Help Me Remember

I was getting for the lockdown that was happening tonight. I didn't go to the interviews that we hold for a couple of days because I wanted to give Zak some space. In those couple of days I went back to the hotel to get my suitcase and told Billy, Nick, and Aaron that I was going to be at Jeff's home. While I was taking a break from the guys I was at Dickhouse having a good time. I helped Jeff organize his papers, played games with the guys, and got back at Johnny for making me shoot Jeff in the head. I know my prank was a little amateurish compared to these guys but went out and bought some green and yellow glitter and put it in the fan that Johnny uses all the time that sits on his desk. I was sitting on Jeff's lap going over wedding colors when Johnny walked in. He sat in his seat and finally said,

"Why's it so hot in here?"

"Don't know, I've got the thermostat set to 68." Jeff said.

Which Jeff turned it up to 96 just so Johnny could turn the fan on.

"Sounds like you need to call somebody to fix that," Johnny said as he turned the fan on.

When the glitter flew in his face he shut it off quickly and spit some glitter out from his mouth. He looked at me and Jeff with a 'What the hell just happened?' look. Me and Jeff started laughing.

"Who's idea was this?" Johnny asked laughing too.

I raised my hand since I was trying to catch my breath from laughing so hard.

"Sorry Johnny, but that's what you get for making me shoot my fiancé."

Jeff took a picture of Johnny with the glitter all over him and sent it to Johnny. Jeff started blogging on the website about what just happened and Johnny tweeted the photo.

realjknoxville: This is what happens when you mess with Jeff's fiancé. I'd say she makes the team :)

I chuckled at that memory.

"What's so funny?"

I looked in the mirror and saw Jeff coming into the bedroom.

"Just chuckling at what happened at the office. I can't believe I didn't blow it," I said while I finished my hair.

"That was pretty good."

"Well, I guess I need to be heading off if I want to get the scoop on everything."

"Where are you going again?"

"A place called Glenn Tavern. It's about an hour away from here."

"So I could go up there and visit you if I wanted to?"

I thought about that for a minute.

He could go up there...but I don't think it would be a good idea.

"I'm kidding honey. I'm not going to cause anymore trouble with you and the guys."

"You weren't the one causing trouble," I said kissing him, "You could go up there, but there's a little problem. You won't be able to get in the building."

"So you're saying when Zak means lockdown he means lockdown?"

I nodded my head, "It's been that way ever since he started this occupation. I've got to get going, I'll be back by the time you get back up."

We kissed again and started driving to the lockdown.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

An hour and a half later I made it to the Glenn Tavern. I wasn't even out of the rental car for two seconds and Zak was right there. I looked up at him and saw that he was rubbing the back of his neck, I've been around Zak to know what that means.

"What is it Zak?" I asked sighing as I closed the car door.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for acting like a jackass. No pun intended."

I smiled at that and he smiled back.

"Apology accepted. But if you act like a total jerk again, I won't be so forgiving."

Zak pulled me in for a hug and for some reason I melted into his embrace. I don't know what it was about his hugs but they soothed me. Don't get me wrong, Jeff's hugs are soothing too, but there was just something about Zak's that made it better. He let me go when a black SUV pulled up. Two women got out of it, one had blonde hair, which she looked familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it and the other one had brown hair.

"They're here to help us with our investigation," Zak explained.

"Alright. I'm going to head inside to get briefed."

I waved to the girls when I passed them and went to the base.

"We were wondering if you were going to show or not," Aaron said smiling at me.

"Now Aaron, I wouldn't miss a lockdown because of an argument," I said smiling back, "So what rooms have the activity?"

"Well, the hotel lobby apparently has a little girl photobombing wedding pictures and also stays in room 308," Billy said sitting in his chair, then looked at a paper, "Um...room 106 has a full body apparition of a female. Room 103 has a woman who acts like nurse. And the third floor is haunted. A cowboy got shot in the head and in room 307 has a very friendly spirit."

"What do you mean very friendly?" I asked, even though I had a feeling on what the answer was going to be.

"Zak asked if me to stay in that room a couple of nights ago and lets just say she got a little to friendly."

"That would make sense though, she was a prostitute," Nick interjected.

"What happened to her?"

"Well... she was beheaded in the closet," Billy said.

I was about to say something when Zak and the two girls came in.

"Did you get the information Candy?" Zak asked.

"Yeah."

"Let's get started," Zak said.

We followed him to the lobby where a séance table was ready for us to use. I stood back to get the wide shot. I had Zak, the girls, Nick, Aaron, and some of the séance table on my screen. Zak counted down and gave the signal. I hit record so the lockdown could begin. Brit started talking about her experience in room 307, which Billy slept in.

"What we have to do now is ...The staff here, the owners, they shut the whole place down for us tonight. But before we start investigating, we're going to perform a séance."

What was that? I thought.

I looked Zak in the eyes with a 'Did you here that?' look and he had the same look. I started looking around and everybody had the same look.

"So I wasn't the only one that heard that?" I asked.

"I heard it too," Mimi said.

"What did it sound like to you guys?" Nick asked.

"Whistling," Brit and Mimi said.

"Sounded like a little girl," Zak said and started towards the stairs, "Let's go check it out."

Everyone followed him up the stairs.

"Is there somebody up here?" Zak asked when he reached the top of the steps, "We're not trying to scare you away. We don't want to do any of that. You you just trying to get our attention?"

While everybody started looking around I stood at the top of the steps with a uncomfortable feeling. Zak noticed I hadn't moved and came to me.

"Are you ok Candy?" He asked with concern etched into his eyes and voice.

"I don't know how to explain it but it's getting uncomfortable up here."

"C'mon, let's go talked to the family real quick," Zak said to me, "We'll be right back," He called to the others.

He grabbed my wrist gently and led me down to the lobby. He started talking to Monica about how intense the feeling was in this place. Pretty soon he called the others down so we could begin the séance.

"Zak?" I asked softly.

He came to me slowly.

"What's wrong?" He asked just as gently.

I could feel eyes on me and Zak. I looked away to see Mimi looking at us and I looked back at Zak.

"You know I never really liked séances. Could I sit out on the séance?"

"Sure. You can go hang with Billy and Jay."

"Thanks Zak."

I gave him a small smile and left the room. When I entered the room that was designated as our base. I sat down in one of the fancy wooden chairs.

"Candy! You here to help us?" Billy asked.

"Until the séance is over."

Zak's voice came over the walkie before Billy could ask me something.

"Bill. Can you tell us the words that came over the ovulus in order?"

He picked the walkie up and started saying the words in order. I didn't pay attention until he said 'oracle'.

Oracle? Isn't that Patrick? I thought.

I got up to look at the monitors. While I was standing over the guys Billy moved a little and patted the free spot. I looked at him with a 'What?' look.

"Sit down. It makes me nervous when people stand behind me."

I sat in the small free spot. I used Billy's back as the back rest as I watched the séance. Patrick started putting cards on the table in the shape of a pyramid, the top of the pyramid was facing away from him.

"Can you turn the volume up so I can hear what's going on?"

Jay turned the volume up and we listened.

"There will be three events that'll be captured. One person is going to be affected to the point of it being stressful for them. "

"Can you tell me if it's going to be a male or female?" Zak asked curiously.

I took a deep breath to calm myself when Patrick said female, just because he said it's a female doesn't really mean it's me, right? Pretty soon everyone gathered around to hold each others hands as the séance began. Things started happening, Nick felt an electrical charge, Monica's boyfriend J.J felt a sharp pain in his back and Monica kept talking about a little girl.

"Can you come and talk to us?" Zak asked sweetly, which made me melt a little.

Billy turned his head and smirked at me.

"What?" I asked him confused.

"You're not fooling me Candy. I know what just happened."

I rolled my eyes at him and he chuckled while looking at the monitors again. Then the group around the table started talking about how they heard a little girl. They got silent again and started asking more questions. Zak snapped his head up quickly when he heard the little girl again, this time in front of him. Soon after that Monica freaked out for a moment when she said something grabbed her arm, Zak's left arm had goosebumps and the other one didn't and he heard the little girl yet again. After that they broke the circle, that's when the Ovulus decided to go off with the word 'girl'.

"You can have your chair back Billy. I've got to head out and start investigating now."

I got up with my camera in my hand and started towards the group. Once I reached them Zak looked up surprised to see me.

"What? Did you think that I was going to sit out through the whole investigation? If that's the case I could've stayed-"

"No. No, I was just about to come and get you so we could start."

I looked over at Brit and it finally hit me.

"Brit Morgan?"

"Yeah."

"I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you before."

She chuckled a little and said,

"That's ok. I won't take offense to it."

Zak led us up to the third floor to begin the investigation. Zak started explaining what the SB7 spirit box does then turned it on and the static noise filled the air as it flipped through channels. He went into a room and everybody followed, except for me I stayed in the hallway recording.

"What do you want us to do?" Zak asked.

He then poked his head out of the room asking another question.

"Can you tell us what your name is little girl?"

A voice came through saying 'Ingrid'.

"How old are you Ingrid?" I asked nicely, but got no response.

Zak led everyone to room 308 and I stood outside the door again.

"Can you tell me who's in here?"

The same voice came through saying 'I can help'. They went further into the room, so I couldn't hear what they were asking. Zak came out walking down the hall with me right behind him and the others following me. We all entered room 307, Zak was talking to Billy through the walkie when all of a sudden he said,

"Everybody stay."

What did he see? I thought.

"Did you see anything Billy?" Zak asked through the walkie.

"No."

"Ok. start moving." Zak said then asked, "Are you guys moving?"

"Yeah."

"There's no light source behind you guys, so what I saw wasn't any of you," He said concluding on what he saw wasn't by any of us.

He rewound the tape and showed us what he saw, the girls were shocked at what they saw. Soon we took a little break to let someone else in to help us but she left because she was to scared. It was also time for Mimi and Brit to leave.

"Brit could I get a picture with you?...If you don't mind," I asked politely.

"Sure," She said smiling at me.

I handed Zak my phone so he could take the picture. When he was done he handed me my phone back.

"Thank you so much."

"You're welcome. Have a safe lockdown."

"And you have a safe trip."

We waved bye to each other and me, Zak, Nick, and Aaron went back into Glenn Tavern to finish the investigation. We all went back to base to watch the monitors for a while. During that time I went to our goodie bag and pulled out two dum-dum pops. I gave one to Nick and opened mine and stuck it in my mouth. About 45 minutes later we heard something in the lobby and that was our queue to investigate again. Zak sat down at the table and I sat down on his left side and Nick was on his right while he started the spirit box again.

"Was there a cowboy that was shot in the head here?" Nick asked.

Nothing.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" I asked.

A few seconds went by when we finally got 'Como Esta?'

"What is the name of this family's oracle?" Zak asked.

Nothing. So Zak tried again.

"What is the name of the man that was sitting right here? If you don't tell me then I don't believe in you." Zak asked while pointing to the chair that Patrick had been sitting in.

'Patrick'.

I got goosebumps when that came through, Zak was shocked and Billy confirmed on what we thought we heard, which gave me a chill down my spine.

"What was the guy's name that hung himself on the second floor three years ago?" Zak asked when he calmed down.

A female voice came through saying 'Henry'. Zak finally got up and started down the hallway, with us right behind him.

"Is there a woman down here that's seen Monica?" Nick asked.

We went into Monica's apartment to see if we could find evidence.

"Who are you?" Zak asked.

'Marsha'.

"Marsha. Are you there?"

'Yeah, I'm here'.

I got excited over that, not just because it's an intelligent spirit but also in the same voice. Zak asked another question but didn't get a response. He stood right outside the door and shivered a little.

"You ok?" I asked.

"Guys come here."

We went to Zak who had his arm extended out in front of him.

"Feel this."

We put our hands where his hand was and felt a pocket of cold air. Zak put the spirit box on a table and we left the area. We didn't ask any questions for 15 minutes until Zak firing off questions again.

"What do you want?"

'Be gone'.

Me and Aaron gasped and looked at each other. Zak then went on his own to a different floor to investigate. I went back to base and grabbed a bottle water and sat down next to Jay.

"What floor is Zak on?" I asked while taking a drink of water.

"Third," Jay said.

Suddenly I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when I looked at Zak's face on the monitor.

"He doesn't look like he's there," I commented.

I got up and headed to the door when Billy said,

"Candy. Be careful."

I went to Nick and Aaron and said,

"Nick can you come with me to see if Zak's ok?"

"Yeah. I was about to go check on him myself. Aaron stay here."

Nick and I took off to the third floor. When we made it up there we had no idea which room he was in. Nick noticed a door closed and locked so he knocked on it and said,

"Open up."

The door didn't open and Nick stopped at the X camera and asked Billy where Zak was and Billy said he had no idea. I was starting to get worried as I walked down the hall slowly, trying to find any clue that would lead me to Zak.

"Zak, where are you at?" Nick asked walking behind me.

We then heard what sounded like footsteps when we stopped at a door.

"Zak? Are you in there?" I asked trying to sound calm.

I heard shuffling in the room and I knew it was Zak.

"C'mon Zak we need you out here with us," I said.

A few minutes went by before the door opened to reveal Zak. Happiness washed over me when I saw him.

"What happened Zak? You weren't yourself." I asked as we entered the room and Zak layed on the bed.

He started to explain what happened to him. While he was explaining we heard the noise again. Nick backed out of the room to check the hallway and I stayed on the bed sitting next to Zak. While Nick was asking Billy and Jay something I got the feeling like we weren't supposed to be up here. Nick went on about feeling an electrical charge and Billy came through saying he just heard a man. I got up taking Zak's left hand and tugged it lightly.

"Zak, lets get down to base. It's time to wrap up."

He slowly got up and we headed down to base. When we put all the equipment up I followed the guys to the hotel to make sure Zak would be ok. I led Zak to his room and opened the door. He fell onto his bed stomach first while I sat next to him.

"Are you going to be ok?"

"Yeah," He replied tiredly looking at me.

I made move to get up but Zak grabbed my hand making me stop my action.

"Did I scare you?"

I thought for a second before answering.

"A little. But it's over now so don't worry about it."

He sighed and then asked,

"Candy? Can you stay here with me please?"

I looked into his eyes and saw mixed emotions. He had sadness, confusion, lost, tiredness, and...hope. I bit the inside of my cheek lightly then finally gave in to Zak and layed next to him. It wasn't even two minutes and we were out like a light.