Author's Note: Firstly, I sincerely apologize for the lack of an update. As most of you probably know from a Note I had posted up, my grandfather passed away on January 29th. He had lived with us for the last number of years, and thus his passing hit me very, very hard.
Secondly, if I could reach through my iPad screen and give each and every one of you a hug for your comments, understanding, and patience during this hard time, I would. Thank you all so much for sticking with me.
And finally, here's the update! One last thing though before you get reading, in case you aren't already aware from my announcement on my Twitter and Instagram accounts, my Fan Fiction/Fandom Tumblr blog is up and running! So if you want to find out about story progress, leave feedback, ask me a question or share your own fiction, please check out my blog! The "Important Notes" I used to post here, will be posted on the blog from now on. You can find the link in my profile, or here (without the spaces) randomhearts82 . tumblr . com
And now...onto the update!
Chapter 121: Poor Aaron
Alicia's Point of View
"Who's here with me?" I asked, holding my digital recorder out in the direction of where the sound of footsteps had come from.
There was a brief moment of silence in the building, before I suddenly heard Zak call to me from the basement.
"Ali? Is that you walking upstairs?!" Zak called.
Guess Aaron and Zak heard the footsteps too…I thought.
"Negative!" I called back. "I heard footsteps too!" I added.
I faintly heard Zak say something – I assumed to Aaron – before I heard him coming up the stairs.
"That's Zak coming up the stairs," I said, speaking into the digital recorder, so that Zak's footsteps wouldn't be mistaken for paranormal activity. I then stopped the recorder and rewound it briefly to see if I had picked up any response to my question.
"You heard the footsteps up here?" Zak asked, as he came toward me, aiming his handheld camera at me.
"Yeah, over toward that area," I replied, motioning with one hand in the general direction of where the sound of the footsteps had come from.
Zak stopped near me, and remained silent as he noticed I was using my digital recorder, but turned to aim his camera in the direction I had pointed to.
I hit the play button on my recorder and held it up near my ear.
"Who's here with me?" My voice said.
Nothing but silence on the digital recorder, and then the voices of Zak and I, and then Zak's footsteps, omitted from the recorder.
Suddenly, there was a sound to my left, something that sounded like wood creaking.
"What was that?" Zak asked, aiming his camera more toward the bar, while I quickly hit the record button on the digital recorder.
"I don't know," I replied. "Is there someone here with us?" I asked of the darkness, holding the digital recorder out.
Zak and I remained still and silent, until we heard another creaking sound, slightly louder this time.
"Woah, woah!" Zak exclaimed, taking a step closer to me.
I couldn't help smiling to myself slightly – had he taken a step closer to me to protect me, or because he had become momentarily frightened?
Before I could say a word, Zak unhooked his walkie talkie from his belt.
"Jay, did you hear that?" Zak asked.
"Yeah, we heard it," Jay responded. "It sounded like one of the bar stools creaking," Jay added.
Oh…
I hadn't thought of that.
Zak hooked his walkie talkie back onto his belt, and kept his camera aimed at the bar.
"Can you show yourself?" Zak asked, as he studied the monitor of his handheld camera.
After waiting a moment or two, an idea came to me.
I quietly set my digital recorder down on the bar – leaving it recording – and then got up and walked around behind the bar. I noticed Zak glance at me as I walked up along the opposite side of the bar, probably wondering what I was doing. I stopped once I was standing across from where I had been sitting, facing Zak and any potential spirits who might be sitting at the bar.
"Howdy boys," I said, acting the part of a bartender. "Can I get you a drink?" I added.
I saw Zak smile to himself as he caught on, and then moved and sat down at the bar, setting his camera down on the bar stool next to him.
"Howdy ma'am," Zak said, as he reached up and tipped his hat toward me.
I smiled and managed not to giggle at how cute he looked, and Zak smirked at me.
"I'll have what he's having," Zak said, tilting his head in the direction of where the creaking sounds had come from, and then picked up my digital recorder.
After a few seconds of silence, he rewound the recorder and then hit the play button to playback the last few minutes of audio.
"…whiskey…"
Zak and I stared at each other in shock.
"Whoa!" Zak exclaimed.
"Zak…look," I said, grabbing a hold of the liquor bottle I had placed on the bar earlier, and turned it so Zak could read the label.
"Whiskey!" Zak read, and then picked up the bottle and held it in front of my handheld camera – which was still recording from it's place on the bar. "This is a bottle of whiskey that was here on the bar!" Zak explained excitedly, looking into the camera.
I found myself smiling again as I watched him – his face full of excitement and awe. It nearly made my heart burst whenever he had reactions like this during lockdowns. No one could deny he was passionate about investigating the paranormal, and I hoped that one day, he would be the one to record one hundred percent proof that there was life after death.
Meanwhile…
Aaron's Point of View
"Alright, I just got left down here alone," I said, as I took out my digital recorder and hit the record button.
I wasn't upset or angry that Zak had left, nor was I surprised. I knew it was a "thing" now to send me off alone, and it never really bothered me – regardless of how creepy some locations could be. This is what I did for a living, and part of me loved the thrill of investigating on my own in the worst places of each location. And I had to admit, it was hilarious - and awesome - that a some of our fans always gave Zak shit for it.
My thoughts were distracted when I suddenly noticed a foul smell around me.
"Whoa…it smells like…dirty sock," I said, my nose wrinkling up in disgust. "Oh…are you with me Swamper?" I asked, looking around the room.
After waiting a moment or so for any responses, I took out a piece of silver metal from my pocket to use as a trigger object. The Swamper was known to have dug up and hoard his own silver findings from the tunnel below the very room I was in. I held up the piece of silver for the static-x camera to see.
"Would you like this silver?" I asked, still holding my digital recorder up in front of me.
I suddenly heard a loud thud behind me, and quickly turned around on the spot and stared into the darkness.
"Who's here?" I asked.
I stayed silent for a moment, and then stopped and rewound the recorder for live review.
"Would you like this silver?" My voice asked.
After a few seconds, I heard a raspy, deep voice emit from the recorder.
"…yes…"
"Oh my god!" I exclaimed in shock. "That voice sounds creepy," I added, and continued listening to the recorder.
"Who's here?" My voice asked.
No voices came through on the digital recorder, only the sound of the loud thud I had heard. However, before I could hit the record button on the digital recorder again, I heard a deep sounding groan from behind me.
"Whoa dude!" I exclaimed, spinning around again to face the static-x camera.
I quickly hit the record button before speaking again.
"Is that you Swamper?!" I asked, finding myself beginning to panic a bit now.
I also found myself beginning to feel claustrophobic in the tiny, dark room, and I felt like I was being watched by someone who didn't like me being here.
Just as I went to ask another question, I felt something touch my hand that was holding the piece of silver. It felt almost like someone had tried to grab my hand.
"Whoa, something just grabbed me hand!" I exclaimed, looking into the camera before looking at my hand.
As the seconds passed, I felt more and more uneasy, and it felt like the walls of the room were closing in around me.
Alright…that's enough.
"I want out," I said, not entirely sure who I was speaking too.
Even though Jay and Billy would be watching me from nerve centre, they couldn't release me from the room.
"Zak!" I called out.
Silence.
"Zak!" I yelled more loudly, walking over to the door that kept me locked inside the Swamper's quarters.
Alicia's Point of View
After Zak and I had recovered from the shock of a voice saying "whiskey" coming through the digital recorder, we continued on with our play of bartender and customer. I had poured some of the whiskey into the two shot glasses that were on the bar, and Zak continued trying to get EVP's with the digital recorder.
While Zak was in the middle of doing a live review, I suddenly heard Aaron's voice, but it was rather faint, and I wasn't sure if I had actually heard Aaron or not.
"Was that Aaron?" I asked, looking at Zak.
He stopped the digital recorder and looked toward the stairs.
"Zak!" Aaron yelled from the basement, panic in his voice, and I knew for sure that I had heard him for real this time.
Zak bolted up onto his feet while I ran around from behind the bar, and we both ran toward the stairs leading to the basement.
"We're coming bro!" Zak called out as we rushed down the stairs.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Zak gently took my hand and led the way through the darkness to the back of the room where the Swapper's living area was.
"Let me out of here bro!" Aaron exclaimed, not to overly excited, but you could tell by the expression on his face he clearly wanted out.
"You locked him in here?" I asked, looking up at Zak as he took the key for the door out from his pocket and unlocked the door. I wasn't entirely surprised, but I felt bad that Aaron had most likely only been left only because Zak had come to check on me.
"Un…I didn't really plan for things to turn out like this," Zak said, somewhat sheepishly.
I gave him a "yeah, sure" type look, which caused Zak to chuckle. I wasn't mad at him or anything, since I knew Aaron usually handled this stuff well, but I still felt partly guilty.
"Sorry bro," Aaron said as he stepped out from the Swamper's room and took a few steps away from it. "I started feeling really uncomfortable, I couldn't do it anymore," Aaron added.
"Are you okay?" I asked, looking up at him, genuinely concerned.
"Yeah, I'm good now," Aaron said, before taking a deep breath. "Why? Are you worried about me munchkin?" Aaron teased, and I couldn't help but laugh quietly.
"Of course I am," I replied. "I feel bad you got left alone down here because of me," I added.
"Aww, she was worried about me!" Aaron exclaimed, in an overly excited voice.
Zak and I just laughed.
"And yeah," Aaron said. "Zak favours you over me now!" Aaron jokingly said in a sad, overly dramatic tone.
"Oh jeez," Zak mumbled. "Of course I favour her, she's a woman!" Zak added, and I couldn't help but laugh.
Pretending to look annoyed, Aaron suddenly turned toward me and swept me up off my feet, literally! He had bent down and slipped one arm around the back of my knees, with his other arm around my back as he lifted me up into his arms.
"Aaron!" I yelped, and then laughed. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Yeah bro, what the hell?" Zak asked, as he folded his arms across his chest.
Uh oh…jealous Zak…
"I favour her now over you bro!" Aaron teased, giving me a friendly squeeze, before he started carrying me over toward the stairs.
Once he had his back turned to Zak, he grinned at me, clearly knowing this was making Zak jealous, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Your funeral Aaron," I said quietly, which caused him to laugh.
"Aaron! Put her down!" Zak called, as he began following us. "I'm not letting your clumsy ass carry her up a flight of stairs, bro!" Zak warned, but was laughing himself.
Aaron stopped at the bottom of the stairs, laughing, and then sighed.
"Sadly, he's actually right," Aaron said, and carefully set me down on my feet. "I'll end up as the ghost if I dropped you," Aaron added jokingly.
I laughed myself and looked at Zak as he came up to us, his arms still folded across his chest.
"Oh stop that," I teased, grabbing his arms and pulling them away from his chest.
Once he realized what I was referring too, he actually looked a bit embarrassed, but then, a bright smile appeared on his face.
Again, before I could do anything, Zak had picked me up the same way Aaron had done, and held me close to him.
"Much better!" Zak exclaimed, jokingly acting like he was the better kid in the playground.
"Oh my god," I mumbled, but laughed.
I also had to admit, it felt nice to suddenly be in Zak's arms.
Aaron jokingly rolled his eyes before laughing, and then started walking up the stairs.
Once he was out of ear shot, Zak looked at me.
"I'm your favourite, right?" Zak asked, smirking at me.
I couldn't help but laugh.
"Yes, Bagans," I replied.
Zak smiled brightly, but laughed at my usage of his last name, before setting me down on my feet.
"Damn straight," Zak teased.
I couldn't help but laugh again before I began walking up the stairs, with Zak following close behind me.