Chapter 42: Revealing Information
Roughly three hours later...
We were about to board the "Queen Mary" to film our first interview.
After Aaron had left my hotel room, I had quickly grabbed my selected outfit for the evening: a pair of fitted blue jeans, with rips and tears in the thighs and knees; a black hoodie with white angel wings on the back, with a laced up ribbon in between the wings; and a pair of heeled boots.
I put on minimum makeup and fixed my hair, similar to how it had been done for the promo photoshoot. Black, smokey eye makeup, and a nude lip colour. My hair halfway pulled back, teased a bit to create a hump on top of my head and styled into a fishtail braid, with French braids from my temples.
I don't know what it was, but I felt more confident in myself with my hair styled like this, as opposed to just letting it hang down or having it pulled back in a ponytail or bun. It also kept my hair back out of my face, which was good while investigating.
Before I left the room, I donned the silver cross Zak had given me, as I had done for every investigation.
However, on suggestions from the producers, because there were already rumours spreading online that Zak and I were dating, and because some fans read into any little gesture or token (the fans had somehow figured out that Zak had given me the cross) I decided to wear it under my hoodie, but part of the chain was visible around my neck.
Once everyone was ready, the guys, Ashley and I had gone to dinner and had our fill of delicious food.
While we were eating, Zak had filled us in on one story about the "Queen Mary" that he had read about online while doing some last minute research.
After hearing the story, it was difficult for me to contain my already heightened anxiety.
~*~*~*~*~
We had all ordered our food, and the waiters brought us our drinks.
After the waiters had left, I saw Zak pull out some folded papers from his backpack.
I had gotten a brief glimpse of them as he unfolded them, they had looked like printed copies of really old newspaper articles.
"I found some reports online about a terrible accident that the 'Queen Mary' was involved in. I think it's something we should investigate," Zak said.
"What did you find bro?" Aaron asked.
"On October 2nd, 1942, while evading German U-boats, the 'Queen Mary' collided with her escort cruiser, the 'HMS Curaçao', slicing it in half, killing 338 men," Zak began.
Aaron glanced at me.
I ignored his look and shifted slightly in my seat. I could almost feel the three, horrible drawings, burning a hole in the back pocket of my jeans.
"Wow, that's horrible," Ashley commented.
Zak nodded.
"Apparently, a lot of the men were pulled into the 'Queen Mary's' propeller. That same propeller is still installed on the ship," Zak said.
I nearly spit out some water I had just sipped from my glass. I coughed to get the water down.
Billy, who was sitting beside me, firmly patted my back.
"You okay?" He asked.
Everyone was looking at me.
I coughed a bit again and nodded.
"Went down the wrong pipe," I said, my voice slightly strained.
Everyone relaxed and focused back on Zak as he explained some more details about the story.
I could feel the tension building in my chest.
Had I, somehow, done some sort of psychic drawing of a tragic event that happened aboard the "Queen Mary"?
And we're the other two drawings going to lead me to similar stories of tragedy?
~*~*~*~*~
After dinner, we drove to the location where the "Queen Mary" was docked.
Aaron hadn't confronted me about the connection between the story Zak told us, and the matching drawing I had done earlier, but he kept looking at me. I did my best to ignore him, without seeming as if I was.
We filmed Zak doing an introduction for the episode, explaining some of the "Queen Mary's" history, and how the claims of hauntings didn't start until after the ship was retired from service in 1967, permanently being docked in Long Beach, California.
We also filmed Zak talking about the groundbreaking paranormal research done by a world renowned psychic medium - the late, Peter James - in the early 1990's. This story bothered me every time I heard it, because it involved a little girl. I didn't need reminders of Emily right now.
Even though there is no documented reports of a little girl dying on the ship, or anyone drowning in the ships' pools, many people report seeing a little girl named Jackie.
Peter James had used the "Queen Mary" as a base camp for his paranormal studies, and had captured some of the earliest and most compelling paranormal evidence. His sessions with Jackie - who is said to haunt the first class pool - helped forged the "Queen Mary's" reputation as the most haunted ship in the world.
~*~*~*~*~
An hour later...
It had gotten dark now.
While waiting to do some interviews, Zak had been making some phone calls. Basically just checking in on some guests that were coming to the lockdown.
Debby Constantino, an EVP specialist, was going to be arriving soon. I was excited to meet her.
Some friends of the late Peter James would be coming as well.
Zak hoped they would be useful trigger "objects".
Aaron and I waited near the end of the gangplank while he made his phone calls.
"You're going to keep your promise right?" Aaron asked.
I sighed inwardly, but nodded.
"I will Aaron, I just want to see if anything else related to them comes up," I replied.
Aaron nodded, seeming pleased with my answer.
Suddenly, we heard Zak coming up behind us.
"Alright, let's go interview Robert. He's waiting on deck," Zak said.
"Alright bro," Aaron replied.
Zak started across the gangplank leading to the ship, with Aaron and I following behind him with our cameras.
Once on deck, Zak took up a position facing Aaron's camera, and I took up a position off to one side, just to get different angles that could be picked from once we got into the editing process.
"Ready bro?" Aaron asked.
Zak nodded.
I had my camera on and waited until Aaron counted down to hit the record button.
"Three...two..." Aaron started, and made a hand gesture to indicate he was filming, and I started filming too.
Zak started taking a few steps back as he spoke, in the direction of where Robert was.
"Okay, right now, we're going to talk to a guy named Rob. He's a paranormal investigator and author. Rob's wrote numerous books on the paranormal. This way guys," Zak said, indicating to both Aaron and I to follow him.
Leaving our cameras rolling, we followed Zak a short distance and met up with a man, who looked to be in his late forties or early fifties.
"Robert?" Zak asked.
The man nodded and held out a hand toward Zak.
"You must be Zak," Robert said.
Zak shook his hand and nodded.
"How are you?" Zak asked.
"I'm great, thank you. I'm excited to be apart of this, thank you for offering me the opportunity," Robert replied.
Zak smiled.
"Well, thank you for agreeing to the interview," Zak said.
"No problem at all," Robert responded.
"These two are part of the crew," Zak indicated, motioning to Aaron and I. "Alicia and Aaron," Zak added.
Aaron and I both smiled and waved at Robert, as he nodded to both of us, but then his gaze lingered on me.
"And it's great to see another woman getting involved in the paranormal field. Congratulations on joining the GAC," Robert said.
I saw Aaron turn his camera to film me, while I still had my camera on Robert and Zak.
Zak was smiling.
"Thank you Robert. It's an honour to be a part of the Crew," I replied.
Robert smiled in response.
"So, are you ready?" Zak asked.
"Bring it on," Robert answered.
Zak folded his arms across his chest, getting into his professional mode.
"So, where do you rate the 'Queen Mary' in terms of hauntings?" Zak asked.
"Number one," Robert answered, without hesitation.
"The 'Queen Mary' ranks as number one," Zak replied, with a slight questioning tone to his voice, as if to clarify he heard Robert correctly.
"Oh absolutely," Robert answered, again, without hesitation. "I've had more stuff happen here – we do a lot of seances," Robert started.
"How many seances have you done on this boat?" Zak asked.
Damn...he's sexy when he's being all professional, I couldn't help but think.
"Probably about sixty," Robert answered.
Holy crap...
"Have you ever welcomed something dark, during one of your seances here?" Zak asked.
"We've had voices saying 'we're going to kill you', 'get out'," Robert replied.
"Why would a spirit aboard this ship say that to you?" Zak asked.
"I think there are so many secrets here. So many deaths here," Robert started.
"Still untold?" Zak questioned.
"Absolutely," Robert nodded.
"Or undiscovered?" Zak asked.
"I do believe so," Robert asked.
"Do you have any stories that you've heard since you started coming here, that you can tell us?" Zak asked.
Robert nodded.
"Absolutely. There's a mysterious story about a crewman being crushed to death by a water tight door," Robert said.
I felt my entire body tense.
"A water tight door?" Zak questioned.
"Yes. To this day, no one knows what happened. Some people believe his clothing got caught on something. But I think there's something fishy about it. There are frequent sightings of a man in the area it happened, at water tight door number 13," Robert explained.
Oh-my-god.
I saw Aaron look at me, keeping his camera aimed at Zak and Robert.
I looked back at him and just nodded.
I needed to tell Zak about the drawings I had done.