Rachel stepped forward. The snow melted and hissed under her boots. Steam formed a small circle around her from her body heat. "Everyone needs to calm down. This isn't helping."

  "Who attacked first?" Gale yelled. "I want to hear someone say it."

  No one answered.

  "Who. Attacked. First?"

  Kyle wiped blood from his mouth. "We did! Okay? We fucking did! I shot it first. But what does that matter? It's Tainted. It'll spread whatever fucked-up shit it is to every animal around here."

  "Last thing I know, we all ate that rabbit. It sure didn't look tainted, corrupted, or whatever to me!" Gale shouted.

  "Stop it, Gale." Rachel moved closer, her boots sinking into slush. "You weren't there. We got separated in the storm. We couldn't see two feet in front of us, and suddenly this thing was right there. We reacted."

  "Look. I didn't get lost on purpose," Gale said. "I thought you guys were following. Next time I looked back, you guys were gone."

  "I'm not blaming you. It's just…" Rachel paused, then continued. "We just did what we were trained to do. We didn't attack out of evil intentions. We thought that thing was the one that was evil."

  "But would you have still attacked if I was there or not?"

  Rachel looked away.

  "That's what I thought," Gale said. "You would have anyway."

  "Of course!" Ollie yelled, eyes shifting back and forth between him and the wendigo. "What part of 'tainted' don't you understand? Those things need to be killed on sight. It's not a judgment call! It's everyone in Aur's obligation!"

  "Then why hasn't it killed us?" Gale asked. "It's had three chances. Three! And all it's done is defend itself and run away."

  "Because it's smart," Ollie said. "You remember it yourself and told us yourself in that hellhole, Gale. The smart ones are the more dangerous ones."

  "Or maybe," Gale said. "It's not what we all think it is. What happened to not judging a book by its cover?"

  "Enough! This is going in circles." Rachel got in between Clyde and Gale, making eye contact with both. As soon as the barrel was pointed down, she looked at where the wendigo should've been. "Where'd it go?"

  Everyone turned. The spot where the creature had been trapped in Ollie's telekinetic hold was empty.

  "What the fuck?" Ollie spun around, breaking the hold he had on Gale. "I thought I had it locked down!"

  Gale dropped to his knees, now free. He took a deep breath, muscles shaking from resisting Ollie's grasp.

  "FUCK!" Ollie kicked snow, sending it flying. "This is so fucked! More fucked than anything I've dealt with in years! More fucked than that time in Quebec!" His eyes turned to Gale. "Did you see it leave? Where'd it go?!"

  Gale shook his head. "I couldn't move. You know that."

  "How the hell did it get away?" Ollie threw his hands up. "I had it locked down!"

  "Told you that kid is bad luck." Kyle stumbled over, holding his gut where Gale had hit him. He spat blood onto the snow. "First the airport, then… uh… you know what I mean."

  "Doesn't matter now," Clyde muttered, putting his rifle back and glaring at Gale. "What happened to you when you disappeared anyways? You were gone for what felt like hours."

  Gale stood up, brushing snow from his pants. "Dyani found me."

  "Of fucking course! The ghost girl again! The one only you can see!" Kyle threw his head back and laughed.

  "She's not a ghost," Gale said.

  "Then what is she?" Rachel asked, stepping closer enough to put warmth on him.

  "Dyani found me after we got separated. She was the one who led me to you guys fighting," Gale said. "She didn't call it a monster or anything like that. She just called it 'the deer.'"

  "Where is she now?" Rachel said softly.

  Gale looked at the treeline where he had left her. Tendrils told him already that Dyani was no longer there. "Gone. I can't sense her anymore."

  Kyle snorted. "Convenient."

  The wind blew harder, almost toppling over Ollie. Trees bent as the howl grew deafeningly loud.

  "We need to get back," Gale said, looking up at the darkening sky. Night would come soon. "Storm's getting worse. Come on."

  Ollie's mouth gaped, looking like he was about to say something else. "Fine. Goddamn monster. Entity. Or whatever. We'll get it next time."

  "Everyone hold hands," Gale said, reaching out. "No one gets lost again. Not in this."

  Rachel took his hand right away, her bare hand spread warmth on his gloved hand immediately. Ollie grabbed Rachel's hand, clearly wearing an expression that told him he didn't want to be here. Kyle and Clyde took each other's and Ollie's.

  "This is so fucking kindergarten," Kyle said.

  "Shut up," Clyde said.

  Gale sat back against the sofa. Rachel sat beside him legs crossed, temperature in the room a bit higher than usual. Ollie paced back and forth between the dining table and the coffee table. Kyle sat in the armchair, both legs up on the armrest while resting his head on the other. Clyde, again, watched the window as the snowstorm banged against the glass.

  "So we're just gonna sit here with our thumbs up our asses?" Kyle asked.

  "We need to start investigating this hotel. We know it's built on ceremonial grounds. There's got to be something keeping both Dyani and that deer thing attached to this place," Gale said.

  Dyani's clearly a spirit with lingering attachments. Most spirits stay tied to the place they died." Rachel glanced at Gale. "That's what all the research says, anyway. Spirits don't just wander randomly. They're anchored to something."

  "The bone," Clyde said. "That's our clue."

  "What, the piece of kid skull? Real helpful," Kyle said.

  "No, think about it." Clyde turned from the window. "That thing, whatever it is, was digging at the floor in that room we found it in, right?"

  Ollie stopped pacing. "Yeah, scratching through the floorboards. So what?"

  "So it's looking for something." Clyde moved to the centre of the room. "The bone that the ghost girl gave Gale. The scratching at the floor. I'm betting there are remains underneath this place."

  "This whole hotel sits on ceremonial grounds. We know that from the kid's map. But what if it's more literal than that? What if there are actual remains under the building?" Kyle said.

  "The massacre," Rachel said. "Robert mentioned the military killed everyone at the reserve."

  Clyde grinned. "Mass graves aren't exactly uncommon when it comes to First Nations history in this country. What if that thing isn't digging randomly? What if it's trying to get to something specific buried below?"

  "Human remains?" Gale asked. He was never one to pay attention to history class. Barely even passed it with a 50 during high school.

  "Not just any bodies," Clyde continued. "Remember what Robert said about the woman who was killed? The one who triggered everything? What if that's Dyani's mother or Dyani herself?"

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "What do you mean?" Ollie asked.

  "Think about it. A little girl sees her mother murdered. Maybe she was killed too. Maybe that deer thing is connected to them somehow," Clyde said.

  "A guardian," Rachel said. "Or a spirit animal in their culture."

  "Right," Clyde said. "So now we've got this hotel built on top of their graves. The spirits can't rest because their remains are trapped, disrespected."

  Kyle sat up, taking his legs off the armrest. "So the thing is digging for bones. Not just any bones too. Specific bones. The little girl's or her mother's."

  "That would explain why it hasn't attacked anyone. Even in our first encounter on the sixth, it didn't harm us," Gale said.

  "So what?" Ollie crossed his arms. "It's looking for the bones of a child. For what purpose? To eat them? To bury them properly? We don't know what happens after it finds what it's looking for."

  "We would only know after giving it the bones. It's only around 8. We got four hours until haunting hours," Gale said.

  Kyle rested his chin on one arm and said, "Can't you just use your spider senses? Search through the whole building?"

  "It's bones," Gale said. "I can't feel non-living things. Bone has nothing to detect."

  "Whatever."

  Ollie clapped his hands together. "Everybody up. Let's search this place top to bottom. If we're going to help this monster or deer or whatever the hell it is, we need to find those remains."

  Rachel stood, stretching her arms above her head. "Where do we start?"

  "Basement," the twins said at the same time.

  "Basement is always where the fun is always at," Kyle grinned.

  Ollie looked at them. "Are you ever serious?"

  "Fuck yeah we are," Kyle and Clyde said at the same time again.

  "Basement it is," Ollie said, already heading for the door. "Let's search for the basement."

  The group left the suite and then took the elevator down to the lobby, elevator shuddering as it hit the ground floor. The doors opened with a ding.

  "Shouldn't there be a button for the basement?" Rachel looked at the panel inside the elevator.

  "Service elevator maybe?" Ollie said. "Or stairs somewhere."

  Exiting the elevator, each of them took to the ground floor, searching for any door that might lead to the basement. Gale checked behind the front desk to see if there were any doors. Then down the hallways. Any sign that might've looked like it was going to go down stairs. After finding nothing, he found himself back at the reception desk with others in the same situation.

  "Anyone seen Robert?" Gale asked.

  "Hotel's empty," Kyle kicked a decorative plant. "Free game, I say. We could shoot up the lobby if anything freaky comes through. Nobody to stop us."

  Rachel shot him a look. "Shut up, Kyle."

  The search continued but amounted to nothing. Gale had opened every door he could. The locked ones were forced open. Nobody to stop them anyways. The met back at the front desk.

  "Only place left is where Robert sleeps," Ollie's eyes pointed to the door behind the reception desk hanging on one hinge.

  The group entered the room. From the outside, Gale thought it would be bigger. After coming inside, it was barely a 3 by 3 metre room. It was even smaller than his apartment.

  At the centre sat a coffee table. Beside a small floor couch was a mini fridge. Clothes hung from a rack that was nailed to the wall, the same ones Robert wore and exactly 6 of the same uniform.

  Running his hands along the wall, Gale tried feeling for anything that might give him a clue on where this door was. In mystery novels, there would usually be a secret door that would unlock via a mechanism hidden in plain sight.

  His fingers bumped into a barely noticeable seam. Clawing at it, his fingers weren't long enough to get under whatever this was, and it definitely wasn't a normal seam. The wallpaper also didn't exactly match. The paper on the border clearly showed that the inside of the seam had older wallpaper than the outside.

  "Found something," he called to the others.

  The group came over, examining the wall.

  "What is it?" Ollie asked.

  "It's a seam in the wall. I can't get my nails under it," Gale said.

  "Abracadabra, open sesame," Kyle looked at Ollie.

  "Shut up." Ollie shook his head, pointing his palm at the seam. A blue outline appeared on the seam as it swung outwards, revealing a door that led down to the dark. The air that came up smelled of mildew and staleness.

  "Ladies first," Gale ushered Rachel in.

  Rachel smiled, squeezing his arm gently as she passed. "Thanks, Gale."

  Kyle made a gagging sound. "When I say 'ladies first,' I get flipped off. He says it, and it's all smiles and thank-yous."

  Rachel flipped him off over her shoulder as she stepped onto the first step. The darkness covered her legs, then her hips. She paused, looking back at the others.

  "It's dark. Watch your eyes." Rachel's hand came up and then glowed a bright, almost white yellow that lit up everything below.

  They went down the concrete staircase. Gale kept one hand on the rough concrete wall as he went down.

  At the bottom, the staircase opened into a space of darkness that was as wide as the whole hotel, enough so that even the bright light of Rachel's fiery arm didn't reach the other end. On the other hand, the ceiling was low. Low enough that Kyle had to almost crouch down as the tallest.

  Ollie whistled and said, "This place is huge."

  Rachel lit up her hand even more, and the fire grew white enough that the light reached the other side. It revealed miscellaneous items from wall to wall. Old suite furniture such as armchairs and bed frames. Appliances that looked like they were from 2020 that Gale once read about called 'Air Fryers' after he came back from the Eclipsed.

  "Spread out," Ollie moved toward a pile of wooden crates. "Check the walls first. Look for any signs of something wrong, like bricks that don't match, concrete that looks newer than the rest."

  "You think they buried people in the walls?" Rachel asked.

  "Wouldn't be the first time," Clyde slung his long gun onto his shoulder. "Seen it twice since the witch took us in. Both times, it was behind the newest-looking section."

  Kyle kicked at a stack of magazines, sending them across the floor. "Man, this is gonna take forever. Place is a fucking maze."

  Gale moved deeper into the basement, following the left wall. His fingers touched the rough concrete as he walked. Nothing felt wrong. The wall curved slightly as he moved, suggesting the basement was bigger than the hotel above.

  The others spread out across the space. Rachel's flame made their shadows point in different directions, making it look like a small army searched the basement instead of just five people.

  "You find anything?" Ollie called after twenty minutes of silence.

  "Nothing but rat shit and more rat shit," Kyle said from somewhere to Gale's right. "You?"

  "A box of porn magazines from the 90s," Ollie replied. "Nothing useful."

  "You going to take those? Those might be vintage. Could be good resale," Kyle said.

  "If you take any of those, I'm burning them," Rachel said from across the basement.

  "Party poopers," Clyde said.

  Gale continued along the walls, ignoring the random banter. He tripped over a box, tipping it over and spilling its contents. Books laid all over the floor, not the kinds he'd want to see. These were textbooks, math, science, and English. Who the hell needs to take English in a country that speaks English anyways?

  Another ten minutes passed. Gale had nearly finished his loop of the basement when he noticed Kyle and Clyde standing still in the centre of the room. Their eyes both stared at the concrete on the floor.

  Ollie noticed too. He stopped rummaging through a pile of old suitcases and walked over to them.

  "What are you two doing?" he asked, crossing his arms. "We don't have time for breaks."

  Kyle smirked. "Just looking at this interesting spot on the floor."

  "What spot?" Ollie squinted. "It's concrete. Like everywhere else."

  Clyde smirked. "Yep. Just like everywhere else."

  Ollie looked down, then back at the twins' faces. "If this is some twin telepathy joke, I'm not in the mood."

  "That's why you never made it to special investigations," Kyle grinned. "Can't see things for what they truly are."

  Clyde nodded. "The concrete here is clearly different from the rest."

  "Are you shitting me right now?" Ollie crouched down, running his hand over the gray surface. "It looks exactly the same."

  Rachel came over, her flaming hand held high. Gale joined them, forming a loose circle around whatever the twins had found.

  "Ollie's got you beat on sniffing out money though," Rachel said to Kyle. "Never seen someone sniff cash faster than him."

  "Money doesn't hide," Ollie muttered, still examining the floor.

  Gale crouched beside him, studying the concrete. At first, he saw nothing special. It looked like just like the other places of the concrete floor. Then, he noticed it. Just to make sure, he rubbed his finger on it and then licked.

  "Gale, my man, you need to give us a warning sign when you do that," Kyle sighed.

  "We heard stories and all." Clyde glanced at Rachel. "Didn't think we'd see it ourselves."

  "Shut up, idiots," Rachel said. "What did you find, Gale?"

  "The colour's off. It's a shade lighter and taste less old. Kind of," Gale whispered.

  "And the aggregate's finer," Clyde added. "Different mix."

  Kyle tapped the floor with his boot. "Newer pour. Maybe ten, fifteen years ago?"

  Ollie looked up at Rachel. "Can you burn through it?"

  She shook her head. "I'd bring this whole place down if I do it here."

  "I'm not wasting bullets to shoot up concrete," Ollie said.

  Kyle patted his holster. "Same. Bullets be damn expensive. Unless you're expensing?"

  "Clyde?" Ollie ignored the idiot.

  "Saving my special rounds for things that bleed," Clyde said. "Three left after earlier."

  "I've got this." Gale motioned for everyone to step back.

  The others moved away, giving him space. Gale crouched again, putting his right palm flat on the concrete. He let essence flow through the pathways, activating Phase Touch on only the concrete material. "This section is thinner than the rest. It feels like it wasn't part of the original construction."

  Reaching down with his left hand, he Phased his hand to fish things out from inside the concrete. His hand snagged at something that felt like cloth. He pulled it out and out came a bag.

  Gale opened it immediately, realizing what it was. It contained bones, too small for an adult. It was a child in fetal position.