The sound came again, slightly muffled as if from tiny hands covering a tiny mouth, and poorly at that. Laura looked back to the altar and started to move toward it, her movements slow and careful, trying not to scare off the thing she could not see.
"Anaise?" The sound cut off with a gasp, the child discovering that she had been found out. "Anaise, no more games. Come out, right now." She'd always been the police parent, her brother the fun one. John could be just as strict when necessary, and Laura knew when to be soft, but this moment called for the former. Her patience was quickly wearing thin, and she just wanted her daughter to come home.
A small girl stepped out from behind the altar, one hand on its edge. She laughed again, crouching down as if to remain hidden.
"Anaise, come on now, that's enough."
The annoyance in her mother's voice only seemed to make the girl laugh more, and she darted down the hallway in the opposite direction. Any attempts made to grab her were futile; she seemed made of air, untouchable. Laura followed after her quickly, and Anaise disappeared into the stairwell, running up a floor. She was already gone by the time Laura had the doors open, trying to make a decision about whether to go up or down. Small footsteps rained down from a few floors up, and Laura quickly began climbing the stairs.