Wu Xiaoming looked around, and found the possible reason for the "leakage" of negative energy into the room - the door to their room was open by a small crack, breaking the salt circle. And outside the door, was the shape of a man walking away.
He shot up, without even checking who opened the door. From behind, the man was muscular in build, and was stumbling across the hallway, heading towards the master bedroom at the end of the hall. It looked like Matthew, their "hired help" and "field specialist".
Wu Xiaoming rushed over and grabbed the man by the arm. The man turned towards him and tried to shove him away, but Wu Xiaoming simply grabbed his hand and pushed him against the wall. It was indeed Matthew, mumbling with his eyes rolled up, leaving almost no black and only white.
"Hey! Wake up!" Wu Xiaoming raised his spare hand and slapped Matthew across the face. He did not use too much force but did not hold back either - which left an obvious red mark on the man's face. "Hey! Matthew! Wake up!"
Matthew gasped, and her eyes got back to normal. He shivered, then fixed his sight on Wu Xiaoming: "Woah - man - what - what happened?"
"You were sleep walking - come, now." Wu Xiaoming let go of the man, frowning: "Are you feeling alright? Everything okay?"
"Yeah - yeah, I'm - I'm just a bit dizzy, and - it's like I have a hangover." Matthew smacked himself on the temples and forehead a few times before gathering himself and walking along with Wu Xiaoming: "But - yeah, I am okay."
"Have you sleepwalked before?" Wu Xiaoming asked.
"Uh - yes, but that was a really long time ago." Matthew checked himself up and down, then looked Wu Xiaoming in the eyes: "But - um - listen - " He hesitated, "I would really appreciate it if you don't tell anyone else this - "
"But - it's a potential concern for safety." Wu Xiaoming stopped, then asked Matthew with a low voice: "Your friend at MAGLAA - he should have told you that sleepwalking is a pretty serious sign of being under the influence of - of unclean beings, right?"
"Well, yes - yes, but - " Matthew looked Wu Xiaoming in the eyes, and spoke with almost a pleading tone: "I just - I don't want others to know this. Please, as a favor?"
"Okay." Wu Xiaoming nodded after considering for a moment: "But - if something else happens, I will be calling the director right away, alright? I don't want anything unsafe to happen. This is already - already a bit worrisome."
"I understand." Matthew nodded: "Thank you."
The time was barely 4AM in the morning, and they got back to the room without saying anything else about the sleepwalking. Wu Xiaoming sat down but kept his eyes open and scanned the room constantly. He already began regretting promising Matthew to keep his sleep walking a secret - it might just be a sign of the "evil" watching over this house infecting everyone in it.
But anyway, it would be great if he could capture as much useful footage as possible, so they could wrap up early.
With Wu Xiaoming keeping a watchful eye, nothing abnormal happened again to the rest of the group.
At 7:30 AM, almost everyone's phone began buzzing or ringing. It was time to start today's shoot. Maybe - just maybe, it would be a good idea to "accidentally" find the hidden basement under the storage room and shoot some footage there? But how would he act? How to do it naturally without raising suspicion? And if he did it, would it be safe? This was probably something he could consider if things did go that way.
"Tim, we are about to start with the shoot today." After finishing up preparations, Wu Xiaoming spoke into the handheld radio.
A few seconds later, Tim responded with a tired voice, yawning as he spoke, "Okay - proceed. "
"We recorded some more footage last night, you might want to take a look. Are you coming to pick it up?"
"Umm - I will probably go there later. Because we haven't finished looking at the footage we have yet." Tim answered after a short delay: "Just proceed with the plan - today, I would like you to go further. Especially the gate - where you found the footprints? Yeah, can you go further in that direction?"
"I am not entirely sure that's a good idea. There's really nothing there." Wu Xiaoming sighed: "But we'll definitely go further, just need Matthew to make sure the surrounding is okay, and - "
Before he could finish, Matthew's heavy coughs drew the attention of everyone in the room. He covered his mouth with his left forearm to avoid spitting, but couldn't hide the tears at the corners of his eyes or the veins popping out of his forehead.
"Hey man, you alright?" Jake asked, frowning.
"Well, I'm - okay, I'm - " Matthew tried to wipe the corners of his mouth, but ended up gagging and had to rush to the window and vomit.
"You don't look good, man. What happened? The food?" Malcolm asked.
"I'm okay, probably just - just not dealing well enough with some of the food." Matthew took a look at Wu Xiaoming, then sat down on the ground: "I'll just - I'll take some medicine and then - take a break. You guys and start without me, but stay close. I'll catch up with you in no time."
"Are you sure?" Wu Xiaoming also frowned: "Because if it's something bad, we'll need to pick you up and - "
"I'm okay! I'm okay." Matthew waved his hands: "Like I said, I will take a break here. Check back with me in a few, can you?"
"Alright. " Wu Xiaoming sighed, then spoke into the handheld radio: "We'll start with the surrounding area first, and then go further when the time is right."
"Focus on exploring further. We've got enough footage of the surrounding area." Timothy urged, then just rather abruptly stopped.
"Uh - we'll definitely try." Wu Xiaoming scratched his head. Timothy seemed too eager and too demanding right now. Maybe when this shoot wrapped, it was time to re-evaluate his involvement in the project.
Timothy did not respond further. So Wu Xiaoming just turned to the rest of the group: "Alright, let's just start with closer areas, I think we can try to get some closer shots of the house from different angles. And keep our eyes peeled for any animal tracks - we still have that deer to find."
"Alrighty." "Sure." Malcolm and Jake acknowledged.
"Matthew, call us on the radio if you need something." Wu Xiaoming nodded at Matthew: "Make sure the battery's full, alright?"
"Will do." Matthew's face was a little pale, but he still raised his thumb at everyone.
"Um, also - stay inside the salt circle, just in case?" Wu Xiaoming narrowed his eyes at the salt lines under the window and near the door.
"Will do, don't worry."
The group went outside, and Wu Xiaoming immediately gathered Jake and Malcolm to his side: "Listen - I am not super comfortable with this, okay? Let's keep it - keep it safe. And - I know this may sound kinda cocky, but follow me, okay?"
"Well - " Jake shrugged: "You're the host, so we have to follow you, unless the director says something."
"Okay, okay. Then follow me closely." Wu Xiaoming sighed: "And - don't go anywhere without telling me. I don't feel right about this place. If I could, I will wrap up everything right now."
"Then - how about we pick a direction where you're comfortable and - and we shoot some in-the-woods footage so that during editing we can at least say there's some creepy woods stuff?" Malcolm asked.
"Great idea. " Wu Xiaoming snapped his fingers: "Follow me."
He led the group around the house, trying his best to retell a sanitized version of what happened. The story with the deer was no doubt the highlight - since he was pretty sure they did not actually get anything abnormal. Even with the EMF reader at the ready, they barely caught any flare ups.
Right now it was in the middle of the broad daylight, so his expectation of it having a reading was even lower. But he brought it along and kept it on anyway.
After some consideration and procrastination, he chose to lead the group to explore the woods to the north of the house first. It was not too far from the "tree gate", so it would be more likely for them to find valuable visuals, thus adding to the cache of materials he could use to try to convince the director to wrap up early.
"Alright." Wu Xiaoming turned to the rolling camera: "Hello my dear viewers. We've made it to day three. Last night was indeed a bit creepy, but we are still looking to dig more out of the surrounding area. This is a surprise to us as well - we found no trace of that dear from last night. Not even a footprint, or some deer hair.
"So - uh - what we're trying to do now is while the day is still early, we can capture as much footage of the woods as possible. I think - you don't need me to tell you how this entire area reeks of bad omens … " Just as he was just about to step into the more adjacent part of the woods, the EMF reader began blaring.