Authors Note: So, first off I'd like to thanks all of those on here and on LJ who have been supporting my writing. I actually got alot of reviews last time I posted and let me tell you, it's great that you guys are enjoying the story (even though some of you haven't even watched GHI or GH before. It means alot to me that you'll still read them for me!) Okay, now I have a couple of readers who weren't familiar with GH or GHI, so for them I posted a special thing on my profile explaining the equipment used in the story and in GHI/GH. :) There is also a section on my website for it to, the only difference is that the one of my website has pictures of the equipment, so check them out if you want :) I'd love it if you did. Now, here is the first chapter of the investigation. I really liked writing this chapter so I hope you enjoy reading it :) No without further talking from me, here is chapter four!

- RIP.

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Run Don't Walk

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Hey Monday

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It's The Fear

Wicklow Gaol: Part 4 of 7

Mercedes POV

- Wicklow, Ireland 2009 -

The four of us slowly entered the pitch black jail with mini-DV's or flashlights in our hands, or in Barry's case, a full spectrum camera stand. As soon as we entered the jail, I was shocked. The jail seemed much creepier when it was pitch black. I hadn't been in something this dark in a while. It was pitch black and you really couldn't trust your eyes not to see things. You really did need your fellow investigators and flashlight to navigate around in the darkness. As we walked forward into the jail, I knew there was a camera following behind us and soon it would swivel around in front of us to capture our front sides instead of our backs the entire time.

I stiffened slightly at the thought. Dustin, who was beside me, noticed this and asked me about it, "The cameras?" he asked in a whisper that was barely audible to my ear.

I nodded quietly.

I felt him move closer to me as we walked. When the camera moved around to start filming some of the architecture like the ceilings and cells of the place, Dustin wrapped one of his arms around me. To say I was shocked was an understatement. I heard his deep voice very low in my ear, "Just relax." he breathed smoothly. "It's just a camera, no reason to freak out."

"I feel stupid," I whispered.

"Why?"

I replied, "I'm afraid of the cameras and I'm on a reality TV show."

Dustin chuckled, extra quietly in my ear. I felt his hot breath slide down my neck slightly and shivered. He must have taken it that I was cold or something because he tightened his arm slightly, "At least you aren't afraid of the ghosts or dark."

I didn't have the heart to tell him I really wasn't fond of the darkness.

"Just focus on the investigation and navigating through this place safely. I don't want you getting lost now." he said.

I nodded and when I did, he quietly took his arm away from my body. Suddenly, I felt cold wash all over me, especially where his arm had just been. It was as if I missed his body heat. I was going insane. I wasn't here to fawn all over Dustin, I was here to investigate the prison and impress Robb. Dustin would only distract me. Besides, I didn't even know the guy and obviously, maybe I had a tiny crush on him from watching the show, but that didn't mean that anything could actually happen now. I needed to just forget about him and focus on doing a good investigation.

"This place certainly does have a feeling to it, doesn't it?" Barry said as he looked around.

I nodded in reply but it was Dustin's voice that answered, "Definitely."

When we entered the main floor of the prison, the first thing I did was shine my mini-DV's light around, so that I could get a better view of the place. My eyes had gotten somewhat used to the dark and I was able to see a little clearer now than I had earlier, "This is incredible." I whispered.

"I know!" Aisha whispered back from right next to me.

I heard a throat clear and then I heard Dustin's voice, "Well, Barry how about you three stay here for a little bit. I want to check out solitary and it'll probably be better if someone goes alone. I'll come back up in a little bit." he said.

Barry replied, "Yeah, I can handle these two for now."

"Good luck to you," Dustin said as I heard his footsteps walking away.

Suddenly we heard noises coming from the upstairs floor, like someone messing or running around up there. We all froze and because I didn't hear any footsteps on the main floor, I assumed Dustin had either frozen as well or had already started downstairs.

"What was that, dude?" Dustin's voice echoed softly over to us.

'Well, I guess that answers my question,' I thought idly.

I shined my light, keeping it close to the floor and found Dustin was probably only ten feet away from us. He was staring at the three of us with wide eyes. Barry spoke finally, "It sounds like someone is upstairs…" he said.

The movements and footsteps continued so we followed the noises with our eyes and heads. I'm pretty sure I saw a camera man come right up to me but I was so focused on following the noises, that I barely noticed it.

"This is so weird," I whispered.

"Yeah it is." Barry replied quietly.

I tried to follow the noises with my mini-DV camera as best as I could. I really wanted to try and capture something if I could. I needed to stay focused. Barry stepped out from near the doorway and started over to where Dustin stood and started up at the upper floors. It was slightly comical watching the two of them. They moved their heads at the same time in the same direction. When I looked over at Aisha to point it out to her, she had the same expression on her face as I had when I was watching them so I figured that she must have noticed it to.

'Focus!' My mind hissed.

I turned my attention back to my mini-DV and started following the noises again. The camera man decided to take the opportunity to do a few interviews with each of us. Robb had explained early on that if something was to happen while the camera men were recording, they were take shots of us talking about our personal experiences. I found myself stuttering slightly through my interview but at least I made sense, so I was quite proud of myself.

"Dustin?" Barry finally addressed after all the interviews had been done.

"Yeah?"

"You can go ahead and start investigated the confinement cell. I think we'll be alright up here." Barry told him.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dustin nod and heard his foot steps as he made his way to the stairs. Part of me wanted to follow him for two reasons, one: I liked investigating with him so far and didn't really want him to leave us yet and two: the confinement cell sounded interesting.

I turned my eyes back to Barry just as he pulled out an EMF meter from his pocket and placed it on the ground. He then pulled out a wireless audio recorder and sat it up above one of the doors.

"Barry, Aisha and Mercedes. EVP Session on the first floor." He backed away slowly from the recorder and came to stand next to Aisha, who was already closest to him. "We mean you no harm whatsoever. We all understand that a lot of you are here from the 70th and 90th rebellion. You were fighting for Ireland. We understand what you are going through. We understand what you were up against when you were in this prison. Now we ask that you come to us. Please speak with us. We just want to talk." he said. Barry paused every once and a while between statements and questions, hoping to get a response but so far we hadn't got any but, we had the wireless audio on so there was always the chance we could catch an EVP.

Aisha spoke and when she did, she sounded a little upset, "Something feels, bad here. Like…" she trailed off. "I can't even describe it. It just feels horrible."

The floor was dark and seemed almost never-ending with prison doors, making the hallway seem even longer than what it actually was. The spiral staircase at the end was just barely visible to my eye because our lights couldn't reach that far away. I jumped slightly when I thought I saw something shift in the darkness. I blinked, thinking that my eyes were playing tricks on me but when I looked over towards the staircase at the end of the floor again, this time I gasped slightly. There was no denying it now. My eyes weren't playing tricks on me. Something was moving, and it wasn't Dustin because he had been gone for a long time. There at the end of the long black corridor, was a shadow figure that was moving.

"I think I just saw something…" I heard Barry mutter.

I turned to look at him, "By the staircase?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I saw it too." I replied quietly.

Barry started moving towards the staircase and Aisha and I followed him. As I started walking, I started feeling a pounding sensation in my ear. It was the kind that muffled the sound, especially when you were driving through places of high elevation. It felt…clogged.

"My ear feels kind of, clogged." I whispered.

Aisha looked at me, "Are you okay?" she asked.

I nodded, "I'm fine, it just, feels weird."

We kept walking for a few more meters. We were very disappointed when we reached the spiral staircase to find absolutely nothing there. There wasn't anything, no shadows, nothing. It hadn't taken us that long to make our way over to where we had seen the shadow, so whatever had been there had to have moved very fast because it was gone in literally a blink of an eye.

"Is there someone in here with us?" Aisha asked slowly. "Can you please talk with us?"

Barry must have heard something because he walked over to one of the prison cells and started to look inside of it. I started to follow him when I saw Aisha grab her chest slightly and a grimace appeared on her face. "Okay, I never really go by feelings but my chest really hurts right now." she whispered to me.

I heard Barry come up to us, he sounded concerned, "Your chest hurts?" he asked.

Aisha nodded, "Yes, it's almost has if it's really hard to breath."

Barry fumbled with his pockets and pulled out some sort of other high tech gadget, "We need to check the barometric pressure." he said. "When the barometric pressure is low, it can cause the spirits to become more active. It's then they are able to touch us…or push us." he said solemnly. "We use all sorts of weather stations and such to measure this pressure."

Barry placed the object on the floor and then crouched down to look at it closer. Aisha and I followed his movements, trying to look at the meter as well. We watched as he looked and messed with the gadget for a while before sighing softly, "The pressure if holding steady."

As soon as the words were from his mouth, a loud band sounded from down the hall. It was quickly followed by a few more bangs. Barry stood back up while Aisha and I still sat crouched on the ground. "Do you hear that?" Aisha whispered.

Barry nodded, "Do you think it's Dustin?" he asked.

Aisha and I both shrugged.

Barry looked like he was thinking about something before he finally said, "Mercedes, would you go down and find Dustin and ask him if he is making those noises, or at least if he hears them?" he asked me.

I nodded, "Sure."

I handed Aisha my mini-DV and she handed me her flashlight in return. I walked down the staircase that I had watched Dustin go down and walked down the hallway. I didn't have any camera men with me at the time. The camera man who had with us was still up on the main floor with Aisha and Barry. The flashlight Aisha had given me was really small, and didn't offer me much light at all. As I descended down the stairs, I found myself in a hallway. Assuming that the solitary cell was at the end of the empty hallway, I started down it.

I heard a few more bangs and taps but couldn't seem to figure out where they were coming from. Because I couldn't really see, the obscurity from the dark was completely disorienting for me. The sounds seemed to be coming from all around me and every time I turned to look in the way of the sound, I felt like I was going in the wrong direction. As if it was a maze and was trying it's hardest to confuse me. I decided to temporarily forget about the sounds and focus on getting through the hallway and to the solitary confinement cell to find Dustin. The gloom of the hallway seemed to consume me, it was as if the darkness was overcoming my small source of light that I had with me. It frightened me, as I really didn't like the dark.

Suddenly, my worst nightmare became true. My flashlight started flickering and went out completely on me. A small squeak of protest came from my mouth, but there wasn't anything else I could do about it. The air around me started getting really thick. The whole hallway seemed to be getting longer and longer, I couldn't see the end of it because it was so dark.

When I ran into something solid, I had to use every inch of my self control within me not to scream bloody murder. I was pretty frightened. I wasn't scared walking down the dark hallway, more like I was really creeped out. But, when I ran into a solid mass, I jumped and squealed in surprise. It wasn't loud, but whatever was in front of me heard me.

I jumped back a few feet to get away from what was in front of me. I couldn't speak so I couldn't figure out what it was. I now understood why it was usually advised now to investigate alone and to bring extra equipment. I knew that the odds of the thing in front of me being a ghost that would harm me was slim, but I couldn't rule out the possibility.

"Hello?" I heard a voice asked.

I nearly sighed in relief.

"Dustin?" I whispered.

I heard a large gust of air, "Mercedes?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied. I walked forward and ended up running into him again. I guess he was walking towards me when I had been walking towards his direction. I stumbled slightly, not expecting the impact at hitting him. I felt hands shoot out to steady me just as I reached out to catch myself. When they did, a pair of hands landed right on my hips while I grabbed on to a pair of shoulders.

I heard Dustin chuckle really close to my ear, "Mercedes, you freaked me out so bad. I had no idea what I had just run in to." he whispered. "Why are you walking around here alone and without a flashlight?" Dustin asked sternly, I didn't need to see his face to know he was frowning at me.

"Barry sent me down to find you. We were hearing noises and we needed to know if it was you or not. As for my flashlight, I have one," Since my hands were still lightly pressed on his shoulder, I used the hand that my flashlight was in and I touched his neck with it. "But it died on me." I explained. "What are you doing out here?" I asked him.

"I—I heard the noises to, I thought it was you guys upstairs. I was going to come ask Barry if it was you guys or not. I didn't even think about grabbing a flashlight." he said nervously.

"Oh," I said. I looked around and didn't see or sense anyone else was with us. "Where is your camera man?"

"Outside maybe, he shut off the cameras for a bit because it was messing up and he couldn't figure out why. He said he was going to go back outside to Robb and find out what happened to it and then do some interviews or something of that nature." Dustin explained.

The air around us cooled even more and the air of my neck stood up slightly. For some reason this deep sadness overwhelmed me and I felt unprotected, as if someone else was there with us—uninvited. I shivered and when I did, I felt Dustin's hands tighten on my waist slightly. I stepped closer to him until my chest was pressed against his. I heard his breath deepen. It was heavier, as if he was taking gasps of air more often. Was he as nervous and fearful right now as I was of an unseen presence? Or was he nervous about our close proximity to each other?

A loud bang sounded from behind us, it couldn't have been more than a few feet. When I heard a shuffling sound close after I jumped closer to Dustin, if it was even possible to be any closer. Normally I wouldn't be afraid of the unseen, but I was in a pitch dark prison without a source of light and the only other thing with me was Dustin.

"Did you hear that?" I breathed out, once again, barely audible.

I felt Dustin nod against my head. I hadn't realized that he had shuffled closer so that his head was right next to mine. We were so close and I couldn't figure out why and how it had happened. It was like we just kept pushing ourselves closer and closer together because of some magnetic form around us. Maybe it was because of the total darkness that a close proximity with another human being, no matter who they were, would make you feel safer. But what I didn't understand was why Dustin would be frightened. He had been part of GHI for over a year and part of TAPS for years before that. Why would he be afraid of the darkness that seemed to literally be alive and surrounding us? Wasn't he used to things like this happening?

"Is that your camera man?" I asked.

"I don't think so." Dustin replied. "Gavin?" He called out.

I guessed that he had called out the camera mans name. We were still to far away from the confinement cell for him to hear unless he was in the hallway with us. Obviously he wasn't or else he would have answered Dustin, which he didn't. There wasn't any possible way that it could have been the camera man anyways because the noises had been coming from behind me, which was the opposite direction that Dustin and Gavin had been.

I decided I needed to pull myself together and stop acting like a child about the entire situation. I took my hands away from Dustin's shoulders and brought them down to his hands, which still clung lightly to my waist. I put my hands lightly over his and pulled them away from my body and put them back at Dustin's side. Then, I slowly turned around, but still kept my proximity close. It was now my back that was straight against Dustin's chest. I could here his chest pounding and felt him take a large breath of air.

"Who's there?" I asked in a shaky whisper. "Are you trying to get our attention?"

Dustin seemed to follow my lead, "Is there someone else out here with us tonight?"

When we got no answer I took a couple steps closer in the direction that I had heard the shuffling. I felt an extreme coldness at my back and realized that my body was reacting to not being pressed up against Dustin. I wasn't retaining someone else's body heat now. For the first time that entire night, I finally realized how cold the prison was and wished that I had brought another jacket. The prison was practically freezing. I felt myself shivering slightly. I wasn't sure if it was from the cool air or from my nerves. I had a long sleeved t-shirt under my magenta sweater with a lightweight peacoat jacket over that. The other guys had large, heavy jackets on them while Aisha and I had our flimsy jackets. It was probably going to be a mistake that we didn't make again. But then again, they say that you always learn from your mistakes.

"I really wish my flashlight hadn't died on me," I muttered.

"I can go get one?" Dustin replied.

I nodded but then realized that he couldn't see me, it was too dark. "Okay."

I didn't really want Dustin to leave me alone in the dark corridor but I figured that he wouldn't be gone that long, so I really didn't have anything to worry about. I kept telling myself that spirits rarely actually hurt people. The incident with Dustin at Leap Castle had been a rare case, plus he had been provoking. I wasn't provoking anything. I was trying to be calm and polite with the spirit, or whatever it was that was in the passageway with me.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around my body. "Can you please show me a sign that lets me know that you are here?"

Out of no where, my neck started to feel really cold, as if someone was breathing on it. "Dustin, don't do that." I whispered. When I didn't hear an answer right away, I turned around, expecting it to be Dustin. But I was shocked to see that there was nothing behind me and the only light in the hallway was coming from nearly thirty feet away from me and it was gradually getting closer to me. I knew that the light source was Dustin and he wasn't anywhere near me.

'So what was just breathing down my neck?' I wondered.

When Dustin finally reached me, he had two lights. One was a flashlight and the other was a mini-DV. "I figured we could try and catch something—like work with EVP's or something." he told me, handing me one of the flashlights.

"But, Barry and Aisha are waiting for us on the main floor." I told him. "If I don't come back, they might think something happened." I reasoned.

Dustin sighed, "Okay, we'll go talk to them. Then me and you can investigate down here and check out solitary confinement some more."

We started walking down the corridor towards the staircase that I had descended not long before. When we reached the staircase we could hear slight murmurings coming from above. I assumed it was Barry and Aisha so I didn't think anything of it. We ascended the stairs and when we reached the staircase, I saw that Barry and Aisha were all the way on the other side of the main floor, on the complete opposite side of the staircase where Dustin and I were. The only other person with them was the camera man who had stayed on the main floor with them when I went to find Dustin. Could their voices carry that far? From what I could see, they were doing an EVP session by taking turns asking questions, trying to make contact with something. I dismissed my previous thoughts, deciding that it wasn't something I should bring up to Dustin unless he brought it up first.

Dustin and I started over to where Barry and Aisha were doing their session. When they saw us coming, they stopped asking questions and turned to us. The camera man turned and started filming us walking towards them. Dustin spoke, "Where you guys making loud noises, like banging stuff around or talking over by the staircase recently?" he asked.

Barry shook his head, "No, we've been over here. We thought it was you. I sent Mercedes down to check but we kept hearing the noises anyways. As for talking, we've been over here for the past ten minutes. I don't think that our voices could carry all the way down to the staircases." he replied.

"Were you hearing voices?" Aisha asked anxiously.

Dustin nodded, "When we were in the corridor, we heard bangs and something moving around with us but we couldn't find anything. When we got over to the staircase, I heard talking…I thought it was you two." he confessed. "I don't know if Mercedes heard them or not but…" I looked down at me by his side.

"I heard them," I admitted.

Barry rubbed his chin slightly, as if he was in thought, "That's very interesting. Do you think you caught anything with your camera?" he asked.

Dustin looked down at the ground and when I looked up at him, he looked a little sheepish. I wasn't sure, but I had a hunch that it was probably because we had only had a camera with us for less than five minutes. "Maybe," Dustin replied, looking away from Barry.

"Well, it wasn't us." Barry said seriously.

Dustin hummed slightly, like he was debating something. "We'll, I'm going back down and I think I'm going to take Mercedes with me. We're going to try and figure out what was going on in that corridor."

"Do you have all your equipment?" Barry asked.

I nodded, "I have mine."

"Mine's back in solitary." Dustin answered.

"Okay, well, luck be with you." Barry said.

"Thanks man," Dustin replied.

We both turned and started towards the staircase. I didn't even need to use my flashlight for a little while because the camera man decided to follow us for a little bit. He was filming us walking away and when he turned back to Barry and Aisha, the light disappeared, leaving Dustin and I in total darkness again.

We made it back down to the corridor but when we got to the middle, where we had run into each other just a little while before, the air felt completely normal. The unusual coldness was gone and the air didn't feel heavy anymore. I sighed and frowned, shining my flashlight around some more.

"It feels different now," I observed.

Dustin moved beside me, moving the camera around to film different parts of the hallway around us, "I know, it's like the heaviness if completely done."

I nodded fervently, "That's exactly what I was thinking. The air is lighter and the unusual coldness we had been feeling earlier is just…gone."

"Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. It just dissipated while we were upstairs." He said in a frustrated voice. "I think that whatever was here earlier is gone now. Let's go to solitary for a while."

"Sure." I replied.

We walked down the hallway quickly and when Dustin opened the door he let me go in first. I smiled at him in thanks as he said, "Back to the hole."

I held back my giggles and walked into the small room, trying to get a feeling for the place. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. It was small and felt very cramped, as if the air was just charged with electricity. The walls, floor and ceiling was all white with one black window at the far end of it. The whole place just screamed loneliness. I wouldn't have wanted to have been thrown in there if I was imprisoned when the jail was still running.

Dustin entered, closing the door behind him and walked over to where a few pieces of equipment were and sat down, leaning casually against the wall and spreading his long legs out in front of him. I sat down right across from him but out of the way of the door, as not to inadvertently get hit if someone were to open the door.

"EVP session continues, Dustin and Mercedes," Dustin started speaking, "in Solitary Confinement."

It was quite for a while as I looked around the room, waiting for Dustin to start asking questions. I wasn't sure how far he had already gotten in the session before he had run into me. I didn't want to re-ask questions that he had already done. I wasn't even sure exactly where the start on this case. How was I supposed to speak to a dead spirit who had died all alone simply because everyone had forgotten about him?

The sound of a prison door slamming caused Dustin and I to both look at the door. We were quiet for a moment before Dustin asked, "Are you responsible for the loud sound that we just heard outside this room? Are you closing doors to get our attention?"

I knew he wasn't speaking to me but to whatever we hoped was in the room with us. It was a little unnerving that whatever it was, you couldn't see it but it could see you, but I just tried to think of the spirit as an invisible person. It was just like anyone else except for that it had died in a tragic way while I was still alive and breathing.

Not getting any response, Dustin continued asking questions, "Could you possibly show yourself to my friend and I?" he asked. "Could you make yourself appear before me right now if you wanted to do so?" He paused again. "We hear that people get awkward feelings when they are in this cell with you. My friend and I don't, you don't scare us. We're only here to try and talk to you." He finished and then looked at me.

Taking the look as a signal for me to speak I asked, "Could you please give us a sign that you are here with us? We mean you no harm." I paused. "We just want to speak with you."

I heard a few taps before an unrecognizable sound came from the middle of the room, right between Dustin and I. My eyes widened and I looked at Dustin in surprise. He grinned and asked, "You heard that, didn't you?"

I nodded, "It sounded like…like a voice."

He agreed with me, smiling. I couldn't believe it, this was nothing compared to the investigations that I usually went on. Aisha and I usually found things close to nothing. But getting responses, out loud to questions I was asking, surprised me to no end. I was giddy and hoped that we had been able to catch something on one of the pieces of equipment Dustin had brought with him.

"We're you trying to talk to us just then?" I asked softly. "If it was, we heard you but we couldn't make out what you were saying. Could you please do it again for us?"

When I didn't get another response, I was slightly upset but I knew I couldn't get my hopes up too much. Besides, we had gotten one response, which was amazing in itself. I decided to stay silent for a few minutes and let Dustin asked some more questions.

"I can imagine that people don't come down here just to sit and talk with you very often. This could be your one and only chance to speak with something. We want to know who you are. Please let us know that you are here with us." Dustin stressed.

"We want to know what happened to you. We understand that you were lonely and we know that what happened to you was horrible." I said slowly. "Are you angry at the people who left you here, the ones who forgot about you?" I asked, I knew that what I was asking could possibly lead to something bad but I pressed on. "Are those people still here with you in the cell today?"

"My friend and I are leaving soon," Dustin said, this time looking at me before he turned his gaze to look around the room again, "This is your last chance to let us know that you are here with us, to tell us your story."

Still not getting any response, Dustin sighed heavily and leaned over beside him to grab the digital voice recorder that lay on the stone ground. "EVP session end, Dustin and Mercedes in solitary confinement," he said before shutting the small, silver piece of equipment off.

Dustin sat up and began picking up the equipment. I stood up to help him. I grabbed his mini-DV camera and handing it to him. He nodded in thanks, "Well, that was interesting." he said with a shy smile.

I nodded, "Yeah, it definitely was."

So, what do you think of how I switched up the investigation a bit :) I hope you enjoyed it. Any thoughts? :) Please review!