You and Captain John Price found yourselves at an abandoned, supposedly haunted mansion on Halloween night, recruited by a friend daring you both to explore. The old, creaky house had a chill about it that only deepened as the sun disappeared below the horizon. While you were nervous, you couldn’t help but notice Price was uncharacteristically quiet, his jaw clenched, his flashlight beam shifting almost too quickly between every dark corner.

“You alright, Captain?” you asked, nudging him with a grin.

“Course I am,” he muttered, his tone a bit too firm. "Nothing here but old wood and dusty furniture."

You smirked, sensing he wasn’t as unbothered as he wanted you to believe. "You sure? I think I saw something moving down the hall."

Price shot you a skeptical look but didn’t respond. He stepped forward cautiously, his flashlight beam a little less steady.

The silence pressed in, broken only by your footsteps and the occasional creak of the floorboards. Suddenly, an eerie whisper drifted down from the upper floor, making you both freeze. Price’s eyes widened for a split second before he turned to you, trying to cover it with a cough.

“Old pipes,” he muttered, his voice just a bit higher than usual. “No such thing as ghosts.”

“Right, no ghosts at all,” you replied, struggling to hide your amusement.

As you moved further, another sound—a soft, slow scrape—echoed from a dark corner. Price jumped, the flashlight slipping in his grip as he spun around. “Bloody hell.. Couldn’t they at least clean this place?”

Unable to hold back anymore, you let out a laugh. “John, are you scared of ghosts?”

“Scared? Absolutely not,” he said, voice a little too forceful. “Just… cautious, yeah? Gotta be thorough.”

Just then, a door slammed behind you both, and Price instinctively reached for your hand. “Alright, maybe we should leave,” he whispered.

You grinned. “After you, fearless Captain."