Title: The Moonlit Path
Author: aquaxeyes
Rating: T for language (may change)
Full Description: Ghost Adventures fanfic. Zak has a recurring dream of a woman that seems too real. Is there a chance she really exists? A fateful trip to his museum and a chance encounter sets him on a path to discovering something he'd been missing that he thought he had to live without.
Author's Notes: Oh, hi again!
It's been a while. I hope you are finding your joy! This chapter is dedicated to Moonlight1210, who I have a sneaking suspicion read this fic due to the name. Thank you for your reviews!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story. Please don't fact check; I know the show is based on real people, but I rely on my imagination to write, even if some of the details I include may be true.
Part Two. The Woman.
Lia sighed, soaking in the relaxation of being downstairs, laying poolside at her hotel.
It had been a couple of days since she visited The Haunted Museum, and although she was disturbed by the photo he'd taken, she didn't bother reaching out to Zak. Nothing happened when she got back to her hotel or later that night, so her smoke cleansing ritual must've worked.
Since nothing happened, she didn't text. She figured he was probably so busy, he would've only wanted to hear if something crazy happened.
She sighed again. To be honest, she'd lied to him back in the ballroom. Right before he came up to her in the doll room, she had been feeling just slightly weird, like she was floating in the middle of the ocean, waves tapping her gently. It should have been a peaceful feeling, but the tapping was kind of annoying, like the waves were trying to turn her, roll her around until she was spinning. The feeling was nauseating, pushing her to close her eyes. Clenching her hands into fists, she took a breath and willed herself to turn into solid steel against the fluid tapping. The tapping slowly lessened until there was nothing. That's when she opened her eyes and noticed Zak was in the room.
That experience wasn't exactly her first. When she was a kid, she used to get weird tingling feelings whenever she was physically alone that made her feel like she wasn't alone. She used to chalk it up to her wild imagination, watching too many scary movies at too young an age. But when the tingling turned into sharp stabbing pains that left bruises, she started balling her hands into fists and steeling herself against the pain. That technique worked. The feelings became less and less intense, the experiences less and less frequent, until it was reduced to rare events of tapping, almost like an occasional knocking to see if she would let the tingles back in.
All this time, she had the tingles under control. Then she had to go to the museum, provoking an experience for the first time in years. What's worse, Zak seemed to have a gist of what was happening somehow, and she could tell it made him want to investigate. So could she really be faulted for lying about what she was feeling in the doll room? She didn't want to be seen as a freak, as some sort of X-file that needed to be interviewed, investigated, and dissected. It was embarrassing. Crazy.
In all reality, the entire exchange was crazy. Zak said he saw her in a dream. A dream! What the fuck was that noise? It seemed totally implausible that he could've seen her face, even a likeness of her face, in a dream before she stepped foot into the museum. And he somehow pinpointed her from a sea of visitors as the person from his dreams? None of it made sense the more she thought through it..
A moment of insanity made her chuckle softly to herself. Zak fucking Bagans. From TV. She'd never met anyone she'd seen on TV before, nor had she expected to, especially considering he must've been busy with all the spinoffs he was working on. He was definitely taller than she imagined, and she didn't get that alpha male vibe she'd seen on his show. Then again, when she'd discovered Ghost Adventures for the first time during the pandemic, she'd started binging with the more recent seasons and had to backtrack to the beginning, so maybe she was still reconciling how he was earlier in his chronicled paranormal journey to the man she met a few days ago.
'He really did have an intensity about him, though..'
When she realized he was standing next to her in the doll room, he had this towering, intimidating presence about him. He stood over half a foot taller than her with his solid stance and broad shoulders. His mask and hat covered a major portion of his head, but it was obvious who he was, even before he spoke in his rich, lulling voice.
Another sigh escaped.
She was a sucker for dark-haired, blue-eyed guys. Luckily his eyes appeared a glittering green behind those thick frames that day, otherwise she would've been in real trouble..
Lia bit her lip. She shouldn't be thinking these things, she knew. She was in Las Vegas to reset, to clear her head from the personal disaster she left in Michigan.
'He was really personable, though. Kind of awkward, which was cute.' And for some reason, she thought his hands were really nice. Nice shape. Slender. Nice nail to finger ratio. Had a good handshake, too-
Lia shook her head and stood up. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about her visit to the museum or Zak for two days. Two days.
The fact that she couldn't stop thinking about Zak was the real issue, really. It wasn't healthy in any way. She needed to focus on healing and self-care so that she could have at least half her shit together by the time she got back home. As it was, she couldn't concentrate on relaxing, so she headed back up to her room.
She could hear her phone ringing just outside of her room, and it continued to ring as she tapped her key card against the lock and got inside. As she got to her phone, she was surprised to see it was a FaceTime call from none other than Zak Bagans.
She bit her lip. 'Really?'
She took a breath and swiped to answer. A second later, she was viewing Zak on her phone.
She wasn't expecting to see him without his mask and hat on, but neither were present. Instead, his dark hair was styled in the spiked coif she'd seen many times on TV, and his handsome face was fully showing his serious annoyance. She sucked in a breath as she looked at his stormy eyes. 'Oh shit. They're blue.'
"Lia Jenkins."
He didn't smile, and that weirdly made her nervously want to. "Zak Bagans."
"You didn't text when you said you would."
She paused, feeling caught and unable to lie with his eyes as potent as they were. "I didn't. Nothing happened, so I didn't want to bother you just to say nothing happened."
"Bother me?"
"You said you were going to be on an investigation. I didn't want to distract you."
His stern expression eased up a little. "Just FYI, it's more distracting to worry about someone that said they were going to reach out and didn't."
She blinked, realizing he had a point. "You're right. I'm sorry."
Slowly, his mouth curved upward into a small smile. "You look fine."
"I am. I haven't experienced any paranormal activity. How's your investigation?"
"It's been pretty intense. We had a few interviews today and were able to get some really awesome pre-lockdown captures."
"Lockdown tomorrow?"
"Yeah. We're taking a break to really collect ourselves and get some positivity before the lockdown."
"Oh. So what's your process?"
"I call family or friends, and if I have time, I go into town, take a walk, and try to soak up as much positivity as I can."
"I see," she said. 'Ugh, what the hell kind of reply was that?' "How's that going?"
"Well I'm no longer worried a visitor to my museum left with an attachment, so I'm off to a great start," he replied with a teasing tone.
Lia couldn't help it; she laughed. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry to have worried you."
"Don't let it happen again."
'What?' She drew up to say there wasn't going to be an "again" scenario, but she found herself saying, "I won't."
Satisfied with her response, he switched subjects. "So what have you been up to?"
"All normal things. I toured the Hoover Dam yesterday and today, I've been taking it easy at my hotel."
"You're in Vegas, Lia," he said, "You didn't hit up the Strip?"
She shrugged. "I'm not much of a gambler. The only reason I came out here was to check out your museum. The Hoover Dam was a bonus."
Zak smiled at her answer. "You came to Vegas just to visit my museum."
"Well yeah," she said, realizing she just outed herself. "Not to sound like a total fangirl, but that's the only place that interested me."
"Oh, so you are a fangirl?" he asked.
'Shit.' "Yes." 'Shit.' "Oftheshow," she rambled. Taking a second, she repeated herself slowly. "Of the show."
He had a big smile on his face. She wrestled with her own smile. It was so damn hard. She could feel her cheeks warming up. Fighting it, she cleared her throat. 'He already thinks you're a weirdo. Own it.' With resolve, she held her head high. "I'm a secret fangirl who admires from afar, and I would appreciate my fangirling staying a secret."
"From who?" he asked, laughing.
"My boss."
"What do you do?"
"I work in healthcare, on the admin side." Why did everything she said about herself sound so boring?
"Sounds serious."
"It can be." She paused, realizing she might have come across the wrong way. "I'm not ashamed to be a fangirl. I just don't feel like explaining why I'm into what I'm into, you know?"
He seemed to get it. "A hundred percent. If there's anyone who can relate to what you just said, it's me."
'Oh yeah..' Ghost hunter and collector of haunted items. Made sense. "Right."
A question lit up in his eyes. "But didn't you break the cardinal rule of secret fangirling?"
"What do you mean?"
"I thought you said you were supposed to admire from afar."
She mulled what he said over. "So I compromised a little with the museum. But no one would've known I was a fan, and it wasn't like I touched anything-"
"I meant with me."
Her heart almost shot out of her chest. "You approached me, dude," she said, knowing how defensive that sounded. 'Go on the offensive.' "And you said you saw me in a dream."
"I did!" he exclaimed, sounding just as defensive.
'Aha!' "You started a conversation with me."
"I did."
"And you asked me to continue the conversation in your ballroom."
"I did," he conceded, completely defeated.
"Well.. there you go. I didn't break the rule," she declared.
He sighed. "I feel like I just went to court," he said, then raised a brow. "Are you lying about what you do? Are you really a lawyer?"
She deadpanned him, but curiosity got the better of her. "So have you.. had any of those dreams since we met?"
"No."
Disappointment crept its way up her neck, but she refused to let it overtake her. "I guess the mystery's gone."
"Not at all," came the answer. "There's no explanation as to how I would've dreamed of your face in that much detail before seeing you, and it happened as soon as you came to Vegas. And then I went to my museum-the same exact day and time you went on your tour-and I actually saw you and experienced what I can only describe as a dead zone in a usually charged room, right before I captured that shadow around you.. I don't think that many sequential things could be a coincidence."
"So what does it all mean?"
"I'm still trying to figure that out." Despite the things he just said, the smile came back. "Guess you're going to be in my contacts for a little while longer."
Why did that make her stomach flutter? She cleared her throat again. "You know, you had me going for a minute at the museum. When you told me about being in your dreams and that you felt nothing in the doll room when I was in there, I had an existential crisis."
"What do you mean?"
"I thought I might have actually been dead and possibly a spirit making itself appear more.. I don't know, corporeal."
He raised a brow, amused. "Really?"
"Yeah, but when you took photos of me and I showed up, I figured I was still alive."
"Interesting," he said. "So what's your theory as to why I had those dreams?"
"Hmm, astral projection," she replied. "Or maybe a tulpa."
"You think you're a tulpa?"
She shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe all my memories are fake and I exist only because you dreamt of me thrice."
Zak laughed out loud. A second later, his video paused and she could only hear audio. His video came back on, but she could tell he had been looking at something.
"What's up?"
"A friend just called me."
"Oh," she said, feeling just a tinge of sadness at the idea of ending their conversation. "You should talk to your friend, get those positive feels."
"I will, but I just want to say that I enjoyed talking to you."
"Likewise. Feel free to call me after your lockdown." It was out of her mouth before she could hold it back. 'Don't blurt out stupid shit like that!'
He paused. "We don't get done until five or so in the morning."
"I'll be up," she said, hoping that didn't sound desperate. "I haven't adjusted to this time zone so I'm still on eastern standard time."
He gave her another smile. "Just remember, Lia, you opened the door."
"Okay, Zak," she said, slightly glib. "Good luck on your investigation."
"Thanks. Talk to you later."
'Umm..' "Bye."
And with that, the call was over. Lia tossed her phone onto the middle of her bed and sank onto the foot of it. Her hands were shaking. Zak fucking Bagans. She just had a conversation with him. Again.
As she looked up, she caught the mirror on the wall across from her bed and realized she was talking to him with nothing but her bathing suit on. Completely flustered, she got to her feet and approached the mirror, looking at her waist-up reflection.
Her hair was up in a high, lazy bun and she had no makeup on. She didn't wear a lot anyway, but paired with the hair, she definitely looked.. unkempt.
'You're definitely not his type.'
She took a deep, cleansing breath and released, trying to regain composure. What the hell was wrong with her? She was a full blown adult. It wasn't like her to question herself or feel embarrassed. And she certainly had learned to accept and appreciate her body for what it was and the way it was. Maybe she was feeling out of sorts because she just talked to someone she'd only ever seen on TV. Maybe it was because her real-life issues had finally caught up to her and her self-confidence was taking a hit. Either way, she needed to process through her shit.
She grabbed her phone and pulled her maps app up. 'It's pedicure time.'
Lia stepped into her room, flipping the entry light on, and silently cursed as she spilled a little bit of coffee on the sleeve of her hoodie. Even with a lid on, she still somehow managed to spill. Shaking her head, she headed over to the chair propped by the window and took a seat. She sat back and stared out, watching the city lights and sipping on her coffee.
It was twenty minutes to six in the morning, and the sky was lightening from the nighttime darkness. It was cloudless and she could tell it was going to be a beautiful, sunny day. The shapes of the buildings and the colorful lights spread across the landscape brought decorative life to her view.
The city was beautiful, a far cry from anywhere in Michigan. She knew she was looking at it with a tourist lens, but she still appreciated the change in scenery. It made her almost forget what she was heading back home to. 'As if I really could..'
She really felt like a coward, thinking she could leave her baggage behind by running away to Las Vegas. Like a few hours of sad K-pop and a couple of tours would make her feel better. The only time she wasn't dwelling was when she thought about a certain dark-haired, blue-eyed guy who liked to collect mysterious objects and travel to haunted locations with his friends-
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, knocking her out of her thoughts.
Zak Bagans. He actually called. 'Just like he said he would..'
She swiped to answer and propped her phone against the windowsill. As she sat back, his face came to view. He looked like he just came back from the investigation, with his hat on and his face bearing the light imprint of mask straps.
He spoke first. "Hi."
It was a simple greeting, but it put a smile on her face. "How are you?"
"Exhausted," he answered, "but pumped. We captured so much tonight. I can't wait for this to get to post."
"I can't wait to see it." She took a sip of her coffee. "I'm certainly not reaching for spoiler alerts, but did you send Aaron solo into the scariest room?"
"Ha, ha," he deadpanned. His face turned completely serious. "None of us really went completely solo."
She read his face and concern rose. "Be honest. How bad is it?"
"It's nothing I can't handle."
"But?"
"But it is pretty bad." He took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. "It comes with the territory. The longer I do this, the more sensitive I become to things: spirits, entities, demons, portals. It can be terrifying but there's also a rush and excitement in what I do."
Lia nodded. His words resonated with her, though she didn't know why. Maybe she just understood. Trying to put her concern aside, she gave him a playful smile. "Are you a masochist?"
He grinned. "Maybe a little."
She laughed. "I might be, too."
Something crossed his face, and then he immediately sat back and said, "Fuck. Fuck!"
She was taken aback. "What?"
He leaned forward. "Are you still in Vegas?"
"Yes."
"For how long?"
She paused. "I'm flying back late tonight."
He picked up his phone and she could tell he was starting to walk around his hotel room. "I'm going to pack and hit the road. If I leave soon I can get there in about six hours. Can you meet me at the museum when I get there?"
She knew she was doing a piss-poor job of hiding her shock. "You're going to drive long-distance right after a lockdown?"
He stopped and stared into the phone, at her face. "Lia."
The way he said her name made her shiver. "I mean I can, but can you tell me what's going on?"
He licked his lips, and she could see the hesitation on his face. He sighed, and she knew he was going to tell her the truth. "I thought I saw something dark in the mirror behind you, and then I swear I heard a voice whisper your name on my end. I think us talking about the lockdown through this electromagnetic channel may have sent something over to you."
"Oh." She realized he hesitated because he wasn't sure how she'd take that. Sure enough, she had to ask, "You sure? I didn't hear or feel anything."
He ran his hand through his hair again, a move she was starting to recognize as one of attempting to displace stress. "Lia, I'm not sure what's going on, but you don't seem to sense things at all. That's not really a bad thing, except that I've experienced and captured things around you that you couldn't sense. I may seem like I'm being completely dramatic, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Can you meet me when I get back?"
She bit her lip. Zak would be back in town around the time she needed to check out at the hotel. She didn't have to be at the airport until around seven that evening, so she did have some time to kill..
Zak had been quiet, waiting for her to respond, but when she didn't, he asked, "Will you meet me, please?"
"Okay," she said, giving in to his intensity. "I will."
Zak tried not to lose his shit as he hit another traffic light. He knew he was only a few minutes away, but after driving over five hours right after an investigation, he felt like crawling out of his skin.
Honestly, he'd never felt worried like this before. When it came to him and the GAC, everyone knew what they were signing up for. To a certain extent, so did the women in past relationships, and ultimately, they all walked away when they felt they had to. With Lia, she couldn't sense anything at all, from the shadow following her at the museum to the dark mist he saw in her room earlier that morning. Without that sense, she could've been more vulnerable to the darkness than someone who could at least have a physiological response to it..
His chest felt tight.
Did he put her at risk? Did he cause this? Did approaching her at the museum start this? Did he make it worse by continuing to call her? Was she potentially in danger right now because of him?
'Don't do this.' A different part of his brain was trying to advocate for himself, but he couldn't help the guilt he felt. Since their first interaction, she seemed so.. normal. Innocent. Vulnerable. If not for seeing her in his dreams and the strange anomalies that occurred after they met, he saw her as a normal, secret fangirl. 'But she's not necessarily normal.' Deep down, he knew it. That's why he'd called Patti Negri about an hour ago to see if she could come do a reading on Lia.
The light turned green.
Zak felt antsy as he maintained the speed limit. Patti said she could come, but that it would take time for her to make arrangements to come to Las Vegas. He said it was fine, but he wasn't sure if it was. Lia was supposed to fly out that night, so the sooner he could get to her, the sooner he could ask her to stay.
He felt his hand squeeze the wheel as an inadvertent thought snuck its way in. 'You're trying to buy time. Admit it.' He shook his head once as if to deny the thought. No way.
This wasn't about seeing her again. This wasn't about her dark brown hair, her equally dark brown eyes, or her contagious smile. This was, as she'd put it, a mystery. 'Like a side investigation. Yeah..'
He saw Lia standing by the entrance he texted to her, a backpack on her back and a carry-on luggage next to her. Amber gold-framed aviator sunglasses covered her eyes, fitting her face perfectly. She was on her phone and didn't notice him pulling up and parking. As he got out of his car, he started walking toward her. She looked like a mirage, her wavy hair rolling down her back and shining a brilliant chocolate under the sun.
Just seeing her took the edge off a little. But when she saw him, smiled, grabbed her carry-on, and started walking toward him, something in him broke like a dam and he was flooded with relief and.. joy. Even though he still had to check her, he couldn't help feeling the feeling.
They stopped a couple feet apart. 'Where to begin..' He felt like they were already past greetings.
"It's strange to see you without your hat," she said, then she tilted her head. "Not strange, different."
He knew he should say something in response, but he couldn't stop looking at her, trying to fathom why he still couldn't sense anything from her and yet felt a physical pull to close the distance between them. It took sheer will not to, and he had to remind himself that the heaviness, the darkness he carried with him fresh from lockdown needed to be contained.
She took her sunglasses off and underneath the sun, her eyes lit to a deep chocolate brown, matching the brown hues layered into her black hair. "You okay?"
Without filtering himself, he asked, "Can I get in your personal space?"
She looked uncertain, but said, "Umm. Sure."
Taking his fingerless gloves off, he stepped forward and cupped her face with his right hand, staring into her eyes.
She placed her hand over his hand and her eyelids fluttered momentarily. The second she gave his hand a squeeze, the heaviness lifted, and the tightness around his chest loosened. He could finally breathe again.
He stared into her eyes and was magnetized, unable to look away. "Lia.."
Before he could do or say anything else, she said something that completely floored him.
"I'm married."
End Part Two.
( Oooh. )