Westbridge University had ghosts.

At least, that was what people said.

The stories had been floating around Williamsburg for months now, changing a little every time they were told. A pale figure between the trees behind one of the residence halls. A hooded shape crossing an empty road at two in the morning. Something with a dead-looking face staring through the dark before vanishing into the woods.

Most students treated it like entertainment.

Someone always had a blurry picture. Someone knew a guy whose roommate had seen something. Someone had a video recorded from far enough away that the shape in it could have been a ghost, a person, a trash bag caught on a fence, or all three depending on how badly you wanted to believe.

There were ghost-hunting dares now. Social-media threads. Maps with circles drawn around supposed sightings. Half the campus joked about it.

Campus Police did not.

There had been too many other things happening around Williamsburg lately.

Break-ins. Stolen property. Assaults near isolated roads. Damage to locked maintenance areas. Strange reports that seemed ridiculous right up until someone had to file paperwork for them.

None of it was enough to turn Westbridge into some crime-infested nightmare. Most days, the university still looked exactly like what it was: students late to class, coffee cups stacked beside laptops, arguments over parking, people sleeping through lectures they had paid an unreasonable amount of money to attend.

But something had been happening after dark.

Two nights ago, Gabrielle Moreno and Evan James had seen it themselves.

They had been walking back across campus late enough that the sidewalks were mostly empty, taking one of the routes that skirted the wooded edge of university property. Gabby had been talking about something—Evan no longer remembered what—when she abruptly stopped.

There had been someone standing between the trees.

At first, Evan thought it was another student.

Then the figure shifted.

Tall. Pale. Wrong in a way neither of them could properly explain afterward.

Its face looked lifeless from where they stood, washed almost colorless beneath the scattered campus lights. It was too far away for details, but close enough that both of them knew it was looking directly at them.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then the figure turned and ran.

That particular detail had become the subject of an argument that had now survived two full days.

“Ghosts don’t run,” Evan had insisted.

Gabby had stared at him.

“How the fuck do you know?”

He had not produced a satisfactory answer.

The next morning, curiosity had dragged them back.

In daylight, the woods were considerably less supernatural. There were birds in the branches, traffic audible from a nearby road, and students cutting across campus in the distance.

They found footprints.

Not floating marks. Not clawed tracks. Not some impossible sign from the other side.

Shoe prints.

They led away from the place where the figure had stood and continued toward an old maintenance area before disappearing into harder ground.

That should have made things less interesting.

Instead, it made everything worse.

Which was why, two nights later, a study room in Westbridge had somehow become headquarters for something nobody had actually agreed to call an investigation.

Evan stood near the end of the table with his arms folded, looking at the steadily growing number of people in the room with the expression of a man watching a small problem become an organizational one.

Gabby, on the other hand, looked delighted.

You had been there early.

Mostly because Gabby had messaged you with the kind of casual invitation that, through experience, you had learned should probably make you suspicious.

You busy tonight?

That had been followed several minutes later by:

So. Weird question.

And then:

How do you feel about ghosts?

By the time you arrived, Evan was already there.

Gabby had explained enough to make the entire thing sound somewhere between genuinely unsettling and completely ridiculous.

Then the door opened again.

Jess Carvalho stepped inside first, pink hair tucked beneath a backward white cap. She glanced around the room once, apparently judged the situation acceptable, and moved farther inside.

Wade Sutton followed behind her.

Evan looked at him.

“Wade?”

Wade adjusted the strap of his backpack on one shoulder.

“Jess asked.”

Jess did not look remotely embarrassed by this.

Evan opened his mouth as if he had something to say about that, then apparently decided against it.

The door opened again before he could recover.

Maya Kim walked in while looking down at her phone.

Gabby blinked.

“Maya?”

Maya finally looked up.

“Jess told me.”

Jess pointed at her immediately.

“I did not invite you.”

“No, you told me my two best friends were apparently hunting ghosts without me.”

“That is not the same thing.”

“It was to me.”

Maya dropped into an empty chair.

Evan slowly looked toward the ceiling.

“This was supposed to be three people.”

A head appeared around the edge of the still-open doorway.

Noah Kessler grinned into the room.

“I heard we’re hunting ghosts.”

There was a brief silence.

Evan stared at him.

“From who?”

Noah stepped inside.

“Sources.”

Mike Harper appeared behind him, already looking annoyed.

“Your ‘source’ was you overhearing half a conversation in the dining hall.”

Noah glanced back.

“That still counts as intelligence gathering.”

“You also failed to mention that you volunteered me.”

“I knew you’d say no if I asked.”

“That is usually what no means.”

Rin Matsuda came in behind Mike, slowing as soon as she saw how many people were already packed into the study room.

She looked from Mike to Noah, then around at everyone else.

“Why are there this many people?”

Mike sighed.

“I was wondering the same thing.”

Evan spread one hand toward the room.

“Thank you.”

Gabby looked at the crowd.

Jess had taken a seat near Wade. Maya was already scrolling through something on her phone. Noah had claimed a chair backward and was sitting in it like he had personally organized the meeting. Mike remained standing, perhaps out of protest. Rin stayed near him.

Evan looked at Gabby.

“This was supposed to be three people.”

Gabby smiled.

“It got away from me.”

“It became ten people.”

“That feels dramatic.”

“It is literally a number.”

Gabby ignored him.

She stepped toward the end of the table, looked around at the collection of friends, acquaintances, invited guests, and at least two people who had effectively invited themselves, then clapped her hands once.

“Okay!”

Every head turned toward her.

Her smile widened.

“Welcome to the ghost hunt~”