Authors Note: Just want to post a quick credit to the pilot episode of the TV Show "Saving Hope" for inspiration for the next few chapters. Also, I hope all this stuff is as realistic as can be. I spent many hours researching for these chapters.

Chapter 131: Strange Memories

Alicia's Point Of View

We were still about ten minutes away from the "Holiday Inn" hotel, where the crew and I were staying in.

I kept quiet for most of the ride so far, grateful that Officer Shaw wasn't questioning me about tonight's events. I was also grateful she seemed fine with silence as well, even though there was still a bit of that "awkward silence" feeling.

As I watched the scenery pass us by via the passenger's window, I began thinking about Zak and I – for probably a millionth time since our blow up.

Why was I having these very insecure thoughts about myself again, after having improved quite a bit? Was it just because of Zak's remark about my virginity? Or was there something else going on now?

I had been so happy that I was starting to be more open, and less judgemental of myself, and now it felt like I was back to square one.

It had felt so nice to be in his arms again before I had left with Officer Shaw. I could of stayed there forever. And Zak was so understanding of my thoughts and feelings since our blow up…I was beginning to think that maybe I should just say "okay, I've had a relapse with my insecurity, if you're okay to be patient with me, then I'm okay too".

But then another part of me felt like I would be burdening Zak for asking that of him.

Ugh…why do I always have to be blame myself and feel guilty about everything…why am I like this?

That was a question I often asked myself, "why was I like this?"

I knew in my mind that a lot of people are born with shyness and/or social anxiety, but I've never met anyone else who is as hard as themselves as I am on myself. I often wondered if something in my past had triggered all these things about me, but I just couldn't remember it. Obviously my parents died tragically while I was young, and then my sister died even more tragically, and even though I blamed myself for those accidents, they didn't seem like events that would result in me being so hard on myself in every aspect of my life.

Maybe I should go to therapy…

As I tried to work through my thoughts and feelings, Officer Shaw decided to try to make idle chitchat.

"So, you guys investigate haunted locations for a television show?" She asked.

"Yes, we do," I replied softly. "It's called 'Ghost Adventures'," I added.

"Oh! I think I've heard of that show…one of my friends watches it, and she's always telling me about it," Officer Shaw replied. "That must be an interesting job," she added.

I chuckled quietly.

"Interesting would be an understatement, but yes…it can be very interesting," I replied.

Officer Shaw chuckled quietly as well.

"I can't even begin to imagine," she replied. "How long have you been doing it?" She asked.

"The show has been on for several years now, but I only joined on a little over six months ago," I replied. "A former team member left, and they were looking for a female investigator. I'd never been on a paranormal investigation in my life, but decided to apply for it," I said, finding myself more comfortable talking to Officer Shaw as the time passed.

"Wow, so it's still new to you then," She replied.

"In some ways, yes," I replied, not wanting to get into my life history with the paranormal.

"What did you do before this? If you don't mind me asking," Officer Shaw asked.

"Not at all, and I used to be a Motion Capture Artist," I answered, expecting to hear the usual "a what?" response.

"Oh wow! That's cool!" She replied, surprising me. "What did you work on?" She added.

I smiled a bit, finding myself glad she had struck up this conversation.

"Video games. Mainly the-" I started, when suddenly, a very bright, white light was shining on us from my side of the car.

I barely had the chance to look at the light before I felt the impact – something had rammed into my side of the car – hard.

Then my world was a blur, as the car spun a full 90 degrees – the roads wet and slick from the still falling snow not helping with tire traction - and came to a screeching halt in the middle of the intersection we had just started to go through.

I blinked a few times to get my bearings, everything was still somewhat of a blur, several things happening at once: a few other cars slamming on breaks before they entered the intersection, voices already screaming and yelling for help, bright lights shining in all directions.

I was distracted by a voice next to me.

"Miss Wilde? Are you okay?" Officer Shaw asked me, leaning over from her seat to look at me.

I slowly turned my head to focus on her.

"I'm-" I started, but she cut me off.

"You're bleeding," she exclaimed, pulling out a small flashlight from a pocket on her bullet proof vest and aiming it up at my forehead.

It was only at the mention of blood that I then noticed the feeling of warm liquid near the middle of my forehead.

"It looks like it's just a gash," Officer Shaw said, as she carefully examined my forehead with her free hand. "Do you feel okay? Are you dizzy? Any blurry vision? Pain?" She asked.

"I feel fine," I replied, honestly.

I was a little stunned, but otherwise, I really did feel fine.

"Okay…I'm going to go check on the other car, stay here," she ordered, and then she was quickly out of the car and jogging to the car that had hit us, taking her hand radio from her belt and bringing it up to her mouth to report the accident and ask for help.

Despite her orders, I couldn't just stay in the car, I wanted to help if I could. I obviously didn't have any medical training, but I could at least apply pressure to a wound, or just comfort people until the paramedics arrived.

I unbuckled my seatbelt, and managed to open my door – it was damaged from the accident, and I noticed the window had completely shattered.

Probably the cause of my gash…I thought.

I carefully climbed out of the car, bracing one hand on the top of the car as I surveyed the area. Only our car and one other car had been involved, but several cars had stopped to avoid hitting us – we were lucky, the accident could have been so much worse.

"Alicia!" Officer Shaw suddenly called to me from the other car. "I need the medkit! It's in the trunk!" She added.

I quickly fumbled around the front of the car to the driver's side – in a dazed state – and found the lever to open the trunk. Once I saw it pop open, I hurried to the back of the car and easily found the med kit and grabbed it, and began making my way toward the other car as quickly as I could.

I was about halfway there, when my vision started to blur, and I began to feel dizzy.

I closed my eyes briefly, hoping to rid my eyes of the blurriness, and ended up seeing a flash of a strange vision – several police cars outside the house I grew up in as a child, at night.

I opened my eyes again to find my vision was still blurry, and the world around me was beginning to spin, and my feet began to slow in their pace. The bright lights of all the cars around me was burning my eyes.

My eyes closed again, and there was another strange vision. I was running down the hallway of the second floor of my childhood home, and then frantically running down the stairs. I could hear people shouting, but couldn't make out the words. I couldn't tell if I was running from someone, or running to someone.

What is this..? Memories..?

I opened my eyes again, and tried to focus on the task at hand.

I was only a few steps away from Officer Shaw, her hand held out toward me to take the medkit, when I stopped in my tracks.

"Miss Wilde?" Officer Shaw questioned.

The dizziness became more intense, my head began throbbing – which caused me to reach up and lightly touch my gash. The sound of the oncoming sirens were like knives to my skull…

My vision blurred until I could barely discern a thing, and I didn't know it at the time, but eyes began to roll back into my head.

"Alicia!" Officer Shaw called out, barely managing to scramble toward me and catch me before I fell completely onto the ground.

I felt myself being laid back on the pavement, everything above me was a blur, and then black circles were closing in on my vision.

"Miss Wilde! Can you hear me?!" Officer Shaw asked frantically, but her voice sounded far away. "Medic! Medic!" She called out, looking off into the distance.

Then I was suddenly hit with several memories all at once: the night my parents died; their funeral; the night Emily had drowned; Emily's funeral; running away from foster care…

Then good memories started flashing before my eyes: meeting Cheryl; meeting Zak; the first time Zak and I danced; our first kiss; Zak asking me to be his girlfriend; our first date…

And then, just like someone had turned off a television, everything stopped. Everything went silent, and the world became black.

Zak's Point Of View

I was currently sitting in nerve center with Sheriff Borden and Billy. We were viewing Alicia's footage from earlier in the evening when she was investigating the apartment by herself, while Aaron and Jay were helping the crew gather up our equipment.

As I watched the footage, I found I couldn't focus on what I was supposed to be doing – looking for paranormal evidence that the Sheriff may have wanted. Instead, I kept thinking of how if I hadn't of let Alicia go and investigate the apartment on her own, the following events of the night wouldn't of happened.

Not only that, I kept glancing at my watch. Alicia should have arrived at the hotel by now. She said she would call me when she arrived at the hotel, and I felt she had been genuine when she told me she would call.

"Right here," Billy suddenly said, distracting me from my thoughts. "This is when the communication with this 'Alan' starts," Billy added, glancing at Sheriff Borden.

I saw Sheriff Borden lean closer toward the monitor for a better view.

"Did you capture any apparitions? Or capture any…what do you call them, when you hear the voices-" Sheriff Borden started.

"EVP's," Billy replied. "She doesn't capture anything visual on camera. As for audio, it's hard to tell from the raw recording, we'll have to take it back to Vegas and run it through our software that allows us to better analyze the recording," Billy explained.

"I see," Sheriff Borden replied, not looking pleased with that response.

"Sheriff Borden, if you don't mind me asking, why exactly do you need any of this?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Because this has been an ongoing case for years, with a lot of paranormal activity reported. A lot of those reports have proven to be accurate with the real evidence we find-" Sheriff Borden started.

"Real evidence"…I thought with annoyance. I completely understood of course, but the wording still annoyed me.

"We've started gathering any potentially valuable paranormal evidence as well, as it sometimes corroborates with the DNA testing of remains. Even though DNA testing is accurate, paranormal evidence in criminal cases seems to be becoming more popular," Sheriff Borden said.

"Right, I see," I replied.

"Sheriff Borden, are you there?" Officer Shaw's voice suddenly emitted from Sheriff Borden's hand radio.

My entire body tensed instantly. I could tell by the sound of her voice something was wrong.

I watched as Sheriff Borden lifted his hand radio up to his mouth and spoke into it.

"Yes, Officer Shaw. Have you arrived at the hotel with Miss Wilde?" Sheriff Borden asked.

"Sir…we were in an accident, sideswiped at an intersection. I'm at the hospital. Miss Wilde was injured,"Officer Shaw replied.

No…

Sheriff Borden began to stand up, and I knew it was to get more details about what happened without me overhearing, but I wanted those details, now!

I quickly stood up and grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving.

"Zak…" Billy said softly, in concern, as he stood up as well.

Thankfully, Sheriff Borden seemed to understand.

"What type of injuries?" Sheriff Borden asked, and I released his arm, giving him my best apologetic look.

He nodded in response.

"She had a gash on her forehead at the scene, I checked her out and asked her questions, and she insisted she was fine," Officer Shaw began. "After calling for an ambulance and checking on the other driver, I found they had some injuries I could treat until paramedics arrived. I called to Alicia to bring the medkit from the patrol car. As she was walking over, she started to collapse. I was able to catch her before she hit the ground, but she lost consciousness, and hasn't regained it as to my knowledge," Officer Shaw explained.

I felt like I had just been suckered punched in the stomach.

"What hospital are you at Officer Shaw?" Sheriff Borden asked, already gathering up his things to leave, and motioned for me to follow him.

"St. Vincent's, sir," Officer Shaw replied.

"I'm on my way. Hold your post to receive updates from the doctors," Sheriff Borden replied, then hooked his hand radio back on his belt. "You can come with me Mr. Bagans," Sheriff Borden replied.

I looked at Billy, and couldn't find words to say what I wanted to say: to give instructions to my crew.

"We got it, go!" Billy said. "We'll come to the hospital as soon as we can," Billy added.

I simply nodded and then quickly jogged after Sheriff Borden out of the Mansion, and then straight to his car, and quickly got in, and buckled my seatbelt.

"Please be okay…" I thought, while Sheriff Borden started the car and quickly drove down the long drive leading out to the street.