Chapter Eleven
"I heard you Johanna," I said. "and I want to talk to you. Why are you still here?" I waited for a few seconds, and then a clear, female voice came through and said, "I want to help." "Did she just say, 'I want to help'?" Aaron asked, looking at me. I nodded. "Yes, she did." I asked another question of Johanna. "Who do you want to help?" We waited for a few seconds, and then she replied, "You." "Me?" I asked, slightly stunned. "You want to help me, Johanna?" "Yes." "Help me with what?" There was about two minutes of silence, and then Johanna said, "Protect you… from Demons…" I couldn't suppress the shudder that went through me at the word "demons". I reached for Zak's hand in the dark, not caring that this would eventually air on at least national, and maybe even international television. Zak gave my hand a reassuring squeeze, but I could feel how tense he was. Nick and Aaron's eyes widened in the pale, green lights of their LCD screens. "Dude…" Aaron whispered. "That's crazy…" We were silent for a few more seconds, and then both Zak and I felt a blast of ice-cold air envelop us. "Whoa!" Zak said, looking at me. "Holy shit." I whispered. Goosebumps erupted all up and down our arms, and the hair on the back of our necks stood on end. "Do you guys feel that?" Zak asked, turning and looking at Nick and Aaron. They both nodded. "It just got freezing cold in here." Aaron replied. "Exactly!" Zak said. "It's freezing cold, we all felt it, and Andrea and I didn't have to tell you it was cold for you to know that!" "This is insane bro." Aaron said as he panned his camera across the stage behind us, where the unexplained cold was coming from. "Do you see anything?" Zak asked. Aaron shook his head. "No. There's nothing back there dude." "Bobby didn't like leave the air conditioning on or something right?" I asked. I could barely make out Zak shaking his head in the dark. "I know for a fact he didn't." Zak answered quietly. "I specifically asked him to leave it off so we'd know if we got any cold spots, and he said he would. And he texted me right before we got here and told me that he and Carl both had made absolutely sure that the air conditioning wasn't running." He slowly stood up, grabbing an EMF Detector. I followed him as he went towards the back of the stage, to see if he could get an EMF spikes. Nick followed us, to give us some light, but Aaron stayed by the front of the stage, filming us and making sure that there wasn't anything backstage that could be causing the cold air. We hadn't gone very far when Zak got a high spike, indicating the presence of electromagnetic energy. We were in the presence of a spirit. We were in the presence of Johanna. "Whoa." Zak said again when he got the spike. "That's awesome!" I said. Aaron opened his mouth to ask what we were talking about, but he was cut off when an interesting smell wafted through the air… "Dude!" Aaron said, coming to join us onstage. "Is that roses?" Zak, Nick, and I all nodded. We were all quiet for a minute, smelling the sweet scent of roses. It was easy for us to forget about the other, evil entities at Bobby Mackey's with that scent assaulting our noses… It was hard for us to remember that there were other entities at the nightclub besides Johanna. "Do we wanna try another session with the spirit box?" Aaron asked, looking at Zak. I nodded at Zak, and he nodded at me. I then turned the spirit box back on and started talking to Johanna again. "Johanna we can feel you and we can smell your perfume. Is there anything else you want to say to us?" We were silent for several seconds, waiting for Johanna to reply, and then a female voice – the same voice that we had been hearing all evening – came through and said, "Beware…" "Beware of what?" We waited another few seconds in complete silence, and then we heard, "Demons." Zak, Nick, Aaron, and I all looked at each other, and I could read the fear in their eyes, like they could surely read the fear in mine. I swallowed hard and asked, "Should any of us specifically beware of the Demons Johanna?" Another few seconds of silence, and then, "Andrea… Zak…" My heart momentarily stopped when I heard my name, and then started up again in a crazy rhythm of fear. When she called out Zak's name, I started shaking uncontrollably… Zak and I looked at each other in the near darkness, the weak, green light reflecting off of Nick and Aaron's faces and onto ours. Aaron and Nick were looking at us with wide eyes again. I swallowed, closed my eyes, and asked another question. "Why should Zak and I beware of the Demonic entities here?" This time Johanna's reply was instant. "Tear…you…apart…" I let out a sharp gasp of fear, and Zak took hold of my hand again as he continued questioning Johanna. "Will the Demons try to tear us apart physically?" There was approximately two or three minutes of absolute silence. "Should we stop filming Zak?" Zak looked at me and I shook my head. I was standing right next to him, hugging myself tightly. Yes I was scared of what was going to happen to us – all four of us, but especially to Zak and I – but I knew that this was good evidence. And I wanted it aired. I wanted to prove to all of the skeptics out there that the paranormal did exist, and it was no joke. I wanted to prove what the guys wanted to prove. "Keep filming." Zak said quietly. Nick and Aaron both nodded. "Johanna," Zak asked quietly. "will the Demons try to physically rip us apart?" As we stood there, waiting for Johanna to respond to us, something occurred to me. "Guys stop filming for a second." I said quietly. "I want to ask her something." Nick and Aaron both stopped recording, and then Nick said, "Okay. You can ask her whatever you want to ask her." I nodded. "Thanks guys." I very gently laid my hand on Zak's arm and asked, "Or, Johanna, will the Demons try to destroy Zak's and my relationship?" Zak's eyes widened as he looked at me. "I hadn't thought about that…" he whispered. "It makes sense, though, bro." Aaron interjected quietly. "They ruined Sheena's and my marriage. Remember? Who's to say they won't try to do something like that to the two of you?" Zak slowly nodded. "You're right." he whispered. I said softly, "I'm sorry Aaron. All my friends back home know about that, and they think it's awful. But especially your fans…" Aaron just nodded. I don't think he really knew what to say… In the silence that followed, Johanna came through the Sprit Box again and answered my question. "Relationship…" Zak wrapped his arm protectively around me and I rested my head against his shoulder. He gently kissed the top of my head. "It's okay Andrea." he whispered. "It's okay." He didn't sound very convinced, though, and I wasn't either. I was scared. I was truly, genuinely scared. And I could tell that the guys were too… I clung tightly to Zak and he held me against his side. "How can you protect them Johanna?" Aaron asked quietly. "My marriage was ruined by the Demonic entities here. No one was able to protect us. How can you protect Zak and Andrea?" There was complete silence. No voices at all came through the Spirit Box. We stood there in absolute silence for several minutes, waiting for an answer. But none was forthcoming. I clung to Zak tighter, trying not to fall apart. I was silently praying that Zak wouldn't let go of me, at least for now. I knew that the moment that he did, I would fall apart. And I couldn't let that happen. Not if I didn't want to give the Demons a clear shot at Zak and I (which I didn't). Keeping his arm tightly around me, Zak handed the Spirit Box to Aaron. He was about to radio Billy on his walkie-talkie when Billy radioed him. "Zak?" "I'm here Billy." "Jay and I heard every word of that. Are you guys alright?" Zak looked first at Nick and Aaron, who both looked nervous and worried, and then he looked at me. I was still clinging to him nervously. Zak radioed Billy back and said, "We're all pretty shaken. I think we're gonna come out and join you two for a little while. Regroup and figure out what we're going to do from here." "Okay. We'll unlock the van." "Alright. We'll be out in a minute." Aaron had turned off the Spirit Box and put it away. Zak pocketed his walkie-talkie and the four of us made our way across the bar, using the light from the LCD screens to guide us. The frigid cold air and the haunting scent of roses followed us all the way to the front door, like Johanna herself was following us and making sure we got out safely… Not once did Zak let go of me, even after we went out to the parking lot, for which I was very grateful. Billy and Jan were waiting for us outside the van. When we got to them, I could tell they were as scared and worried as we were. "You guys alright?" Billy looked mostly at me when he asked that, probably because I was as white as a sheet and I was clinging to Zak almost for dear life. Zak slowly shook his head and the six of us all climbed into the back of the van together.