Guide My Steps - A Zak Bagans Story

The Headphone Crisis

"The pair of us are like salt and sugar: such different flavors, but so close in every other way you could never sort us apart once we're together." - Sarah Miller

*

Check list: too many shirts, jeans, shorts, pajamas, essential toiletries, underwear, bras, those cute green fuzzy socks, notebooks and many sharpies to keep me busy, an extra pair of shoes, slippers, money, hotel reservation receipt, phone charger... My eyes widened.

"BAGANS!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

There was muffed laughter and footsteps on the stairs a few feet away from my bedroom door. I flung myself out of my room at full speed, ignoring the few little trinkets I knocked off my dresser in the process. I could see the buff shoulders of my target below as he slipped into a secret door directly beside the stairs. That bastard.

"I swear, when I catch you, you're gonna wish you were never born!" I yelled, hanging halfway off the banister near the top.

Growling to myself, I slipped a leg over the dark wood railing and pushed off of the last stair I was standing on. I slid down in a rushed, but cautious, speed until I reached the end, leaping off before I smashed into the decorative turn-out piece. Landing with a thud! on the wood floor, my feet instantly raced down the second set of stairs that led into the blackness hidden behind a thick panel of metal.

I heard laughter at the bottom of the pit, softer than a whistle. He was hiding.

Two could play at that game.

At the last step, I peeked my head around the corner, but with no luck. Gently, I set one of my bare feet down, and then the other in the same orderly fashion to avoid any noise. I sat in the middle of the dimly lit dungeon, the red hazed bulbs above supplying me with a bit of light to guide my sight. My ears caught the faintest of rustles near the overhead flat screen television; my head snapped in that direction, a wicked smile on my face.

My eyes flickered to the screen, my lips growing in their upturn. Bram Stoker's Dracula was playing, as always. It was around the first few scenes in the beginning, where Jonathan Harker was speaking with Mina, his soon-to-be wife. Pretending to be completely engrossed and 'totally' mesmerized by the film, I waited in silence. The only sounds were of my breathing and the soft voices of Mina and Jonathan...until the silence was broken by a wailing battle cry.

Bagans flew out from behind the crimson drapes that surrounding either sides of the television set, tackling me to the ground by my waist. I released out my own war cry, grabbing his sides and falling to the ground.

We landed hard on our sides, wrestling and grappling. He wrapped his thighs around my arm, lodging me into his famous armbar. I managed to struggle out of his grip, changing positions in seconds. I flung myself onto his torso, straddling him. Minutes of arm grappling went by before I finally pinned both of his arms above his head.

I bared my teeth down at him. "Where are they, Zachary?" I growled.

He smiled widely, trying to shuffle his arms out of my hold. "I don't know what you're talking about, Emeline." He said sweetly, feigning innocence.

Yet another wicked grin was displayed proudly on my features.

"We are not going anywhere until we have solved this headphone crisis. Do you hear me?" We both were trying so hard not to burst into complete giggles.

I was the first to break, instantly regretting it as I lost my hold and was thrown backwards. The breath was knocked out of my lungs, making my laughter sound like squeaks and gasps. Bagans loomed over me them, reciprocating my actions and after a bit of a sissy-hitting fight, he had both of my wrists in one hand above my head.