“Maybe there was a little blip of a heartbeat.” Jared whispered.

Connor rolled his eyes. “Ghosts are dead idiot, they don’t have heartbeats.”

“Ghosts don’t have lungs, yet they can talk.” Jared shot back.

“He has a point.” Garrett admitted.

“Focus guys,” I redirected them. “Now’s not the time to joke around. We’ve got to lock in on the job. Garrett, are you picking up anything yet?”

“Other than that little blip, nothing.” Garrett shook his head. We continued down the long hallway of our client’s house, listening very closely to the static emitting from Garrett’s device. It was dark. All of us kept our flashlights close to our chests, ready to flip them on at a moment’s notice.

“Hold up.” Connor whispered. “Temperature just dropped.” The rest of us froze as Connor began counting. “18 degrees, 17, 16, 14.5, 12.2, 9.8, 6…” I felt the chill. It blew past me like the draft from an open window. “5.7, 6.3, 8.7, 11.3, 15.9, 19.1, 22.6, 23.0.” He paused.

“Let’s follow it.” I breathed. Carefully, we crept down the hall back towards the kitchen area.

“You don’t think it’s heading towards the garage do you?” Jared asked. “Cause if I have to deal with another garage ghost I might just…”

“Shh!” Garrett, Conner and I hushed him at once.

“Keep it down.” Garrett scolded. “We won’t be able to do our job if I can’t hear it.” Jared mumbled something under his breath as Conner stopped in front of a door. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a garage ghost.” He smirked.

“Legend,” Garrett turned to me. “What’s our next move?”

“We’ll wait until it comes out again.” I directed. “Then we’ll set up our stuff in there.” My three companions nodded. “Jared and I will go grab our supplies from the truck. You two will stay here.” I looked at Garrett and Connor before turning around and making my way to the front door. It creaked open and I took a deep breath of fresh air. “Look at all the stars out tonight.” Jared whispered behind me. I looked up. He was right, the sky was sprinkled with hundreds of sparkling stars, twinkling as if to say hello. “Come on,” I sighed, sad to break the blissful silence. “Let’s not keep them waiting.” With the rest of our gear in tow, Jared and I headed back to the door that led to the garage. As we met up with the rest of our team, Garrett filled us in. “The spirit left a couple minutes ago; we should be all clear to set up now.” Jared and I started to head into the garage.

“Conner,” I stopped moving and turned to him. “See if you can find any candles we can use. Check the kitchen, but don’t wander anywhere else.” He nodded, and I continued walking. Garrett flipped on his flashlight. “No obvious signs of ghostly presence.” He reported, scanning the room with the beam of light. With a small click, Garrett twisted the top of his flashlight changing the yellow-tinted glow to a deep purple. “No hand prints either.” He added after another sweep. With that, Jared and I had finished setting up the camera. Connor came into the garage with a box of matches and a set of four candles. “This is perfect, thank you.” I grabbed the candles and placed them around the room.

“Alright!” Conner celebrated, keeping his voice low. “All we’ve got to do is light these suckers and then our setup is complete.” He took out a match from the box and quickly ran it across the side. The top of the match blazed for a second before quickly fizzling out. “That’s weird.” He mumbled before striking it again. This time there wasn’t even a spark, just the small wisps of smoke rising from the red tip. I felt a cold draft breathe on my neck, and I turned around, searching for the open window it came from. I quickly realized the garage had no windows. Three pairs of wide eyes met mine and I knew we were all thinking the same thing. Slowly, silently, Garrett reached to his waist. His hand brushed the small device on his belt, but before he could turn it on it began to crackle with static. Garrett pulled his hand away but the noise didn’t stop. It continued to grow louder and louder until it became a horrible screech of feedback. All four of us covered our ears, futilely trying to block out the deafening sound.

“We’ve got to go!” My voice cracked as I shouted. “Now!”

We all made a dash to the door but stopped cold when a desperate scream filled the room. Jared had been lifted up and was hovering in the air, stiff and unmoving. We all froze. The screeching static consumed the entire space as Jared’s chest rose up and down in rapid, rigid movements. As if traced by a finger, a small line appeared by Jared’s eye that spread down his cheek to the corner of his mouth. The line started to bleed. I stepped forward and… time stood still. I could not move, I could not speak. The only sound I heard was my heart pounding in my ears. When time resumed and the body fell, I wasted no time scooping it up and running out. Out of the garage, out of the house. I could feel his weak, half-breaths in my arms, hear two sets of steps behind me. The crisp air stung my lungs as we all raced to the truck. The stars mocked us as we drove off.