Our Ghost Adventures

Thanksgiving at Zak’s mom’s house wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. The food was good and Elise was as nice as could be. But, before I knew it, it was over. We were all back in the RV again and back on the road to shoot two more episodes. Which also meant that I had wedding planning to do—on the road; lucky for me, my maid of honor was there too. I would’ve honestly probably chose Ellie if the situation would’ve been different. Before we left, Zak and I sent out the ‘save the date’ thingy to all of the people we were inviting. Carlin and Daren were simply going to wait until the wedding to come see the baby. I had already asked that Daren be the one to walk me down the isle. He said that he would be happy to do it. We still had to choose a venue. I wanted something tropical and romantic—I even suggested Hawaii, but Zak said no because of the fact that everyone would have to fly out there just to attend the wedding. Crap.

“Why not just get married in Vegas?” Ariel asked as we were in the back of the RV.

“I don’t know…” I sighed. “It’s actually very pretty but…”

“But you got married in Ireland last time and you kind of want something unique still…”

“Yeah, and Vegas is like the home of drunken mistake weddings…”

“True…What if we went back to Ohio?”

“It’s all snowy there. I want something outdoors. I still wish Zak would agree to the whole Hawaii thing,” I laughed.

“Yeah, it’s too bad. I would’ve loved to go to Hawaii.”

“Maybe you and Aaron can get married there,” I laughed. She shoved my shoulder playfully.

“Shush! We haven’t even talked about getting married…”

“I’m happy for you two, I really am.”

“Thanks, I’m happy for you and Zak.”

“What are the odds? We’re both with our like, dream guys. We’ve loved Ghost Adventures for years. Now I’m on it and you travel with us!”

“I know! It’s awesome! I don’t know if I would have the guts to go in there and be like you guys…It seems like a scary job.”

“Oh my God, it can be! Like this lockdown, we’re going to an old ghost town—a whole town! That in itself is scary…”

“That is!” she agreed.

“I think Zak said that we’re going to get help from his friends, Mark and Debby Constantino.”

“The EVP specialists?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Is Lorelei good when I’m not here?”

“Of course. She’s no more trouble than any other baby,” Ariel smiled. “She’s so cute too…”

“Yeah, she’s only 6 weeks old though, can you believe it?”

“No, I can’t…But, there’s no denying that she’s Zak’s daughter…Her eyes are his.”

“I know, I love it, his eyes are so perfect.” Ariel smiled.

“After Aidan, I never thought that you would love again or even smile…”

“It took a long time, but I think that what he told me in Carlin and Daren’s house when we went there kind of completely put me at ease.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh my God, I never showed you this? These are probably some of the best EVPs I’ve ever gotten—of course they never aired on the show but…I still have them.” I pulled out my laptop and found the file. I played her the file and she looked at me in shock.

“What was the ‘top of our closet’ thing?” she asked.

“I forgot all about that!” I exclaimed. “I forgot he told me anything about that…I guess things got so busy while we were there and…I need to go back to my house and look up there!”

“You do,” she agreed. “But those were pretty amazing. When he called you ‘Sugar Pie’ I could hear it…I knew it was his voice without a doubt…” I nodded, my mind still focused on the closet thing. I decided I was going to ask Zak where our lockdown after this one was. I left the back bedroom and went to the front of the RV.

“Zak,” I said.

“Yeah?” he asked, turning around from the passenger seat.

“Where’s the lockdown after this one?”

“West Virginia. Why?”

“I would like to make a stop at my house before we get there…” I was in luck Ohio bordered West Virginia and I didn’t think that it would be hard to stop at my house on the way.

“Sure. Whatcha need from there?”

“I—I’m not sure. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…”

***

We arrived in Montana a few hours later. I had never been here before. We had to stop in a town fifteen miles from our lockdown because it was the closest thing to the ghost town. It was here that Zak figured that we would find people to interview and get some lunch. They parked the RV in the parking lot of a small town diner place. We went in and got a table big enough for eight and sat down, ready to order.

“God, I hate these long car rides,” I sighed.

“At least we have the RV,” Nick said. “Before that thing, there were a lot of plane rides and car rides.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be fun. All of us in one car with a baby,” Ariel said, crinkling her nose. I nodded in agreement and sighed before resting my head on the table.

“You alright, honey?” Zak asked me, smoothing his hand across my back.

“Yeah, I’m just tired, I guess. And hungry…” I sat back up and popped my back. “I wonder what’s good here…” I began scanning through the menu to find something that seemed appetizing.

“Did Jeff give us anything in the way of research or do we have to find it all ourselves?” Nick asked; his question was directed at Zak so I kind of just continued on reading my menu.

“Not much. He gave me stuff on some of the documented deaths and such but nothing whatsoever on the sightings from the locals,” Zak replied.

“Damn, so we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Yeah, tomorrow we’ve got a lot to do. We’ve gotta get info and do the lockdown.”
I sat back and watched the group interact for a minute. It was interesting to just people watch sometimes. The guys—well Zak, Nick, and Aaron kept up a conversation about nothing or would argue. Ariel had started talking to Billy and Jay was just sitting there quietly. He never said much, I had noticed. “So…” I said, deciding to try and make small talk. “Have you always believed in ghosts?” I asked.

“No…I had to see proof. Did you?”

“For as long as I can remember,” I said. “When I was little, I used to talk to different ghosts wherever we moved…”

“Were they all good?” he asked.

“I thought that all ghosts were good for the longest time, it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I learned that wasn’t the case…” I hadn’t realized it, but everyone was looking at me now. They had ended their conversations just to hear what I was saying, and I didn’t understand why. “What?” I asked.

“We’ve never heard this story,” Aaron said. “I wanna learn what made the ghost magnet the ghost magnet.”

I smiled nervously. “Well, I was a teenager and we lived in this one house, it was a one story ranch style place out in the middle of nowhere. So I think I was like fifteen maybe, but anyway, I kept having this reoccurring nightmare. There was this shadow faced man just laughing…and then there were bodies…human bodies falling on top of cars. I…And that brought up something that I thought I had long forgotten. I was sevenish and I was trying to go to sleep in a different house. I was trying to go to sleep and I had my light on because I was afraid of the dark. My mom and dad were down stairs and I was just lying there when all of a sudden…this tall dark figure came out of nowhere and stood near my doorway. It looked over at me with its eyeless face and…It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen even to this day. I don’t know what it was but…” I shivered nervously. Zak started to say something, but I shook my head. “It gets worse—this thing was going into my mom and dad’s room—then a short while later, my dad died from unexplained causes…”

“Oh my God, I got chills bro!” Aaron exclaimed.

“Adri, why didn’t you tell us this before?” Zak asked me seriously.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I prefer not to think or talk about it.” I looked over at Ariel; she looked just as shocked as everyone else. “You knew this already, didn’t you?” I asked. I figured I had probably told her.

“No,” she said. “I’ve never heard that story before…”

“Weird,” I said. “I think I told Molly about the nightmare thing and I probably told Ellie about the other thing too…But it’s weird that I didn’t tell you either thing.”

“What was your first experience?” Aaron asked Ariel.

“You mean like bad or just in general?”

“In general.”

“I was in third grade and there was this creepy doll in my basement. I don’t know if this was really paranormal or not, but it would always be in different places—I slept in the basement actually. But remember, Adri? I told you about this? It freaked me out and um it may’ve been Molly, but anyway, somebody came over and it kept doing the same thing!”

“What if it was like that thing in the Conjuring? The possessed objects—it could’ve been possessed.”

“Oh my God! What if it was?”

***

“I’m going to put sweats on and go to sleep,” I said once we moved the RV to a nearby campground. I dug through my drawers, looking for some when I felt Zak wrap his arms around me from behind.

“Is that what you wanna do, babe?” he asked, kissing the side of my neck.

“You have other plans?” I asked, knowing that he must.

“No,” he replied. I turned my head and looked at him—as best I could anyway.

“Are you sure ‘bout that?”

“Yeah,” he gave me a sexy grin and kissed my nose. “Ariel and the guys had planned on watching some movies in the other room; I thought that maybe we could get a few minutes to ourselves…” I turned and looked at him with a small smile.

“Really Zak?”

“I didn’t mean like—”

“Yeah you did,” I countered, smirking now. “Babe, you know I would love some ‘alone time’ but I’m so tired right now—and I want to get to sleep while Lorelei’s sleeping. Right now she’s gonna be asleep for a good two hours before she wakes me up.”

“I’m not tired; I can take her for a while. Are there still bottles in the fridge?”

“I think there’s like three in there…But it’s so much easier if I just feed her because then nobody has to get up and heat up the bottle.”

“You need a good night’s sleep and you’re going to get it,” he said, kissing my cheek. “Go on, lay down.”

***

As Zak promised, I did get a really good, full night of sleep. It was nice not waking up every few hours. He even made me sleep with music on so that I didn’t wake up to Lorelei crying…I loved my baby, but I did need some sleep. But, when I woke up, I wanted to thank my fiancé.

He was fast asleep on his back with an arm around my shoulders as I used his arm for a pillow. I never knew how we ended up sleeping like this. Even if both of us went to sleep on separate sides or hours apart, we still ended up cuddling in our sleep. Which, I found very, very odd at times. I used to never move in my sleep. I would fall asleep in one position and wake up completely unmoved. I kissed the side of his jaw; I really did want to thank him for last night, because I knew that he had other plans while I just wanted to go to sleep. In his sleep, he let out a soft moan and his arm tightened around me. I smiled and kissed his cheek and then the corner of his mouth. His blue eyes opened and looked at me curiously.

“What’re you doing, sweetheart?”

“Waking you up,” I said. “How long since Lorelei last woke up?”

“Not long.” I pressed a kiss to his lips. “I have morning breath,” he warned.

“I don’t care,” I replied. He kissed me back and pulled me closer to him.

“Well, I wish all alarm clocks were like this,” he grinned into the kiss.

***

“Is anybody else awake yet?” I asked Zak as we both dressed for the day.

“I don’t hear anybody,” he said. “We could walk up and get breakfast from the little camp restaurant place,” he suggested.

“That sounds like a good idea,” I sat on the bed and pulled on some nature boots over my jeans. “Did we pack the stroller?” I couldn’t remember if we did or not.

“Yeah, I think so, if it is, I think it’s in the back of the van though.” Now we drove the RV and hauled the van on the back and when we were actually in the area of our lockdown, we would drive the van around. Zak put a hat on his messy hair, I knew that he would fix it later, but he, like me, was being lazy right now. “Lets be quiet when we walk out there,” he said. I nodded and picked up Lorelei from the crib we had in our room and followed him out to the main room in the RV.

Eight people in one RV was a little much, thinking about it. We figured out how to convert the table/booth thing into a bed and that was where Billy slept. Ariel and Aaron were in the other bedroom and Nick and Jay slept on the pull out couch.

It took Zak a few minutes to find the stroller, but once he did, we were on our way to the camp restaurant. We decided to leave Gracie and Muffin at the camper because they wouldn’t be allowed in the restaurant anyway.

“This is what I like,” Zak said.

“What?” I asked.

“Just being normal. Sometimes, it’s nice. Sometimes, I do miss being a normal-non-demon-hunting-guy.”

“Well, just remember, if you hadn’t been that guy, we would’ve never met.”

“Mm, true, true.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss to my head. We walked past a group of teenage girls that smiled hugely at Zak…And our moment of normalcy was over.

“We love your show!” A blonde exclaimed. “We watch it every Friday and Saturday.”

“Thank you,” Zak said graciously with a wave to them. I was surprised that they kept on walking. Although, I feared that this wouldn’t be the last time that we saw them…

“Maybe we should just go out in disguises…wigs, hats, sunglasses.”

“Maybe,” he agreed. “I could get a curly pink one,” he said, touching his hat covered head.

“Blue would match your eyes better,” I grinned. “What about me?”

“Hmm, I would totally say red is your color,” he said, his voice jumping up a few octaves, causing me to snort with laughter. “What?” he asked, in the same voice.

“Oh my God, I love you,” I chuckled.

“Oh yeah? Even when I don’t sound like me?” he laughed.

“I love you even though that you didn’t know the difference between an incubus and a succubus.”

He actually blushed. “I was just confused!”

“I know you were, sweetie,” I rubbed his back lovingly. “It’s okay.” I was just glad that shows like that didn’t make fun of us more, it happened. I was sure that I messed up thousands of times on camera by now and that’s just sense I’ve been with Ghost Adventures! Zak and the guys probably had millions because they had been doing this much longer than I have. Plus, when Zak got the incubus and the succubus thing confused, they were kind of new to all of this. That was what? Season two, if I remembered correctly. But, I had to admit that it was funny. I loved the show at the time and I still laughed so hard. “But I have to ask, in that Valentine’s Day episode, what did happen in that bedroom?” Zak looked at me with a goofy smile and shook his head.

“You’ll just have to go there and find my letter to find out,” his smirk broadened.

“Thanks for making me feel special,” I said sarcastically. He wrapped his arm around me.

“You’re welcome.”