There wasn't anything that could prepare me for what could possibly happen at this investigation tonight. Like most nights I slept like shit last night. I get out of bed to the sound of Zak banging on my hotel room door. Quickly throwing on another pair of yoga pants and a sports bra I answer the door. "Oh, uh, I just wanted to see if you wanted to have breakfast with us." I can tell he's a little nervous as I'm only wearing my yoga pants and sports bra. It's hard to contain my laughter seeing him trying not to look down.
"I was just on my way to the gym."
"Oh, that's nice," Zak swallows hard.
"I can take a day off. I'll go with y'all." He smiles wide and heads in the direction of Aaron's room without saying a word. I chuckle and close the door changing into my skinny jeans and plain black V-neck tee with my feather necklace and black boots. I quickly finish my makeup before heading to Aaron's room myself. Barely getting one knock on the door the guys rush outside almost running right into me. "Jeez, watch it y'all!"
"You ready, Shawn?" Aaron asks in excitement basically jumping up and down like a little kid.
"Yeah! Where are we going?" I gather my energy and meet his excitement as I jump up and down with him. I can hear the rest of the crew start laughing at us and I stop.
"I don't know! But I'm really hungry so I'm excited to eat!"
"You're such a goober," I play punch him in the arm.
Breakfast was delish. We all enjoyed our food and talked about random things. It was nice being able to get my mind of Goatman's Bridge for a little while, but now it was time to get back to work. Everything in me wanted to beg Zak not to let me do this investigation tonight. I just had a really bad feeling about the lockdown, but I couldn't quite explain why.
By the time it started to get dark we had already made our way to the hell hole and started setting up x-cameras in some of the more active places according to Christy yesterday. I placed one by the entrance while Jay went closer to the bridge and set one up so we had eyes on the bridge the entire time. After I set up my camera I join Jay at the bridge. "Are you ready for tonight?"
"I guess so, why?" He questions so nonchalantly. I keep silent not being able to gather my thoughts. Staring intently in front of me at the bridge, Jay puts his hand on my shoulder and brings me back. "You sure you're okay?"
"I really don't know, Jay. I just don't feel right and I have a really bad feeling about this lockdown."
"Have you told Zak?"
"I can't. What am I supposed to say?"
"Exactly what you just told me."
"But I can't explain it. I know he'll ask questions and I have no answers for him."
"So be it. Just be careful," he shows a little smile.
"Yeah, you too."
It was now about 8:00 PM and we finally finished setting up our cameras. It was time and I was definitely not ready. I just wanted to run away. "You ready?" I hear a voice from behind me as I stare into the forested entrance. I look to my right side and Zak is there with my camera. I take it from him and sigh. "Just stick with me and you'll be okay," he smiles and takes his first step into the Goatman's forest without hesitation. His confidence is quite the turn on, if I must say. I get my camera ready and swallow hard taking my first step behind Zak.
The first half of our investigation was surprisingly quite relaxed. We would hear some strange noises, but we haven't caught much visual evidence yet. I check my phone clock for it to show 3:00 AM and I see Aaron stumbling over to the bridge. I look to him to make sure he's going to be okay, but he sure didn't seem okay so I run to him to try to comfort him. His skin was super pale and his breathing heavy and erratic. All of a sudden, it was like all of Aaron's energy escapes him making him collapse. I try to catch him before he falls to the ground and I help him the rest of the way down as slowly as I can. "Just sit here and relax." He pulls his knees up to his chest, resting his head and arms on his knees. Suddenly, I hear commotion where the other guys are standing and look over to see what's happening. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. Zak was trying to choke himself out. I hated the thought of leaving Aaron in the state that he was in, but I had to help Zak. I run to where Jay and Billy were standing, trying to calm the situation.
"Zak, stop trying to choke yourself," I try to calmly say as I walk to him. His eyes were shut tight and his breathing was erratic. I take my hand and gently grab his arms trying to pull his hands off his neck. In one swift motion he takes one hand and grabs one of my wrists forcefully pushing me backwards. Billy happens to catch me and I give him the most terrified look. I look back up at Zak and he's choking himself even harder. "Zak, stop!" Billy helps me to my feet and I find Jay wrestling with Zak on the ground. Tears fall from my eyes as I see Zak seriously trying to hurt Jay. "Zak!" I yell for him again, but it's no use. "Zak, you're hurting him!" I'm desperate to help Jay as he's now being pinned on his back and choked by Zak. Billy rushes over to the guys and helps Jay out of Zak's grip. They finally let go of each other, coughing from the choking fight they shared with each other as heavy tears continued falling from my eyes. This was something like I would see in my nightmares and I couldn't believe it was happening. All I wanted to do was comfort Jay and Zak, but Billy wouldn't let me near them in case I got hurt. Zak finally comes to his feet and stumbles away and I kneel next to Jay to make sure he's alright.
"I'm good," he struggles to get the words out. I help him to his feet and the two of us stand there with Billy watching Zak walk away.
"Guys. I'm scared," I sob. I rest my head on Billy's shoulder. "What do we do?" I try so hard to keep it all together knowing this is going to end up on national television.
"I think he needs a little time," Billy states rubbing my back to comfort me.
Finally Aaron finds his feet and heads our way. "What the hell happened? I think I just passed out."
"Oh my god, Aaron." I run to him and hug him tight. I absolutely hated that I left him. "I'm so sorry I left you," I cried.
"Shawn, it's okay. I'm okay." He wraps his arms tight around my shoulders and kisses my forehead. Aaron and I have grown so close like he was my brother, hell, Jay and Billy were too. "Where's Zak?" He asks letting me go.
"He walked over there," Jay points towards the bridge. "He tried to choke himself." Aaron widens his eyes in disbelief. "We can probably go over and see if he's okay now." The four of us take a couple steps towards Zak when Billy stops us.
"Wait. I think only Shawn should go." We all look to him for confirmation.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Jay asks.
It stays silent a for a few seconds then I start my walk again to Zak. I look back at Aaron, Jay, and Billy mid-walk and all three of them nod at me to continue as they can see my hesitation. Finally I make it to where Zak stood, leaning forward with his hands on the side of the bridge and I walk up slowly behind him. "Zak?" He jumps and turn around to face me. "A-are you o-okay?" I stutter in fear. He keeps silent continuing to stare at me. He was starting to make me nervous. Why wasn't he saying anything? "Zak?" He then rushes to me and just stops inches from me. Everything in me tells me to run away from him not knowing if he's possessed. I stand my ground, my heart pounding. A few tears escape my eyes and fall down my face. We stare deeply into each other's eyes, breathing heavy. The seconds feel like minutes which feel like hours. It was him. I came to the realization that this was truly Zak and he wasn't possessed. His beautiful dark blue eyes were staring straight into my soul.
Zak's POV
I stare intently into Shawn's beautiful hazel eyes. Complete chock takes over my entire body making it almost impossible for me to move. There have been many things happen to me over the years of investigations, but choking myself has never happened before. I'm honestly surprised that Shawn was still around after the whole ordeal, but I'm so happy that she was still here. In this moment I realize what I what. What I really want and who I really want, and that was this amazingly beautiful woman standing in front of me. The fact that she didn't give up on me made me want her even more. I needed her.
A small smile forms on my face and I grab the sides of her cheeks kissing her more passionately than ever. I think of nothing else in this moment and no words were shared between us. Not even the words 'national tv' could stop me from kissing her in this moment. I didn't care if people saw or if people knew were together. We break apart briefly and I lean down again and kiss her quickly a second time. "This is definitely not going on tv, right?" She laughs though serious. I wipe the remaining tears on her cheeks and we share a smile as I lead her back to Aaron, Jay, and Billy.
"I think this concludes our lockdown," Zak states. Aaron, Jay, and Billy nod in agreement without a word. The five of us pack our gear quickly and walk away from the bridge and out of the forest, instantly feeling the heaviness of Goatman's Bridge lifted off our shoulders.
Shawn's POV
Back at the hotel, I spend some time gathering my thoughts after the whole ordeal at the bridge. I change into more comfortable clothes and crash onto the bed with a long sigh.
Ding.
I look over to my phone and find a text from Zak.
"Hey. You want to come over here? I wanna talk."
"What could you possibly want to talk about right now?"
"Please, Shawn."
I sigh again and take myself next door. I barely get one knock on the door and Zak opens it quickly making me jump. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
"How did you know I was standing out here?"
"Just a feeling."
"Seems that we keep getting these feeling about each other."
"What do you mean?" Zak furrows his eyebrows. I make my way into his hotel room turning back around to face him. I wasn't sure how to say that I was having bad feelings about the investigation before it started so I just simply told him.
"Before the lockdown I was having bad feelings about it."
"Like something bad was going to happen?"
I shake my head, "I don't know exactly. I know you want answers, but I don't have them, Zak. I just didn't have a good feeling. I didn't know if it was about anyone in particular, it just wasn't good."
"You still should've told me."
"Well, I told-" I stop myself before I went on. I knew it would hurt his feeling that I wold someone else and not him.
"Told who?" He starts getting frustrated.
"Jay."
"So, you can tell the other guys things and not me?" He snaps.
"Well we haven't exactly been on a good page lately, Zak," I snap right back. He rubs his hair messing up his perfect Zak fin and sits down on the bed. "I wanted to tell you, I promise. I just knew that you would ask questions and I don't have the answers you're looking for."
"I'm not looking for answers, Shawn. I just want you to be able to talk to me. You know you can talk to me about anything. We've been over this before."
"I know, I'm sorry!" I apologize quickly. We stay silent in each other's company for what seems like minutes on end. "Why do we always seem to pick an argument with each other?" I ask softly with my head down staring at the ugly hotel carpet. Zak takes my chin gently with his hand to turn my head and face him. He stares deeply into my hazel eyes with his dark blue.
"I think it's because we care for each other and we don't know how to say it."
"Just say it, Zak."
"Say what?" Before I knew it our heads were growing closer together.
"You know."
"What?"
"Ugh!" I pull my head away quickly and push his arm away. "You kissed me on the bridge! What the hell was that about? Do you want me or not, Zak? Stop playing me! It's either me or Angela, not both. You told me not to give up on you, well, I'm getting pretty close to that point. You need to figure out what you want."
"And do you know what you want?" He asks suddenly taking me aback.
"You, Zak!" I yell shocking myself. "I want you," I say again under my breath. Zak gets up off the bed and walks slowly to me. He cups my face in his hands making me stare into his gorgeous eyes once again. "I can't keep pretending that I don't care for you."
"Then don't. I want you too. I always have since the moment we met."
"So what does this mean?"
"It's you, Shawn. It always has been and always will be." He leans in and kisses me hard. The kiss gets more passionate as I jump up and wrap my legs around his torso. He brings us to the bed without breaking our kiss and gently sets me down as he straddles on top of me. His fingertips give me chills as his hands find their way under my tank top. "You're so beautiful," he says finally breaking our kiss. I can feel the eagerness of him pushed hard on top of me as things get more heated.
I end up staying in his room that night and wake up the next morning naked in his bed. I can feel him shifting around next to me as he starts rubbing my bare back. "Good morning, gorgeous." I roll to my other side to see his quirky, hot smile making me giggle. "What?"
"Nothing," I shake my head keeping my smile. "We sure had some fun last night, eh?"
He laughs, "We sure did." He kisses me hard not caring about the nasty morning breath I felt. "Are you ready to go back home today?"
"Oh, so ready."
"Well, let's get ready. Our plane leaves at noon."
We spend the morning packing our things and we head to the airport. I was so happy to be going back home. I missed Kelsey and my own place, my own bed. I could only imagine now what was going to happen with Zak and Angela. I didn't even want to think about it, but I had to. I didn't know if I should feel bad for essentially stealing her man or if I should be happy he chose to be with me. I still couldn't believe it was happening. "Shawn, let's go. We're boarding," Zak gets me out of my thoughts. I half smile at him and follow him, Aaron, Jay, and Billy onto the plane. I actually got a seat with Jay, but we arranged it so I could sit with Zak. I'm sure by now the guys figured that we were kind of together, but we didn't care.
As we were getting off the plane in Vegas the one and only Angela was waiting for Zak at the baggage claim. "Oh, boy," I mumble.
"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of everything," Zak assures me. He kisses my forehead and we get our bags off the conveyer belt.
"Zak!" Angela screams from across the airport as soon as she catches glimpse of us. "I'm so happy you're home!" Angela and Zak hug then she swoops in for the 'welcome home kiss'. Zak dodges her kiss making her pout.
"I'm tired." Zak simply states. I stand there watching the two of them and Angela doesn't even say a word to me, but I think I was okay with that.
"Well, let's get you home then," Angel swoops her arm around Zak's waist and urges him to walk outside. The rest of the crew and I follow them out of the airport and make our way to our GAC SUV that I guessed Angela drove here for us. This is going to be interesting. Welcome back to Sin City...