Our Ghost Adventures

I stood nervously outside the rather large brick house. Zak had taken my hand, as if he were sensing my nerves. We were waiting to talk to Alicia, I had just knocked once and Nick and Aaron were behind us, filming. The door opened and I expected someone taller—but instead it was a child. “Hi sweetie,” I told the little freckle faced girl. “Is your mommy home?”

“Who’re you?” she wasn’t more than five.

“My name is Adrina McMurphy, I’m with a television show and I have something I’d like to show your mom,” the girl closed the door and I heard her little feet pitter patter away. I hadn’t even considered that maybe Alicia wasn’t her mom until that moment. “Should I—” The door swung open quickly.

“Hi, I’m Alicia Richardson, how can I help you?” she seemed rather taken aback by our presence.

“Hello, I’m Zak Bagans, executive producer for Ghost Adventures on the Travel channel,” he held out his hand for her to shake and she did.

“I’m Adrina McMurphy, also from Ghost Adventures,” I too held my hand out. “We were investigating the hospital down the road—South Bailey Hospital actually and…Well it was the funniest thing we got this EVP—or a ghost voice, that I think you would really love to hear,” I said with a slight smile.

“Um…” She paused and frowned slightly.

“Ma’am, I know that this seems really odd,” Zak said with a slight smile. “But, we believe that it was your mother speaking…”

“Come in,” she had seemed like she was either deciding to tell us to get off her lawn or to let us in. I guess that she finally decided.

“Do you think we could film this?” Zak asked. “It would be I would love to add it into the episode…”

“Yeah,” she nodded. He waved for Nick and Aaron to follow us inside as she led up to a sitting room. “Please, take a seat,” she offered.

“Okay, so we this is while we were going through the maternity ward of the hospital and—well just watch it,” I turned on my camera and pressed play at that part. As it played through, I watched the shock on her face.

“Oh my God,” she said, when she heard the ‘Love Alicia Marie’ part. “I never actually got to hear my mother’s voice…Thank you,” she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “Thank you,” she said again.

I smiled and nearly cried along with her. “This wasn’t captured on the spirit box, but I heard it with my own ears, and my camera’s audio happened to pick it up. I think maybe she was hoping that I would deliver this message to you…”

“Is there anyway you can like make a copy of that for me?” she asked.

“Of course we can…”

“Well, I hope you gave my mother some peace and helped her to move on.”

“I think we did.”

***

Our next lockdown was a rather uneventful one. I guess that was to be expected we got so much great evidence that I had to idea of making it into two episodes…That way it would make up for our the past lockdown. We headed back to Vegas after and Thanksgiving was rapidly approaching. Zak and I were trying to get Lorelei on a strict bedtime/naptime routine because babies needed that. It was difficult to do while we were on the road, but if we could get it started at home then we could probably keep it up while we were traveling. I was just glad to be out of the RV for a while. I loved our little crew to death, but I didn’t like being trapped with them for long periods of time. I don’t know how the boys got along without having the RV before!

“My mom wants to know if we’ll be at her house for Thanksgiving,” Zak said, sitting at the island counter. I was drinking a glass of water while Lorelei napped.

“It’s your mom, so I guess so…” No matter what, I knew that Elise and I wouldn’t ever be close.

“I don’t want to you to just guess so; I want you to want to go.”

“What do you expect me to say? I agreed to live in Vegas because you have family here. I don’t have any family left, so it only made sense.”

“Adri…”

“Don’t ‘Adri…’ me. Besides, I’m not going to deny Elise the right to see her granddaughter. I don’t want to argue about it anymore, okay?”

“Alright,” he sighed. He probably thought that I was madder than I really was. I couldn’t fault him for wanting to spend the holidays with his mom. He just knew me a little too well in the sense that I didn’t really want to…

“Is this a dressy type occasion?” I asked. He nodded. “Well, Lorelei needs a thanksgiving dress, I suppose. I’ll have to see what I have as well,” I set my glass down and headed upstairs. The upside to having a baby girl was that I could dress her up and make her look cute. I went to my closet first—Zak had two in his bedroom, but before I technically moved in it was just filled with boxes and other stuff he was storing. He moved that stuff down to the dungeon somewhere. That still sounded odd to me…Dungeon. I didn’t think that word would ever become part of my everyday vocabulary. Anyway, I sifted through the few dresses that I did have. Most of them were dark colored—because that was what I liked. I really didn’t know how people dressed up for Thanksgiving. Fall colors? Red, orange, yellow, and brown? I didn’t really want to wear any of those colors…I would prefer black or dark blue…

Once I looked at each of the five dresses, I realized none of them would work. One I wore to Christmas last year and the others I hadn’t worn in years. So, it looked like I wasn’t just going shopping for Lorelei.

I put on a pair of jeans and a loose T-shirt. I didn’t feel like doing anything fancy just to go shopping. I wasn’t one of those girls that had to look perfect every time I left the house. I threw my hair into a ponytail before I left the room and went to get my daughter. Once in the nursery, I picked up her diaper bag and put in some other supplies before grabbing her carrier that hooked onto her car seat. I gently put her in it—trying not to wake the slumbering baby and headed down stairs.

“You’re going now?” Zak asked. He was leaning on the counter texting.

“Yeah, I’m not doing anything else right now. Do you want to come with us? I don’t see how much fun you can possibly have, I’m just looking at dresses for me and Lorelei.”

“I’ll go,” he said. “Hold on, let me go get a hat,” he jogged up the stairs. I went and slipped my flip flops on—thank God for the Vegas weather. Back home, I would need snow boots and a winter coat right now! I remembered last Thanksgiving in Ohio it snowed a lot. Here, I could walk right outside in shorts and a tank top, if I so chose, but I didn’t like doing that. Zak walked back down stairs a moment later.

“Which car are we taking?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he replied. He had about three, which I thought was kind of silly for just one person, but he was a guy—you know guys and cars, so I wasn’t going to argue.

“I wish I had my car here, but quite honestly it wouldn’t make it all the way out here…”

“So why not buy a new one?” he offered.

“And where am I—” I paused. I always forgot that we were paid very well for Ghost Adventures. I hadn’t called and checked the balance in my bank account in months, but I knew there was probably a lot…I could surely afford a new car. “Maybe I should…” I said. “Wait, isn’t Lorelei’s car seat still in the RV?” I asked. We hadn’t gone anywhere since we got home—with the exception of Zak going up and getting pizza one night.

“I think so, I’ll get it,” he said. I headed out to the garage and grabbed Zak’s keys off the hook on the wall. I decided on the Escalade. Not because it was a Ford—personally I preferred Chevy, but I liked being higher off the ground. Somehow, I thought that it would be safer for Lorelei, if we were to get in a car accident. He returned a moment later and got in the driver seat. I always let him drive around here. I was used to country roads, not the high traffic Vegas strip.

***
It took us a few hours at the mall, but eventually we found everything we needed—that was until Zak pulled me into Victoria’s Secret. I slapped his arm right away. “Why did you bring me in here?” I asked.

“Christmas shopping,” he grinned.

“Maybe I don’t want bras and thongs for Christmas!” I exclaimed. “I’m a mom; nobody wants to see me wear that stuff!”

“I do,” he said.

“No you don’t,” I said, still holding Lorelei’s carrier. She’d fallen back asleep a little earlier.

“Hi! Can I help you two find something?” a girl—I say girl and not woman because she made me feel so old. She was probably no more than eighteen. And oh my God, she was too perky and acted like so loved her job.

“I think we’ll just brose a bit,” Zak replied.

“Zak…” I whined. “This store makes me feel old; you see those models on the wall? I don’t look like that! Therefore, I can’t wear these clothes.”

“Babe, for what it’s worse, you look a million times better than any model, but if this place really makes you that uncomfortable, we’ll go some place else, okay?”

“Thank you,” I said. “And thank you for lying to me too,” I broke a small smile. I would come back here…closer to Christmas time—just to surprise him, but until then, I was going to leave this place.

“I’m not lying,” he insisted.

“Okay, whatever,” I rolled my eyes and led the way away from the store. Lorelei didn’t let me get too far. She began to cry. I sighed and had to stop at one of the benches. “What’s the matter, sweetheart?” I asked, picking her up. I noticed right away that her diaper was full. “I’m gonna go change her in that bathroom over there,” I told Zak. “Can you wait here a minute with her carrier thingy?” he nodded and I headed off into the bathroom.

***Zak’s POV***

Women were confusing. I should’ve realized this years ago. But Adrina may have been the most confusing of them all. I sighed and made my way into the jewelry store across from me. We had already been to this part of the mall and she had wanted to go in here just to look. But, I had noticed her looking at a certain necklace and Christmas would be here very, very soon. “Can I get that one, please?” I asked the person at the counter. It was a silver Celtic cross with rhinestones all across it.

“Sure, how many inches on the chain?”

“22’ I guess,” I said. “Can we be quick about this though? My fiancée’s in the bathroom, I don’t want her to see this…” The girl behind the counter smiled and nodded. “Thanks.” When she gave me the bag, I stuffed it in my pocket and hurried out to the bench once again and not a moment too soon. Adri came walking out of the bathroom with Lorelei in her arms.

“Do you wanna go to daddy?” she asked the baby when they were standing right in front of me. I held my arms out and took our little baby. She was the most precious thing I had ever seen in my life. Hands down. “Do you want to get lunch or head back home and I can make something?”

“Let’s get something out.”

***Adrina’s POV***

It had been about a week since our shopping trip and now it was Thanksgiving—oh joy. I put on my new dress. It was a medium blue color and it came up high in the front but was open in the back. I was working on curling my hair for the occasion in the hallway bathroom. I thought that it had better light then Zak’s bathroom. I had already put on my high heels—which I was regretting already. I hated those things.

“Mm, I love my beautiful fiancée,” Zak murmured, coming into the bathroom and wrapping his arms around my middle. He pressed a kiss to the side of my neck. His hair was in its usual spiked up faux-hawk and he had on a dark blue button down shirt.

“You’re—” The baby monitor beside me decided to make a noise now! Lorelei needed something. I started to put my curling iron down, but Zak stilled my hand.

“I’ll get her,” he volunteered.

“Thanks. I should be ready in ten more minutes.”

“Mm hmm,” he said.

“I don’t wanna hear it! You’re the perfectionist about your hair.”

“You’re just as bad,” he smiled.

“I feel insulted,” I gasped as he receded into the hallway to the nursery. I got the last curl in my hair a few moments later, sprayed the hair spray one last time and shut everything off in the bathroom. I made my way to the nursery where Zak was standing with our little girl. I let out a contented sigh as I wrapped my arms around him, much like he had done to me in the bathroom much earlier. I kissed his shoulder, since that was the only place I could really reach. I could faintly smell his cologne on his silky blue shirt. It wasn’t actually silk because he knew that I hated silk, but it was smooth much like silk.

“Whatcha doin’ babe?” he asked.

“I can’t kiss my fiancé?”

“Of course you can.”

“So I was thinkin’,” I said softly.

“Oh yeah?”

“We’re in Vegas, right?”

“Yeah,” he said with a slight laugh in his voice.

“Well, why don’t we just run off and get married, I don’t care if we have a big ceremony…”

“Babe, I love that idea,” he grabbed one of my hands that was around his middle with his free hand. Lorelei had apparently fallen asleep on his shoulder already. “But, what about my mother? She would flip if I ran off and got married without her even knowing. Don’t you want your friends there? Nick, Aaron? Y’know?”

“Crap. Yeah…I just don’t care to have anything big and fancy…”

“We’ll have it any way you want. Would it be too cheesy if we did a New Year’s Day wedding?”

“I think we’re beyond being too cheesy, Zak. You did propose to me on Valentine’s Day. New Year’s Day sounds like it would work for me.”

He laughed a little and set Lorelei down in the crib and turned around to face me. “New Year’s Day it is; that doesn’t give us much time to plan though.”

“I can’t promise the wedding will be perfect, but I can promise that I won’t become a bridezilla. I got that big perfect wedding the first time around. Now, I just want to walk down the isle to the man of my dreams…”

“Same here,” he leaned in and pressed a loving kiss to my lips. “So guest list, I’m thinking my mom and step dad, Nick, Veronique, Annabelle, Aaron, Ariel, Molly—her husband, Ellie—her husband and children, and Carlin and Daren.”

“You forgot your sister and her husband and daughter,” I said. “But other than that, that sounds perfect.”