Abused

"Yaaaay!" Aaron's excited voice calms me down a bit. I watch how he turns off the camera after filming Zak in front of the house. It's 10:30 pm, later than usually when we start our lockdowns. This time the traffic was so awful that we had to delay the starting time. We still have good eight hours left. I am standing in front of the nerve centre, which this time is an old building right next to the house. It's not nearly as old as the house but it still looks like it has been here longer. I sigh and step closer to the door, when I see the person who is going to lock Nick, Aaron and Zak inside.

I place my hand on the door handle, and when I am about to open the door I feel a hand on my shoulder. I freeze in shock. I know the feeling of being touched by invisible hands too well. But then I feel the familiar feeling of hot lips on my cheek. "Nad, you're gonna be just fine", he whispers and I smile gently. I am going to be just fine. It's Zak who is going to get hurt if it's evil inside that house. Not me. I am the one staring at the computer screen. I turn my head to kiss him and too soon he is gone.

We placed our X-cameras earlier. I am watching all of them this time, so I go trough them all inside my head. X number one is outside, shooting at the house. The dark mass was captured in one of the windows, so we decided that if we want to catch it, we'll need to place a camera outside. I won't need to pay much attention to the X number one, because Nick, Zak and Aaron won't be outside the house.

X number two is inside. It's downstairs in a small kitchen, but I am able to see the dining room area as well. This is where one of the repairmen claimed that he saw floorboards levitating. So I have to keep an eye for poltergeist activity in this area.

X number three is in the creepy hallway, where people have seen dark shadow figures moving across the hallway. Also, this is the place where the body of the original owner and dad of the family was found. On the floor of this hallway.

X number four is shooting at the staircase, because that's where we heard footsteps yesterday. Other people have heard them too, and the only claims of attack in this house took place in the staircase.

The last Xs, X number five is the children's room, where all five kids were found and possibly killed. And X number six is shooting at the balcony door outside. The balcony is where some of the repairmen heard muffled bangs and screams during their lunch breaks. Needless to say, they never found a logical explanation for the sounds they heard. Like I said earlier, this lockdown is going to be.. Interesting.

After a couple of minutes Nick, Aaron and Zak are locked inside the house and I am alone in the nerve centre. I ensured that the door is locked, so no one can get inside the nerve centre. I have three computer screens in front of me, as well as earbuds on the table.

I watch how they start an EVP session in the hallway;
"Aaron, you are going to stay here with this digital recorder. Nick, you'll go in the kitchen and place a recorder there somewhere. I'll head in the staircase with an EMF detector and a digital recorder. Any questions?" Zak asks and then heads towards the staircase. He disappears from the screen for a minute, and my heart skips a beat. Nadine. He is a grown man, he knows how to take care of himself. I calm down when I notice him in the X-cam shooting at the staircase.

Aaron leans against the wall and is the first one to start the EVP session. "Hi, my name's Aaron. I mean you no harm. Is there anybody with me right now?" He asks loudly. Nick is feeling his pockets, probably looking for a digital recorder. Zak is climbing up the stairs with an EMF detector. But he hasn't gotten any unusual EMF spikes so far.

"What is your name?" Aaron continues. Then he stops and presses the recorder against his ear. "Nad, you see or hear anything?" His voice says trough the earbuds. I press a button in my walkie talkie. "Nope". He just nods and continues.

"Can you make a sound?" Nick starts his session. I stare at the screen of X-cam number two, but nothing happens. "You don't have to be afraid of me, just make a sound so I know you are here." That's when I hear a faint knock. I immediately stare at the expression on Nick's face, but he doesn't seem to notice it. "Nick, I heard a knock somewhere nearby", I tell him. "You did?" He asks and tries to see around himself in the darkness. "Yeah, pretty faint, but definitely a knock." He listens at his recordings. "Yeah, I got it", he says. "Good, so did the X-cam number two."

"Zero.. " I hear Zak mumble as he walks around the staircase area. "One.. One and a half", he suddenly says loudly, his voice getting an octave higher. He looks at his camera and explains: "What I'm getting now, these are EMF spikes, or electromagnetic fields. They are energy that ghosts are said to be made of. However, there's no electricity in here, and absolutely no electromagnetic fields, so this in here.." he shoots at his EMF detector to show the spike of 1.5 "this is paranormal."
The spike soon disappears and nothing else happens in the staircase.

For a good hour, nothing happens. I just stare at the X-cam shooting the kitchen, staircase and hallway. Aaron does capture a whisper, but that's really all. Nick only managed to capture that one knock in the beginning, and Zak got one EMF spike. And that's it.

They decide to all go in the hallway in hopes of capturing any shadow figures, even though Aaron has spent the last hour there, all alone. This time Zak has a spirit box with him. He holds it in his hand, and I soon hear the disturbing and familiar sound of the box. It sounds like a broken radio. Spirit box sweeps trough different radio frequencies. It's easy for spirits to manipulate the sound to create words, or sometimes even full sentences.

"Is there a spirit with us in this hallway?" Zak asks loudly. He listens but nothing comes though the spirit box. "I heard about the murders. Were you killed here?" He usually covers the box with his hand so that his voice can be heard instead of the sound the spirit box makes. Then when he is quiet, he pockets his hand and allows all spirits to use the box to communicate. "Y-es" Aaron jumps a little bit. "Did you guys hear that?" He asks, his voice a little bit shaken. Zak just nods and places his hand on the box again.

"Are you one of the children?" He asks. The voice sounded like a female, but it's really hard to tell from an electronic type of voice that doesn't even sound too much like a human. "Liza", the box whispers. "Oh my god", Aaron whispers faintly and looks at Zak, who just nods. "Is your name Liza? Sweetie, you have nothing to be afraid of", he says with gentle tone. When it's about child spirits, Zak always becomes so gentle.. So loving and caring.

Nothing comes trough, and Zak decides that whatever was in their company a minute ago has now left. "Anyone, do another EVP session", he says and pockets the spirit box. Just when Aaron is about to start speaking, they hear a loud bang in the hallway. "It's here", Nick whispers but Zak just shushes him. Another bang. "Did you guys hear that?" he asks silently and heads in the hallway. "Yeah..", Aaron whispers and turns on the digital recorder. "Who's here with us?" Zak almost shouts. "Liza, is it you?" Nothing. The sound of racing hearts is almost audible.

"Make another bang!" He shouts. Zak doesn't mean to be mean or rude when he tries to capture something paranormal. But it's a fact that provoking works better than any other technique sometimes. I hear another faint bang, in the kitchen area this time. Nick heads there with one of their cameras. I can see him trough the X-cam. "Who is here?" he asks.

That is when I hear loud footsteps in the staircase. Zak freezes and points towards the staircase. Aaron just nods. "It suddenly got cold in here", he says and Zak nods. The audio of the X-cam in the staircase captures three loud footsteps. It sounds like someone running down the stairs. The first steps is faint, the second one sound pretty normal and the third one is very loud. The temperature has suddenly dropped several degrees in just a couple of minutes, but the temperature outside is the same. Also, the temperature in the kitchen is completely normal. It's just in the hallway and the staircase. When Zak gets in the staircase, all activity just disappears and the whole place quiets down.

Except the kitchen where Nick is with a recorder. "Zak, you've gotta hear this!" He shouts and sounds excited. Zak marches in the kitchen and presses the recorder against his ear. "We captured a class A EVP. And it's a young girl saying 'Mom, why?'. Nad, we're heading in the nerve centre." That wasn't a question. And yes, they can get out of the building if they need something from the nerve centre.

**
"But, Nad, nothing too bad happened last time!" Aaron argues. I just shake my head a no. No, this time I am so not going in there. Last time I got scratched. It was just something so weird and it has bothered me ever since. I mean, something that shouldn't even exist scratched me. It freaked me out pretty good, because it was very obvious that it was evil. It wasn't human, maybe has never even been. And in the night something followed me in my hotel room. That was even worse. And the most awkward thing? Yeah, the following night in Zak's hotel room.

"Nothing bad? How can you say that?" I say and playfully hit Aaron in the shoulder. "C'mon I've seen worse", he continues. I just roll my eyes, I bet you have Aaron. I bet you have. But if something happens to me this time, my revenge will be the worst thing you have seen. I just chuckle at the thought and roll my eyes again. "Zak?" I look at him for help. "Please?" He just says. "Oh my gosh!" I just mutter. Zak is not helping me to refuse Aaron's offer. Obviously.

What are they asking me to do, then? They fucking want me to go in the fucking darkness with a fucking camera, and try to capture some EVPs. They think that because that little girl, who might just as well be a nice evil spirit playing a little kid, said 'mom', she might talk more if there was a woman in the room. Or something like that. One word. Men and their logic.

I stare at Zak's face. He is doing his best puppy eyes, but it's not working so I just turn my gaze on the floor. I really didn't like it so much last time and I promised myself it was the one and only time. That's what prevented me from totally freaking out last time. I promised myself it was the first and the last time. But here we go again. Really. It's been eight minutes of this now. I have said 'no' about two hundred times during the past eight minutes. And once I almost said yes to make them stop. But then I remembered the feeling of darkness and evil around me and decided that it wouldn't be worth it.

Zak steps in front of me and gently picks my hands in his. He rubs the back of my hands with his thumbs and looks at my face. I try to hide by staring at the floor, but he keeps staring so I give up and meet his eyes. "Nad, sweetie.. Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise", he starts. Oh, this technique this time. I furrow my brows slightly. "Nadine. Trust me, I'll take care of you. Besides.." He brings his face closer to mine. So close actually that I could kiss him if I wanted to. "I will repay you", he breathes out with a deep, raspy tone. And he so knows that it's driving me crazy. "You totally will!" I chuckle. The expression on his face brightens. "Is that a yes?" He asks and smirks. I just nod. "You'd better get ready to go back there before I change my mind!" He laughs and tells Aaron to get me a camera.

"Knew you'd say yes Naddie", Aaron grins as he walks past me with a camera in his hand. I stick my tongue at him and laugh. He can be pretty annoying sometimes. "Here. Have this", he says and offers me a heavy TV- type of camera. I take it from him and place it on my shoulder. It feels heavy and slightly uncomfortable. I just hope that I manage not to brake it. And I also hope that I wont brake any of my bones by falling down the stairs or something in the darkness.

Nick is the first one to head outside the nerve centre. He unlocks the old door and makes sure that it's impossible to lock the door from the outside. It wouldn't be really nice to get locked completely outside the nerve centre when there's no one inside. There's no spare key and we will really need some of the equipment and if the door locked, the only option would be going trough the door. Or a window. But door sounds like a better option.

I follow behind Aaron and hear Zak's loud footsteps somewhere behind my back. He's still inside. Outside it's not that dark. The sky is dark blue, not black like in some nights. It calms me down a little even though I am pretty nervous. I have seen all the activity they have witnessed here today, so I know there's something in here. Something besides just us. There are some little stars on the sky, but no moon at all. The house looks normal because in the darkness you can't really notice how old and broken the whole place is. It feels even creepier, the fact that it looks like a normal house. It's far from it. Not normal at all.

Nick opens the house door and we step inside. Zak is the last one and he closes the door. It's very dark in here. I can't see anything at all. I had already forgotten the familiar feeling of darkness all around myself. Another forgotten feeling was this feeling I call the paranormal feeling. Everything just feels heavy and scary. The air feels dusty and cold. You just can imagine all the horrors, staring at you in the darkness. Invisible enemies. I try not to freak myself out anymore, so I try to sing nyancat inside my head. I know it's stupid but it really helps.

"Liza.. This is Nadine.. " Zak starts. He sounds gentle and friendly. He really is only very mean when it's about evil spirits who like to attack people. "Would you like to make her a sound so she knows you are here with us?" I shoot at Zak with my camera. Nothing happens. Liza, or whoever may be here with us, doesn't obviously want to make her presence known. "Are you here with us?" I ask out loud. I secretly wish that everything was just really quiet, but no. I suddenly hear talking. Like, conversation. "Are you guys all quiet?" Aaron whispers. "Yeah..", Nick whispers in return. "No one's moving", Zak says and shoots at the hallway where we heard the conversation. "Isn't it like a conversation going on over there?" he asks and I nod. "Nick and Aaron, stay in the kitchen and do a spirit box session. Nad, come with me in the hallway", Zak says and motions me to follow with his hand. I follow him away from the kitchen to the creepiest place of all. The hallway of fucking scary footsteps. "You are so in trouble if you leave me here", I mumble. Zak doesn't probably hear it, because he is too busy looking for some digital recorders.

When he finds two, he hands me out one and starts a normal EVP session. However, nothing comes trough and I am soon allowed to relax. My mind starts to look for explanations for what happened in here earlier. Maybe this place is not haunted after all. Maybe it was a cat or something who just walked upstairs. And maybe it was just the wind, creating a sound that reminded me of conversation. Nothing paranormal at all. But how about the footsteps in the staircase? It was absolutely empty in there and the camera audio captured them like a couple of feet away from the X-cam. I feel my body shiver.

I am actually almost glad that we didn't capture anything in the hallway with Zak. It means that maybe, if this place is haunted, that something is not going to attack me like it did last time. It was not really nice.

"Got anything?" Aaron asks, pointing at his digital recorder with a disappointed look on his face. It seems that they didn't get anything, either. Zak just shakes his head a no. "Gonna head upstairs?" Aaron asks. Zak scratches his arm and nods. "Nick, wanna go up the stairs with Nad?" I look at Nick. "Yeah, sure..", he says and I glare at Zak in the darkness. How is he going to protect me if he is downstairs? "Nick will take good care of you", Aaron says and laughs. I feel like hitting him but I just can't find him in the darkness. "Shut up", I mumble and hear Aaron's chuckle somewhere in the dark.

We climb up the stairs in silence. The atmosphere is heavy and dark. And I don't mean the darkness around me. It feels absolutely awful in here. You could probably tell that six people died on this floor even if you didn't know. That's exactly how bad it feels. It's also a tiny bit cold. "Is it just me or is it cold?" I ask and Nick nods. "It's freezing in here", he agrees. "I am getting the chills, too" he says and shoots at his hand with his camera to prove his point.

"You gonna go there, and sit on one of the children's beds?" He asks and heads another way. "Nick!" I whisper in panic. "Hey, you're gonna be just fine. I'm gonna be right outside the room and if something happens, you'll call me and I'll be there in two seconds." It calms me down enough. I slowly head to the awful bedroom, trying hard not to think about all the horror movies I've watched. This is the point when the victim goes in the bedroom and the murdered attacks with a knife. I shake my head, trying to get rid of those thoughts. No one is here, no one besides us. Me, Zak, Nick and Aaron. And all the spirits.

I open the heavy white door and step inside, trying to see trough the small screen of my camera. Because it's pitch black, during the lockdowns we use the night vision of our cameras as our eyes. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to see anything at all. I see five pretty small beds around the room. I just randomly pick one and sit on it. It feels hard, because there's only one old mattress. The couple who bought that house never got this room repaired before they decided that they do not want to stay in the house at all. My mind keeps wondering if this is actually one of the original death beds of those unfortunate kids.

"Hey. I'm Nadine. Is this your bedroom?" I listen very closely, trying to hear anything unusual. Or actually trying to hear anything. It's very quiet. Almost too quiet. There are no normal sounds. No sounds of people breathing or talking, no sound of clock ticking on the wall or TV. Nothing. Just silence. My hand falls from my lap on the bed. "Is this your bed?" Still nothing. "You don't have to talk to me, you can really just make a knock.. " I take a deep breath. "Or you can throw something on the floor." That's when I hear a muffled bang somewhere nearby. I blink furiously, trying to see around me. But of course I just can't. I shoot around the room with the camera, but capture nothing. I try to catch my breath and calm down my racing heart. "Is that you? Did you just make a sound? If you did, then thank you", I manage to say even though my voice sounds a little shaken.

I decide to get up from the bed so I stand up. And that's when I hear something hit the wall. I jump a bit and try to focus on breathing. "Did you make another sound? Are you near me?" I decide to do what Zak always does. "Touch me, use my energy." And then I just shut up. I feel a weird electric feeling that goes trough my body. Like thousands of freezing needles. I gasp and freeze.

It disappears soon and it becomes silent. "Where did you go?" I ask. No one answers. Fine, then be quiet. I don't care. "Why don't you say anything?" I ask and sound slightly annoyed. "I know you are here. Speak!" I say. "Talk to me. You hear me, say something!" I suddenly feel very angry. "Make a fucking sound!" I don't notice Nick who is standing at the doorway.

All I really notice is the feeling of the hard floor hitting my forehead, my fists hitting hard the wood and the sound of Nick running at me, yelling my name.