Shards to the Heart: A Ghost Adventures Fanfic

The Room

2015
Zak sat in front of the T.V. in the research room at HQ, holding his head in his hands out of stress as he watched the news. Finally, the news woman spoke of what Zak had been waiting for. "Come on come on come on," Zak said, tapping his foot impatiently. "Please they must have found something."
"The police department is regretful to report yet another failed search for missing child, Emma Collins."
"No," Zak whispered, his voice wobbling. "No please no." He leaned forward as he realized the woman was speaking again.
"The authorities, after two years of failed searches and uncovering no leads, has decided to close the search case on Emma." At that, Zak quickly clicked the T.V. off. Falling back against the couch, Zak sighed and ran his hands down his face.
"I take it you saw the news," Aaron said, walking into the room. Zak sat up and sighed again.
"Yep," Zak said. "Yep I saw it." He looked down at the ground, feeling tears slip down his face. "Why'd it have to be her?," he asked, looking back up at Aaron. Tears soaked his face and his voice wobbled. Aaron shrugged and sat down next to Zak with a sigh.
"I don't know," Aaron said, and that was it. Zak looked back down at the ground.
"I wonder what happened to her," Zak said.
"I have a feeling we're about to find out," a voice said from the doorway. Zak and Aaron looked up to see Nick standing there. Nick pointed out into the lobby. "There's, um, some clients in the lobby." Perfect, Zak thought. An investigation is just what I need to distract myself. Zak and Aaron got up and followed Nick out into the lobby. Zak's heart immediately twisted when he saw Emma's entire family standing in the lobby. Emma's dad had his arms wrapped around her crying mother, while her little brother and sister hugged each other in a shaking bundle. Zak quickly dried his cheeks with the backs of his hands, then walked over to the family.
As soon as Zak reached them, Emma's father began talking. "We're being haunted," he said. "We've. . .been having weird encounters in our house. When Melissa cries at night, she says she's been hearing a girl's voice talking to her. And every time Grant and Ava fight, some weird, really strong wind pushes them apart." He sighs and says, "we hate to admit it, but we. . .we think it might be Emma." Zak clutched his chest as he felt a sharp pain, as if he were being stabbed with a shard of glass. That's the last thing I wanted to hear.
Suddenly, Melissa, the mother, grabbed Zak's shirt and shook him violently. "Please!," she sobbed. "You need to get this thing out of our house!" Her husband yanked her off, quickly apologizing to Zak, who shrugged in understanding.
"So, are you asking us to do an investigation?," Nick asked from behind Zak, who was still frozen with disbelief at the family's inference that the ghost was their daughter. Matthew, the dad, nodded, then hung his head and sighed.
"Look if you don't want to-"
"We'll do it," Zak said, cutting Matthew off. Nick and Aaron looked at him in confusion. I have to know if this is Emma. Seeming to realize this, Nick and Aaron nodded in agreement. "How soon do want us to do the investigation?," Zak asked.
"We already have a hotel reservation for tonight," Matthew said. "So tonight if you can." Zak nodded and turned to Nick and Aaron.
"Tell Billy and Jay to load the equipment van," he said. "We've got an investigation to get to." His friends nodded and raced off. Zak turned back to the family. "I promise, we will figure out what this is." The family nodded and thanked him, the little ones giving him tight hugs, then left, informing Zak that the key to the house was hanging on the door knob.
In about twenty minutes, the group was ready to leave HQ. Zak high-tailed it to the van and leapt into his spot in the back. He felt that usual pain of being alone, instead of his young friend with him. Only now the pain was deeper, because now there was the chance that the house he was going to investigate was haunted by that very same friend. "Hey Zak," Aaron said from his seat up front, "are you going to be okay for this investigation?"
"I need to know Aaron," Zak said. "I need to know if it really is her." Aaron nodded in understanding, and that was the end of that.
After about ten minutes of driving, Nick pulled up at the adress. "Here we are," Nick said. Zak got on his knees and peered over his friends seats. He was surprised to find the van parked in the gravel driveway of a farmhouse. Zak leapt out of the back of the van and raced onto the porch, where Billy and Jay were already standing. Billy spun a key around his pointer finger, waiting for Nick and Aaron to join them on the porch. When they did, Billy pressed the key into Zak's hand. Zak took a shakey breath, then turned to unlock the front door. The door unlocked with a soft click and Zak carefully pushed it open. He stepped into the room behind the door, Nick and Aaron following. The room was a nice little kitchen, with tile floors and a large wooden table while off to the side was a little laundry area. Hidden in a corner was a cooking area, with a fridge, stove and other utilities.
"I just realized something," Aaron said, causing Zak to turn around and look at him curiously. "They didn't give us any hot spots of the spiritual activity. How are we supposed to track the ghost if we don't know where it likes to hang out?"
"Well remember Aaron," Zak said while turning around and beginning to walk into the next room. "They were skeptics before this. They were skeptical even when Emma worked with us. They're inexperienced with this sort of thing. Now turn the cameras on. We need to start recording." Aaron and Nick switched on their cameras, and Zak began speaking. "Welcome to another episode of Ghost Adventures. Today, we're doing something just a little bit different. We're at a family's home. Now, I know what you're thinking and yes we have gone into houses before but this one is. . .is a little bit different. We're, um, investigating the home of," Zak bowed his head and took a deep breath, then looked back up and continued. "We're investigating the home of our old partner, Emma. . .Emma Collins." Zak winced as even he heard the sadness in his voice when he spoke her name. Zak put his hands on his knees, his head down and back hunched, as he struggled to keep his tears in. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Hey man," Aaron asked, "are you okay? Are you sure you can do this?" Zak sniffed and weakly pushed Aaron's hand away. Then, he stood up.
"Yeah," Zak said. "Yeah I'm fine. Let's uh, let's just keep going." They walked around the entire bottom floor in about five minutes, shocked at how small the house was. Suddenly, Nick stopped at a gaping, rectangular hole in the wall.
"Hey guys," Nick called. "You might want to take a look at this." Zak and Aaron walked over from where they where in the other room and looked at the hole. Which actually proved to be not a hole, but a doorway. Inside the hole were a few stairs, which lead up to a second level.
Zak smiled and began walking up the stairs. "This is neat," Zak said over his shoulder. He turned and began walking backwards up the stairs, looking at the camera. "Just imagine how old this place must be to have stairs like this," he said, waving his arms around while speaking. "It's incredible to think of how much history this house may have." When he reached the top of the stairs, Zak turned around again, but he was met with a wall. So, he turned to his right. What he saw next made him grip his chest. On his right was a single door with yellow crime scene tape over it in an X formation. Behind the police tape, just barely readable, was a piece of notebook paper. It was taped on horizontal, and on it read 'Emma's Domain. Do not enter, or my ghosts will get you.' Emma's room, Zak thought. He slowly walked toward the door, his breathing quick and heavy, so as to keep the tears from pouring out.

Aaron watched Zak through the screen of his camera. When Zak reached the door, he tore the police crime scene tape off. Putting his hand on the door knob, Zak turned and looked at the camera. "Now what you're about to see," Zak said to the future viewers, "could possibly be the most graffic thing you've seen in your life. So be prepared." With that said and done, he turned back to the door and twisted the knob. He pushed it open and walked into the room. Immediately, Zak screamed and fell to his knees, clutching his chest.
"Zak!," Aaron shouted, racing to his friend. When Aaron ran into Emma's room, he almost had a heart attack. The room's light blue walls were decorated almost completely in blood. The once grey carpet was now sticky and red. The bed's white covers were smeared with a blood outline of a human. The word 'SHAMED' was spelled out in red on a large mirror.
Aaron quickly grabbed Zak by the back of his shirt and began to drag Zak out of the room. "Wait!," Zak shouted, struggling out of Aaron's grasp. "I want to do an EVP session in here!" Aaron bowed his head and sighed, rubbing his forehead.
"Can't you do the session somewhere else?," Aaron asked. Zak shook his head like a stubborn child.
"Plus," Zak said, "I want all of us to do it." Now it was Aaron's turn to be stubborn, shaking his head ferociously. "If all of us are in here, Emma won't detect a threat," Zak reasoned.
"Emma's smart," Aaron said, "I'm sure she'll be just fine with only you."
"Come on Aaron," Nick said (who hasn't been inside the bedroom yet mind you), "let's just go with him. What harm could it do for Emma to see all of us at least one last time?" Aaron sighed.
"Okay," Aaron said. "Let's do this."