Our Ghost Adventures

“How’s my Princess?”

“Good, Daddy! Mommy’s making pancakes,” the little dark haired girl said. Her blue eyes shone brightly as she sat at the counter. She spoke with the slightest of lisps. It was the most adorable thing that Adrina had ever heard.

“She is?”

Even with her back to the two…Adrina knew that something was up. Something was off. This was not her kitchen and that voice didn’t belong to her husband. He was dead. Her daughter was dead…and her husband had never called their daughter ‘Princess’ she was ‘Sweetheart’. Either way, Adrina pulled the pancakes off of the stove and walked the plate into the kitchen.

“We’re out of bacon,” she said on her own accord. It was as if her brain was running on autopilot. “I think Daddy was up late and couldn’t sleep, what do you think, Lorelei?” Lorelei? That was the little girl’s name? It was gorgeous, sure, as was the little girl herself, but still. Something was wrong.

“I did not,” the deep male voice replied. She knew that she recognized it. But she couldn’t put her finger on it until her bright blue eyes met with his dark blue ones. “Good morning Baby,” he leaned in and kissed her. She couldn’t stop him; this had to be a dream. She was simply dreaming about Zak. That was all there was to it. Girls dreamed about their celebrity crush all of the time.

“Good morning to you too,” she felt her own lips twist into a smile. “Have a seat,” she said. “We’ve got to get you off to school,” she looked to her-well to who she assumed to be her and Zak’s daughter.

“When do you guys have to go out on the road again?” she asked, swinging her feet while sitting on the bar stool.

“One more month, Princess. We’d take you with us, but you have school.” It stunned Adrina how much Lorelei looked like Zak. She had dark hair, really dark brown and she had his dark blue eyes. Her features were petite and her hair was about four inches past her shoulders and had a little bit of wave to it and her bangs came just past her eyebrows.

“I know,” she pouted. “It’s just hard…I miss you guys so much while you’re gone…”

“We think about you every second,” Adrina said. This time, she knew it was true…for the dream purpose anyway.

“Besides, you’ve got Gracie, Muffin, and Grandma Bagans to look after you,” Zak added.

“But it’s not the same…”

***

I found myself wide awake rather quickly. My eyes snapped open and I was in shock. Since when did I dream about anybody other than-Why was my face warm? Why was the scent flooding into my nose so intoxicating?

“Adrina?”

“Shit,” I cursed and tried to sit up. Of course the reason I was so warm and comfortable was because of Zak. “I’m so sorry. I’m going to go get dressed.” I somehow managed to slip from his grasp and flee into the bathroom after grabbing my bag.

***Zak’s POV***

I had never had that reaction before…She was asleep rather peacefully and then she woke and ran. It was odd. I guess it was my fault, I mean I had added to it by wrapping my arm around her. But she seemed so…content. It was kind of nice. And she’d told me how she had nightmares but I didn’t see any of them last night. She was just…comfortable and this room had gotten really cold last night…with her I was toasty warm.

“I’m going to go check out the lobby and look around!” I heard when the bathroom door open and then the hotel door open immediately after.

I sighed and decided to get dressed too. We had a walk through to do today-even though we’d already been to Poveglia Island. It would kind of be for those viewers that hadn’t seen the original episode.

While I was fixing my hair, there was a knock on my hotel room door. I figured that Adrina had forgotten her hotel room key or something. But, when I opened it, Nick was standing on the other side of it. “Oh hey, man.” I said. I walked back into the bathroom to finish my hair.

“Where’s Adrina?” Nick asked.

“I don’t know. She said she was going to check out the lobby and ‘look around’. She left in a hurry too.”

“What did you do to her?”

“Me? She woke up, freaked out, and left! That’s got nothin’ to do with me!”

“Back track a bit, when she woke up, was she on her side of the bed or yours?”

“Mine,” I said.

“So you were cuddling with her?” he asked, a hint of a smirk on his face.

“Dammit Nick, no! I wasn’t ‘cuddling’ with her.”

“Was your arm around her?”

“So maybe I was cuddling with her a little bit!”

“That’s why. Look bro. She doesn’t know you. And have you noticed how every time she gets scared or nervous, she grips her necklace. The one with a silver heart shaped locket and two rings on it; two wedding rings.”

“No…”

“Bro, she was married before. That was the point I was making. And maybe it’s not you, but maybe she has trouble trusting people still.”

“I wonder what happened to him…” I found myself wondering. I knew that she was having trouble with her past but I hadn’t thought that she was married.

“I don’t know, that’s something you have to ask her. But, if you like her, that’s cool and all but do you really think it’s a good idea?”

“What do you mean, Nick?”

“You like her. I know you do, bro. But what if you two end up on the outs with each other? We’ve got a show to film. We’re all gonna be stuck together for at least a year.”

“I realize that, Nick.”

***Adrina’s POV***

“We are here-again-at Poveglia Island!” Zak announced as we road the boat into the island. I sat next to Aaron as he and Nick both filmed Zak’s intro. “We’ve revisited a lot of our most infamous locations, but we haven’t returned to Poveglia Island-not until tonight anyway. We have our newest investigator with us as well,” Both Nick and Aaron pointed their cameras on me. “Why don’t you introduce yourself to our viewers?”

“Hello, I’m Adrina McMurphy, I’m thirty-one and I have been investigating as a hobby for years.”

“Her friends believe her to be a ‘ghost magnet’,” Aaron said from behind his camera.

“Yeah, hopefully she can bring us some great evidence tonight,” Nick said.

I saw Zak motion with his hands and Nick and Aaron both shut off the cameras. “Okay guys, tonight I don’t want anybody alone. This place is huge and you remember last time it got crazy. If something bad happens I want whoever to walkie the other group. I don’t want to take any chances in this place.”

“We aren’t doing a walk though?” I asked. I didn’t have the correct time-I’d left my phone back at the hotel by mistake but I saw that it was getting dark. We had done our walk through a few hours earlier. “Adrina, I want you to stay by me for tonight, just so that you can get the hang of things…” Zak told me a moment later.

“Is that a good idea?” Aaron asked. “Man, last time you got possessed and went off on me.”

“I think she can handle it,” Nick said.

“I’ll have a walkie.” Of the three guys, I was probably closest to Zak, thus far. In other words, I trusted him the most and I knew that he was the one that looked out for the rest of the group most of the time. So, I thought that I’d feel pretty safe with him.

When the boat docked at the island Zak was the first to climb onto the higher dock. Nick climbed out after him while Aaron and I handed up all of the cameras and other equipment.

“Can I go and snap some pictures now, or do you need me?” I asked.

“We’ve got this. Why don’t you and Nick go? You remember how it’s set up, right?”

“Yeah,” Nick said.

***
The time had come for the lockdown to begin. I hadn’t reviewed any of the pictures I’d taken; I figured it would give me something to do later. Zak and Aaron had set up the night vision cameras all around the area and Zak and I were ready to begin. I pointed my night vision camera on him as he started an EVP session.

“Is there anybody here with us?” he asked in English then he said it again in Italian. The way the Italian words rolled off his tongue sounded so attractive, even I had to admit that.

“Oh my God,” I said. It had just become frozen where I was standing. “Zak, c’mere…” I pointed the camera at my arm to show the goosebumps. He looked at my arm and smiled wildly before he suddenly jumped up.

“Something just touched my back!” he exclaimed.

“Should we try the spirit box?” I asked, realizing that there was already paranormal activity going on here.

“Good idea,” he agreed. He pulled it out and turned it on. “Here, you do it, trade me,” we switched objects and he took the camera.

“My name is Adrina, and this is Zak,” I thought it best to not take the taunting approach, to try and speak nice instead. “Is there somebody here?” I asked. The spirit box continued to be static. “Did one of you touch Zak’s back?”

“Zak…” A male voice said.

“Whoa!”

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “Can you touch me? Show me that you’re here?”

“No. Woman…”

“Did that just say woman?” he asked.

“I think so!” I replied.

“You can’t touch me because I’m a woman?” I asked.

“No.”

“It’s okay, just don’t hurt me,” I replied. Silence. “Are you still here? What’s your name?”

“Antonio.”

“It’s nice to meet you Antonio.” Zak was silently filming, allowing me this.

“Goodbye.”

“Don’t leave Antonio.”

“Run away.”

“Zak…He just told us to run away…Should we?”

***Zak’s POV***

“My need to keep us both safe told me to flee, but as an investigator, I knew that my job was to stay. “No, just keep the session going.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “Is there anybody else here?” she asked. I had to admit, she was doing pretty well so far. “Where are you?” she asked suddenly. When I didn’t respond, thinking she was speaking to a spirit. “Zak, where are you?”

“I’m in front of you,” I reached out and touched her outstretched hand.

“It feels like there’s someone breathing on my neck,” she said. Before I could react, the spirit box shut off. I cursed under my breath and pulled out the PX device and switched it on.

“How’s that possible?” I asked her. Her long dark hair was down.

“I-I don’t kn-”

“Widow,” the box said. We both looked down at it. “Adrina.”

“You think you’re scaring me?” she shouted. “So you know that! So does everybody in my home town. Come out here and fucking touch me you coward!” She was shouting. Tears falling down her cheeks. “You’re nothing but a-” she dropped the tape recorder she was holding and had to squat to her knees as she gripped her side.

“Adrina!” I set my camera down quickly and went to touch her face to hopefully help her in some way. But when she looked at me-I had turned my flashlight on-her eyes weren’t her own.

“Don’t fucking touch me! Who the hell do you think you are!?” She shoved my chest roughly. “Get the fuck out of here!”

“Adrina, you have to relax,” I told her calmly. I knew what was happening. She was being possessed…Just as I had been.

“Don’t tell me to fucking relax! Who do you think you are!?” I took her shoulders in my hands and tried to get her to look at me, but she pushed me even more roughly before stomping off.

“Shit,” I cursed. I picked up the camera and followed her. “Nick, Aaron. We need you in the main area,” I said into the walkie.

“Yo, Zak what’s wrong?” Nick asked.

“It’s Adrina. She’s being fucking possessed or something. Just hurry.” I followed the path she took and stopped when I heard crying. I turned in the direction of that, feeling as if it were her. By now, I had my flashlight on. I was breaking my own rules, but this was an emergency. I found her on the floor curled up into a ball. “Adrina,” I said softly. She looked up right away.

“Oh my God, Zak! What have I done?” she looked up at me sadly. “I scratched the side of your neck…” she touched where my collar bone met my neck. “I’m so sorry, I mean to I-”

“Shh,” I commanded and pulled her into a hug. She sobbed roughly against my chest.

“Ow!” she hissed and pulled away. “Zak my back burns…” she said, already pulling at the back of her shirt.

“Zak!” Aaron’s voice called.

“In here,” I called back. “Turn around,” I told her. She did as commanded and I pulled the back of her shirt up. I knew what I was going to see, I just didn’t know where or how long the scratches out be. I shone my flashlight on her back and saw them right down the middle of her spine. Three bright red scratches. I hadn’t realized that I had gasped until she turned around and looked at me worried. “They’re scratches.” I wouldn’t lie to her. “Do you still have your camera?” She nodded and pulled it from her jeans’ pocket. I backed up a little and snapped a picture before handing her the camera. She stood right away.

“No fucking way! I’ve never had this happen…” Nick and Aaron came running in a moment later.

“What the fuck happened to you guys?” Nick asked.

“Look,” she held the camera out to them.

“Do you remember anything that happened?”

“I remember the PX box speaking…saying things that I don’t know how it knew…Um, then I yelled at the thing making it talk and then it goes blank…I just know that I did hurt you. Oh my God, I’m so tired,” she said, squatting back to the ground.

“Dude, they always attack you,” Aaron said to me. “Why not now?”

“I’ve never had anything dark like this come after me,” she admitted, running her fingers through her hair.

“So how exactly did things happen?” Aaron asked.

“Go ahead. Please. I’d like to know myself,” she said.

“Okay, so we were standing there and we were getting great responses from the spirit box. A guy that seemed friendly enough, well anyway, it tells us to run away. And then, it goes away but we continue anyway. All of a sudden she asks me where I am, and I’m filming-she was running the thing-and then she tells me that something’s breathing on her neck! So the spirit box shuts off completely and I pull out the PX device. The first thing says ‘widow’ right before it says her name.”

“My husband died. How the hell would that thing know anything about it? They died in America, this is Italy!” She exclaimed, standing. I noticed how wobbly she was and I went to stand by her.

“After that, her eyes changed. They were so dark all of a sudden-I could even see them with the night vision on. And she started shouting and pushed me two different times, cussing, and then she ran in here and I found her crying.”

“Wait, do you have the recorder still going?” Adrina asked, gripping my arm.

“Shit,” I cursed, I pulled it out and sure enough it was still on. “Yeah, I do.”

***Adrina’s POV***

I couldn’t help but think about how hot water was one of the most cleansing thing ever…Other than holy water…Which I had already experienced that today. I felt sick and completely drained. I could hardly think and I was tired of it! Last night was by far the most horrific experience I’ve ever had with a spiritual entity-let alone a dark one. Usually I attracted the light entities, the good ones…but this was something completely different. In the past few hours I felt like I was being watched-constantly.
Honestly, I was glad that Zak hadn’t left me alone after that…This was the longest I’d been alone. And our flight back to the states was in a few hours. I hoped that Bobby Mackey’s wasn’t next. I couldn’t go through this again. That place was one of their scariest lockdowns and known as the door to hell. If I got possessed and attacked in Poveglia Island…I couldn’t imagine what was going to happen to me there…

I sighed and exited the shower before dressing and walking back into the hotel room. Zak was lying on the bed with my candy apple red camera. “Have you looked at these?” he asked. He had his black framed glasses on. We hadn’t talked about my late husband yet. I knew that it would come; I just hoped it was later rather than sooner.

“No. I thought I’d wait. Maybe do that on the plane…Why?” I asked.

“C’mere,” was all he said. I took a deep breath and listened. I was truly worried. I crawled into bed beside him and looked at the camera with him. “Most of these don’t have anything…But this one…I think this might be what attacked you,” he brought it to the photograph of where we were standing while doing the EVPs and the PX device.

“Oh my God…” I certainly hadn’t seen that when I took the photo. It was a clear face with bright red eyes. It was similar to what had been in the picture with Nick at Bobby Mackey’s the first time. I shivered and looked away. “Is it in the second picture?” I asked. I had rapidly taken two pictures per room.

“No.”

“Of course not…Zak, this was scary. I’ll be honest. Maybe I’m not cut out for this job. Maybe it should just be you, Nick, and Aaron. Y’all can handle yourselves.”

“Adrina, it was your first lock down. I’d be lying if I said that none of us were scared. We were terrified of the little noises. You were attacked by one with minimal breakdown. I count that as a win.”

“I don’t know…”