Authors Note: Wowzers guys, I've lost count of how long it's been since I've updated. I'm so, so sorry.

This is definitely not the update I wanted, I wanted to have more chapters written, but I figured I'd put these up, even though not a whole lot happens.

Thank you for your patience and understanding through this difficult time.

Enjoy!

Chapter 125: Back to Work

One week later…

Zak and I had had little contact over the past week.

The first two days after our blowup, he had tried calling me a few times, but I just couldn't bring myself to answer the phone. He left voice messages, which I had listened too, but despite his apologies and his attempts at reassurances that he would wait "as long as I need to", I was still hurt by what he had said.

Once he realized I wasn't going to answer or return his calls, he sent me text messages. After reading and not responding to the first few, I broke down and finally replied to him. The only thing I could send was "I need time".

As the week passed, the hurt I had first felt had passed, but then confusion set in. I hated the thoughts I began having.

Maybe we shouldn't be together…it's not fair to Zak…he could find someone else that could fulfill all his needs…

After a day of silence, I sent Zak a text saying that I was sorry, but that I just needed time to figure things out. He had replied asking if we could figure things out together – which made my heart ache – but I told him it was something I had to do on my own.

He hadn't sent a reply, and hasn't sent a text since.

Then we had to fly out for our next investigation, which had been roughly a four hour flight. As difficult as it was, I didn't want to be childish about switching seats like I had done in the past, so I sat in my originally planned seat.

I was surprised when Aaron took the seat next to me, and informed me that Zak wanted to "give me space" like I had said I needed. I felt miserable the rest of the flight, but Aaron was good company, and didn't pry into what had happened with Zak and I.

I didn't have my "psychic artistry" episode until we were checked into our rooms at the hotel – thankfully. I had been in my room alone when the attack happened, but once it was over, I wasn't quite as shaken as I had been before.

I suppose I was starting to get used to the episodes.

Once again, I had done three drawings, and only one of them was overly concerning, but mainly because it was creepy.

The first drawing – the worst one – was nothing but trees with a light layer of snow over everything. But the thing that made the drawing creepy was the transparent figure amongst the trees. It was a man, and the only part of him that was visible was from the waist up. Everything from the waist down…simply wasn't there. He wasn't standing behind anything, it wasn't that I hadn't finished drawing him – it was simply just half a man.

The second drawing, which I wouldn't even really consider a "drawing", was just the words "Help Me!", written over and over again all over the page. Some were different sizes, or different styles of writing, but that was pretty much it.

The third drawing, which confused me immensely, was an intersection of roads at nighttime. Streetlights, cars, nothing ghostly or creepy about it.

Once I had studied the drawings enough, I had gone to Aaron's room to show him, and then asked him if he would show them to Zak. I also said I could show them to Billy and Jay later, or if Aaron wanted to, he could show them. He seemed a bit upset when he realized why I was asking this of him, but he gave me a reassuring smile and had replied with "sure Munchkin".

It was our second day in Carmel, Indiana, and we were preparing for our lockdown on a piece of property known as "Fox Hollow Farm". The eighteen acre estate included a large mansion, which had once been owned by a serial killer named Herb Baumeister.

Herb Baumeister had killed anywhere from eleven, to twenty men, in the mansion during the 1990's. Using a fake name, he would scope out local gay bars in the area for his victim, invite them back to his home, and kill them. Herb had an obsession with erotic asphyxiation – suffocating his victims in order to arouse himself – and thus strangulation was his preferred method of murder. He would then take the bodies out the back door and into the nearby woods on the property and burn the bodies.

When the police began investigating the disappearances of the gay men, they were eventually lead to Herb Baumeister's home. While on vacation in 1996, his wife – who had filed for divorce – consented to letting the police search the property. The search turned up the burnt remains of eleven men.

With a warrant out for his arrest, Herb fled to Ontario, Canada, and committed suicide at "Pinery Provincal Park" by shooting himself in the head. There was never a trial, and he never confessed to killing the men.

The current owners of the property – Rob and Vicki Graves - claim the property is haunted by Herb's victims, and possibly even Herb himself. And – probably the most disturbing fact to come from the home owners - bones of Herb Baumeister's victims are still being found to this day.

Our first day was filled with interviews, and historical investigation to get details of the horrible story.

Now, it was around ten o'clock at night, and I was in the process of setting up a static-x camera in a second level apartment in another building on the property – memories of the interviews we had done earlier in the day running through my mind.

Earlier that day…

We had met briefly with Rob and Vicki Graves on our first day of our investigation, but today was the day we were actually interviewing them about their experiences. As per our usual routine, Aaron and I each filmed with separate cameras from different angles, while Zak conducted the interview.

"So, you both…knew…moving into this home, what happened here?" Zak asked, as he stood facing Rob and Vicki.

"Yes," Vicki replied.

"Bodies, found on this property. A serial killer lived in your home…were you prepared for the hauntings?" Zak asked.

"Initially, we tried to…uh…distance ourselves from the history, but- we really feel the spirits that are here, are these unrested souls-" Rob explained.

"So, you believe they are here now?" Zak asked.

"Oh yeah," Rob replied. "There's too many things we can't explain," he added.

"What did you see? Or what did you experience here?" Zak asked.

"The first experience I had, was a man walking into the woods," Vicki began. "He was walk- a young man walking away from me. He had on a red t-shirt. I realized I could only see him from the waist up and he just disappeared," Vicki explained.

Well, that explains drawing number one… I thought, and also felt creeped out at the thought that we might encounter this "half a man" manifestation.

I noticed Aaron glance at me, yet again shocked at my ability to "see" parts of our investigation before they happened. I didn't say anything, and I didn't look at Zak.

Being in the room with him with all this tension between us was difficult enough as it was.

"I think he wants to show me something, but I haven't discovered what that is yet," Vicki suddenly added, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Herb Baumeister…do you ever sense his spirit is back in his home, here?" Zak asked.

"Oh…yeah," Vicki replied. "I think that's…he was in the room that I don't want to go in," Vicki added.

"Can we go to that room?" Zak asked, focused on Vicki.

"Yeah," Vicki replied, most likely okay with the idea as long as she wasn't alone.

Rob and Vicki then lead us to the room that Vicki had referenced – Herb Baumeister's bathroom.

"This would have been Herb's bathroom," Rob stated, as we stood outside the bathroom, but Zak walked inside and looked around. "I-I think he's here," Rob added.

"You think he's here?" Zak asked from inside the bathroom.

"He liked it here…and the victims are still here, his victims," Rob replied.

For some reason, I felt like something was off with Rob, as if he was keeping something from us. Even though I had been pretty quiet through out this investigation so far, I decided to ask a question.

I lowered my camera off my shoulder and looked at Rob, who happened to be standing beside me.

"Did someone get physically attacked here? Like strangled, or-" I started, but Rob cut me off.

"Joe was...strangled, or something around his neck in the pool," Rob replied. "Which is probably where most of the killings took place," he added.

I knew Joe was a family friend and a former tenant who lived in the apartment on the second level of another building on the property. We would be interviewing him after we finished with this interview.

Before I could ask anything else, Zak spoke up.

"Can we please see the pool room?" Zak asked, already leaving the small room we were in.

"Sure," Rob answered, and we all made our way to the pool room.

Once we arrived at the pool room – which definitely had a different vibe to it – Zak, Rob and Vicki took spots on one side of the pool, while Aaron and I took up spots on the other side of the pool, and then continued the interview.

"We are standing in the actual room where…probably these people were murdered," Zak stated.

"The pool was a lure," Rob started. "He would go down to the bars downtown and lure the guys back with the promise of swimming in an indoor pool. And uh…they came back willingly," Rob explained.

I felt a shiver run down my spine as I looked down at the covered pool, trying not to imagine the horrible events that once took place here. I also felt upset at the fact that so many lives had simply gone out to enjoy a night on the town, maybe having drinks with friends, or possibly looking for someone to get to know better…only to have their night end by the taking of their life.

"Have you…had experiences in this room?" Zak asked.

"I was cleaning the pool, and I saw a shadow figure transition from the pump room – which, seems to be a pretty active area," Rob replied.

Zak turned toward Aaron and I and motioned for us to come over, and then took out a flashlight from his jacket pocket, and walked the short distance to the pump room.

Aaron and I quickly, but carefully, made our way around the pool and over toward the pump room. Rob and Vicki were already standing on either side of the door when we arrived.

Without me having said a word, or even shot a glance at Aaron, he took the lead and followed Zak into the pump room to film him, and I was thankful.

After Zak checked out the room, he turned and looked into Aaron's camera.

"Weird place, man," Zak began. "To know how many people were killed here – that's a lot!" Zak added, as he walked toward Aaron and then out of the room.

Zak, Rob and Vicki made their way across to the other side of the pool near the glass doors that lead outside, while Aaron and I took up spots across the pool from them once again.

"I believe most of them were killed in this room, and then uh…he'd take them out the back door," Rob said, motioning to the glass doors.

"You can see how easy it is to dispose of," Aaron started, walking around to film the glass doors and the wooded yard they lead to. "Right out there," Aaron added.

I felt another shiver run down my spine, and was thankful Zak didn't ask any questions about what happened next, because we already knew the answer – Herb burned the bodies in shallow graves.

We all made our way back out to the front entryway to conduct the rest of the interview.

"Did you ever find anything that you can talk about?" Zak asked.

"Well, we certainly have found bone," Rob replied.

"What?!" Zak asked in shock, although we had heard that bones are still being found on the property.

"Yeah, bones on the property," Vicki said.

"If you spend enough time, you can find bones all the time," Rob explained.

We were all stunned.

"I mean, not only are they killed violently, you're also finding the bones of the deceased that…still haven't been identified," Zak said.

"Yeah," Vicki replied.

"That's right," Rob replied as well.

"There's your recipe for a haunting right there," Zak stated, matter of factly.

"Yeah," Vicki replied, nodding her head in agreement.

We had also interviewed a family friend and former tenant, Joe LeBlanc. He had lived in the apartment I was currently in, and had told us of several creepy paranormal experiences he had while living on the property.

He had experienced hearing the door knocker on his front door knocking three times, the door flying open, and then the door knocker continuing to move on it's own. In the pool room, he once experienced the feeling of hands wrapping around his neck from behind, which he believes it had to of been Herb Baumeister letting him know he was there. Finally, he has also seen the half apparition of the men in a red shirt.

He has also found some human bones on the property, including a femur, or thigh, bone.

Needless to say, this location had a very disturbing and horrific history, and I actually found myself wishing we weren't investigating here.

While I fiddled with the settings on the static-x camera, I also began thinking about Emily. She hadn't made her presence known to me since I had my angry outburst at her while we were doing a lockdown in Tombstone. I was beginning to worry that I had scared her off, and that I'd never see her again.

But with my thoughts on our current location, I was actually glad she had yet to reappear to me. This place had an evil history, and I didn't want her anywhere near it.

After checking the settings one last time on the static-x camera, I took my walkie talkie off my belt and radioed Billy and Jay at nerve center.

"Up and running guys, everything okay?" I asked, moving around to stand in front of the camera so they could see me.

"Video and audio are great," Billy replied. "You're good to come back to nerve," he added.

"Alright, on my way," I replied, and then hooked the walkie talkie back on my belt.

I walked over to the front door of the apartment, and took my jacket from the door knob and pulled it on.

Because of the colder weather here, we were all wearing warmer clothing. I couldn't contain my glee when we had arrived to see a light dusting of snow on the ground. I hadn't seen snow since my teenage years in Ottawa, Ontario. But the glee was short lived, when I had quickly realized I couldn't share my excitement with Zak.

For the lockdown, I was wearing a black sweater and black jeans – that had silver studs from hip to ankle on each side. My jacket was also black, with fake black fur lining the hood. I had also chosen a pair of black boots that came up to just below my knee, and had some decorative, silver buckles. My final touch, a pair of black gloves. Part of my fingers were exposed so that I would be able to operate my camera and gear, and the top of the gloves had a white bone pattern on it – made to look as if your skeletal hand was showing.

(Link on my profile for Twitter and Instagram picture)

I went with a minimal make up style, and left my hair hang down normally. I hadn't been in the mood to "dress up", and my mood had probably dictated my all black attire too.

After zipping up my jacket, I pulled on my gloves, and then opened the door and stepped out onto the landing. After pulling the door shut behind me, I walked down the stairs, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jacket to help keep them warm.

Just as I reached ground level, I felt like someone was watching me. When I looked up, I saw a familiar, tall, dark figure heading toward me.

Zak.

I sighed inwardly and did my best to get a grip on the emotions that flooded to the surface, and began walking toward him.

Once we were within a few feet of each other, our paces slowed simultaneously, and I felt the awkwardness fill the air.

Not being able to stand the unbearable silence for long, I spoke first.

"Hi," I said softly, meekly.

So lame, I thought.

"Hi," Zak replied softly, a slight smile appearing at the corners of his mouth, most likely pleased I had at least said hi to him. "I um…before we start the lockdown, I was wondering if we could talk…" Zak added softly, with a slight pleading look on his face.

I found myself feeling guilty, but I also knew that talking most likely wouldn't accomplish anything. I was still confused on how I felt, and what I envisioned for the future, but I nodded anyway.

"Okay," I replied softly. "There's a bench over here…" I added, pulling one hand out of my pocket and motioned to the building I had just come from.

Zak smiled a bit more as he stepped closer to me to follow me to the bench.

"Nice gloves," Zak said softly, before pulling one of his hands from his jacket to show me that his his gloves were almost identical to mine – black, part of the fingers exposed, and the skeletal hand pattern. The only difference was that the pattern was on the palm part of his gloves, and it was a neon green instead of white. "Glow in the dark," Zak added, smirking a bit before he put his hand back in his pocket.

I couldn't help but chuckle quietly, and also smile a bit that we had nearly identical gloves.

"This way," I said softly, a bit more warmly, and began leading the way to the bench.

Zak took a few quick steps to come up along side me, and then we walked in silence through the dark, cold air – our feet leaving footprints in the pure, white snow that covered the ground.