Hey! Sarasprinkles here. I hope you like my story! This is the updated version. Enjoy, review, and eat cookies!
"Dude, I had this dream about the Winchester mansion last night," Zak said, picking the salt bits off a pretzel, his feet up on the back of the couch. They were lounging in the main room, Mythbusters on the television. Nick tossed a ball to himself, his feet also up on the back of the couch. "What about," he asked, and Aaron nodded from behind his laptop.
"Yeah, what about? He said absently, his fingers flying. Zak crunched the pretzel between his teeth, and picked up another.
"Well, dere was this girl."
"Oh man. All your hooker dreams start out there was this girl." Nick said.
"No! No. She wasn't a hooker or anything. She was on an investigation with us, like a volunteer. And she was crying about something, and we're like 'oh we'll protect you' and everything, but then we left her alone in this room where floor was all rotted and falling apart, like Preston Castle, and when we went back, she was…"
He took a breath. "…she was dead, all mangled and scratched, and there was this scribbly writing on the wall, and it said this is all your fault Zachary Alexander." His eyes on the pretzel he was de-salting.
Aaron stopped typing. "Cheese and crackers man," he sighed. Nick nudged Zak in the ribs. "You need to stop being so overprotective of women, dude. You're gonna get yourself killed someday."
"So uh, yeah. The guys will be back in a while, so make yourself at home, do whatever, there's a bar in back, and there's a fridge and microwave in the kitchen…"
"Okay, thanks Mariah." I said as the lady left me. I dumped my stuff into the first chair I came by and stood in the entrance.
The first wall I came by there were posters and hundreds of pictures and sticky notes. They looked like notes of haunted places and pictures and little thank you notes and letters from previous investigations. There were papers everywhere on the table, empty glasses and soda cans, and candy wrappers amongst dirty dishes. There was a big leather couch was littered with throw pillows, wireless controllers and stray popcorn bits. I shook my head, and got up as I caught a glimpse of a huge flat screen stuck up on the wall.
"Boys," I sighed. I brushed some popcorn and set a half empty can of Coke on the side table next to the couch and dug for a while for a remote to the TV. Finally having found it, I flipped on the huge wide-screen TV and sure enough, Ghost Adventures was on.
It still hadn't hit me that I had the opportunity to be in a lockdown with them.
It was one of the most intense episodes, return to Bobby Mackey's. I remembered the first time I saw it, I was pissed that they put themselves in that kind of danger. Zak got so angry sometimes, yelling at the entities. I wondered how he really handled it. I spaced a little while watching, and I found my mind floating around Zak's arms. I giggled. He really did have cute arms.
Hell, I'll just admit it right now and not kid myself any longer. He was super hot. Even if he was more orange than an Oompa Loompa.
I heard the voices and footsteps coming down the hall, and I sat up just as the door opened.
The first one through the door was Nick. He was even cuter than he was on TV, his brown eyes were wide and smiling. Next up was Zak. He seemed to command the presence in the room. His eyes, deep, soulful, profound. He could tell a story just with his eyes. Aaron was last, but not least, the loveable big guy who always had some kind of technology with him. He had his laptop tucked under his arm and was checking his phone. They were so. Tall.
I waved from the couch.
"Hey. Wussup."
They stopped, all at once, they looked at me, they looked at the TV, then they looked at each other. They were probably thinking, 'who in the hell is this little girl on our couch? A crazy fan perhaps?
"Uhh, hi. Do we know you?" Zak asked, setting down a bag on the table. I got up from the couch, smiling.
"Oh, uh, yeah. My name's Deane, Deane Royale?" I explained. He nodded.
"Right! Deane. So, have you been waiting long?" Zak asked as Nick and Aaron tried to clear off the table a little. I shrugged. "A while, enough to watch a few episodes, but I was fine." I sat down in the chair they indicated at the table. Nick had disappeared into the other room, and I heard him singing to himself.
"Where have you guys been all day?" I asked, and Nick came around the corner in a t-shirt with a sandwich and said, "We've been at our place where we get new equipment. We got a few new static night vision cameras, a few new things, some new digital recorders."
"Awesome sauce." Aaron put his feet up on the table, still scrolling through his phone. "So, why do you want to join the crew on a lockdown?" Zak asked. I sat back in my chair.
"Do I need a reason? I love what you guys find, I love what you guys do." I answered. Zak nodded, "Sounds good to me." I shrugged, grinning. "And its…kind of fun to tick evil spirits off…my paranormal group thinks I'm insane. " Nick smiled.
"You sometimes need to piss off the entities in a place. You wouldn't get a response otherwise. And, how old are you anyways? 14? 16?" Zak said. "Yeah, I get that a lot. I'm 20 actually." Aaron, who had been sucking down a Coke, coughed.
"You're 21? Dude, you're tiny! Like, Bite-sized!" I rolled my eyes. I had enough of the short jokes from my family and friends, but new guys got passes. "I prefer 'Fun-size', but whatever floats your kayak." I tossed the paper airplane I had been folding, and it swirled around the room until it came to land in the fireplace. Zak whistled. Then:
"Do you really believe in ghosts, Deane?" I thought for a minute. "Well, I like to think I do. I have a small group I started with my high school friends, Mohawk Paranormal, and we investigate people's houses and local areas, but we've never really gotten anything good. Just a couple knocks, crappy EVPs and an orb or two."
We hung out for the rest of the day, playing video games, in which I whooped their asses in Mariokart. Elbow to elbow, like siblings, we jabbed each other in the ribs and poked each other to try and get ahead of each other. I maneuvered easily around Nick's Mii, swerving erratically on a motorcycle, and dove down over the bank, following Zak.
"HaHA!" I crossed the digital finish-line seconds before Zak, Aaron a close third, and Nick…well, Nick rolled in a respectable 9th. We somehow transitioned to arm-wrestling, which, after much struggle, I beat Nick, and barely Aaron, but not Zak.
"Damn," I cursed, while he flexed his massive muscles. "Dude, how much do you work out?" He shrugged. "375," he said modestly, his face reddening a little. Was he embarrassed? AW!
They took me out to eat, under my protest for them to pay for me, at a slightly weird Asian restaurant, because Zak wanted to try something new. I was a little skeptical, because next to the Asian, the menu was written in remedial English and the people clearly knew only the sound of the words.
Aaron and I had a frozen-juice-smoothie-thing drinking contest, ending in Aaron clutching his head, crying, "Brain freeze! Ahhhh!" I just kept sucking mine down, unfazed. Having two younger sisters who liked to contest my prowess gave me a lot of practice.
Later that week, we boarded a plane, and flew overnight to California. When we were standing in the line to get our bags checked, I was getting a little nervous. This would be the first time I had ever flown in my entire life. I tried to concentrate on my music, plugged into one ear. We passed through the x-rays, the metal detectors and everything, and boarded the plane.
The guys were old hands at this, but I was freaking out inside. What was I supposed to do? Stand here? Someone needs to get by! Step back? NO, THERES A PERSON BEHIND YOU DUMBASS - cling to mother - MOTHER ISN'T HERE RIGHT NOW -was I supposed to sit down? No, your seats are over there! What do I do?
We were one of the few people in first class, the soft, cool air around us smelled like baby powder, and half the seats were in groups of four around little square tables. We had one of the table groups, and as Nick and Aaron stuffed their bags into the little compartments above the table, I stood a ways away, wondering how the Hell I was going to reach up that high. I frowned, and Zak patted my head infuriatingly.
"Want me to put that up there for you, Beans?" I scowled at him.
"Beans? Really?" He smiled as he pushed my bag into the compartment above our seats.
"Yeah. You need a nickname, and Beans just kinda rolls off the tongue, you know?" I rolled my eyes and sat down at the window seat left open. Nick and Aaron were already sitting on the other side, leaving me and Zak to sit together. I noticed Zak had a book tucked under his arm, I was surprised. He didn't strike me as the reading type.
"You read, dude? You don't seem like a reading guy. "
"Yeah dude. I like novels. Reminds me that we're not the only crazy-insane people in the world."
