A/N: Here's the next chapter.

Please read, review and enjoy!


Chapter Two


Off Camera

10:58 am, Tuesday, Unspecified date

The Ghost Adventures Crew was enjoying their food. Aaron actually seemed to really like the fry sauce. When Nick tried to steal some off his plate with one of his own fries, Aaron slapped his hand away.

"You didn't want the fry sauce, so you miss out, buckaroo," he said, chomping down a fry covered in the pink sauce.

"How can you guys eat burgers so early in the day? It's still breakfast time," asked Zak. "This scone is amazing." Now he could see why they were so famous.

"Guess we're just weirdos, Zak," retorted Nick with a mouthful of burger.

"Yeah, that's why we hunt ghosts," added Aaron, raising a fry in the air that was coated with fry sauce like it was the Excalibur.


Sandra came back when they were almost finished and pulled out her notepad again. "Would you guys like any dessert? We have a beautiful raspberry pie that the chef just pulled out of the oven."

They all shook their heads, groaning at how full they already were. "Thank you so much, though, it was all very delicious," Nick said, patting Aaron's belly, which he was intentionally pudging out to look super huge.

She nodded at them, then tore off their check, putting it in the middle of the table. "Good luck on the ghost hunt, gentlemen."

Zak pulled out his wallet. "Uh, do you take credit cards? The show's kinda supposed to pay for where we sleep and eat."

Sandra shook her head. "No, sorry. But we do have an ATM at the bank down the street. Not sure if that thing works anymore, though. You could try it."

Zak stood. "Alright, I'll go take care of that. You guys just sit tight here, okay?" Nick and Aaron gave him thumbs up. As if they'd be able to move right now.

As Zak was walking out, another woman dressed exactly like Sandra walked in. "Hey, Sandy, ready to switch ou'? Don' wanna be late."

Sandra nodded, saying, "Thanks, Mindy. I almost lost track of time. We actually had customers today." She walked up to Mindy and put a hand on her shoulder. "Watch them, okay? They haven't paid yet, but their friend's going to the ATM. He should be right back." Mindy gave her a nod, then Sandra was on her way out.

Zak was waiting for her outside. "You just change out shifts whenever around here?"

Sandra looked at him, surprised to see him standing there. "Oh, well this is when I go pick up my daughter from her grandma's. That's where she stays when I work nights."

"Oh, you have a daughter." For some reason unknown to himself, Zak felt almost downhearted to think that she was probably married with children. "Does your husband work nights, too?"

Sandra laughed a little. "Well, he might, but I don't know where. My husband walked out on me when he found out I was pregnant."

Zak's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude."

Sandra shook a hand, waving it away. "It's okay, really. It doesn't bother me anymore. We're better off."

He smiled slightly at her, then he was quiet, thinking of what to say. "Uh, well, hey, I don't really know where the bank is. Is it on the way to your mom's house? Maybe you could show me where it is? -The bank, not your mom's house, I mean."

Sandra nodded. "Yeah, I'd be glad to. We don't get many new people around here." She started walking and Zak walked with her. "So, do you have a name, or do I just need to call you black boots all the time?"

Zak smiled at her. "Well, as much as I like you calling me that, no, I do have a name. I'm Zak Bagans."

"Like Bilbo Baggins?" Sandra asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Zak laughed. "Yeah, I'm a regular Hobbit. Sorry, I just didn't expect you to know that movie."

"Why would you think that?"

He laughed again, nervously this time. "Well, I wasn't sure if you guys even had TV out here. I haven't seen one since I got here. There wasn't a TV in any of our hotel rooms."

Sandra smiled a little. "We don't have any. But I've read the book. Do you know what books are? Or do you only have TV where you're from?"

Zak laughed again, and Sandra laughed a little too, although she tried to hide it by covering her mouth with one hand. He really liked the sound of her laugh. It sounded really nice, almost carefree. Sandra seemed like she had too many stresses to be carefree, though. It must be hard being a single mother.

Sandra pointed at the bank when it was in sight. "It's over there. The ATM is inside. Hopefully it still works. I hope you have back up cash."

Zak nodded a little. "Yeah, I really don't mind paying with my own money, it's just that I'm not supposed to do that. Part of how they pay us is buying our food and paying for our hotel rooms and gas."

"I understand," Sandra replied. She looked down at the ground, kicking up a little dust with her left foot, not really knowing what to say.

Zak broke the silence between them. "Hey, umm, do you think maybe later we could ask you a few questions on camera about Marley's Hotel? That's where we're doing our lockdown, and we like to get testimonies from townspeople. And since you're one of the only townspeople I've seen, it'd be nice if we could get you on record."

Sandra thought about it and nodded. "Okay. I'm not sure if I'll be able to tell you much. My mom might be able to, though. She knows more about this place than I do."

Zak smiled kind of big. "Great, that'd be nice. Okay, well I gotta go pay for our food. Umm, I guess I'll meet you back at the diner?"

Sandra nodded. "Sure. I'll see you there soon." She gave him a parting smile, then walked a different way.

Zak watched her for a bit, then remembered what he was supposed to be doing and made his way to the bank. Thankfully, the ATM was still in working condition, but it took a really long time. Zak had never seen anything like it. This must've been one of the first ATM's ever made or something. "This place is older than I thought."

After getting his money, Zak walked back to the diner. He still didn't see anyone out on the streets, and it spooked him a bit. He'd never done a lock down in a place this deserted before. He hoped they'd be able to find enough people for good testimonies. Maybe Margery knew something about Marley's Hotel.


Aaron and Nick looked like they were going to die of boredom by the time Zak returned. Aaron groaned as he sat up. "Dude, where have you been? That took you forever."

Zak cocked an eyebrow at him. "I couldn't have been gone for more than 15 minutes. The ATM is prehistoric. It took me a while to operate it."

Aaron knocked the straw off Nick's nose that he'd been balancing for almost nine minutes. "Come on, Houdini, time to get out of here."

Nick raised his hands in the air like 'what the heck'? "I'm pretty sure Houdini didn't balance stuff on his nose." He stood and pushed in his chair, wooden legs screeching against wooden floor boards.

Aaron shook his head in an attempt to get the ringing out of his ears as he picked up his camera. "Can we start filming now?"


On Camera

11:24 am, Tuesday, Unspecified date

Aaron took different shots of the old, wooden buildings that sat almost wall-to-wall stretching down the roads. "This place is just like the old Western movies. Sweet." He pointed the camera at Zak.

"So far, we haven't seen many residents of the town of Sticks. We've seen Margery, the manager of the hotel we're staying at, Sandra and Mindy, who are waitresses at the diner here, and the old man who works at the bank." He smiled. "Let's hope they've all got some really compelling ghost stories."

They walked around town, looking in different shops and asking the people who worked in the ones that weren't abandoned if they'd seen any ghost activity. Most of them had the same story: that they'd never actually stayed at Marley's Hotel, but they'd heard of people being touched and pinched, and that sometimes objects would be moved. Some even said that they'd been told stories of Marley's Hotel by their parents growing up.

After interviewing a few people, they headed back to the diner, where Sandra was sitting at a table inside. She had changed out of her uniform into a yellow sundress and let her hair down. She kept the cowboy boots, though, and somehow Zak found that charming. With her was a little girl who looked to be about four years old. She had brown hair in pigtail braids and little overalls and a white t-shirt. She was running around, pretending to ride a pony.

Zak smiled at them. "Hello again."

The little girl looked at him, and stopped her "pony," pulling on it's imaginary reins. "Woah, woah horsey."

Sandra stood, taking her daughter's hand in her own. "This is Alice. Alice, this is Zak and his friends, uh…" She had never learned the names of the rest of the crew.

Nick gave a smile and a small wave. "Hi, Alice, I'm Nick. And this is Aaron. He's the goofy one." Aaron gave a big, goofy wave to confirm his status.

Alice smiled. "Hi. I'm Alice." She waved, then noticed Zak's boots. "I like your boots, Mr. Zak."

Zak chuckled and kneeled down on one knee. "Thank you, Alice. I like your pony."

Alice petted the mane of her invisible pony. "His name is Rusty. He's getting pretty old, so I can't ride him as much as I used to."

Zak pretended to pet Rusty too. "But old horses are the best."

Alice giggled. "That's not Rusty. Rusty's over here!"

"Oh, here?"

"No! Here!" She giggled more, and Sandra smiled. Alice wasn't usually this friendly with strangers. Aaron elbowed Nick and made shiny eyes at him, and they both tried hard not to laugh.

Zak stood back up and asked, "Well, Sandra, Miss Alice, can we go outside so we can ask you guys a few questions on camera?"

Sandra looked down at Alice, then back at Zak and nodded. "Okay."

They went outside, and Aaron raised up his camera, which he'd kept to his side this whole time and pretended it had been turned off. Nick handed Sandra a mic, and he and Aaron gave each other raised eyebrow looks when Zak offered to help Sandra put it on. When they were ready to shoot, Zak and Sandra were both in frame so he could ask her some questions.

"Okay, we're here talking to Sandra, a new friend we've made here in Sticks." Sandra waved a little at the camera and Zak smiled. "So, Sandra, have you ever been in Marley's Hotel before?"

Sandra pursed her lips. "Umm, no, well, I've never stayed the night there before, but my friend Mindy works there part time when she's not here working at the diner. She's told me before that one night, a tenant got so scared that they just left, because they couldn't stay there until morning."

"Wow, so then it's gotta be pretty extreme there, huh?"

Sandra nodded. "Yeah I guess. That's why I never really go in there. The last time I was there, it felt really creepy, like I had to get out." Aaron angled the camera down at Alice, who was making a small mound in the dirt. "I've got a kid, and I wouldn't want to take her anywhere that bad."

Zak whistled. "So it's really, really extreme if it made you feel that way. I've gotta see this. Do you think we should go talk to Mindy?"

Sandra nodded. "Yeah, if you're going to talk to anyone, you definitely need to talk to her."

Sandra went inside the diner and convinced Mindy to come out and talk to Zak. She really acted like she didn't want to say anything. Aaron handed her a mic and told her how to put it on, and once it was operational, Zak asked if she thought Marley's Hotel was haunted. "Yeah, the place is defini'ely haun'ed, no question."

"What kinds of things have you experienced there? We heard from some people that people who stay there get pinched. Have you ever been pinched?"

Mindy nodded. "Of course. On the arm, the butt. There are some weird ghos's there." Aaron laughed a little, and she gave him the evil eye. "One morning', after a tenan' left, I was makin' their bed back up, and I went over to the dresser to make sure they hadn' left anything' in the drawers, and when I turned around, the sheets were messed up again. It scared the eva-livin' outta me."

Zak looked at the camera with a bit of shock, then back at Mindy again. "So, wait, you're telling me that you had your back turned for maybe a minute-"

"Like 30 seconds."

"30 seconds? …Wow. And when you turned around, the sheets were messed up again?"

Mindy nodded. "Like someone had already slep' in it again."

Zak was just so amazed. "Wow. So uh, who else do you think we should talk to?"

Mindy crossed her arms as she thought. "Well, you defini'ely wanna talk to the owner of Marley's Hotel, Ms. James. She'll tell you plen'y. And the banker, Chuck, he's pre'y old. He probably knows some good stories."

"Thank you Mindy, you've helped a lot," Zak said, shaking her hand. With that, she went back inside, and Zak turned to Sandra. "Now, I know you said earlier that we should probably talk to your mom, because she's lived here a long time."

Sandra nodded. "Yeah, we can go talk to her right now if you want. On the way back, we can talk to Chuck. He likes me, so he'll probably tell you more if I'm with you."

Zak smiled. "I like the sound of all that. Alright, let's go talk to your mom."

Aaron and Nick laughed a little. "She's already taking him to meet her parents…" "Yeah it must be getting serious…"


A/N: Okay, hope you guys liked this chapter. I know, I'm starting kinda slow, but I want to include a lot of stuff. All reviews are appreciated, unless you're telling me that I suck. That's just mean. But tell me what you think of the story so far.

This chapter was written while listening to:

"Bluebird" "Arms" and "A Thousand Years" all by Christina Perri.