Chapter 117: Trying to Get Groped

After some time had passed and everyone had calmed down after the ball of light incident, Zak decided he was going to come over near Patricia and I to see if anything would happen.

"If you don't go and talk to these girls, this cowboy over here is going to," Aaron said, as he momentarily filmed Zak heading toward us.

Zak walked his way over, acting the part of an interested cowboy and I had to struggle not to smile or react in such a way that would ruin the interaction.

"If I was you, I'd hurry up!" Aaron said. "Claim your territory," he added.

Zak reached Patricia and I, and stopped closer to me.

I swallowed back a lump that had formed in my throat from his close proximity.

Focus Ali!

"You guys get shy all of a sudden?" Patricia asked, and almost immediately, something strange happened.

The music that had been playing through the victrola, had stopped.

I momentarily felt confused, since the music hadn't reached an end, but then wondered if that was the only sound bite the researchers could put together.

After a few seconds of silence, Zak spoke.

"You know what's weird," Zak said, looking toward Aaron. "That music was on repeat…" Zak added.

Woah.

"Yeah," Aaron said, in realization.

"As soon as she started talking it stopped," Zak said.

"That shouldn't happen," Aaron replied.

We stood silent for a few seconds more, and with no other activity, Zak spoke again.

"Do you like what I brought for you?" Zak asked, taking a few steps closer to me. I could feel his eyes briefly on me, even in the near pitch black of the room. "Do you want me to take them away?"

We all stood silent, waiting for a response – nothing happened.

"Do you like me being around them?" Zak asked.

Shortly after Zak's response, I suddenly felt a shiver go down my spine, and I started to feel slightly cold.

"I feel cold all of a sudden," Patricia said, looking down at her arms.

"Yeah, me too. Felt a shiver go down my spine," I said, moving a hand up to hover in the air between us.

It felt cold.

Zak stepped over so he was right beside me now, and held his hand out near mine, and I saw his hand flinch.

"There's a cold spot right here between them," Zak said, looking toward Aaron once again. "Anything on the SLS Billy?" Zak asked, glancing in his direction.

"Nope, just picking up the three of you," Billy responded, who had been running the Structured Light Camera the entire time. "Nothing on thermal either," he added, after stepping over toward the Thermal Imaging Camera to take a peek at the screen.

"I don't feel it anymore," I said, moving my hand around a bit, and the temperature seemed to return to normal.

"Me either," Patricia said. "This is weird, they're usually more active than this," she added.

Zak lowered his hand as well and seemed to think briefly before he spoke.

"Do you guys want to go back there," Zak started, motioning to the "backstage" area. "And we'll leave you by yourselves?" Zak added, his attention more on me than Patricia.

"If she's okay with it, sure," Patricia said, looking at me.

I felt fine so far, so I didn't have any qualms about the idea.

"Yeah, I'm good," I said.

"Okay, we're gonna leave," Zak said, looking at Patricia.

Patricia let out a small chuckle of uncertainty, but nodded.

"We're going to go outside and watch you, okay? And just let you two be in here by yourselves," Zak said, again focused on Patricia.

He obviously knew I already knew the routine, but I also think he was trying to cover up his concern about leaving me alone for this "groping" experiment, because he seemed slightly tense.

"Okay," Patricia said.

Zak nodded in response - as Aaron and Billy made quick adjustments on the cameras to run on their own - and then glanced at me, and I could just barely make out the "you okay with this?" look in his eyes.

I gave him a reassuring nod and a slight reassuring smile, in which he gave me a slight smile in return before he walked back to meet up with Aaron and Billy, and then they all proceeded to leave the building and head to nerve centre.

"Phew…so you do these investigations for a living?" Patricia asked, as we climbed the stairs to the backstage section.

I couldn't help chuckling a bit.

"Yeah, I've experienced some crazy stuff. Nothing sexual though," I replied, as I followed her up the stairs.

"Well, you're probably not dressed like that for every investigation, right?" Patricia said, starting to laugh.

I laughed too.

"Definitely not," I replied.

We walked into the back room and looked around a bit, making sure we knew where the static x camera was, and waited to hear from the guys at nerve centre.

Zak's Point of View

Aaron, Billy and I left the building and headed back to nerve centre in order to watch them on the monitors. I felt a little uncomfortable leaving Alicia "alone", especially since I had no idea how she would react if something did touch her in an inappropriate way. But I knew I had to trust her when she said she was okay with going along with it.

When we arrived at nerve centre, I was the last to enter the tent, and Jay had already set up three extra chairs for us. Aaron had already taken the "front row" seat next to Jay and I tugged on the back of his vest, which he always wore on investigations.

"Get up," I said.

"Aww bro, you always sit in the front!" Aaron pretended to whine.

"He wants to watch his Saloon Girl up close," Billy teased, which was true, but not because of how hot she looked…well, okay, maybe some of that. But I just wanted to make sure she was okay.

"Oh, fine bro," Aaron said, standing up from the chair. "I always get the back row, well, not this time," Aaron exclaimed, pulling a seat up so he was sitting on my other side.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, sitting down in the chair next to Jay, and took the set of headphones he gave me so I could listen in on the girls, and then watched the screen on intently.

I saw Patricia first as she stepped within view of the camera, and I could tell right away something had changed. She had stopped in her tracks like she had walked into a brick wall.

"I don't feel so good all of a sudden," Patricia said.

I saw Alicia come into view then, instantly at Patricia's side with concern on her face, causing me to smile.

She cares so much for others…

"What are you feeling?" Alicia asked.

"I don't know, I just don't feel good," Patricia said. After a brief pause, she spoke again. "It feels heavier back here," she added.

Alicia took the lead then, being the kind hearted person she is, she wanted to give Patricia a chance to gather herself.

"Is this where all of you are hiding?" Alicia asked, as she walked further into the room, and was fully in view of the camera now.

No matter how hard I tried, all I could see were her sexy, toned legs covered in the black stockings, her narrow waist, and how the dress accentuated her breasts – not that she needed it, but I wasn't complaining.

I shifted slightly in my seat.

"Get a little excited there bro?" Aaron teased from beside me.

"Shut up Aaron," I replied, but did laugh slightly.

On the monitor, Patricia walked into the room a bit more, and turned to lean against a waist high cabinet that was behind her.

"Who's in here?" Patricia asked. "Are you here for the special event tonight? Because I know you're not normally in here," Patricia added.

No response.

At this point, Alicia was near the back of the room.

"How are you fellas doing tonight?" She asked, and I couldn't help but smile at her cute attempt to "flirt" with the spirits.

Before Aaron could say a word about her hitting on "other men", I spoke.

"Shut up Aaron," I mumbled, which caused him, Billy and Jay to laugh.

"Wanna have some fun?" Patricia asked, and then noticed she seemed to be uncomfortable, as she was shifting on her feet, rubbing her lower back a bit, before bracing herself against the cabinet again.

"You can move closer," Alicia said, and I was proud of her for sticking this out, and for saying something that could bring unwanted attention.

Suddenly, I noticed some of Patricia's hair, which had been hidden by the wall, swing out in front of the doorway, as if someone had flung it to that side.

"Look how her hair just went-" I said, motioning with my finger about it swinging to the left.

"I know, I saw that too," Billy said.

"Are you lonely?" Alicia asked.

"Did you see that?" I asked the guys again, wanting to make sure before I radioed to the girls.

"Yeah," Billy said.

"Patricia," I said, speaking into my walkie talkie. "Hey Patricia, can you hear me?" I asked again, after no response.

I saw Alicia reach around behind her back, and unhook the walkie talkie from the top of her dress - which was around the middle of her back – and place it on the table in front of her. Patricia had also walked up to the table too and was leaning on it with her hands.

"Yeah," Patricia responded.

"When you were standing against that wall, we saw a piece of your hair…fly up, way up to the left," I said.

"Yeah, I thought it was just me. I felt that too, I thought I was caught on something," Patricia responded.

"Wow," Jay said in surprise, and we were all stunned.

"No way!" Billy responded.

"No, un, we saw your hair completely straight, and it was like someone grabbed it and went completely to the left," I said.

"Okay…so that confirms what I felt," Patricia replied.

"Woah," I remarked to the guys, as I looked around at them and they were all stunned and shocked as I was. We would have to check other camera angles from the other room to see if we could better prove this wasn't Patricia moving her own hair, but right now, we believed her.

"Doc has a hair fetish…" Patricia said, counting on her fingers. "And a mystery cowboy nobody seems to have a name for," she added.

Alicia was just looking at her in shock, and maybe a little bit of nervousness, since her hair was long and dark too.

With all of us in shock, and Patricia seeming a bit uncomfortable, I decided to end this experiment.

"Alright ladies, you can come on out, we'll meet you in the lobby," I said over the walkie talkie.

"Alright Zak," Alicia said, picking up the walkie talkie in one hand, while she and Patricia reached out to each other to take each other's hand, and Patricia helped lead Ali out to the main room.

Alicia's Point of View

After Patricia and I made our way back toward the lobby, and near the entrance to the building, I turned to look at Patricia.

"Thank you for your help tonight," I said, smiling at her.

"No problem, you can keep the dress for the night if you want," Patricia said.

"Really? That'd be great, because I actually had an idea on what to do next and it would help," I replied.

"Yeah, sure. I'll probably be around for a while longer, or someone can get it from you before you guys leave," Patricia said. "And be careful…I think there's something darker in here than usual…because I've never felt like I did back there," Patricia said.

I felt my stomach clench slightly with nerves, but ignored it as best as a I could.

"I will, thank you again," I said. "I'm going to grab some gear and head downstairs to the bedrooms. Zak and Aaron will probably be here shortly," I added.

Patricia looked a bit uncertain with my idea, but didn't bother trying to stop me.

"Alright, have fun," she replied.

I couldn't help but laugh as I grabbed my video camera and my audio recorder from a table nearby, where we had equipment ready to go for each of us.

"Thanks, I'm sure I will…" I said, turning on my video camera, made sure the battery was still good, and then proceeded down into the basement.

Meanwhile…

Zak's Point of View

Aaron and I gathered up some gear for the next part of the investigation, and then left Billy and Jay at nerve centre to go and meet up with Alicia and Patricia at "The Birdcage Theatre" again. For the next part of the investigation, we'd let Patricia go, and I planned to just have Alicia, Aaron and myself investigate for a while before moving on to "Big Nose Kate's Saloon".

As Aaron and I made our way to the Theatre, Aaron decided to use the time where we were off camera to tease me some more about Alicia's attire during the last part of the lockdown.

"So bro…there was some pretty awesome sights for you during that last segment, huh?" He asked, nudging my arm, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"If I admit it, will you drop the subject?" I replied.

"Oh come on bro! You love the western era, and your girl was dressed up as a lady of the night…that's like…Cheryl dressing up as Princess Leia in the gold bikini from 'Star Wars'," Aaron said, laughing.

"God bro, I don't need to know that!" I replied, laughing.

Aaron just laughed and continued to look at me, awaiting my answer.

"Alright, yes," I admitted. "She looks incredibly sexy and I had thoughts going through my head that gave me trouble focusing on the lockdown," I admitted, as we reached the Theatre.

Aaron laughed again as he opened the door, and we both walked inside. Almost immediately, we saw Patricia waiting for us, but Alicia was no where in sight.

Where was she?

Aaron lifted his camera up onto his shoulder, knowing I wanted to ask Patricia some follow up questions, and started recording.

Temporarily putting my curiosity about Alicia's whereabouts aside, I moved closer to Patricia to question her.

"Hey, thank you for helping us with the investigation. I just want to ask a few follow up questions," I said.

"No problem, and sure," Patricia said.

"Did you feel anything hit your hair?" I asked.

"I thought I did, but I don't know if it was just me, or like, I caught it on something," Patricia replied.

"Well, it was just laying there and we just saw it go up," I said, "You know what I mean? Like someone grabbed it and pushed it, like that," I added, motioning with my hands to mimic someone pushing hair to one side.

"Mm-hmm, I felt something, I just didn't know what it was. I didn't want to react to something if it was nothing," Patricia replied.

"Right. Okay, I just wanted to get that – you'll see it on video, it's cool," I said, but partly trailed off at the serious look Patricia was giving me.

"There is somebody in here tonight who isn't normally here, because they don't do that to me. They don't make me sick," Patricia said.

I stayed silent, my thoughts straying back to wondering where Alicia was right now.

Maybe she's just gone to change…

"I had to hold onto something the whole time I was backstage," Patricia started.

"I know, we saw that…" I said.

"I couldn't move around. They don't do that to me," Patricia said. "Ever. I've never felt like that in this building, ever," Patricia added.

I casually cleared my throat before thanking her again, and then let her go on her way. Once she was gone, I motioned to Aaron to pause recording and took out my walkie talkie.

"Billy?" I asked through the walkie talkie, not wanting to risk disturbing Alicia if she was doing investigative work.

"Yeah Zak?" Billy responded.

"Can you guys see Ali?" I asked, and it was then that I noticed that her video camera and digital recorder were missing from the table we had our gear setup on.

As I waited for his response, I noticed Aaron looked slightly concerned too.

"Yeah, she grabbed her camera and recorder and went down into the basement. She's doing an EVP session in the poker room right now," Billy responded.

I hesitated. I knew the bedrooms where the ladies of the night had done their business were down there, and if Alicia was still wearing that getup…

No…she'd be uncomfortable doing that, she must of changed, I thought.

"Alright, Aaron and I will stay on this floor and try to contact the dark entity that Patricia thinks was here," I replied.

"Sure thing, we're watching," Billy replied.

I hooked my walkie talkie back on my belt and then grabbed my handheld video camera off the table.

"You alright bro?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah, just been a long night," I replied, not wanting to voice my concern about Alicia. As far as I knew, Aaron, Billy and Jay didn't know of Alicia's virgin status, and I didn't want to betray her confidence.

"Let's go," I said, walking into the theatre room, with Aaron following behind me, hitting the record on his camera again, while I held mine up and hit record.

"Are you ready?" I asked, as I walked into the ballroom.

"Ready," Aaron replied, following me inside.

I began to take slow steps forward, aiming my camera at the set of stairs that lead to the backstage area where Patricia had had her hair tossed, and had felt sick.

"Now it's just me and Aaron, you remember us," I said to the darkness.

"You should," Aaron said from behind me, as we continued to make our way forward.

There was no audible response.

As we neared the stairs, I spoke up again.

"We're coming right back up there," I said, and then walked up the stairs and into the room, panning my camera around. "Is there someone up here?" I asked.

It barely took a minute before I felt the different feeling between this room, and the one we had just left.

"Aaron, there's a different feeling in here," I said.

"Yeah dude," Aaron replied. "There's a different smell," he added, as he continued to film me.

I walked toward the same place Patricia had been standing before speaking again.

"Are you ready to talk this time?" I asked.

Silence.

I took out my digital recorder, and while I got it ready, Aaron spoke.

"Whatever spirits are in here, we're going to turn on a device that allows you to talk to us," Aaron explained. "We need you to communicate big time and give us some answers, alright?" Aaron added.

Just as I was about to hit record on my digital recorder to do an EVP session, I heard footsteps from downstairs.

"Whoa, did you hear that?" Aaron asked.

"I did," I said, as I lifted my head up to look at him.

"That's footsteps downstairs," Aaron said, looking into the static x camera we had set up earlier.

We listened for another moment or two before I contacted Billy via the walkie talkie.

"Hey Billy? Aaron and I just heard footsteps from downstairs, was that Ali?" I asked.

"Negative Zak. She's getting some EVP responses and is sitting on the bed in the first bedroom, and she heard the footsteps too," Billy replied.

The bedroom?! Shit.

"Come on, we're going downstairs," I said, immediately heading out into the theatre room and toward the main hall to go down to the basement, Aaron right on my heels.