“Maybe it’s the ghost of that movie star that died in the plane crash,” Ichigo said thoughtfully.
“That was fifty miles from here. Why would the ghost come all this way? To a roadside bar?” Ishida asked.
“He still believes spirits can ride in trains and buses,” Rukia said in a flat tone over the radio.
“Still?!” Ishida asked. “That doesn’t even make sense!”
Ichigo stopped in the middle of the cramped hallway to glare at Ishida. “Ghosts do things people do, right? Why wouldn’t they take trains? It makes perfect sense!”
Ishida let out a frustrated sigh. Before he could further explain his point, a nearby beer sign flickered on and off to cast a harsh red and blue glare in the darkness.
“See? She’s reaching out to us!” Ichigo said.
It went black again, and the power on Ichigo’s camera flickered several times.
Suddenly a chilly breeze swept upon them which filled the hallway. They froze in place out of reflex, and Ichigo tilted the camera about in all directions to get a shot. Then it happened- the translucent, faint shape of an old man standing in the hall a mere five feet away.
They jumped. They screamed.
It was over just as quickly as it began, and they were alone in the silent hallway once more.
“Rukia! Rukia, did you see that? That was recorded, right?” Ichigo asked into the radio.
Rukia looked up from her book in time to notice them flailing about in the empty hallway on the monitor. “What?”
“That ghost- We were recording, right?” Ishida asked.
There was a pause. A long, very extended pause that would’ve been enough time to read through an entire cafe menu. And make a single cup of coffee. It became a concerning pause, and then a frustrating one.
“…Yes,” she said curtly in an unconvincing tone.
Ishida’s palm met his face.