Author's Note: Phew...I know guys, been a long time. In the last note I posted, I mentioned how stressful things had been over the holidays with my dog tearing his ACL, and it having been a year since my grandfather's passing. Well, things got worse as February came along.

Thankfully, our dog is healing well. However, my last living grandparent, my father's mother, passed away on February 5th during a medical procedure. She hadn't been in good health for a while, and this procedure (on her heart) was supposed to help improve the quality of whatever remaining life she had left. She had been tested in various ways and soctors cleared her for the surgery. Without getting into all the details, her heart was in worse shape than they thought. Their was a complication during surgery and she didn't make it.

So, in just over a year and a few days, I've lost my last two remaining grandparents...it's been hell.

However, I recently started listening to my favourite music (Backstreet Boys), I'm one album behind, and their songs are helping my mood tremendously. I wrote these two chapters within the last 4 or 5 days, without much difficulty. I was going to write more, as I'm nearing the end of this part of the story, but decided to put these two up as it's been so long.

With all that said, enjoy the update!

Chapter 128: The Apparition

Meanwhile…

Aaron's Point of View

While Zak and I were investigating the pool room, I found myself distracted often by my thoughts of what had occurred before lockdown. Billy, Jay and I had accidentally heard a very private conversation between Zak and Alicia over walkie talkie.

I had to admit, I was shocked to hear that Alicia was a virgin. She's a beautiful, smart, and funny woman, but I knew that didn't really have much to do with it. It was obviously a decision she had made, and I respected her choice one hundred percent. I knew Billy and Jay would feel the same, but I knew Alicia was probably embarrassed, and also probably worried about what we thought of it all – even though it wasn't our business.

The "news" did however open my eyes to the fact that Zak must really like Alicia, after witnessing firsthand the type of women he went after in the past.

My thoughts were suddenly distracted by Zak's voice.

"Aaron…Aaron?" Zak asked, looking at me curiously. "Are you alright?" He added.

"Yeah, sorry bro," I replied, adjusting my camera and focused on Zak. "Just felt out of it for a minute," I added, hoping Zak would believe the excuse.

Whether he believed it or not, he nodded and then motioned for me to come closer.

"Let's head over to the other side of the pool," Zak said, and then turned and began walking around the end of the pool.

"Sure," I replied, checking my camera again to make sure it was focused on him properly, and then began following him.

"If there's any victims here, you were strangled…and you were killed by Herb, we'd like to try and help you," Zak spoke, as he made his way to the opposite side of the pool, and then walked up to the glass patio doors leading to the backyard.

"I wonder how many times he sat here and looked out this window at all the- and knowing what he just put in that forest, you know?" I said, as I filmed Zak looking out the patio doors. He had one hand up on the end of one patio door, while the other was resting on the glass.

After a few seconds of silence, Zak spoke.

"Herb would take the bodies right through this door, and drag em, out, right there," Zak said, and tapped lightly on the glass as he pointed at the trees in the backyard. "To the woods," Zak added.

He grew silent again as he stared out into the darkness, and I couldn't help but wonder if he was distracted by thoughts of what had happened earlier as well. Suddenly, he took a step to his left and unlocked and opened the patio door.

I took a few a steps forward to stand next to him and filmed the trees in the backyard, panning from one side of the yard to the other.

We stood in silence as we looked out into the darkness, and I couldn't deny the fact that it was creepy, knowing I was standing where countless bodies had been dragged out through the very same door.

After a few moments of silence, Zak began to close the patio door, so I quickly stepped back to film him again as he finished closing the door, and then locked it.

He partially turned to look back at me as he spoke.

"I just don't see how you can wanna live here in this house…" he said, turning back to look out the patio door again.

Zak's Point Of View

After taking a few moments to compose myself of the disturbing thoughts that had gone through my head as Aaron and I were standing in the patio door, I decided to do an EVP session with my digital recorder.

I had Aaron hand me the digital recorder from one of the many pockets on his vest he always wore during lockdown, and turned it on.

"So, if you don't like strangers and want us out of your house, talk in that recorder," Aaron said, while I held the digital recorder out in front of me.

Almost immediately after Aaron spoke, I heard a soft shuffling sound, but then quickly realized it had been Aaron shifting on his feet – as he gave me an apologetic look.

"That was Aaron's feet moving," I said, to debunk the sound, while nodding silently in response to Aaron's look. I then turned around to hold the recorder out in a different direction.

"Hey Herb, if you're here and you killed yourself…did you want to return back to this house where you…killed and kept all these men?" I asked.

Silence.

"What was inside your mind like?" I asked, then turned my head slightly toward the left handed corner of the room – where a static-x camera was – because something suddenly caught my eye.

"I just saw something over here. Document that," I said, so when we watched through our footage later, we would be aware to spend extra attention to this moment. "It was a mist or something," I added.

I took a few seconds to study the spot I where I was sure I had seen something, but nothing appeared again – if anything had appeared at all.

"That was weird…stay here Aaron," I said, holding my free hand out and back slightly next to my hip, to indicate for Aaron to stay back, and I took a few steps toward the corner. "What went through your mind Herb? You had a nice family, and took care of them, but…why did you have this other life…were you a demon?" I asked.

Silence once again.

I motioned for Aaron to come up to me while I turned my back to the corner, and had Aaron stand beside me to film the room while I spoke again.

"If you're a victim, and you can see or hear us, come over here and talk to us on this," I said, lifting the digital recorder a bit higher in the air. "We're trying to figure out who's here," I said.

Once again, Aaron and I heard nothing, but I hoped we were getting something on the recorder.

"Is Herb keeping your spirit here? Do you- do you want us to tell your family anything?" I asked. "You're going to have to speak in this device," I added, again lifting the digital recorder higher in the air.

After giving any spirits or entities around us the chance to answer, I stopped the recorder and then hit the rewound button.

"Gonna do playback," I said and turned to face Aaron so he could record me. After guessing the appropriate amount of time to rewind, I hit the play button.

"What was inside your mind like?" My voice asked.

Silence.

"I just saw something over here. Document that," … "It was a mist or something," … "That was weird…stay here Aaron,"

Suddenly, Aaron and I both heard what sounded like a man's voice.

"What was that bro?" Aaron asked.

I rewound the recorder, held it up near my ear and closed my eyes – while also leaning closer to the camera – and hit the play button again.

After my voice tells Aaron to "stay there" I hear a man's voice again.

"Help! It said 'help'," Aaron immediately exclaimed.

I rewound the recorder one more time, hit the play button, and sure enough, this time, I could hear the man saying "help" as well.

I looked up at Aaron's camera in shock.

"That voice came right after I saw a white mist, right there," I said, pointing back toward where I had seen the mist.

"And you know what it sounds like? It sounds like he's gasping for help, like 'help'," Aaron said, imitating someone gasping the word "help" at the end, with his free hand mock grabbing his throat.

I nodded in agreement with him.

"You're right, I replied, once again amazed at Aaron's quick thinking and analysis of evidence right on the spot.

Meanwhile…

Alicia's Point Of View

After getting confirmation from Billy that he found no one outside, and after spending another ten minutes trying to contact any spirits or entities inside the apartment with the digital recorder with no responses, I decided to try using a Spirit Box.

The Spirit Box is an audio only device that rapidly scans through multiple audio channels, which ghosts can manipulate to say a word or phrase in real time.

Just as I was about to turn the Spirit Box on, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye near the front door.

When I looked over, I was stunned to see an apparition of the man in a red shirt, also known as the "half a man", standing near the door. His form was as clear as almost any time I'd seen Emily – features easily discernible, but still transparent. And as all others who claimed to have seen him before me, he was only visible from the waist up.

The man just stood there, staring at me. I couldn't decipher the look on his face for certain, but my gut reaction was that he wanted me to help him.

"Ali? Are you okay?" Billy's voice suddenly emitted from my walkie talkie attached to my belt, causing me to jump.

The apparition remained motionless, but continued to watch me.

While keeping my eyes on the apparition, I slowly set the Spirit Box down on the table near me. I then slowly unhooked my walkie talkie from my belt – keeping my movements slow and careful, as if a police officer was aiming a gun at me.

"Pan the static-x camera toward the front door," I said into the walkie talkie.

Shortly after, I heard the very faint hum of movement as the static-x camera turned to face the front door.

If the apparition heard or noticed the movement, it didn't react to it.

"Okay…what are we looking at?" Billy's voice came through my walkie talkie.

"You don't see him?" I replied, keeping my eyes trained on the apparition.

"See who?" Billy replied.

Damn…

"I'm seeing the apparition of the man in the red t-shirt, with my own eyes," I replied into the walkie talkie. "The guy only seen from the waist up," I added.

"No way!" Billy replied. "We don't see anything," he added.

I set the walkie talkie down on the table, and picked up my handheld camera, and slowly aimed it toward the apparition, expecting it to disappear.

Once again, he remained motionless, and continued to stare at me.

I glanced down at my camera's monitor, and was shocked to see that the apparition was not showing up in my camera's viewfinder.

"Okay…currently aiming my camera at the apparition…he's not showing on my camera either," I said, more for documenting sake than anything else.

I looked back up at the apparition and figured the next best thing to do was to try communicating with him.

"Can you talk to me?" I asked, thinking maybe he could talk to me like Emily could – without the use of equipment.

The man clearly nodded his head "yes", but he lifted one arm and pointed at the Spirit Box on the table at the same time.

My eyes widened in shock.

I reached over to the table with my free hand and picked up the Spirit Box, using my torso to lean the Spirit Box against until I had a good grip on it with my one hand.

Once I was sure I had a good grip on it, I held it out toward the apparition.

"You want to talk to me through this?" I asked, keeping my camera focused on the space where the apparition was, but he still wasn't appearing on camera.

The man nodded once again.

"Okay. I'm going to turn it on," I replied, moving one finger toward the power switch. "It's going to make a loud noise," I added, figuring the apparition would disappear once I turned it on.

The man just looked at me expectedly, as if saying "I'm waiting".

I took a deep breath and hit the switch on the Spirit Box, and the loud noise of static started to emit from the speaker.

The man was still with me.

Woah…

"Okay…can you tell me your name?" I asked.

The man continued to look at me for a few seconds, but then his mouth moved as if he spoke one word.

I didn't hear anything with my own ears, but I then heard a reply through the Spirit Box.

"…Alan…"

Oh-my-god…

I took another deep, but silent, breath to calm my nerves.

"It's nice to meet you Alan, thank you for communicating with me," I said, wanting to keep this going as long as possible.

The man, who I could now refer to as Alan, nodded in reply.

My mind was racing with hundreds of questions to ask Alan, but somehow, I instinctively knew what questions to ask each time.

"Do you want to show me something?" I asked.

I focused my hearing on the Spirit Box, but at that moment I didn't need to, because Alan nodded in response, then motioned with one hand for me to follow him.

Before I could respond, Alan turned around and my mouth dropped in shock to see him go through the front door. Even though I had seen Emily do similar behaviour over the years, it was still shocking to see it each time.

"Hey! Wait!" I called, and ran toward the front door, opened it, and stepped out onto the landing.

I saw Alan briefly appear at the bottom of the stairs, disappear, and then reappear again several feet away, heading toward the forest that was on the back of the property.

"Ali! Take-" I heard Billy's voice emit from my walkie talkie on the table inside the apartment, but his voice was cut off.

Normally I would of gone back inside and grabbed the walkie talkie to take with me, but all my attention was focused on following Alan as I quickly jogged down the stairs, and then began running after Alan's apparition into the dark and dense forest.