Chapter 120: Big Nose Kate's
When Zak and I reached "Big Nose Kate's Saloon", we walked inside to find Aaron checking over the equipment.
He looked up when he heard us walk in.
"Hey Munchkin, you okay?" Aaron asked, looking more sympathetic than I could ever recall seeing him.
I knew he was only asking me because I had been possessed - regardless of how briefly it lasted. I knew Aaron wasn't trying to tease me, or make fun of Zak and I's experience.
Before I could answer, I felt Zak tense beside me. I gently took his hand in mine and gently squeezed it to reassure him. I felt his own hand squeeze mine in return before letting my hand go, and as he looked down at me, I felt him relax again.
"I'm good, thanks Aaron," I said, smiling reassuringly at him.
Aaron nodded as he smiled in return, and then motioned to the equipment on the table.
"I brought your digital recorder and camera for you," Aaron said. "The batteries are still good," he added.
"Thanks Aaron," I said, smiling at him as I stepped forward and picked up my digital recorder and slipped it into the pocket of my jeans.
"Where are Billy and Jay?" Zak asked, as he stepped forward as well and grabbed his recorder from the table.
"We're back at nerve centre," Billy responded through Zak's walkie talkie. "Do you need one of us to come down?" Billy asked.
Zak unhooked his walkie talkie from his belt and held it up near his mouth.
"I'm not sure yet," Zak responded, and looked at me as he spoke again. "I'm gonna have Aaron and I go downstairs to investigate the Swamper area, and thought Ali could hang around upstairs," Zak explained.
I knew what he was thinking: was I comfortable being on my own again?
"I'm up for that," I said, knowing that there were reports of paranormal activity in the bar area.
"Are you sure?" Zak asked.
"Yeah, I'll sit at the bar and quietly do some EVP sessions, so I don't interfere with you guys downstairs," I suggested, since I knew walking around on the wooden floor would contaminate any potential evidence they picked up below me.
"Alright," Zak agreed, speaking both to me and to Billy. "Billy, you and Jay watch us from nerve centre," Zak added.
"No problem," Billy responded, and Zak hooked his walkie talkie back onto his belt.
"I'm going to take the SLS camera downstairs," Zak said, as he picked up the SLS from the table. "Aaron, take a digital recorder down too," he added.
"Alright," Aaron replied, as he picked up his digital recorder and put it into a pocket of his trench coat. He wasn't wearing his usual "lockdown vest" – the one that had multiple pockets – because it would of interfered with his cowboy look.
While Zak began booting up the SLS camera for use, I picked up my handheld camera and walked over to the bar, and sat on one of the wooden bar stools.
I glanced across the room to make sure I was still in view of the static-x cameras, and then set my own camera down on the bar at an angle that would record me the entire time, but obviously at a closer angle.
As I continued setting up and preparing my handheld camera for filming, I heard Zak walk over to me.
"Hey…are you sure you're okay with this?" Zak asked softly, watching me with concern in his eyes.
I smiled up at him reassuringly.
"Yes, I'm sure," I replied softly, touched my his concern. "My over protective boyfriend," I added in a teasing tone.
Zak jokingly huffed like he was offended, but I could see his eyes practically shining in the darkness at me referring to him as my "boyfriend", and I couldn't help but smile.
"Come on lover boy!" Aaron – who was waiting near the top of the stairs that lead to the basement –jokingly yelled.
I couldn't help but laugh at the embarrassed, yet slightly annoyed, look that came over Zak's face, before he chuckled too.
Before Zak left, he leaned down and gave me a light kiss on the cheek.
"Be careful," he whispered, before standing back up to his full height.
I smiled and nodded in response.
"You too," I whispered back.
Zak smiled before he turned and walked back over to Aaron, picking up the SLS camera from the table on the way, and then they both disappeared downstairs.
I couldn't help smiling to myself as I turned back to my camera and finished preparing it for filming.
I then took the digital recorder out from my pocket, and hit the fast forward button for a few seconds, as I didn't want to listen to the recording to see if the tape was clear before I started recording new EVP sessions. I didn't want to risk hearing any of the audio from the bedroom incident at that moment.
Once I was sure I had put enough space between recordings, I briefly hit the record button.
"This is Ali, at 'Big Nose Kate's Saloon', time is…" I said, and the glanced at my watch. "3:17am," I finished, then hit the pause button.
This was a habit we all did with our digital recorders whenever we were in between actually filming. It was just another way of providing us with a time stamp of the lockdowns events. It helped us – especially Billy – when going over our video and audio footage and piecing things together for the final cut of each episode.
As I took some calming breaths to calm my mind and relax my body as best as I could to get back into investigator mode, I suddenly heard my walkie talkie beep, indicating someone was about to speak.
"We got you girlfriend!" Billy and Jay chimed in, both with high pitched voices, through my walkie talkie.
I laughed as I unhooked my walkie talkie from my belt, thankful Billy and Jay weren't making a big deal out of my embarrassing ordeal.
"Thanks guys," I replied into the walkie talkie, before setting it down on the bar.
Just as I reached forward to hit the record button on my handheld camera, I heard Aaron from below me.
"You go girlfriend!" He yelled out, obviously having heard Billy and Jay on the walkie talkies.
This sent me into another round of laughter, especially when, shortly after, I heard Zak yell.
"Shut up bro!" Zak yelled, and Aaron began laughing.
"Oh my god…" I mumbled to myself, nearly falling off the bar stool as I cracked up in hysterics.
After Zak, Aaron and I calmed down and finished preparing our equipment, we started our investigation of "Big Nose Kate's Saloon" – Zak and Aaron downstairs, and myself upstairs.
While we were recovering from our laughter, I decided to get two glasses, and a bottle of whiskey from behind the bar, and set them on the bar top within reach. I planned to use them as trigger objects if I started documenting any activity.
"I'm in the bar area of 'Big Nose Kate's'," I began, looking into my camera, which I had resting on the bar top. "There have been reports of activity around the bar, so I'm going to do a live EVP session with my digital recorder and see if I can contact anyone," I added.
I picked up my digital recorder from the bar, and hit the record button. I then turned a bit on the bar stool to face the room, but made sure my face was still partially within view of my camera. There were also two static-x cameras recording in the room.
"Is there anyone here with me?" I asked, holding the digital recorder out in front of me.
Silence.
Suddenly, I heard a noise to my right – something that sounded like footsteps on the wooden floor.
Well, that was quick…I thought.
Meanwhile…
Zak's Point of View
Once Aaron and I settled down from the much needed moment of laughter, we began our investigation down in the basement.
"Alright Aaron, are you ready?" I asked, holding the SLS camera out in front of me as I began slowly walking forward.
The SLS camera – the Structured Light Sensor camera – mapped in spirits on the screen in the form of stick figures. It could also pick up environmental variables, such as the current temperature.
I heard Aaron let out a deep sigh behind me – in a "I guess so" type of way – while he followed along behind me with his camera, recording me.
As I continued slowly moving forward, I decided to say aloud some of the measurements that the SLS camera was picking up.
"Alright, right now I got a baseline temperature, at sixty-three degrees Fahrenheit…" I began, but trailed off as I noticed something on the screen.
I could clearly see what looked like a figure in the distance, but it was silhouette shaped, instead of being mapped in as a stick figure.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" I said, stopping in my tracks and staring at the screen.
"What?" Aaron asked, as he also stopped, continue to film from behind me.
"Hold on, hold on," I said, glancing up into the darkness.
I couldn't make out anything in front of me, so I looked down at the screen again, and then moved the SLS camera slightly to show Aaron.
"Doesn't that look like a human figure standing right in front of me?" I asked.
Aaron only had to look at the screen for a few seconds before responding.
"Yeah!" Aaron exclaimed excitedly.
"It's not mapping it in, but do you see?" I asked.
"Yeah," Aaron replied again.
After watching the screen for a few seconds, I spoke to the figure.
"Can you move for me?" I asked.
No movement, and no sounds.
I slowly took a few steps further, and as the figure came into clearer focus on screen, I realized the "figure" was actually just a display model, as it clearly had a stand on the bottom.
"Oh, wait a minute, it's just a display," I said, disappointed.
"Debunked!" Aaron said in agreement.
It really sucked when what we suspected might be awesome evidence, turned out to be nothing at all.
We began slowly making our way across the room again, and once we neared the other side, I turned the SLS camera to aim at the metal barred door where the Swamper's quarters were reported to be.
"Okay, right over there where those bars are," I began. "That is where this…it's a completely different world beyond those bars," I added.
I took a few steps closer, Aaron still close behind me, and then stopped to watch the SLS camera screen more closely.
"Dude, I'm getting chills man," Aaron said. "I'm getting body chills bad," he added.
"You are?" I asked, glancing at him.
"Yeah, I'm feeling something," Aaron replied.
"Are you Swamper?" I asked of the darkness, as I looked back at the SLS camera screen, and noticed that the temperature had dropped.
"Sixty degrees temperature…dropped three degrees," I said, watching the screen.
Suddenly, a stick figure appeared on the left side of the screen.
"Getting a figure on my left," I said, holding the SLS camera still. "There's a figure standing up over here on my left now," I added, noticing the figure looked to be standing on a piece of nearby furniture.
"For real?" Aaron asked from behind me.
"Yeah," I replied, and looking up in the direction of the figure. "All I see is the wallpaper," I added.
"Me too," Aaron said, as he quietly moved closer to me to look at the screen.
"It looks like he's doing the- like he's dancing," I said, watching the figure.
"Oh yeah! I see that!" Aaron said, as he watched the figure as well. "Up and down, in the room, almost like, scaring us away or- like you shoo away an animal," Aaron added.
Even though at times Aaron could drive me a little nuts during investigations, at other times, he was great when we began capturing evidence like this. He always had a perfect way of describing an entity's movement or sounds.
I watched the figure for a few more seconds and then spoke to it again.
"Can you stop doing that?" I asked.
I was partly surprised when the figure suddenly stopped "dancing", and just stood there.
"It stopped," I remarked. "Can you jump down off there?" I asked, hoping to catch more amazing evidence.
I didn't know whether to be amazed, or disappointed, when the figure suddenly disappeared. Maybe the figure had misunderstood my request, and it had jumped down off the furniture thinking I had wanted it to leave. Or, perhaps it was just another instance of a spirit disappearing as quickly as they appear, with no logical explanation.
"It's gone," I said, somewhat sadly, but it was still a great catch. Especially since the figure had essentially been between us and the metal gate that lead to the Swamper's room. Maybe it had been the Swamper, guarding it's room and protecting his silver, which is still said to be buried there.
After making sure the figure was gone, I walked up to the gate, still holding the SLS camera in front of me.
However, as soon as I reached the gate, an error message came up on the screen informing me that the program had stopped working.
"Look it," I said, holding the SLS so Aaron could film it.
"What?" He asked, as he moved closer.
"As soon as I get up to his cage, it just stops working," I explained.
"What?!" Aaron replied in shock.
"Yeah, and look," I started. "The temperature went down to fifty-nine degrees," I added.
"Fifty-nine," Aaron repeated in surprise.
"That's about, a four to five degree temperature drop, since we started," I said.
"Why did it shut off?" Aaron asked.
Before I could answer, I noticed the temperature drop another degree.
"Temperature's going down to fifty-eight now," I said. "There's definitely something going on," I added.
"There's something right here dude," Aaron remarked. "It's protecting it's area," he added.
"Yeah," I replied.
I carefully set the SLS camera down on a nearby table, and got my handheld camera from another table and walked back over to the door, and began recording.
I aimed the camera at the metal barred door, showing the would be viewers what was inside, and then I turned to film Aaron.
"Hey Aaron," I said.
"Yeah?" Aaron replied, lowering his camera to be able to look into mine.
"I want you to go in here," I said, filming him for his reaction.
As usual, even though this had become habit by now, he looked stunned.
"Go inside?" Aaron asked, his eyes wide.
"Yeah, I want you to go inside there," I said.
I knew a lot of viewers always nagged at me for "always" sending Aaron into the "worst" places of our lockdowns, but it wasn't because I was trying to get a kick out of it or anything…well...okay, maybe sometimes I do get amused by his reactions. But I really only pick Aaron most of the time because he's so high energy, and that leads to great evidence captures.
Aaron took a deep breath and I stepped back as he walked up to the metal barred door, and slowly opened it, holding his handheld camera in front of him.
Then he just stood there, hesitating.
"Go!" I insisted, while filming him.
"Dude, it just feels weird…" Aaron started. "It's like I shouldn't," he added.
"Get in there," I replied, slightly amused.
He always put up a fight, but I knew deep down inside, he loved doing this – at least most of the time.
"I just feel like I shouldn't do it," Aaron replied, as he started walking inside. "Oh god…" Aaron said, as he stepped further into the room.
Once he was fully inside, I stepped forward and silently shut the gate behind him. I then shook the door slightly, to show to the would be viewers he was locked in there.
As I watched him look around the room, I saw him get dangerously close to the hole that lead to the underground tunnels the Swamper used to mine his silver.
"Don't fall in that hole!" I exclaimed, as I filmed him from outside the door.
Aaron stepped back a few steps from the hole, and then stood still.
"Dude, I'm shaking," Aaron said. "I don't even know why I'm shaking right now," he added.
Shortly after, he took out his digital recorder from his pocket.
"Okay…you ready?" He asked, as he looked at me. "Ah man…Zak, this is really uneasy bro," Aaron added, as he somewhat paced around the room.
Suddenly, I heard noises above us.
"Okay..rea-" Aaron began, but I cut him off.
"Shut up, shut up!" I said, not meaning to be that rude about it, it just slipped out. "Listen," I added, a bit more gently with my tone.
I kept my camera on Aaron for another few seconds, and then whirled around when I heard the same noises behind me, but still above us.
I stayed silent for a moment as I listened.
"Somebody's walking," I said, glancing back at Aaron before walking across the room toward the stairs.
"Don't leave me!" Aaron said from the Swamper's room.
"I'm just going to check in with Ali, okay?" I replied, and stopped near the bottom of the stairs.
"Ali? Is that you walking upstairs?!" I called up the stairs.
"Negative!" Alicia called back. "I heard footsteps too!" She added.
My over protectiveness kicking back into gear, I began walking up the stairs to meet her, leaving Aaron alone in the Swamper's room.
Hope you enjoyed these two chapters, and I apologize it's not more. Until next time.