Our Ghost Adventures

We were somewhere in upstate New York. I hadn’t paid much attention on the drive here; I had kind of laid in the back room with Muffin and Gracie-occasionally Zak, when he wasn’t driving. I’d watched old movies on my laptop and sort of been a hermit. What I had seen in the bathroom back at Zak’s house was still bothering me…I just didn’t want to tell him. It would’ve been one thing if Gracie was supposed to be there while we were gone, but she was with us. Nobody was there, so whatever that was-and I theorized that it had been there for a while-wasn’t going to do any more damage than it had already done.
“You okay? You seem quiet today,” Aaron said, nudging my shoulder. I nodded and stared off into the distance. We were walking the grounds of what used to be an orphanage. It was used in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. I had a feeling that this would be a difficult lockdown for me…Not only was it an orphanage, but the people who owned it were cruel people-so I’d learned when Zak was debriefing us in the GAC van on the way over. I kind of admired his love for history, and knowing the facts for what had happened in each investigation.
“C’mon guys; the owner is here,” Zak called to us from across the green grass. Aaron and I jogged to catch up with him as an older woman stepped out of her blue PT cruiser.
“Hi, you all must be from Ghost Adventures! I’m Lily, the owner.”
“Nice to meet you, Lily, I’m Zak, this is Nick, Aaron, and Adrina.”
“It’s lovely to meet everyone. My granddaughter is a huge fan of your show…I hope you don’t mind but I brought her a long-she had an experience here too.”
“Of course we don’t mind,” Zak said.
“Great!” Lily exclaimed. She waved over to the car, signally whoever to come over. A young blonde girl-about fourteen ran out of the car.
“Hi! I’m Laura, I love you all so much, I haven’t missed a single episode since I started watching three years ago! It is so great to meet you all!”
“What’s your favorite episode?” Aaron asked.
“Definitely Return to Poveglia Island. Adrina, I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like! Were you scared?”
“Of course, I was, I’m still bothered by it,” I admitted.
“Wow…” She said.
“Okay, it’s nice to meet you Laura,” Zak said, rubbing his hands together. “But we’re losing daylight and we need to get started. Adri, why don’t you go take some pictures of the area with our full-spectrum camera-as well as the regular camera.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” I said with a salute. He shook his head and smiled.
“Be careful, though. Don’t get lost and take a walkie,” he instructed.
“Yes, mom,” I murmured as I went to the van where Billy was.
“Whatcha need?”
“A walkie and the full spectrum camera, along with the other digital one,” I replied. He had the place all organized to his liking and I had no clue where anything was.
“There you go,” he said.
“Thank you,” I took the objects and went towards the house. I clipped the walkie to my belt and kept the cameras in my pockets, I was ready to get back to Ghost Hunting. As an after thought, I went back and grabbed my iPod from the glove box in the front seat and turned on an upbeat song.

***
It was time for us to begin the lockdown. I was pumped and ready to go. It had been too long since I’d been in an actual lockdown. I was so excited.
“Relax,” Zak told me with a grin, touching my shoulder. We’d both agreed to keep the PDA to a minimal. From the Aaron’s Vlogs the viewers could assume that we were a couple, but neither of us wanted to flaunt it and distract from the show. We were here to hunt ghosts and film a television show, not make out or flirt. “Okay guys, listen up,” Zak said. I picked up my camcorder and turned it. “Adri, I want you and Aaron to start out in the upstairs-that’s where Lily’s daughter-while she was pregnant with Laura was grabbed around the waist. Nick, you’re with me on this floor. We’ll all meet up in a little bit to investigate the basement.”
“Okay, lights off,” Nick said, walking over and turning them off. The cameras were all turned to night vision and we went to our places.
“So why do you think Zak’s got us together tonight?” Aaron asked. “I mean you guys are-”
“Aaron, we’re working,” I told him. “He wants to keep it all separate. Besides, it has to be natural to the cameras, you were always alone before. I was the rookie last year.”
“Makes since. Did you find anything in your pictures earlier?” he asked.
“I didn’t check. I’d like to take some at night before we leave though.”
“Alright, let’s start in the girls’ room,” Aaron decided, leading the way. I wasn’t in here for the tour, so I was kind of relying on him anyway.
I pulled out my digital recorder. “Is there anybody in here?” I asked out loud. “If so, can you tell me your name?” By this point, Aaron’s camera was pointed at me and mine was on the room. Suddenly…I heard what sounded like a whine…or a whimper maybe?
“Did you hear that?” Aaron asked.
“Did you just make that noise?” I asked into the room. I decided to play back the recorder. The first two questions I didn’t get a response, but the third-after the whine sound-there was a noise.
“Mommy…” a voice came after it. The voice sounded young and sad.
“Get the spirit box out,” I commanded. I liked that one the best because then you could hear who you were communicating with and you could hear it real time. “Sweetheart, do you want your mommy?” I asked when the box came on.
“Play…with…me…” it said in a high pitched tone.
“Yeah, we’ll play with you?” Aaron asked.
“Friends?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’ll be your friends,” My heart ached for the little girl. She was trapped here, even after she died. It made me miss my little girl that much more. Sometime I wonder what if Aidan and I would’ve divorced instead? If we couldn’t be together then that was a much better alternative. I would’ve been heart broken, but I’d still have my daughter. “What happened to you?”
“Beaten…”
“Did somebody beat you?”
“Basement…”
“What’s your name?” Aaron asked.
“Noel.”
After that…the voices just stopped. Aaron and I didn’t feel her presence anymore, nor did we feel any other presence in the whole upstairs. We met up with Zak and Nick a little later down on the main floor.
“What’d you guys find?” Zak asked us.
“We talked to a little girl,” I said. “Her name was Noel.”
“Really? What did she say?”
“She asked us to play with her, and be her friends,” Aaron said, leaving out the other part…I guess that was up to me.
“And she said that she was beaten…”
“A lot of the kids reported that they were,” Zak said, further validating what Noel had said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, man she wasn’t here for the interview! That’s what Lily told us earlier!”
“Oh my God…That’s so awful!”
“I know,” Zak said, touching my arm and giving me a sympathetic face.
“What did you guys find?” Aaron asked.
“Not a damn thing,” Nick said, annoyed. “We thought that we felt a presence several times-y’know a cold gust of wind-but it was just a broken window in the kitchen.”
“That sucks,” I said. “I guess it is a good thing that Aaron and I found something…And I still have my photographs from earlier.”
“Plus we have the basement,” Nick reminded Zak.
“Yeah, let’s get started on that…it’s nearly 2:30 now. And that place is bigger than you’d expect. Adri, you’re sticking with me this time, Nick and Aaron, you’ll be taking the east side of the basement, and we’re on the west.”
“Let’s get started,” I said.
We walked down the steps to the old style basement. Like the rest of the house it was from the nineteenth century. On my LCD screen I could see the stone wall with something attached to it…were those…chains?
“Zak…” I said, touching his shoulder. “Are those…chains?” I asked.
“Way back when, Mildred and Albert Griffen used to chain up the unruly children…Sometimes they’d be left there for days,” he explained.
“Oh my God,” I said. I couldn’t imagine chaining up any children…I couldn’t help but wonder if Noel was one of those ‘unruly’ children…The air around me got thicker as we walked into another part identical to the first, but mirrored. My lungs felt tight, and I looked over at Zak, with my camera that was, and tried to see if he was having the same reaction. But no dice. He was standing as he normally did. “Shouldn’t you have a face mask on? With your respiratory problem and all…” I said.
“I probably should,” he admitted. “But we aren’t going to be down here long and it makes it really hard to talk.”
“Zak,” I said, taking a motherly tone. I didn’t want him getting pneumonia or something.
“Adri, it’s my job to mother you,” he said, with a stern voice, but a playful expression.
“Uh huh, whatever,” I laughed.
“Okay, we need to get serious, this is not going on the show,” he said.
“Mm,” I agreed, feeling the thickness of the air return to the space around me. “Do you feel like the air is heavy?” I asked, trying to walk it off a bit.
“No,” he said.
Out of the blue, there was an oddly cool breeze in the other wise warm basement. I shivered.
“Are you okay?” Zak asked. I nodded, and took out my recorder just in case, but he was ahead of me with the PX device. “The owner reported that she got pushed while she and her husband were down here. Did somebody down here do that?” Nothing. “Don’t be a coward, if you’re going to push somebody, push me!”
I honestly didn’t like when he used provocation. It always worried me…
“Zak.” The robotic box said.
“Yeah, I’m Zak, come push me!”
“Mommy,” it said. I looked up at Zak with imploring eyes, begging him to not be mean to this spirit. It wasn’t malevolent; I could sense it in the air around me. “Adri,” the voice said after.
“What’s your name?” I asked, at this point, sure I was kind of interrupting Zak’s session, but he was wrong about whether the spirit was evil or not.
“Sophie.”
“Sophie, I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Zak said. “I shouldn’t have done that. Was it you that pushed somebody?”
“Albert.”
“Did Albert hurt you, Sophie?” Zak asked.
We didn’t hear anything more from the PX device…But I suddenly nearly tripped. It felt like someone had put their hands in the middle of my back and shoved me.
“Zak, I just got pushed,” I said. “It felt like somebody just shoved me in the middle of my back. Are there any marks?” I turned around and lifted up my shirt.
“I can’t see it with the night vision on, hold on-”
“No, just use my digital camera,” I said, pulling it out of my pocket. I heard him snap the picture and I saw the flash.
“Holy shit…” he said.
“Lemme see,” I said. He held the camera out to me and I took it, there were two slightly red parts on the side of my back, I could even make out three of the fingers. “Put your hand next to it for scale,” I directed. He did, but I could tell he had changed very quickly. He was livid.
“Hey! Who the hell pushed my girlfriend?” he exclaimed, louder and angrier than before. And now, the whole viewing audience would know that Zak and I were dating, but I didn’t care right now, I needed nothing bad to happen to him. When we didn’t hear anything after a minute, he started talking again. “Don’t be a fucking coward! Come out here and show yourself, right now!”

***Zak's POV***
We didn’t get any more evidence, which was really unfortunate. I wanted to get more stuff...but we were safe, so I guess it was okay. The team was more important than finding evidence.
We were back on the road within hours. I couldn’t sleep; I was going over the digital recorder that Adri left running while she and I were speaking with Sophie. There perhaps could’ve been another voice that we hadn’t heard real time. I was actually multitasking though, at the same time I was searching through the photographs for any anomalies.
Next to me, Adrina was fast asleep. I paused my work and looked over at her sleeping form. She was always beautiful, but when she was asleep. She had this look of calm peace on her face. Her dark eyelashes were pressed against her cheek and her breathing was slowed and relaxed. Rarely had I heard her made a peep while she slept. She did on occasion have a nightmare, just as she had told me. But it was nothing that she couldn't quickly recover from after being woken.
“Zak,” she opened her eyes, looking up at me sleepily. “What time is it?” I glanced at the computer screen.
“Around four in the morning, go back to sleep, Sweetheart, you need your sleep.”
“Mm, okay,” she murmured, moving closer to me. “You sleep too...Okay?”
“Alright,” I agreed, closing the laptop and putting it on the bedside table before lying down with her.