Ch. I: The Ghosts of Poe
T. J.: I know what you're probably thinking. "Why are they working on this story instead of 'A Day in the Life of the Organization'?" The answer is the fact that we were busy. And this story came to mind weeks ago, when we were watching "Ghost Adventures".
F.K.: Yep, and we just couldn't resist writing the story out.
T. J.: Yeah, so please forgive us. We are working on Part 2 of the Body Switching Potion, I promise. It's going to be funny.
F.K.: Yep, and we were working on it just this morning.
T. J.: School starts tomorrow, so updates will be kinda slow. I'm going to Middle School; my sis is going to High School. *Raises arms in a weak cheer* Yay.
F.K.: Yep. I'm going to die. I heard that High School gives you tons of homework and they don't cut you any slack.
T. J.: Let's cut this author's note short, shall we? Do we look like Zak, Nick or Aaron? Didn't think so. We only own Annabel and Stephanie. Nor do we own "Headless Waltz" or "Eldorado". They belong to their respective owners.
F.K.: Yep.
T. J.: Enjoy!
A girl giggled as she pushed against a door, making it stay shut.
If you could have seen the girl, but people rarely did, for she liked playing cat and mouse, she had black curly hair that brushed her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes shinned with merriment. She wore a black t-shirt that read "Voltaire" with dark blue jeans underneath.
"Having fun?" asked a voice.
She turned around to see another girl who looked older than the first girl. She had straight black hair that also reached down to touch her own shoulders and dark brown eyes. Her arms were crossed over a black short sleeved shirt. Her legs were clad in green-gray pants with pockets and bits of metal everywhere.
"C'mon, Stephanie. It's fun! Now, they have to ask nicely." She said, giving the other girl a big smile.
Stephanie rolled her eyes and sighed in annoyance, placing her hands on her hips. "Annabel, I know you would only open a door if they asked nicely, but I thought someone would've already told them by now that there are two ghosts haunting Eddy's home."
Annabel sighed, throwing her arms up in the air. "I thought they would have too, but nooo. They blame it on other things. It's time to take it to a new level, Steph."
Stephanie took her hands off of her hips, suddenly interested and curious as to what her sister has in mind. "Really? How do you want to do that?"
"Doing object manipulation. We can get it to spell 'Zak'."
"Huh, that's a good idea. Someone who knows about 'Ghost Adventures' would probably get it, and then they have to get Zak, Nick and Aaron. I'll go gather up the photos and Ed's stuff from upstairs, and you can probably pick pocket people for pens, pencils, money or something. I don't know, just use your imagination and snatch things from the visitors."
"Sounds good to me."
"This means you have to let the visitors in, Anna. You can't get stuff from them if you keep locking them out."
"Fine!"
"Good. Now, where do you think is a very good idea to place the objects? In Uncle Ed's room, the dining room, in Virginia's room—"
"Let's place them in Eddy's room," interrupted Annabel before her sister could go on a full rant of listing all of the different rooms in the house.
"Okay. Uncle Ed's room it is. I'll meet you there."
"'Kay. Time to go pick-pocketing." Annabel gave a wicked grin before walking through the door.
Annabel walked down to the entrance where visitors had gathered, some coming in, others going out. She reached into the pocket of a man, and came up with a pen, five dollars, and a paperclip. If anyone had noticed, it would have looked like a pen, five dollars, and a paperclip flying out of the pocket and out of the room.
Annabel quickly ran through the walls and up the stairs until she reached Eddy's room. Then, she walked to the bed, lifted the blanket and placed the items next to each other and covered them up with the blanket. Satisfied with her work, she walked down the stairs, whistling a melancholic tune to scare the visitors.
Meanwhile, Stephanie was busy with her own work.
She was in charge of gathering the photos that someone drew of the poem "The Raven" and gathering other objects of Poe's, but it's not so easy when visitors keep swarming in and out of the different rooms like ants. Often times she would succeed in getting something out of the room and underneath the blankets of the bed where Annabel hid her objects, but many of the people would just grab it out of her reach before she could even touch it.
Mortals with grubby, dirty hands, she thought. If I was still alive, this wouldn't be so hard. Man, I hate grubby little hands getting all over the place, getting everything dirty! Ugh! That's just disgusting!
After about a few minutes of the same routine of people grabbing things before she could, she grew impatient.
I really don't want to do this, she thought. But these people just leave me with no other choice. Time to make people believe that a poltergeist is haunting this place…
When a young boy, probably at the age of five, was about to grab something, some invisible force snatched it away from him. He stood there looking confused, not sure what just happened. He stood there watching the object float away into a different room, not knowing what to say.
More other visitors felt strange chills racing down their spines as they went into Edgar's room. Others find themselves losing things in the dining room mysteriously. The rare few would sometimes have trouble opening a door, and hear soft giggles or faint whispers on the other side of the locked door.
Just about all of the visitors that had experienced those things reported to the employees working there, often times getting confused looks of amusement, and having being told that it's just probably nothing. They soon grew uncomfortable when the reports of the same things kept repeating over and over to the visitors, making them believe that something's up.
…
"As above, so below, place your bets
Which way the head will roll." Annabel sang loudly as she paraded through the rooms, hoping to scare someone.
"Made in your image, we are at least
As twisted and mean as thee.
"'Fore your eyes, what a curious sight,
Your children have turned on you.
And you say, you don't sleep well at night." She hissed into a man's ear when she found him studying the portrait of Virginia.
"Well, we'll take care of that for you!" she giggled as he ran off to report the singing to the employees.
"Belle Marie Antoinette,
Love the pearls
They'll make a great tourniquet.
Never did as you should and you claim
It was all for our very own good.
'Twas a lie! A magnificent lie!
Now, your subjects have turned on you.
And you claim, you had lots on your mind,
Well, we'll take care of that for you!"
"Annabel, what are you doing?"
Annabel turned to face her sister, who had her hands on her hips again.
"What? I can't sing?" she asked.
"Not that! It's just, why are you singing?"
"Because I felt like it?"
Stephanie rolled her eyes and sighed. "You gotta give a better reason than that. Are you trying to scare the visitors again?"
"No!" Annabel put on a fake expression of shock. "Me, scare people? I would never!"
"Well you enjoyed scaring me and your friends when you were still alive."
"Death has a curious way of reshuffling one's priorities."
"Well, Jack Sparrow, if you're done scaring the visitors, let's go arrange those stuff into letters."
Annabel grinned. "Okay!"
…
"Hey, Stephanie?"
"What, Annabel?"
"Would Jeff even know of Ghost Adventures?"
"I don't know! Just arrange them."
Annabel sighed and got to work on the tedious task of arranging the letters to say "ZAK".
"Done." She announced when she finished.
"That fast?" her sister asked.
"Yeah. You people just assume I'm slow when I'm not."
"You are slow."
"Meh." Annabel made a gesture that looked like she wanted Stephanie gone.
"So… how many more hours till daylight again?" Stephanie asked.
"Uhh…" Annabel shot a glance out the window. "At least an hour."
"Okay. And the employees usually come here at dawn, right?"
"SIR, YES, SIR!"
Stephanie rolled her eyes. "We're not in the army! And you're not Flippy."
Annabel just gave her a grin. "Can I go now? We're done, right?"
"Yep. Although, you need to come back here, and lure the employees with your singing."
"I got it. One creepy song, coming right up." Annabel rubbed her hands together in anticipation.
"I'll keep a lookout. You go and do whatever you want to do."
Annabel saluted Stephanie then ran out of the room.
Stephanie facepalmed herself. "And she still acts like an army person." She muttered.
…
Sophie walked into the empty house. At least, people say it's empty. She was a total nonbeliever in ghosts, and blamed the doors not opening on rusted hinges. The singing on visitors. The minor attacks on people trying to get attention. But she wasn't prepared for what was coming towards her.
"Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight," sang a sad and hollow voice.
Sophie jumped and looked around to see if it's someone's idea of a joke.
"In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado."
The voice seemed to be going up the stairs, so Sophie followed it, hoping to find a person instead of nothing.
"But he grew old—
This knight so bold—
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado."
The voice was heading into the attic, Poe's room. Reluctantly, Sophie continued following.
"And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
'Shadow,' said he,
'Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?'
'Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,'
The shade replied,—
'If you seek for Eldorado!'"
The voice faded away as Sophie approached the bed. She looked around, to make sure that no one was going to jump at her, before continuing towards the bed.
Sitting on the blanket, was a three letter word made from torn pieces of paper. It read 'ZAK'.
"Zak?" Sophie murmured looking at the pieces of paper again. "Pfft. No way. It's just some prank."
She picked up the papers and turned around to leave, only to see another word spelled from torn pieces of paper.
'NICK' is what the other one read, but Sophie just picked them up as well and walked towards the door, dismissing her suspicions.
Taped on the front of the door, was the word 'AARON'. Sophie ripped them off and ran down the stairs, knowing her suspicions had been correct.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, there were pens arranged to spell 'ZAK NICK AARON' on the once empty floor.
She picked up the pens, and looked around. She had a theory about which Zak, Nick and Aaron the items spoke of, but wished it to be wrong.
Zak, Nick and Aaron were ghost hunters.