Crack of Suspicion

- She is fine now. She needs to take some rest, that's all.

- What happened to her, doctor?

Oh, nothing serious. It was Syncope caused by LBP and anxiety. She needs to take rest and a proper meal of course.

- Okay.

The doctor nodded and left the room. Tina sat down after talking to the doctor. Edward went for the medicines as prescribed. Raven was waiting on the balcony; analyzing the record. Marlin entered the cabin and asked Tina;

- Is she fine now?

- The doctor said so. He said that she just needs a proper rest.

After observing Marlin, she continued;

- I think you need some rest too. It was a horrible night for all of us. How about you head home? Ed will drop you.

Tina patted his back to ease him. He was still shocked; he blabbered cluelessly,

- She saw it. I'm sure she saw something there.

- Or else why she'd faint; You saw something too, didn't you?

- I heard someone talking with her, calling her by her real name, Loren.

- Heard...voices?

Again they paused, thinking about what they actually wished for, didn't match what actually happened out there. Marlin didn't expect himself to freeze under such circumstances, as he was supposed to be habitual to such paranormal situations, and everyone else didn't expect Lora to faint so easily, at least she seemed to be mentally strong and prepared. If it had been Tina, it would have been very much explainable.

Eventually, Marlin came to his sense and remembered that they carried a lot of equipment with them, including the camera to record their activities and the surroundings of the haunted area;

- The camera...If something's recorded there, we can find out what it really was...

- Raven is already on it. She's watching that over and over again to make it clear. But matter of fact, voices are not recorded! Not even Lora's.

- What?!

It could be possible that Lora turned off the voice recorder at the moment when she was scanning the room. But the question was why?

Tina sat there to stay the whole night, to look after Lora. Marlin came out to look for Raven. Obviously he was restless about the whole incident. Mostly because they finally discovered a real haunted house. At least, he heard whispers and felt the spiritual existence. Melisa was right about the existence after all!

- Keep your soul tight to you, will you? It doesn't look that scary! Neither it proves any spiritual existence.

Raven shouted at the poor and restless Marlin. But Marlin turned even more restless. "I heard voices!" Marlin shouted back.

- Cool down, diaper baby. I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened there. Though it is clear that she heard something too...

- I heard someone calling her by her real name.

- 'Loren Becker'? You heard that name? But the recorder is all empty. Even the video recorder was paused after a while. Looks like she did it on her own. Interesting part is, when she was pausing the record, her lips were quivering as if she was talking...

Listening to it, he snatched the recorder from her hand and watched it till the end, repeatedly. It's a picture-perfect possibility that she was talking to the spirit. What if she was authorizing the spirit? Or was she fearless? But if it was so, then what happened between them that she collapsed there?

As Marlin and Raven were busy with the video, they were interrupted by Dr. Melisa Frost. Melisa rushed to them with a furious look,

- What the hell did I tell you about the Charles Mansion?

- Hey, Melisa! We weren't...even...talking about that bloody mansion...

Marlin tried to divert the conversation but Melisa shot even more fuming glance at him,

- Marlin, James told me everything. You guys went to him with Lora and now she's here. I even went to look at her in the cabin, she was with Tina. Where's Ed?

- He went for meds.

Sighing with great disappointment, she looked away. Then she looked back to Marlin to start the conversation as calmly as possible,

- I warned you before, about the mansion; not once, maybe hundreds of times! I lived there; I sensed it too. But you were so desperate for a twist in life!

Yelling for a moment, she sighed again pressing her forehead as if the conversation hit her with a headache, and Marlin was a headache himself. She cried,

- At least You guys could have stayed with her that time. How impulsive you guys can be?

- Ghosts don't attack you when you're grouped.

Raven murmured and continued with her research. Marlin only pleaded, it was useless to have a trivial argument on such a minor incident.

"Lora changed in these few days, hasn't she?" Raven suddenly began blabbering about Lora's change from nowhere, "She used to be energetic. Nowadays, she's been spacing out a lot. She even almost stopped hanging out with me. As if she filtered out all the energy of her life."

Hearing the whole thing, Marlin and Melisa just stared at her cluelessly , seeing her being focused on her research and blabbering about her concern for Lora. Marlin did get the point that she seemed tensed today. The whole meetup plan was also out of the blue. Tina was the one who contacted everyone for the mansion and patched everyone up. Marlin shouldn't have told her about that mansion. On the other hand, Raven was supposed to be the one to meet Lora almost every week. After all, they worked in the same office. People change.

However, While they were having the moment of silence, Tina had to break the mourning; she came out looking for them.

- She's awake now. Also, she's hungry. Call Ed to bring some snacks, please.

- What happened to your phone? [Marlin asked.]

- Battery is dead. I'm thinking of going to Lora's apartment and also charging my phone there for a while.

After informing Marlin, Tina looked at Melisa and cried,

- Thanks for coming to see her. It was all my fault, I pushed everyone for this.

- It's fine. I'm not angry with you, you're young.

Then she glared at Marlin, "I was expecting Marlin to be more mature", then she continued with Tina,

- And it's not a big deal. Shit happens. It's a good thing that everyone is safe. By the way, what do you major in? I heard that you got into a college.

Tina was the youngest of all in that circle. It was a surprise how she fit in. After calming her down, Melisa continued out of curiosity,

- Yes, Food & Nutrition Science.

- I still wonder how you got these mad team mates. However, I need to take the leave. Look after Lora and never do this shit again.

After the conversation, Melisa took her leave, and Tina abruptly pulled Raven down to her height to whisper to her. It was not because Raven was too tall, but because Tina was too short in height. "I need to show you something, it's a girl-thing."

She pulled out Lora's phone and rushed elsewhere taking Raven with her. Marlin just stood on that spot, speechlessly. Few seconds later, Edward showed up with the prescribed medicines.

- Where are the ladies heading to, Marlin?

- Just leave them alone for now.

- Anyways, how's Lora? Where's Melisa?

Marlin shot a perplexed look and asked,

- You called her here?

- No. I just saw her taking the lift. Did she leave?

- Yeah.

- She definitely looked mad.

- Had a good reason to be...

- We'll talk about the Charles-mention stuff later, 'cause you look exhausted too. Let me drop you home.

- Neh, I'm good.

They started walking to the cabin. Then Marlin continued,

- By the way, Tina told you to get some snacks for Lora and others. I feel thirsty too. How about we get something to eat?

- Chill, I already bought them in advance. Thank me later.

They got aside and sat on a bench to eat. Unpacking the snacks and seeing Marlin's pale face, Ed patted him, "She's gonna be fine. However, I'm still wondering about what you guys are waiting for, what's taking so long? Come on!" Ed chuckled and Marlin grinned, "It's complicated. I don't know if she takes me seriously. In fact, we don't talk much. We're seeing each other after a couple of months, since we last investigated the haunted tent of the forest." Everyone could see, except Lora, how Marlin cared for her. He has liked her since college. They together came up with the idea of 'Haunted Round 5'.

Once upon a time, they worked hard for this team. After graduation, they went their own ways, got busy. Though the name was pretty lame to start with, this was at least a memo for all of them. And there they were, after a long time; again they could laugh and gossip as long as the night slept.

Meanwhile, Lora was just sitting on her bed, thinking if the whole incident was real, or if it was just a usual nightmare. Nobody knew what she saw there, everybody just assumed that she fainted after seeing a real ghost. It was hard to explain that she was not scared, but was shocked from the uncertain grief; seeing her nightmare came true at last. Lora tried to look for her phone as her habitual instinct kicked her while having her senses back. Unfortunately her phone wasn't anywhere near her. The very first name that came to her mind, "Tina!" she shouted. Ed and Marlin rushed into the room as their chit-chat was interrupted because of Tina's absence. Lora tensely looked at Marlin,

- Where's my phone?

- I think I saw Tina take it with her. Maybe she needed to use your phone. Her phone's battery is dead.

- Oh.

- Let's eat something. Ain't you starving? Ed's got snacks.

Marlin and Ed started to unpack the snacks, but Lora still seemed bothered. She was uptight about her personal stuff but was never bothered in case it was Tina or even Marlin. Tina was her most adored little friend, eventually she became the cutest and most adored friend for all too. Yet, she was bothered.

After almost half an hour, Tina and Raven came back with Lora's phone. Tina looked quite sullen while she was entering the room; her face was wan as if she had cried till she came in. This startled everyone in the cabin. Raven was more startled than anyone in that room. But no one could say a word, it was not the best time to come up with any sort of complicated conversation. But Lora had to ask,

- You have my phone, right, Tina?

- Oh, yes. I should have asked for it first. Will that be a problem?

- No, I was just worried a bit.

Tina gave the phone back to Lora and they both were tense again. Lora asked,

- Marlin already told me your phone was dead. So, you had to take mine. What did you do exactly? You remembered my password?

Hearing such a perturbed query, the whole cabin got tense. It was uncertain to see Lora interrogating Tina about a minor usage. But it also seemed uncertainly fair when Marlin noticed Tina's troubled look on her face. She was a bad liar. Marlin realized that Tina was trying to hide the fact that she found it on her phone. It was a must to know what she'd seen. So he had to help her;

- Of course, she knows your password. Who else will? You never told me your pass, did you? Besides, she had to make a call. Mine was disturbing too. So I told her to use yours.

- But I changed my password yesterday, how did she open it?

- Oh?

Then Marlin glared at Tina, she had to say something this time, "I figured it out anyway." To get rid of the suspense, Marlin started again, "Look, tonight was a disaster. Lora, you take your meal and go to sleep. Raven and Ed will stay here. Tina and I will go to your apartment to get your clothes and stuff. We all need to settle down for now." All had to nod off and doze off.

And Lora just sat there. Her eyes were clearly screaming out of remorse and regret, thinking of herself being egoistic and self-centered just to come up with such a conclusion, just to lose someone special. Her whole mission was lost after the incident in that building.

Tina and Marlin went out of the cabin and Marlin abruptly caught her,

- Talk! What were you doing with her phone?

- Nothing.

- I saw that in your face. Don't you think I can help?

- It's very inappropriate to share it with you. But she does need help.

- How inappropriate?

- Let's talk about these when Raven is with us.

- Just tell me how bad it is.

Tina paused with a tensed look on her face, and replied, "Horrible."