Shadow Kiss

Chapter Two

I couldn’t sleep at all that night. I don’t even think I blinked the rest of that day. My friend Bria called to join in on the excitement with me. We gushed over me being able to see Zak’s gorgeous self in person. Then after I got off the phone with her, I called another one of my friends, Natalie. After telling her about my exciting news, she merely hung up the phone. I was used to it though since she did it most of the time anyways when I was acting more abnormal than usual.
I sighed as I lay in my bed still unable to go to sleep. My eyes slid over to my alarm clock. A quarter after 6.
“Ugh! You’ve got to be kidding me!” I whined as I rolled over onto my side. “I still have to wait another three and a half hours before meeting him.”
What can I do for three and a half hours? I wondered to myself. ‘Sleep’, a little voice whispered inside my head.
“Oh, little voice, if only it were that easy,” I sighed thanking my lucky stars that I lived alone. Otherwise many would find it strange how often I talk to myself.
I sat up in bed and decided I would take a shower, get dressed, cook myself a delicious breakfast, and maybe shop around town for a little bit.
And with that, I headed for my bathroom.
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I glanced at my cell phone to check the time. It was five after ten. I was sitting nervously in my car waiting for their van to arrive. I had already talked with Rich, the radio DJ, and now here I was…waiting…impatiently…Where in the fuck were they??
Finally I saw their black van turn into the parking lot. I snatched up my book from the passenger seat and pretended like I hadn’t been anxiously awaiting their arrival for the past 15 minutes.
A rap came on my window. I was disappointed to see it was only Rich. I rolled down my window.
“Yeah?” I asked coolly.
“The boys are here. Wanna meet them?” he asked. I beat back the urge to slam the car door into Rich’s face in my hurry to go meet them.
Instead I merely shrugged and put down my book. I hadn’t even read a single sentence. “Sure.”
I got out of the car and followed Rich up to the front doors of the building where I could see Nick and Aaron…but not Zak. Where was he?
“Hey, guys, this is Aerolynn. She was our winner from last night that answered the question correctly,” Rich introduced.
“Cool. Hey, I’m Aaron,” Aaron introduced himself holding out his hand. I shook his hand distractedly.
“I’m Nick.” I shook his hand as well.
“Where’s Zak?” Rich read my mind.
“Bathroom,” Nick answered.
Well, he needs to hurry his fine ass up and get out here, I thought to myself angrily.
“Well, I’m gonna head back inside guys. It’s almost time for me to go back on the air.” Rich waved his goodbyes and headed back inside.
“So…” Aaron awkwardly began. “You’re name is Aerolynn? Pretty cool name.”
“Uh, yeah, I guess,” I laughed. “You can call me Aero or Lynn. Not many people call me by my full name except my parents.”
“Alright cool. So I imagine you have some idea of what we do, right?” Nick questioned.
“Yeah. I’ve seen a few episodes of your show,” I answered nonchalantly. A few hundred, I quietly thought to myself.
“Great! Well, even though you were supposed to meet us here so early for the investigation…” Aaron began. “It’s actually not until tomorrow night. We just need to take a tour of the place, find out where we need to set up the cameras, and get some of them in place.”
“You guys don’t do that the night of the investigation?”
“Depending on how long the tour takes and if the area is a huge hotspot, we normally do wait until the night of the investigation. But we hear this place is pretty big and we will be staying in a couple of the more haunted rooms during the investigation,” Nick explained.
“Yeah, it is pretty massive. I remember riding my bike passed that house on the way to my grandparent’s house. Always gave me the creeps even though it looked absolutely immaculate on the outside,” I admitted.
“We’ve read a few stories about it online,” Aaron replied.
“Most of the stuff online is just a bunch of bullshit,” I scoffed. “Just kids who were too scared to actually stay the night inside the house and decided to make up shit to make it seem scarier to the next person who thought they were brave enough to go inside.”
“How do you know they are a bunch of bullshit?” A deep voice questioned behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as a shiver ran down my spine.
I turned around and came face to chest with Zak Bagans. Damn…he was taller in person than I thought. Either that or I was short. Then again I was 5’3” to his 6’0”.
I took a step back so I could actually look up at his face. I gulped. He had such a prominent jawline and straight aristocratic nose. But nothing could beat those penetrating bluish-hazel eyes of his.
“Well, because my grandparents used to be good friends with the MacMillers. They visited their house every Wednesday and told me that the majority of the stories on the internet were a lie.”
“Maybe they were lying to you so you wouldn’t get scared,” Zak countered back.
“Maybe, but my grandparents aren’t exactly known for their kindness or their ability to sugar coat the truth,” I defended. Why was he acting so pushy about it?
“Well, I guess we’ll see,” he shrugged before brushing passed me to head out to the van.
I watched him walk away barely able to see his tattoo on the back of his neck poking out from above the collar of his black t-shirt. I turned back to Nick and Aaron.
They just shrugged and began following Zak out to the van.
Maybe Zak wasn’t the guy I thought he was.