Chapter 12
News had gotten out.
I had left Marilyn's hospital room to wander down to the gift shop to buy her some flowers, preferably daises (those were her favorite) and a big teddy bear. But, while in the gift shop, I heard the TV mutter out my name.
“Zak Bagans, lead investigator of the hit TV show, Ghost Adventures, has suddenly appeared in Pennsylvania. Is it to see his ex-girlfriend, or make a lead on another girl? Sources tell us that. Zak's Ex-girlfriend, Miss. Anderson had fallen into a coma, and is now in the hospital. My reporting crew and I have made our way to Pennsylvania to find out. Back to you Jeff.” The screen faded out to the news forecaster, and I mentally smacked myself.
I knew I shouldn't have put it on twitter that I wouldn't be on for a while. Now the secret is out, and there were two choices.
ignore the news lady, push past her and the cameras to my car and drive really, I mean really fast out of this place and back to Nevada.
2. Talk to the news lady about what had happened to Marilyn, and that she would be better soon.
And to be honest, I was leaning more towards option one.
Quickly, and as non-recognizable as possible, I dropped off the flowers and bear to Marilyn's room, and began making my way to my car that was in the parking lot. Since I was choosing to stay here for a few days – to see when Marilyn was going to wake up, I was staying in a fancy hotel. I took this as a business opportunity, maybe meet some fans who didn't get the chance, and maybe I could tangle with the spirits that infested Marilyns home. That's something I not only wanted, but actually needed to do, and that was to go after the spirits that reside in Marilyn's house, and hopefully I could get to the source of this madness.
Yet who was I kidding? Her house was the portal to hell, and I was the person that was stupid enough to make the choice to try to tame the spirits in the first day, so in some picture, I caused this entire situation.
–
I found myself at Marilyn’s front door, and as I pushed the door open, it squeaked creepily, and then was followed by an eerie, Deep silence. Marilyn's home was always friendly, but as I walked inside, I realized how spooky this home really was. The shades were drawn, and some plates were left in the sink. I let out a breath, this was just another investigation, nothing to worry about. I shut Marilyn's front door, and slowly walked over to the bar stools, sliding up on one, I powered up my macbook, attempting to ignore the feeling of somebody watching over my shoulder. I opened up the sound reading software, and hooked up the spirit box.
I wasn't sure of how intelligent the spirits in this house were, but I knew they were powerful – almost too powerful for even my crew to handle. I began recording, and said nothing for a moment, I simply sat and listened.
“He's back!”
“He's not suppose to come back!”
“He's going to ruin us!”
The spirit box began talking, not to me, but to each other it seemed as if there were 2 spirits that were having a conversation, and pretending like I could not hear them, or maybe they simply didn't know that I could.
“Who's in this house?” I asked, directly to the spirit box, almost afraid to look around.
“Such a petty question, Mr. Bagans.”
Taken back, I rose my eyebrows and sat up in the chair, crossing my arms. “Excuse me?”
“You know who's in this house! THINK ABOUT IT!”
I sat for a moment, I couldn't come up with who would be in the house, who would try to hurt Marilyn. Had I pissed a spirit off while I was on one of my investigations, and a spirit followed me here, and decided to torment Marilyn, or maybe it had attached itself to me and thought that it was mine. Or maybe.. “You're the girl in the pictures..”
“bingo.”
The girl in the pictures. The white dress, the black hair, the silhouette in all the pictures of just me. I felt sick. I should have knew this! I should have remembered! “why?”
“Are you too stupid to see what's around you, Mr. Bagans?” The voice said, “look at me.” I looked around the room, and I saw nothing. Then I saw it, the ghostly white shadow walking down the hallway, I chased it. Not like I had a choice, I had to. Down the hallway, into Marilyn's room. Almost tripping over myself. Marilyn's room was bare. I walked in, and stood in the middle of the room.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” I screamed, putting my hands on my head, half-pulling my hair. “WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE?!”
“revenge! I want revenge!” The voice yelled
I looked around, and suddenly the dark room went bright, the room turned white, and I had to blink to look around. This wasn't Marilyn’s room. It was a white room, no exit, nothing in it. Suddenly, a girl appeared before me. A white dress, ebony hair. Her lips as red as blood. I stared at her, not remembering where I had seen her before, but I knew I had. The blue eyes.. I thought. I kept thinking until I finally put my finger on it. “ I know you.. you.. you're..”
“The spirit from Goldfield.”
“Elizabeth..” I whispered. “What do you want?” Elizabeth shook her head, walking away slowly.
“I want you to come back.” Elizabeth smiled, her bright teeth, that smile.., “I've loved you since your first investigation at the goldfield.. the way I stroked your arm...” Elizabeth came onto me, pressing her body against mine, stroking her fingers down my side.
“No.” I muttered, pushing her away. “This isn't happening. I'm dreaming, I'm seeing things. This isn't happening.”
“Just be with me Zachary! We could be perfect together! We could have a family!”
“Ironic, because even if I wanted to be with you, you're dead Elizabeth! You're a dead prostitute, that's all you ever were to me. Just another ghost that I can tangle with for my career. You're never going to happen.” My smart ass comment must have gotten the better of Elizabeth, because her pale face turned tomato red with anger, and she hissed..
“Oh it's happening, and there ain't shit that you're gonna do about it. I'm gonna kill that whore of yours, and it's gonna be your fault.”
-
Sweat.
I woke up in Marilyn’s bed, dripping sweat, wearing my jeans from last night, my shirt thrown across the room and wadded up in a ball in the corner. I couldn't breathe, it was just a bad dream, it had to be.. or maybe -
I couldn't think right. I half tumbled over the bed to get to the door, sprinting down the hallway. My laptop was right where I left it, but it wasn't open to the sound-recording software, it was open to twitter. My investigation supplies safely in the duffel bag on the floor.
My legs got weak, I tumbled to the ground and sobbed.
What do I do now?
If Elizabeth’s spirit was set out to not only hurt me, but 'punish' Marilyn. Elizabeth’s jealous was going to drive her to do something terrible to Marilyn, as if she already has. I didn't know what Elizabeth's spirit was capable of, but I knew that it was capable to demonic things, and I didn't want to think about what she was going to do to Marilyn.
Without Marilyn, what will Ghost Adventures become?
Look at me, being selfish.
I'm going to do whatever it takes to rid the spirits off this god forsaken portal to hell.
I remember from a class I took by Father Ashcraft. Entitled, “5 Steps To Rid of Evil.”
It was silly, some of the steps, but I remember them closely.
Step 1: Get rid of any unnecessary counter items that you may not need. Magazines, nick-nacks. Anything you think that a spirit could take advantage of and live in. Get rid of it.
Step 2: Burn Sage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Step 3: Handful of salt and holy water, sprinkle it around rooms that are most active.
Step 4: Bring in a priest to sprinkle holy water and mutter gods prayer.
Step 5: live in the house, and if anything specious that makes you think a spirit may be back, call in a priest and the procedure can be done again.
The procedure seemed silly to me, it always had been. Maybe in my mind, I thought that I didn't need some silly exorcism for a home procedure to be able to get rid of a ghost in a house, but turns out I did need it. I needed a silly procedure to save my soulmate from the hands of a psychotic ghost prostitute.
Wow did I seem crazy for saying that.
I let out a sigh, and suddenly, I looked up at the ceiling, closing my eyes, and even though I didn't believe in God, Jesus Christ, Our Savior, or whatever you people called him, But at this time, I needed him. I needed him to help me through this.
“God, if there even is a god, I don't know anymore. I do know that there is a devil. But, God, will you please help me help Marilyn? I can't loose her, and if I do, I don't know what I’ll do..” I collapsed on the ground again, slapping myself angrily. How could I let this happen again? This is just like poveliga. I wish this would've happened to me, because if I would've passed away, I knew Marilyn would be OK without me. Ghost Adventures would be ok without me.
No more Zak = no more possessions.
Wait, wait, wait.
Get a hold of yourself big boy.
You're gonna fight this.
You're gonna do what you've been trained to do.
You're gonna take this bitch head on.
You're gonna win.
Do it for yourself.
Do it for MARILYN.