Authors Note: Hello readers. Firstly, I want to thank those of you that commented, or sent me DM's, with your support regarding my last note. It was nice to know I'm not alone with my feelings.
Anyway, I was able to get one chapter written for you guys. I debated on holding off until I had more written, but after asking for your opinion on Twitter and Facebook, pretty much 99 percent of you that voted wanted the chapter posted, lol. It's probably for the best anyway, as, even though I'm somewhat back into a writing mood, I just found out on Monday my dad has to have surgery tomorrow (Wednesday) to have a kidney stone removed (I told you, the drama here never stops. I should write a book about my life, lol). Hopefully it'll be an easy procedure, but I'm not quite sure yet on recovery time and such, so I might be busy the next few days helping out.
Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 127: Beginning of the End...
While Zak, Aaron and myself gathered up our individual gear and cameras, we agreed to begin the lockdown, but before we even left nerve center, the spirits residing in this home decided to start the lockdown without us.
"Woah!" Jay suddenly exclaimed, listening via headphones as he watched the monitors in front of him, which showed the views from the four static-x cameras we had placed throughout the property.
"What?" Zak asked, turning to look at him.
Jay slipped one side of his headphones off in order to be able to hear us, before turning to look at Zak.
"I just heard a loud bang coming from the pool room," Jay replied – the very pool room where it was assumed Herb had killed many of his victims.
"Seriously bro?" Zak responded, as he walked over to stand behind Jay and Billy to look at the monitors.
Aaron and I moved closer as well with our cameras – I filmed the monitors, while Aaron stood to one side to film Zak.
Billy hit a button on the equipment in order for us to hear the live audio feed ourselves, while Jay put his headphones back in their proper place.
Shortly after, we all slightly jumped as another loud bang was heard in the pool room.
"Dude!" Aaron exclaimed.
"This investigation – this home – has me on edge, unlike-any-other..." Zak started, looking into Aaron's camera, and making hand gestures to put emphasis on the last three words. "Because I can't believe the house is still here," Zak added.
YOU are on edge? I couldn't help thinking.
I could barely manage to keep my thoughts of how I was "outed" as a virgin from the forefront of my mind – would the guys think of me differently? Would they treat me differently?
Ugh, focus Ali!
"And this shot right here," Zak continued, leaning over and pointing at the view of the pool room on the monitor. "Is the swimming pool, where he did much of his killings inside of that pool," Zak explained.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After a few minutes of nothing but silence coming through the audio, Zak, Aaron and I left nerve center.
"Let's head to the pool room first," Zak said, as he began leading the way, and Aaron began following suit.
"Um...Zak?" I asked, somewhat quietly.
Zak immediately stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me. Aaron had done the same as well.
The tension and embarrassment already running through me, heightened significantly.
"Would it be alright if I went to the upper floor apartment in the other building?" I asked. "I was getting some strange vibes in there before..." I quickly added, so that I had a viable excuse.
I felt bad for using our personal lives to change up the investigation, but I needed time away from the guys to get my head on straight.
Zak hesitated, looking like he was about to tell me "no", but then he must have had a change of thought, because his expression changed.
"Yeah, sure," Zak replied, acting his best professional self. "Stay in contact in case anything major happens," Zak added, to which I nodded in response.
"I will," I replied, and nodded slightly again – a silent way of saying "thanks".
Zak nodded slightly in response, and I turned and made my way to the front entrance and then walked outside, taking a deep breath the moment the door closed behind me.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Zak's Point of View
I watched Alicia as she walked toward the front entrance, and then turned back to the direction of the pool room once she was out of view.
Normally, I would of told Alicia no, and have her come to the pool room with Aaron and I. However, after the most sensitive part of our private conversation having been heard by Aaron, Billy and Jay; and with tension already between the two of us, I figured she needed some alone time.
"Hey bro..." Aaron said, and I turned to look at him. "Are you-" Aaron started to ask, but I cut him off.
"I'm good, let's go," I replied quickly, heading toward the stairs that lead to the basement where the pool was.
Aaron remained silent as he followed along behind me, and I quickly got my first chosen piece of equipment – a REM Pod attached to the end of a tripod, so that I could hold it out a few feet in front of me – set up and running.
The REM Pod, or radiating electromagnetism pod, consists of a circular platform base, on top of which an antenna and some coloured lights are attached. The antenna covers a 360 degrees field and detects energy disturbances and fluctuations within this field. The REM Pod uses coloured lights and audible tones to alert of field disturbances.
I continued leading the way as I began walking down the stairs, holding the REM Pod out in front of me. Aaron followed along behind me, filming with a handheld camera.
"Hey Herb?" I asked, after I passed the halfway point of the staircase and stopped in place, which resulted in Aaron stopping as well. "Herb, if you're still here at your home...I want to tell you that you're an evil man," I added.
"Bro..." Aaron mumbled, clearly in a "why did you say that?" tone.
I knew that in recent investigations, I had tried not to resort to antagonizing spirits, but this was a serial killer, and I was already on edge. I needed to blow off some of the pain and frustration built up inside me.
When we received no responses, I began walking down the stairs again, Aaron following me again.
"You killed a lot of men in here," I started. "Many believe that you...attacked...a guy named Joe, not to long ago, here. Your spirit...are you still here Herb?" I added, as I reached the bottom of the stairs.
I stopped just outside the threshold to the pool room, holding the REM Pod stretched out into the room. I turned back and looked into Aaron's camera.
"Reaching the swimming pool," I began. "Where a victim who survived...talked to a un...detective, that we spoke to earlier, and the victim said that Herb tried strangling him in this pool with a pool hose," I finished, and then stepped across the threshold and into the pool room.
Knowing there was a static-x camera on the other side of the pool, I motioned with one hand for Aaron to follow me as I carefully made my way along the side of the pool -closest to us - toward the boiler room, where reports of activity sometimes originate from.
"Don't fall in bro," Aaron said, with humour in his tone.
I couldn't help but find his comment amusing, and jokingly – but carefully – lunged toward him as if I was going to attempt to push him in the pool, but Aaron quickly backed up.
"No way man!" Aaron exclaimed, laughing.
I chuckled quietly as I turned back toward the boiler room, and carefully walked inside, while Aaron stood outside the door and filmed me.
"Joe said earlier that the hose in here – for the pool - was the original hose here when they bought the house," Aaron said from behind me.
I took out a tiny flashlight so that I could see around the small room better, and also make it easier for the viewers to see the hose.
"This one right here?" I asked, once I shined my flashlight on it.
"Yeah dude," Aaron replied, aiming his camera to get a better shot at the hose.
"So this," I started, as I gently took hold of a part of the hose with my fingers. "May be the hose that was used, to possibly..." I trailed off, and let go of the hose.
I couldn't help but feel disturbed at the thought that I was touching a possible murder weapon, even though I always dared to touch the most evil and haunted of objects.
Aaron turned around and took a few careful steps back up along side the pool, and aimed his camera around the room.
"Are you in here?" Aaron asked. "If you are, just letting you know we're going to be here all night," Aaron added, as he panned around the room with his camera.
After carefully setting the REM Pod down inside the boiler room, I stepped back out into the main room, and carefully slipped passed Aaron as I moved back up along the length of the pool.
"I betcha he's just sitting watching us," Aaron said.
I remained silent as I decided what to do next, but couldn't silence the thought running through my head.
Or maybe he's watching Ali...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile...
Alicia's Point of View
I made my way back across the property grounds to the other building, where the second level apartment was that I had been in earlier.
As I crossed the short distance to the building, I tried to organize my thoughts on my virginity being "outed".
Even though I still felt embarrassed about my conversation with Zak being heard by the others, at the same time, a part of me was thinking that I was being silly for feeling embarrassed.
So the fact I have never had sex has come out...so what?
It's not like it was any of the guys' business...and why should their opinion of me change? My sex life – or lack thereof – shouldn't matter in that equation. On the other hand, if I had an "overly active" sex life, I knew "society" would end up labelling me a "slut" or a "whore".
Ugh...stop overthinking everything...
I did my best to force all my thoughts and feelings on the subject to the back of my mind, as I reached the building. I climbed up the outer stairs and stopped on the landing at the top. I made sure my handheld camera was set up properly, before aiming it at myself and hit the record button.
"Okay, it's..." I started, then glanced at my watch before looking back into the camera. "1:14am, and I'm about to enter the second floor apartment. Earlier, we interviewed a former tenant, Joe, who told us of his experiences while living here," I said.
I turned my camera to face the door in front of me, specifically aiming at the large, brass door knocker.
"He told us of how he would hear this brass door knocker handle, knock on it's own," I began, before turning the camera back to face me again. "He also told us he's seen an apparition of a man in a red t-shirt, but only from the waist up...should make for an interesting night. Let's get started..." I finished, before turning the camera to face the door again, and then slowly opened the door and walked inside, closing the door behind me.
As usual, I was surrounded by nothing but darkness. I took my digital recorder out of my jacket pocket, and then used the little light that my handheld camera emitted, to turn it on.
"1:16am," I began, glancing at my watch again. "This is Ali, by myself, in the second floor apartment. Can't see anything. Rolling digital recorder," I added, getting the time stamping procedure out of the way, and then carefully and slowly took a few steps forward – making sure I was in view of the static-x camera - and panned the camera around the main room of the apartment.
"Is there someone in this room?" I asked, listening carefully as I kept my camera steady to film the apartment, holding the digital recorder out in front of me.
With no audible response that I could hear, I tried again.
"If there are any spirits here...who were murdered by Herb Baumeister, you can talk to me, into this recorder," I started, motioning with one finger I could point with while still holding the camera. "I'm not here to hurt you, I want to help you," I added.
Again, silence – at least for me. The digital recorder could be another story, but I wanted to keep going.
"How about the person who moves the door knocker handle? Are you here?" I asked, panning the main room again. "Can you make that sound now?" I quickly added.
Silence for about ten seconds, and then my first activity of the night began – an unexplained knocking sound.
"Whoa...what was that?" I asked, looking at the static-x camera, but then the answer hit me.
The door knocker.
I immediately turned toward the front door, and studied it through the viewfinder of my camera for several seconds, before reaching for my walkie talkie on my belt.
"Did you guys here that?" I asked, radioing Billy and Jay – who were watching back at nerve center – with the walkie talkie.
"We did, the sound came from behind the camera. It sounded like the same door knocker sound we heard earlier during interviews," Billy responded.
"That's what it sounded like to me too..." I said, thinking. "Can one of you come over with a camera, and check the outside perimeter to make sure there's no one outside?" I asked.
I didn't want to disturb Zak and Aaron, especially if they were getting evidence of their own.
"Yeah sure, I'm on my way," Billy responded.
"Thanks Billy," I replied, then hooked my walkie talkie back on my belt, making sure my jacket didn't interfere with the buttons like it had earlier.
I remained standing in place while I waited for Billy to confirm or deny if anyone was outside, and panned my camera around the room again.
"Was that you Herb?" I asked.
Silence once again.
Figures...maybe we won't get much evidence after all the hype...I thought.
If only I knew what was to come as the hours progressed...
Authors Note: That's it for now! I'm sorry it was so short, but you have no idea how long it can take me to transcribe the dialogue from episodes. I'm a perfectionist, so I end up rechecking each line a dozen times over. No wonder I'm crazy, lol.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the update! Please keep the reviews and votes coming. And don't forget, you can ask me questions on my blog on Tumblr. Link in my profile. Until next time.