EPOV
We all were in the living room, discussing our next move, when Emmett decided we all needed a break from talking, so he turned on the TV to the Travel Channel. It was 9:00 at night so a new episode of something was bound to be on. The screen flickered to life just in time for the intro of a show. Creepy music played and we were shocked to see who was on the screen. After fifteen years, I saw her again. She was walking down steps with a guy. His voice played in the background.
"My name is Zak Bagans. I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one. So I set out on a quest to capture what I once saw on videos. With no big camera crew following us around, I am joined only by my fellow investigators Nick Groff and Bella Swan, and our equipment tech Aaron Goodwin. The four of us will travel to some of the most highly active paranormal locations where we will spend an entire night, locked down, from dusk till dawn. Raw, extreme. These are our ghost adventures." During all of this, clips were shown of different episodes where they heard, saw, and felt things paranormal. It went black then flipped to a progressive commercial. Our family just stared at the screen. After about three seconds the silence imploded.
"What was that?"
"But…what…how?"
"Bella? But how?"
"Why was she hunting ghosts?"
"Did anyone else notice how close she and that Zak dude were a lot?" Rose asked. I stopped and looked at her.
"What do you mean?" I asked her. She shrugged.
"I just mean they looked kind of, intimate, at times. You know?" I sighed and didn't respond. The creepy music played, and then a lighter tune was played. Though it had a creepy undertone to it. The screen flashed a picture of a creepy baby doll, and then showed the sign ghost adventures. It showed the four of them sitting in a room.
"Hi, I'm Bella. This is Zak, Nick, and Aaron from the Ghost Adventures crew and for the next hour we're going to take you on an inside look to some of our most terrifying encounters we've had doing our lockdown investigations." Zak took over for her.
"Including….Aaron wetting his pants on a few occasions!" Bella and Nick laughed while Aaron smiled and replied.
"Technically, I have never wet my pants on a lockdown." Bella rubbed her hands together.
"Bulls**t." Our eyes widened at her use of language. Zak smiled and wrapped his arm around her waist. I growled furiously.
"Edward, stop. You let her go fifteen years ago. Now you can pay the price of leaving her by seeing her content with someone else." Alice said to me. I glared at her. Somewhere in my mind, I was vaguely aware that someone had paused the show.
"Alice, I can't be happy knowing that she hunts ghosts for a living!" She rolled her eyes and motioned for the show to resume playing. Esme hit the play button. Zak started speaking.
"Over the last couple years, we've had a lot of intense and memorable lockdowns. The one in particular that jumps out right in front." He looked at Nick. Nick nodded.
"Yeah. The first one would be Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, Kentucky." Bella and the others nodded.
"Without a doubt." She said to him. "I mean this place is called Hell's Gate." Zak took over.
"Every time we've been there, we've had stuff follow us home. We've been attacked. Someone's gotten hurt, someone's gotten scratched." Bella took over again.
"This place is-is absolutely insane. It's so demonic. "
"We like that though." Nick added. Zak nodded.
"Yes, we do." It showed a flashback of the well.
"So this is what they call Hell's gate." Zak said. Bella's voice came through.
"Guys we're at the well, that Carl, the old maintenance guy discovered one day and found a piece of a human skull."
"Is there anybody here?" Zak called out. "If this is a portal to Hell, if this is the portal to Hell, well why don't you came up out of that ground and come and get us?" The image panned over to Nick.
"Is anybody here with me?" He asked. "Guys I'm going to try to make contact here." Zak rubbed his back.
"Dude I'm getting this bad burning sensation on my back." Bella's head shot up from the voice recorder she was looking at.
"What?" she asked.
"Like its burning. Like my whole back is burning." She walked over. As did Nick and Aaron (he stayed kind of far away so he could video tape it all.)
"Come here, Come here." She said. "I can't see it. Turn, turn." Zak added in again.
"I just don't feel good guys."
"Are you alright?"
"No. NO. I just, I don't feel good. I feel dizzy, I feel burning right here." He pointed towards the middle of his back.
"Pull your shirt up." Aaron's voice floated through.
"It's like burning. Is there anything right here?" He pulled his shirt up."No?"
"Oh my God!" Aaron said.
"What?" Zak asked.
"Turn around! Turn around! Turn around!"
"What?" He asked again.
"Just stay there. I need to document this." Aaron said.
"What do you see?" Zak asked "What is it?"
"Stay there. Turn off night vision. I need to take a picture of this." Bella said.
"What the f**k is it? Is it bites?"
"Stay there, stay there. Hold still." Nick said. Bella took a picture and handed it to Zak.
"Hold f**K! What the f**k, dude? Are you serious?" He looked at the picture, his face a mask of shock.
"It looks like a long scratch."
"Here, turn back around. We should get this on the, on the, night vision." Nick said. Zak pulled his shirt up. You could hear Aaron say in the background "Dude". Bella cupped her hands around Zak's face and whispered.
"You ok?" She looked at him in the eyes. He nodded.
"Yeah." He whispered back. She smiled slightly and pecked him on the lips.
"Was anything there?" Nick asked. Zak answered.
"No! I was just standing right here? Was anything there?" Bella asked Aaron.
"Aaron you got that?" The camera zoomed in to show in clear detail three long scratches curving down Zak's back. There was a chorus of "Dudes" and "You got that?" s.
"No man, I just want to. I want to get outta here. S**t, just f**k man." Zak said. Bella got in his way.
"We can't just leave! Go sit over there or something, ok? Just calm down!" Zak almost walked out, but cussed then stormed back in.
"WHO THE F**K DID THAT? HUH? DID SOMENOE JUST SCRATCH ME?" his voice was breaking in shock, panic, and anger. "WHO SCRATCHED ME?"
"It's not just the well that's haunted. It's the whole place. I'm in the bathroom and all of a sudden the bathroom just starts shaking. And the cameras weren't even rolling!" Nick said. Zak and Aaron nodded.
"We were taking a break." Zak muttered. Nick nodded furiously.
"We were taking a break! Bella was outside looking over some tapes. I mean, she might've come in if it was just Zak in there, but…" Nick said. Bella blushed scarlet while Zak slapped his arm.
"My name is Zak; I got Nick, Aaron and Bella in here. And you know what? We don't fear you or any of you." It showed nick, he was doing some deep breathing.
"I went to take a piss and I heard this f**king banging on the wall like something wanted me out of there, twice!"
"I heard it dude." Aaron said.
"Shut up. Come here. That scared the s**t out of me. I still got to button my fly up."
"Ewww." Bella said.
"That was f**king loud." Zak said while at the same time Nick was yelling down the hall.
"Was that you that made the noise? Go ahead and do it again! Go ahead! You don't want me in this bathroom? Bang on it again! Oh my god that scared the s**t out of me."
"That scared me to bro, I'm shaking right now." Zak said.
"Alright so I walk in here and go to take a piss and all a sudden I just hear… do you want to hear how loud it was?"
"I heard you scream, it was loud." Zak said to Nick.
"It was like" he banged the wall. "No! Not even like that!" he banged something else "no! What the f**k?" He started running out. Zak and Bella stopped him, saying things like "We can't stop now!" and "this is too important!" Nick yelled back to the room. "GO AHEAD! DO IT AGAIN!"
"We aren't running from you!" Bella yelled.
"Who did this? Come on! Do it!" Nick spread his arms out, as if expecting to be attacked
"Did you go piss by yourself again?" Bella asked Nick while the others were laughing. "Or did you go with a buddy?"
"No he asked me to go with him!" Aaron said.
"No I didn't! The first time I was like 'ok, I'm going to the bathroom you guys, just to let you know. If any of you get hurt let me know." Nick said.
"After we left Bobby Mackey's, we had stuff happen in our own homes. Where we are supposed to be safe." Zak said. Bella nodded.
"It was in our own apartment, our home. We could hear pots and pans rattling, doors slamming. On the night Zak proposed, I hear something say 'But you're mine to take.' It was scary as f**k. We actually went up to Washington, and lived with my dad for a while to get away from it. It was terrifying to know that it followed us from Kentucky to Las Vegas." Bella said.
It flashed to a commercial. We all stared at the TV with different expressions on our faces. Carlisle looked intrigued. Esme looked concerned. Emmett looked overjoyed. Alice looked shocked. Rosalie looked jealous. Jasper had a combination of all of the expressions in his face, plus confusion and heartbroken. I'm guessing the confusion came from all the different emotions flowing though him, and the heartbroken-ness came from me.
"She's engaged." I murmured. Esme snapped out of it and hugged me.
"Oh, Edward! I'm so sorry!" she whispered in my ear.
"It's okay, she moved on. I'm fine. It's not like she would ever take me back anyway. She's 33 and has mister perfect famous ghost hunter guy who spells his name without a "c"." I sighed. "I'm going hunting. Record the show so I can watch it."