Chapter Ten
At 8:00 sharp, Aaron pulled the van into the parking lot of Bobby Mackey's Music World. Aaron and Nick were sitting in the front together, Zak and I were in the middle, and Billy and Jay were in the very back, double-checking that everything was ready for tonight. Aaron parked the van, and we saw that Bobby and Carl were waiting for us by the front door. "Well," Aaron said as he turned off the engine. "here we go. Straight back to Hell…" I shivered slightly, but didn't get much time to think about the significance of Aaron's words because Zak said, "Let's go." All six of us climbed out of the van and started towards Bobby and Carl, who both came to meet us. We met in the middle of the parking lot, and Bobby said, "Welcome back guys." "Hey Bobby." Zak said. The two shook hands. "You all ready for tonight?" Zak looked around at the rest of us. "I think so." Bobby nodded. "Alright." "Good luck tonight you all." Carl said quietly. "I'll be praying for you all tonight. Something tells me you'll need it…" I shivered at Carl's words, but Zak and the guys merely nodded. "Do you guys have our numbers?" Bobby asked, looking at Zak, Nick, Aaron, Billy, and Jay, and indicating himself and Carl. "In case anything goes on." "Jay and I don't. Billy said, as the two of them stepped forward. Bobby and Carl exchanged numbers with Billy and Jay, and then Bobby said, "Alright guys. We've left everything unlocked so you can travel from building to building. And we'll be back at 6:00 tomorrow morning to let you guys out. Call us if you need us." Bobby looked so serious when he said that last sentence, it made me shiver again. Zak nodded and shook hands with Bobby and Carl. Bobby and Carl shook hands with all of the guys, and then they both hugged me. Once we had said our last goodbyes, Bobby and Carl got in their cars and left the parking lot… Once they were gone, Zak turned to us and said, "Alright. Let's get the equipment, set up the X-Cameras, and get started!" Billy, Jay, and Aaron grabbed the three X-Cameras and headed off in different directions to get them set up. Aaron went into the club, Billy went into the slaughterhouse, and Jay went up to Carl's old apartment. Zak, Nick, and I all climbed into the back of the van to start sorting out equipment. Nick took one of the huge cameras, leaving the other for Aaron. Zak checked to make sure everything else had fresh batteries. I sat next to him and he said, "Do you remember what I said to you this afternoon? About nothing being able to tear us apart? Or making me stop loving you?" I nodded. "Yes, I do." "I meant it." "So did I." Zak leaned over and kissed me, and I knew that a bond had been made between us. A bond that could never be broken. When we pulled away, Zak said, "Alright. The guys and I discussed this yesterday, and we decided that we're going to let you do most of the communicating with Johanna. We think that, being the sweet, sensitive, girl that you are, and being the lover of Romeo and Juliet stories that you are, you'll have better luck with communicating with her. She'll probably be more open with you than with us." I nodded. "Okay. Cool!" "We'll probably do some EMF sweeps before we start trying to communicate, though, just to see if she's there or not. If she is, we'll just give you a recorder and you can start talking to her." I nodded. "And if she isn't there?" "Do you think you could convince her to show herself?" "I'll do my best." Zak nodded. "Alright. Cool." At that moment, Aaron, Billy, and Jay come back. "Alright." Billy said. "We got the X-Cameras hooked up, so we can start running Nerve Center!" Zak turned and looked at him and grinned. "Cool!" Billy and Jay climbed up into the back with us and started powering up the monitors. Within seconds they had sight of all of Bobby Mackey's. Billy and Jay turned to us as the guys and I finished gathering up the equipment. "You guys have your walkie-talkies right?" Billy asked. Zak, Nick, and Aaron all nodded. "And you two have yours?" Nick asked. Billy and Jay held up their walkie-talkies, and Nick nodded. "Alright." Zak said. "So if you two hear or see anything that we don't, let us know. Alright?" Billy and Jay both nodded. "We will." "Good." Zak said, standing up. "In that case, I think we're ready." Nick, Aaron, and I stood up beside him. "Cool." Billy said. "Good luck guys! You'll need it…" We all did fist bumps for good luck, and then Zak, Nick, Aaron, and I climbed out of the back of their van. Nick closed the doors to the back of the van as the rest of us got ready to start filming. Nick and Aaron had their Video Cameras, and they also had EMF Detectors and Pumps, Digital Recorders, the Spirit Box, Motion Sensors, everything. I had a digital recorder in the back pocket of my jeans, and Zak had the Mel-Meter in the front pocket of his jeans. "We ready bro?" Aaron asked Zak as he and Nick fired up their cameras. Zak looked at me and I nodded. Then he nodded at Aaron, and Aaron looked at Nick, who also nodded. The sun was just starting to sink below the horizon when Nick counted down from three, and then he and Aaron both hit record. "Alright." Zak said, after Nick gave him the cue to start talking. His tone had become more business-like, more professional. It was a major change from the tone had had been using with us all weekend, but it was still a tone that I was very familiar with, after having watched several seasons of Ghost Adventures. "Here we are." Zak continued. "The Ghost Adventures Crew is back again at Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, Kentucky. We're back again tonight to communicate with the Demons here at the place that's called 'Hell's Gate', and is known as a portal to Hell. The Demons here at Bobby Mackey's know us very well. They've called us out by name. They've followed us home. They've mocked our voices. They've left us all with a lot of physical and emotional scars. This stuff is no joke. I don't think any of us would be lying to you if we said that we're not a little bit apprehensive about doing another lockdown here." Nick shook his head and Aaron said, "No way!" Zak sort of chuckled slightly, but the sound was strained, like he was trying to make light of an intense situation. Which he very probably was. However, his voice was still calm and steady as he continued. "The Demonic entities here are still plaguing the owner, Bobby Mackey himself, as well as all of his employees. So we've come back to get answers from those entities. But, we've also brought an extra person back with us, not just ourselves. She's a huge fan of the show, and she won the radio competition a month ago… Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Andrea Gunderson!" Zak looked at me and grinned as Nick turned the camera so he was shooting me. I waved and smiled shyly. "Hi." I said. "Hi to the girls back home!" Zak came over to me and gently put his arm around my shoulders. "Bobby Mackey and Carl Lawson have already left us alone here. Everything's unlocked, and we've got three on-site locations. The first spot is the club and bar itself, the second is Carl's old apartment upstairs, where he was possessed by a Demon in 1991 and a priest had to perform a six-hour exorcism on him, and the third is the old slaughterhouse, where the infamous well is located. The well that's supposed to be a portal to Hell. It's just going to be the three of us," He indicated Nick, Aaron, and himself. "plus Andrea, and also Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley, our audio visual techs. Billy and Jay are running Nerve Center from our van, and they'll be monitoring our investigation and watching us the entire night. We've already got our X-Cameras set up and we're ready to start our lockdown, so let's get inside, get the lights off, and get started!" Together, the four of us walked across the parking lot and entered the club. It was pitch dark inside, and I shivered slightly. Using the screens of Nick and Aaron's cameras, we made our way over to the stage. Zak and I sat down on the stage. Zak and I sat down on the stage, and Nick and Aaron stood in front of us. Nick was filming me, and Aaron was filming Zak. I pulled out the digital recorder and started recording. Zak said, "Okay so we're going to try to communicate with the spirit of Johanna. She committed suicide here in the 1930s when her father had her lover, Robert Randall, murdered. Andrea told us yesterday that she's a huge lover of Romeo and Juliet stories, and she's a hopeless romantic, so we're going to let her try to communicate with Johanna. But first, we're going to do an EMF sweep to see if we can get any spikes." Zak looked at Nick, who handed an EMF Detector. Zak held it out in front of him as he pulled a miniature flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on, shining the light on the needle of the meter. Once everything was ready, he looked back up at the camera and said, "So the EMF detector measures the amount of Electromagnetic Energy in the environment around you, which is what spirits are supposed to be made up of. If this thing spikes, we'll know that there's an entity present with us." We all fell silent as Zak turned around in a slow circle, watching the needle to see if it spiked. When he had turned a full three hundred sixty degrees and had covered the whole club, Nick asked, "No spikes I take it?" Zak shook his head. "No. None." He turned off his flashlight and put the EMF detector in his back pocket, plunging us into darkness once more. Even in the dark, I could make out Zak's profile as he turned towards me. "So are you ready to try to bring her out?" I nodded, smiling, and gave him a thumbs up. "Let's do it!" Zak grinned back at me. "Go for it!" Nick turned his camera back to me as I pulled the digital recorder out of my pocket and turned it on. I hit record and then started talking to Johanna, first introducing myself and then asking her questions. I paused between each question to give her a chance to talk to us. "Hi Johanna. My name is Andrea. I want you to know that I mean you no harm. I just want to talk to you. Are you here Johanna? Are you here with us right now? I know that you took your own life because your father had your lover killed. I want you to know that I believe that that's the worst thing you can do to someone, and I don't blame you for taking your own life. I might do the same if I was in that situation… I couldn't imagine living without the man I love. Especially if he had been killed by my own father. I want to talk to you Johanna. Will you please talk to me? Will you please just come down here and talk into the little red light in my hand?" I finally stopped talking, and we all just stood there in complete silence. After about five minutes Zak said, "Let's play back the recording and see if we captured anything." I nodded and stopped recording. I handed the digital recorder to Zak, and then I leaned in close to him as he played back the recording. We didn't catch any voices until the very end of the session. Right after I said, "Will you please talk to me?", a female voice came through on the recorder. "Whoa!" Zak and I said together, pulling back and looking at each other. "What did she say?" Nick asked as he and Aaron moved closer to us. "I don't know." Zak replied. He rewound the recoding a little bit, and then he played it again. And that time we were all able to make out what the woman was saying. She said, "Hi Andrea. I'm Johanna. Talk to me." Zak high-fived me as I grinned again. "That's awesome dude!" Aaron said. "And it's clear too!" Nick added. "I'd say that's a Class A right there!" "Do you want to use the Spirit Box to talk to her?" Zak asked me. I nodded. "Sure." Aaron handed me the Spirit Box, and Zak said, "Talk to her. She obviously wants to talk to you!"