Authors Note: Okay, I REALLY want to apologize for making you all wait this long for this chapter. Honestly, I thought I had already posted it, completing the third segment. Imagine my surprise when I found out I hadn't posted it yet and you all have been waiting patiently ALL summer for me to post this. I feel horrible! Which makes it even harder to announce that I probably will not be writing for a while in the future. An explanation is on my profile if you care to read. But as the final piece I will probably be posting for a while, I just want to thank all the people who have taken the leap of faith to read Its The Fear blindly, not having a clue what GHI was about and I want to thank all those avid GH and GHI fans who stuck together and told others about my story. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that everyone seemed to enjoy the story and feel like they were right there during the investigations. That was my goal and I'm glad to say I've accomplished that goal. I just want to thank you all again because without you, this story would NOT be there it is today. It would have ended with the first segment and I have to say I'm very proud of how this story has grown. It's my baby and pride and joy. I will miss it but I honestly don't want to write if my heart isn't in it anymore for the time being. So thanks again and for those who have taken the time to read over my long, boring authors notes, I thank you. Hopefully we will be seeing each other again in the future even if it's a year or so down the road. :)

Sincerely,

-RIP.

PLAYLIST:

La Cienega Just Smiled

- by -

Ryan Adams

It's The Fear

Gates of Hell: Part 7 of 7

Mercedes POV

- Prague, Czech Republic. May 2009 -

While Dustin was with Barry and Robb, I decided to get started on the next case. I knew I needed to find a good one after the 'Gates of Hell'. I checked the reference list of offers and after going through all the available cases, I was conflicted on which to choose. It wasn't until I noticed the two cases of Moosham Castle in Unternberg, Austria and the Schloss Porcia in Spittal an der Drau, Austria that I finally made a decision.

After Googling Moosham Castle, I got really excited about it. The castle's proper name was Schloss Moosham. It was built during the 14th century castle built by the prince-bishops of Salzburg, Austria. The case file said that there were claims of full bodied apparitions, sounds that ranged from voices to scratches on walls, shadow people and even people being touched. Schloss Porcia, also known as Porcia Castle was of the most significant Renaissance buildings in Austria. I quickly learned that Porcia Castle was notorious of being haunted by the White Lady Katharina of Salamanca, who was said to be accountable of remorselessness towards her subjects and because of this, is cursed to haunt the rooms of the castle now that she has passed. All in all, both these castles sounded awesome and I figured that we could get a little ahead of the game if we had two cases set up instead of just one.

I was just about to begin researching the area when there was a knock on my connecting room door. Knowing it was Dustin, I called for him to come in without looking up from my computer. "Whatcha doing?" he asked curiously when he saw me sitting at the suite's desk typing away on my snow white colored Sony laptop.

"Researching for the next case." I said.

Dustin walked up behind me and tried to get a peak at the screen. I slammed the laptop lid down before we could get a good look though. "No peaking!" I said.

Holding his hands up in surrender, Dustin began to laugh. "Can't blame a guy for trying."

I lifted my nose up. "Yes I can."

Dustin continued to laugh as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, "Are you ready to get going?"

"Sure am. Are we taking the metro again?"

"Nope, we're taking a bus because I know you hate the metro." He answered me.

I smiled. "Good."

We left my room shortly after that and made our way out of the hotel and to the bus station that was located near the Hilton. We walked to the bus stop, holding hands and just talking about whatever came to our minds. I asked him how he liked the evidence Barry showed him and Dustin told me that he was very excited to show Ty what we had found the next day. Once we reached the bus stop, we found that a bus had just stopped. Dustin paid for our tickets and we boarded the bus and sat side by side in one of the seats.

We rode the bus until we got to the Charles Bridge bus stop. Once we stepped off the bus, we were once again met with the side of the large, majestic bridge. It was after 9pm at this point and it was dark except for the stars and the full moon that was shining down upon us. At night, when the bridge is lying beneath a starry sky, it has a completely different feel to it. There were far less people on the bridge than during the day and instead of a light jazz band playing, the sound of a lone violinist filled the night air instead. I entwined my fingers with Dustin's and leaned into his side as we began to walk down the bridge towards the sound of the music. We were both drawn to it, like a bug to a light in the dark.

We stopped once we reached a tiny old man with large round glasses, scruffy grey hair and watery blue eyes that were magnified by his oversized bifocals. He was wearing a mismatched colored tweed coat that looked two sizes too big and high-water jeans with a pair of old ragged boots. Compared to the colossal mass of architecture that was Charles Bridge, the little old man resembled a mouse. But tucked under his chin was a beautiful instrument that was the source of the music we were drawn to—a dark wooden violin.

Dustin pulled me over to the edge of the bridge and leaned against it before pulling me back against his chest and resting his chin on my shoulder. We stood there for a very long amount of time in silence watching people as they walked by. Some were older couples holding hands. Others were young lovers who were completely wrapped up in one another and noticed nothing else but each other. Groups of friends dressed up for a night on the town walked by and a few loners passed with their hands in their pockets and their eyes trained to the ground. There was one thing that all these people had in common though. They all stared at the older gentlemen in amazement and smiled as they heard the music. Some of them even left spare change or full out tips in the man's black violin case.

"He plays very well." I said, my voice just barely a whisper. A peaceful calm was spread out over the bridge and it seemed wrong to be loud at the moment.

Dustin nodded against my shoulder, "That he does."

We fell silent against and enjoyed the music once more. Every once in a while Dustin began to hum along to the music when he picked up on something that sounded slightly familiar. His smooth hum in my ear sent shivers down my spine—in a good way of course. Yet I knew that in his mind, he was far away. He was deep in thought about something that I had no idea about.

All I could think about was how peaceful I felt at that very moment in time. There honestly was no other place that I would've rather been. I felt safe and cared for while Dustin held me there by the bridge's wall with the centuries old angel and priest statues hanging over us.

Suddenly Dustin spoke, startling me slightly. "Have you ever wondered how many before us have been standing here in this same exact spot doing exactly what we are doing right now?" he asked me.

I turned my head slightly and giggled softly, "Is that what you've been thinking about this whole time?"

I felt him shrug, "I don't know, sort of."

"Well, I'm sure there have been hundreds of couples who have done the same thing we're doing. It's kind of the perfect spot." I told him.

His arms tightened around me silently.

"Oh hey, did I tell you I talked to Aisha about Barry yesterday?"

Dustin looked slightly surprised, "No you didn't. What happened?"

I frowned, "See that's the thing. I don't know, she kind of skirted around the subject. She said no but it was the way that she said it. She had on her poker face though so I can't be for sure."

"Maybe we just shouldn't worry about it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Anyways, do you know what time it is?" he questioned.

I looked down at Dustin's wrist to his watch. "Uh, it's almost 11pm." I said, not bothering to hide the shock in my voice. "How is it that time passes so fast with us?"

"I really don't know but I think we should probably head back to the hotel."

I nodded sadly, "You're right."

"Aren't I always." He joked.

I squeezed his bicep in response, "Keep on with that wishful thinkin', honey."

Dustin POV

- Blatce, Czech Republic. May 2009 -

Today was reveal day and I was looking forward to showing our client, Ty McGee, what evidence we had gathered during our investigation of Castle Houska. It had turned out to be very active in activity and rewarding with evidence. In all, Castle Houska was probably on my top ten list for most exciting places I had been since joining GHI and the fact that I had Mercedes now to experience all that with me had made it all the better. Jim and Will had arrived earlier to set everything up with Ty and to tell him exactly how the reveal was going to work. When Robb and I showed up, everything was up and ready to rock.

"You ready for this reveal, man?" I asked Robb as he and I stood outside of the door to Castle Houska.

Robb nodded and answered me with a keen grin. "Well yes, I think Ty is going to be really pleased with our findings."

Shortly after Robb answered my question, the double doors flew open and Ty stood before us, wearing a polished white grin. He beckoned us into Castle Houska and led us towards the first main room in the castle where the producers had already set up a table with our equipment on top of it. Robb and I followed him in while wearing good spirits about the reveal. Ty seemed like he was eager to find out exactly what it was that we had found so we got started right away.

Ty sat down on one side of the table while Robb and I took our seats on the opposite side. Will and Jim powered up the cameras and counted down before giving us the signal that they had started filming.

"I see you two have lived to tell your tale." Ty commented with humor.

Robb smirked, "We're all present and accounted for at this time." He said before he got down to business. "Coming into this investigation, we knew that there were a lot of mysteries surrounding this castle. You told us this yourself. You wanted answers. You basically told us what happened to you and then sent us in to see if we could experience some of the same things."

I took over for Robb to start telling Ty about some of our personal experiences. "So one of the things that we as investigators often encounter are what we refer to are personal experiences. It would be classified as a personal experience when something happens to you, you see something, or feel something that you weren't able to document. I had my own personal experience up in the attic that night when I was investigating with Barry.

We had been having some pretty heavy activity so we were taking full spectrum shots to try and see what was going on, we were running an EVP session as well as having a handheld mini-DV to record as well. Barry and I both happened to be looking down towards the back end of the attic. We saw this big, black shadow that moves from left to right past this window in the attic. As soon as that happened, all these birds just start going absolutely crazy! That's not normal behavior…" I finished, trailing off.

Ty looked surprised, "No, that's not normal behavior at night."

"Well, for this thing to be running around up there and have this significant effect on our environment was pretty insane if you ask me." I replied.

Our client looked for a completely loss of words. All he uttered out was a simple, "Wow…"

Robb decided to continue on with more personal experiences. "During another part of our investigation, myself and Aisha were in the room where you saw an apparition of a woman walk right by you. We were holding an EVP session and to my surprise, I see something lean out and then lean back in from behind the wall, almost as if it was peaking in on us. At the same exact time as I see this happen, Aisha thinks she hears a voice. There wasn't any evidence caught of it happening, so it ends up being a personal experience."

"But personal experiences, in a way that is evidence to me because I know what I saw and to have you experience the same thing…" Ty declared with a look of awe on his features.

"That's true, but we're not going to come here and say here are some stories that you can add to yours. We want to give you true, concrete evidence. We got evidence." Robb replied.

Ty began to look excited, "Alright, show me what you found."

Knowing it was time to show the first piece of evidence, I got the first piece of video up on the computer to show to Ty. Once it was ready, I spoke to explain to Ty where in the castle this was happening at. "Okay, so this first piece was up in the attic, you told us to go up in the attic to find some pretty cool things."

Looking shocked, Ty nodded. "Oh boy, that attic…"

"What I'm going to be showing you is a piece of video, but it's the audio that you really want to be listening for." I explained. Ty nodded in complement. "Well, I was up there with Mercedes," I felt myself begin to smile just by saying her name, "and here is what happened to us while we were up there."

I pressed play and let the scene play out. It was an overhead shot of myself and Mercedes. You could clearly hear me say, "If you are with us tonight, will you please give us a sign of your presence?" then shortly after, a loud noise came from off camera. Mercedes and I both turn towards the sound in surprise then I say, "What the hell was that? Did you hear that?" Mercedes answers with, "Yeah! I did hear it."

I pressed stop on the recording and turned to see Ty's reaction. He asked us to play it again so I played the recording once more. I played the recording then decided to loop the area of the sound so Ty could get a better idea for what it was. Once I looped it a few times, Ty seemed satisfied and spoke.

"You know what it makes me think of on instinct?" he asked us.

Robb and I shrugged to let him continue.

And continue he did, "It makes me think of some sort of large gust of air, almost as an angry exhale."

"Yeah, that's exactly it. There is this sound coming from deep inside the attic and then shortly after this happens, Mercedes and I are just standing there," I caught myself smiling at her name again but continued hoping neither man caught it, "and I decided to take a rock off the floor and throw it down the attic and see what happens."

"Okay, let's see this." Ty muttered.

I pressed play on the recording and the three of us watched as the scene unfolded before us. The shot was focused on me bending down and to pick up a rock from the attic floor. I then toss it over towards the opposite side of the attic, "Can you do that?" you hear me ask.

It was quiet for a while. Then a loud crashing noise is emitted from the speakers hooked up to the laptop. Ty jumped slightly at the sound and looked completely shocked at what had just happened. Meanwhile, my voice on the recording stuttered in surprise. "Y-yo, yo, yo! Did you hear that? It sounded as if someone threw something back at us…"

Once I stopped play, I turned to Ty who had sat back in his chair in shock. "You know what, that was pretty shocking. That was completely incredible."

"Let me tell you, this hardly ever actually works." I said sarcastically. Robb laughed loudly while I continued, "I'll tell you what man, I jumped back and literally grabbed on to Mercedes and drug her back with me. I was flat against the back of that wall. I've never seen object manipulation of that degree before. I've never had it happen on command like that."

Ty smiled, "Have you ever been to the Gates of Hell before?" he said with irony.

"First time, brotha'."

"I'll tell you what…"

After we got our humor time out of the way, I finished with the final piece of evidence. "After this happened, I asked Mercedes to step out because it was starting to get a little unsafe of there and I thought it would be better if Barry came up to finish that particular part of the investigation with me. Not because she's a bad investigator because she's a good one, she really is but I was a little concerned about her…" I trailed off when I noticed Robb giving me a very strange look. Even Ty was looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I asked Mercedes to step out and had Barry take her place so we could get some visual evidence with his full spectrum camera. While Barry and I were there taking pictures, his camera started to malfunction and actually began to take the pictures on its own. It literally took over one hundred photos completely on its own."

Robb took over while I started setting up the laptop to play Ty the sound. "Now, we were expecting something to really big to start happening. Barry's full spectrum has never done anything like this before. In fact, he was pretty boggled by this entire experience. The only thing is, when we reviewed the pictures, we found nothing in them. But when we replayed the audio of the camera taking pictures from the 360 mic that we had placed up in the rafters, we caught something else that we were not expecting."

"I'll play for you what we heard." I announced.

I pressed play. You heard the sound from the click of the camera about five times before something came through on the audio and said something. Then you could the click of the camera again. Nobody could discern what the voice had said, but we all agreed that something had been trying to speak with us. After playing the audio for Ty, his face brightened as he heard the word. Sitting back in his chair, he grinned lazily at us.

"You know what I heard on that recording?" he asked. "I thought I heard the word, 'Boj', which in Czech means come on, word of honor. It's almost like a challenge. If two mean were going to fight, one would say, 'Boj'."

"You have the camera malfunctioning and a man's voice saying, 'come on' in Czech." Robb said, musing out loud.

Ty looked down at his hands and wrung them tonight, "He definitely doesn't sound afraid of us."

"Well here's the thing about that, nothing here seems particularly malicious. If it hasn't bothered you before, then it probably won't. We were fresh new blood coming in and prodding at it. More than likely, this is just something that it looking for attention. But we feel as though nothing here would purposely want to harm you. But, also know that if you are dealing with an inhuman spirit, that they can be extremely dangerous. If you ever have any questions or feel that something is happening that you don't have an answer to, feel free to call us any time." Robb offered. "In all, we came in to answer the mysteries that surrounded this place. Is this place the gateway to Hell? I don't know. Is it haunted? Without a doubt in my mind, yes."

Ty started to laugh, "Yeah, yeah I would agree with that."

"Well Ty, it was definitely a pleasure working with you. This place was great." Robb said as he shook his hand.

"Well thank you, you're welcome back anytime." Ty replied.

I shook his hand, "Thanks man."

Robb and I said our goodbye's to Ty before leaving the castle and heading back to the van. Robb started up the van and once we were buckled up, we started down the driveway and made our way back to the main road.

"We gathered enough evidence on this case that I really felt comfortable saying that this location is without a doubt haunted."

I nodded and laughed, "I'm kind glad that even he doesn't like to go up there in that attic, that's one pretty messed up place."

"Well we can officially check off the gateway to hell off our list, whatcha say?"

"That's right brotha', let's just head back out to the hotel and get ready for the next one."

"Absolutely, let's head back home." Robb finished.

Robb and I fell into silence for a while. The ride was peaceful and I was completely content to watch the rolling hills of green pass by while Robb drove onwards towards the Hilton. I was anxious to be back to Mercedes. She had sent me a text about the possibility of all of us going swimming once Robb and I returned from the reveal. Swimming sounded fun after a stressful week.

"So what was that back there about Mercedes?" Robb asked me seriously, breaking me from my thoughts.

I turned to him in puzzlement, "What are you talking about?"

"Dustin, during the reveal, you went on a rant going around in circles with your words about that girl. Even Ty noticed." Robb said, he sounded confused yet knowing at the same time—if that was even possible. "Is there something going on there?"

I was literally mentally kicking myself at that present moment in time. Mercedes and I had just had a talk about being more discreet and I had already ruined that. She was going to be pissed. I knew that to fix thing, I had to lie to Robb about it. I hated lying to him but I knew it was for the best.

"No, we're just friends. Why?"

Robb frowned, "Well, by the way that you two have been acting towards each other lately, I could have sworn there was something there. It's probably better though that you aren't dating. The producers don't like that too much."

I nodded, "I know."

Changing the subject, Robb replied. "Well, Mercedes told me that she has two cases picked out and she's wanting to show them to me when we get back."

"Do you have any idea where it is that we're going?" I prodded.

Robb smirked, "Maybe, but I'm not telling you. Seeing you squirm about not knowing it just too entertaining."

I frowned, "Thanks a lot."

The rest of the trip was made in silence other than the occasional comment from one of us. When we finally reached the hotel, nearly an hour later, we locked up the van and entered the hotel. I went to my room while Robb headed to Mercedes's.

Nearly two hours later, I got a knock on my connected door. When I threw it open, my girlfriend stood there wearing a brilliant smile. Other than her brilliant smile, the only other thing she was wearing was one of those short dress-like bathing suit cover ups. Keeping my mind out of the gutter or ogling her legs too much, I kissed her hello and asked what she was doing. Mercedes just poked my chest and told me to get ready to go swimming.

"We're meeting at the pool in ten minutes." She announced. With that, she closed the door and I was left alone.

I sighed before running a hand through my spiky hair. "Well," I mused out loud, "This is going to be interesting."

Mercedes POV

- Prague, Czech Republic. May 2009 -

When I finally awoke the next morning, I really didn't want to get out of bed right away even though it was already after noon. So instead, I decided to think back to what all had happened last night after leaving Charles Bridge…

After discovering the time last night, Dustin and I had got on the bus back to the Hilton and snuck back up to our rooms. We shared a very short goodnight kiss before parting ways. I wasn't necessarily tired so I ended up logging back on to my laptop to start researching information for the next case. I knew that I'd need to run it by Robb later on the next day so I wanted to get as much as the information figured out before I talked to him.

As I researched, I found that the more I found out about Moosham Castle, the more interested in it I was. The place had been the source of many witch hangings, murders and trials. There was actually even a torture chamber that still existed within the walls of the stronghold. There was no doubt that the amount of tragedy in this castle had been severe. This meant that there would be a greater chance of paranormal energy left behind. I sincerely hoped that Moosham Castle would be just as rewarding as Castle Houska had been—if not more. The only thing I could live without though was a repeat of the attic in Castle Houska. I could happily go through the rest of my life without experiencing something like that again. I loved hunting the paranormal but I didn't particularly like the fact that something had actually thrown an object at us. That just wasn't cool.

Porcia Castle on the other hand was said to have been haunted by a past cruel countess. In the 1950's it was purchased by the government and now served as a museum. The castle had become the source of many legends over the years. The thing that interested me the most was a police article where the alarm system of the castle had been set off only come to find out that absolutely no one was there, nothing was out of place and the security cameras caught nothing. Even the mayor had had something happen to him while visiting the castle.

I ended up falling asleep around 3am on my bed, curled up around my laptop. I was actually worried for my laptop because one of these days I was going to fall asleep while researching and probably end up pushing my poor laptop off the bed or crushing it. I made a mental note not to research on my bed anymore in the early hours of the morning.

When I finally pulled myself out of bed, Aisha decided that the two of us would spend a girl's day together. We dressed in simple sundresses paired with matching sunglasses and left our hair wavy and unstraightened just for fun. After getting to okay from Robb, the two of us headed to the train station that Dustin and I had used the night before. We then made our way over to Old Town and had lunch at Bily Konicek Restaurant, which served Czech and International dishes. Aisha ordered a beef tenderloin with bohemian dumplings, cranberries and whipped cream. I ordered a grilled chicken breast, stuffed with bacon and herbs that was served with potato pure and tomato sauce.

"Oh my god, this is so good!" Aish exclaimed while taking a bit of her tenderloin and dumplings.

I shook my head, "There's no way that it can be as good as this." I told her while pointing at my chicken and potatoes.

After a very satisfying lunch, Aisha and I decided to go shopping. Old Town Square had a permanent market on one side that sold arts, crafts, and souvenirs. They also had crystal shops and small boutiques. After checking out all the small stores in Old Town Square and not really finding anything we wanted, we walked the five minute distance over to Wenceslas Square and the pedestrian street Na Prikope. They had a good mix of International department stores, local shops and banks. Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, H&M, C&A and Bata were just a few of the well known stores they had. My mother would have had a field day here. Luckily, Aisha and I weren't as into shopping as she was. We had more fun trying on things and critiquing them than actually buying them and wearing them.

Aisha and I knew that we couldn't buy a whole lot of things to add on to our ever growing collection of clothes so we settled for a few souvenirs for our families. While shopping, we got some really good fruit smoothies from a local stand.

"I love smoothies." Aisha exclaimed while slurping on hers.

"Yes, it should definitely be its own food group." I laughed.

Aisha giggled, "I honestly couldn't agree with you more."

Around 6:30pm, Aisha and I started to head back to the hotel. On the way back, we decided that we should definitely go swimming that night after Robb and Dustin got back from the reveal and I showed the case files to Robb. I sent Dustin a text, filling him in on the swimming details. We also let Joe and Barry in on the plan and they thought it was a good idea as well. Since we had a really late lunch, we decided to forego dinner and Barry and Joe ate without us. They brought us back some desert from the restaurant though.

Robb and Dustin returned to the hotel around 7pm and Robb and I got straight to work with the next case. He was pleasantly surprised when I told him that I had not just one case researched, but two. Robb told me that if he could get a hold of the first client from Moosham Castle tonight, we could probably leave in a couple days for Austria. Luckily, the producers were as excited about these two new cases as we were and gave us the green light to do both cases. When everything was all cleared by the producers, Robb called our client. So after a twenty minute phone call with the client from Moosham Castle, Robb's words had been confirmed. We were expected in Unternberg, Austria to investigate the following Thursday, which was four days from now. I did a little happy dance around the hotel room after Robb told me. He laughed at this and told me I was crazy. Frankly, I didn't care.

Robb left my suite about ten minutes later to get ready to go swimming so I changed into my blue, yellow, white and green gingham design swimsuit and a short bandeau dress to cover myself up before knocking on Dustin's connecting room door to tell him the news.

"What are you doing here?" Dustin asked me while looking me up and down.

After a few moments of staring at me, he snapped from his daze and leaned down to give me a kiss. I poked his chest when he was done kissing me.

"We're going to go swimming. So get ready." I demanded with a smirk.

Dustin put his hand over where I had poked him and opened his mouth to speak. I cut him off and simply told him we were leaving in ten minutes. He looked surprised but didn't voice against it. I left his room and shut the door behind me while laughing the entire time at his shocked expression.

After grabbing my phone and room key, I headed down to the indoor pool where Aisha, Barry and Joe were waiting for Robb, Dustin and I. Sliding my room key into the slot outside the door, I patiently waited for the door to unlock. Once it did, I stepped into the sauna like room and walked over towards the table that the others had already sat down all our belongings on. I removed my bandeau dress and placed it on a chair before sitting my room key and phone on top of it.

Aisha, Barry and Joe were already sitting inside the Jacuzzi, relaxing and talking amongst themselves. Aisha was dressed in a coral colored two piece with her hair in a high ponytail to keep it from getting wet. Barry's trunks were a colorful design of bright green and white while Joe's were dark green and black striped. They each had highball drink glasses in their hands with some kind of colorful drink inside it. There were three more empty glasses and a large pitcher filled with the colorful drink sitting on the tiled flooring by the edge of the Jacuzzi. Aisha held the drink daintily in her hand while laughing at something Joe was saying. Barry was listening with interest while sipping on his drink. I had never felt more at home than I did at this moment. These people were becoming my family in more ways than one.

I walked over to them and smiled as I sat down next to Aisha. The warm water and relaxing jets felt amazing. The bubbles immediately began to gather around my bust, covering my entire body minus my chest, neck and head. They all greeted me as I got comfortable in the water but I only had eyes for the strange drinks in their hands. I was curious as to what they were drinking, "What's this?"

Aisha took a swig of her drink before grinning lazily, "It's called Hollywood Nights. Barry and Joe went up and ordered a pitcher for us from Cloud Nine."

"This pitcher is our celebration of a case well done." Joe joked.

I nodded. "Oh, I see. Hmmm…what's in it?" I asked.

"Flavored Rum, Banana Liqueur, and Pineapple Juice." Barry answered for me. "It's actually quite good. I wasn't sure what to get since my specialty is beer, not fruit drinks. So, I let Joe pick something random."

"You're responsible for this?" I asked, looking pointedly at Joe.

Joe shrugged, "Uh, yes? I'm Asian. I don't have to have a reason to do something."

While I was laughing at Joe's Asian joke, Aish handed me her glass to let me taste it myself before I poured myself an entire glass. I let the flavor set in my mouth for a few moments before I grinned and reached behind me to the pitcher. "Well Joe, you and you're Asian random picking skills are pretty damn good at picking out drinks."

A voice behind me startled all four of us, "Asian picking skills? Now that's a new one."

Looking behind me, I saw Robb and Dustin standing shirtless with amused looks on their faces. Once they realized they had our attention, they too sat waded into the hot tub. I laughed as Robb made an 'ooo' sound as the hot water made contact with his skin. Aisha and I poured the two boys their drinks and demanded that they try them. Luckily, both boys liked the fruity drink and we all held out our drinks out slightly towards the center of our small circle and made a toast.

"To another case closed!" Robb announced.

"Wait!" Aisha exclaimed, stopping us from finishing the toast. "You know, the case closed thing makes me think of CSI or Cold Case. Shouldn't it be like, another 'investigation' or 'ghost hunt' closed instead of 'case'?"

Robb rolled his eyes, "Fine!" he exclaimed. "To another Ghost Hunters International investigation closed." Aisha nodded in approval as we all clinked our glasses together before we all took a drink.

"And to many more!" Aisha added in finality.

It really was the end to the perfect case and I couldn't wait for the next.

The End.