“Hey there creeps and ghouls, welcome back to another rousing episode of Specter Seekers! Today, we’re going to haunt—uh, fuck, hunt—dammit!”

Rolling his eyes, Cory flipped the switch on his camera, stopping the recording. A few paces away, Jerry swore again and kicked at a nearby bit of rubble, the chunk of concrete knocking hollowly as it bounced away. Nearby, his co-host Del sighed exasperatedly. “God, Jerry, you think you could go a single episode without fucking up every single take?”

“Lay off, Del,” Cory said, voice level. “Give the guy room to breathe.” Del snorted but didn’t say anything. Truth be told, Cory could almost understand what had the guy so sour. The ghost hunting web series had been Del’s brainchild, and for a year and a half, he’d dragged Cory with him out to every place he could find with even a smidgeon of spooky lore: old tenements, creepy campsites, abandoned lodges and cabins. Other than a few distant noises, they’d never found anything, and despite Del’s insistence on “spicing” the footage occasionally, they were lucky to break four digit views.

Then Cory had invited a shy guy from his film class to guest star for an episode. Jerry was endearing in that dorky way, completely authentic and never forced—and he was, amazingly, a natural in front of the camera. Once he’d been added, their views had taken hold, and he’d gone from a guest star to a regular fixture to the host.

And Del was left a touch bitter.

Still, Cory thought as he repositioned himself to reshoot the intro, you think he’d be happy we’re raking in the views, even if he doesn’t get to take center stage anymore. And on some level, Del did seem to get it; he hadn’t kicked Jerry off, after all. He could just be an asshole from time to time.

Once they were situated, Cory flipped on the camera’s night vision again. His viewing screen showed both of his fellow students bathed in an eerie green glow. Jerry had adjusted quickly to the night schedule demanded by the show and was bright and vibrant; despite years of night shooting, however, Del still had bags under his eyes.

Cory shook his head again, forcing himself to focus. Switching the camera to record, he held his hand above his head, silently holding up three fingers—and then two—and then—

“Hey there creeps and ghouls, welcome back to another rousing episode of Specter Seekers! Today we’re going to hunt for haunts here in the long-abandoned Oak Grove Hospital! I’m your host, Jerry—”

“—and I’m Del!” came the addition, right as they’d rehearsed.

“—and with our dutiful cameraman, we’re here to bring you only the best in spookified delights! So stay glued to your screen and don’t watch with the lights off unless you want a sleepless night!”

“And remember,” Del said, finishing their standard opening spiel, “we’re professionals, so don’t go exploring abandoned buildings at home!”

Professionals my ass, Cory thought, tracking them with his camera, doing his best to keep the motion smooth. A certain amount of jitter was inevitable with a handheld and added to the verisimilitude of the piece, but too much shakiness was unappealing, especially since they were shooting in the dark anyway. Ever since the show took off with Jerry’s help, we’ve sometimes secured permission, but more than half the time we’re still trespassing after hours. Case in point: Oak Grove. The city was adamant about not letting them film there, and in fact had been so incensed by their repeated requests that they’d been forced to delay shooting by over a month to let the fervor die down. Still, they were getting good shots.

By now, they had moved from the hospital’s exteriors to the interior halls. Del had scaled a chain-link fence and then unlocked a gate from the inside, Cory keeping it all in shot, idly thinking of how to edit it later to make it look more dynamic. Maybe they could add a few comments in post from Jerry or Del. Currently, the three of them were walking down a lonely hallway, footsteps echoing. All three of them were masters of the walk-and-talk; they had to be at this point.

“—so the story about this place,” Jerry said, turning about and walking backwards so that the camera could see his face as he did so. He was lively and energetic and, best of all, unfeigned; he lived for sharing spooky stories and poking around odd spots on the camera. It was that enthusiasm (not to mention his genuine good looks) and his dorkish charm which captured their viewers. “Way back—we’re talking decades, before any of us were even born—there was a maternity ward here, like in most hospitals. One day, though, something happened.”

“Records are inconsistent,” Del added, scanning the halls. He had done most of the research for this episode. “Some say it was a power outage and the backup generator didn’t turn on, or that it was deliberate sabotage by a disgruntled janitor, but in the dead of night, the machines keeping the babies alive all failed, and they tragically passed away.”

A shiver started to crawl down the back of Cory’s neck. He’d heard a lot of stories over the course of shooting these episodes and had gotten desensitized, but man… stuff happening to kids? That fucking sucked.

He shivered again and couldn’t help but look around at the halls. You’d think that one creepy ‘haunted’ abandoned building would look like the next, but something about Oak Grove… there were half-rotted corkboards still fixed to crumbling walls, with flyers and old crayon drawings tacked to them. It should have been impossible, given how long the place had been abandoned, but he almost thought he detected the distant bite of antiseptic in his nostrils or the echo of a flickering hum from long-dead fluorescents.

“Though the hospital shut down not long afterwards, some say,” Jerry said, gesticulating for emphasis, “that the ghosts of all those children still haunt the ruins, looking for another shot at life… a second chance. Maybe if we’re lucky—or unlucky—we might just get to witness something incredible…”

As Jerry continued speaking, Cory glanced down at the screen—and nearly choked. There, showing up on the night vision mode, was something small, little more than a wisp… and it was drifting closer and closer to them.

Cory flicked his eyes to the hallway for a second. Nothing at all could be seen. Back down to the screen. The glowing light was getting closer…

“—EARTH TO CORY!”

He blinked. Del was scowling at him, his face all craggy lines and green hues on the screen, completely oblivious to the glow approaching behind him. “Hey dumbass!” he said. “We need to pack up for the next—”

“Guys, there’s something on the camera,” Cory said, his voice tight with anticipation.

Del’s face tightened in consternation, but Jerry jumped with intrigue, and with a few long strides he was hovering over Cory’s shoulder, gazing down at the screen. “Holy shit,” he breathed, “there’s a… a wisp? A weird trailing light! It’s only a few paces behind you, Del!”

The co-host shifted uncomfortably, looking over his shoulder with the air of someone who was being pranked, knew it, and hated it. “Not cool, guys,” he said. “There’s nothing there!”

“No, it’s seriously right there, dude,” Jerry said, voice excited. Cory just stared down at the screen. No way. After all this time, had they finally found something? “You could just reach out and touch it.”

Cory was so focused on the implications that he didn’t realize that Del was doing just that. It didn’t settle on him that his friend was reaching for the invisible wisp until Del’s fingers were mere centimeters from brushing against the strange entity. “Wait,” Cory cautioned, “I don’t think—”

But the night vision’s green glow showed Del’s fingers touching the light, and then everything happened all at once. The light lunged into him with what almost seemed like eagerness, and Del spasmed, staggering back a few paces as he heaved with shock.

“Del!” Jerry bolted to catch his friend as he staggered sideways. “You okay?”

“F-feel… funny…” Del groaned. “T-tight…”

His eyes widened and he gulped air as, impossibly, his belly started to swell.

It was a small thing at first, a gentle growing, something that Cory almost could have written off as a glitch of the camera. But then the swelling continued and Del whimpered, scrabbling at his button-up shirt as the buttons began to strain. Jerry, realizing what the problem was, helped out as best he could, the two of them undoing all of Del’s buttons even as his stomach continued growing.

When his shirt was free, Del sagged back, still half-propped by Jerry, as his stomach plumped out. It was oddly shaped, looking kind of as if he’d gorged himself at a buffet—but there was a different sort of curve to it, a weight that you could see. And that was far from the only change. Del’s normally-flat pectorals had swelled slightly, and though it was hard to completely make out in the green glow of night vision, it seemed as if his nipples were larger and his areolae darker. Del stared down as his changed body with heaving breaths; both Cory and Jerry were transfixed. It almost looked like Del was… like he was…

Del’s groans were suddenly interrupted by a whimper as a sudden bump showed from the inside of his tummy, pressing out. Cory could only stare, recording it all, thinking in the back of his mind that this would sell for a fortune, as Jerry tenderly rested his hand on his co-host’s stomach. There was a moment when both Del and Jerry gasped as another bump pressed against Jerry’s touch, and then gently, excitedly, Jerry reached up to Del’s chest, cupping one of Del’s two new teats in his hand. With a tender grasp that drew a tiny whimper from Del, Jerry squeezed—and then a pale liquid trickled out. Jerry looked with awe at his friend. “Del,” he said, “you’re… you’re pregnant, dude.”

With a whimper, Del pawed at the wall in a fruitless attempt to rise. “Get me out of here,” he said, voice fearful and straining. “I can… feel it in me…”

As Jerry helped Del to rise, Cory took a few steps back, zooming the camera out to get a better shot—

And his heart nearly dropped. He’d been so zoomed in they hadn’t been in frame, but now he could clearly see that more wisps were coming down the hall, and two were drifting right towards his friends.

“Guys!” he called. “Look out!”

But it was too late. The green vision of the camera showed the spirits entering the two of them and then it began anew.