  The three of us started walking toward the tunnel, and when I was sure Dad wasn’t watching, I flipped on the Elapse. I just needed to see that picture I took of the bridge. Had I really projected the Thing? And not just into my camera, but in real life?

  But instead of a picture, the screen flashed a message.

  Low battery

  And then it powered itself off.

  Dad glanced at me. “You okay?”