Chapter 129: "Help Me!"
After following Alan's apparition for around ten minutes, it suddenly dawned on me that this might not be the best idea.
I no longer had any idea of where I was in terms of the location of the mansion, and I had no way of contacting the guys. It also had started to snow, but thankfully it wasn't too heavy. I had started to think that maybe this apparition was actually Herb, trying to lure me to some form of danger. The only comforting thought I had to counter that idea was that Herb had supposedly only killed men.
I stopped walking after not having seen Alan's apparition for a minute or so, and looked all around me.
Nothing but trees and darkness.
"Alan, where are you?" I asked, constantly looking around me.
"...I'm here..." Alan's voice emitted from the Spirit Box
Great, I thought.
The only thing I could figure was that Alan could no longer show himself, but was still nearby to communicate with me.
"I can't see you anymore, where do you want me to go?" I asked, despite the nagging thought that I should follow my footprints – before they were filled in by the falling snow - back to the mansion.
"...straight..." Alan's voice came through the Spirit Box.
I looked straight ahead and debated with myself on whether to continue or head back, I decided to continue following Alan for a bit longer. So, once I made sure I was heading straight by using my footprints as a reference to where I had come from, I began walking again.
As I walked, I kept my eye on the viewfinder of my camera, as the night vision was my only guide to discern what was in front of me. However, I noticed that the battery was draining faster than normal, and wondered if Alan was using it's energy.
I still had my small flashlight on me, but I had kept enough of my sense to tell myself to save it until absolutely necessary. I also still had the Spirit Box going, as it was my only way of hearing Alan's voice, but I began to worry that it's battery life may not last much longer either.
If Billy had contacted Zak to tell him what I had done, I could easily imagine the fit Zak was probably throwing back at the mansion right now.
As I continued walking, I decided to try to obtain some form of comfort that I was following an innocent victim, and not Herb himself.
"Alan, what are you?" I asked.
"...I'm dead..." Alan's voice replied, with a tone of sadness.
I found myself feeling bad for doubting him, and for hearing this Alan acknowledging that he knew he was dead, but knew I had to keep my guard up.
"Who killed you?" I asked, as I continued walking.
"...Herb did it..." Alan's voice answered.
Okay...that helps, a little...I thought.
If Alan was really a victim of Herb's, than his answer was truthful. But it was also known that Herb had killed himself...so in a way, Alan's answer could go both ways.
Suddenly, I saw Alan's apparition appear a few feet in front of me – still only from the waist up.
I stopped in my tracks and focused my camera on Alan, but yet again, he wasn't appearing on camera.
Damn it!
I saw Alan's mouth move, but heard nothing. From what I could discern, it looked like he had said two or three words.
"...found it..." Alan's voice suddenly came through the Spirit Box.
I swallowed back a lump that formed in my throat.
"Found what?" I asked.
Alan didn't speak, he simply looked down at the ground where his feet should be.
Oh god...
I knew from our interviews that bones were still being found on the property. Had Alan taken me to the spot where his body had been buried?
I knew in my gut that I should somehow mark the spot, and then backtrack to get Zak and Aaron and then lead them back here, but the look on Alan's face...
He looked so sad, hopeless. If a spirit could cry, I was sure there would be tears rolling down his cheeks. Even worse, I suddenly felt overcome with sadness.
I kneeled down and brushed the snow off of a nearby rock, and carefully set the Spirit Box down on it.
Once I stood back up, I looked at Alan's face again – still filled with sadness – and then down at the ground at his feet. I rubbed my forehead with my free hand, took a deep breath, and then walked forward.
As I reached the spot where Alan was standing, his apparition slowly faded away, and the Spirit Box suddenly stopped.
I looked back at the Spirit Box in shock, and saw nothing abnormal around it.
The battery must of went dead...
I sighed quietly as I turned forward and looked down at the ground again, and then carefully knelt down so I was kneeling in the snow. I then turned and aimed my camera at my face.
"Well...this Alan has lead me to this spot in the forest. His apparition just disappeared, right before the Spirit Box stopped on it's own. I'm nervous to see what Alan wanted me to find...but I feel like he's desperate for my help...so here goes," I said.
I kept the camera aimed at my face as I began using one hand to brush the snow off the ground. Once I reached the soil – and hadn't found anything – I began digging in the dirt.
While it was difficult as it was partially frozen, the soil was softer than I expected it to be. I continued digging until I felt something hard and smooth under my fingers.
It was too dark for me to discern what it was, so I took my flashlight out from my pocket and turned it on, and aimed it into the small hole I had dug. Whatever I was looking it, it wasn't a rock. I was no geologist, but I just knew in my gut that it couldn't be a rock. It was too smooth, and the color seemed off. I also was pretty sure it wasn't a bone, as the part I had uncovered was quite wide.
I turned the flashlight off to save it's battery life, and then began brushing more dirt off and away from the mysterious object.
After digging another minute or so, I suddenly felt my index finger go through a hole in the object, and felt nothing but empty space around my finger.
Feeling puzzled by this new find, I picked up my flashlight again with the same hand my handheld camera was in, turned it on, and aimed it at the object.
I let out a gasp of shock, and horror.
I had found a skull – a human skull – and my index finger was currently in the empty eye socket.
"Oh god..." I mumbled quietly, yanking my hand away from the skull as quickly as I could, and then shoved my hand into the snow – feeling the desperate need to clean my hand.
"No no no..." I muttered, feeling my heart beginning to race, and my mind beginning to panic as I quickly wiped my fingers back and forth against the snow.
Finding a human bone would have been one thing, but finding a human skull – who I presumed had belonged to Alan as he had been the one to show me where to dig – was quite another thing.
I let out another gasp of shock when suddenly, Alan's apparition appeared in front of me. His face was directly in front of mine, his body looking as if he was buried in the ground from the waist down.
"...help me..." Alan said, his voice loud and clear to my own ears.
"I..I can't..." I began, feeling frozen on the spot in fear. "I'm sorry..." I added.
Alan didn't like my answer.
"Help me!" He yelled, in an anguished and pleading tone.
Before I could respond, suddenly, more apparitions began appearing behind Alan. One after another, and all men.
"...help me..." One man said.
"...help me..." Another man said.
"...help me..." A third man said.
Then, there was nothing but repeated pleas of "help me", from the numerous apparitions of men. A few looked fine, other than being transparent, but some looked like death. Some had dark marks around their necks, while others looked like they had been burned.
My body went into full on panic mode then, and I dropped both the flashlight and the camera, and began scrambling backwards with my hands and feet – trying desperately to put as much distance as I could between myself and the men.
"I can't...I'm sorry," I spoke in a shaky voice. "Please..." I nearly begged.
This only seemed to enrage the men, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when the Spirit Box turned back on by itself, but I could still hear the men with my own ears.
"Help me!" They all began yelling at random intervals, and they all began moving toward me. Their arms outstretched in desperation, their faces all begging and pleading for me to help them.
Alan had began moving toward me as well, but he was still at my level, his body seeming to move through the ground.
"I can't! You're dead!" I yelled in panic, quickly scrambling to my feet and tried to run, but I only managed to take a few steps before I ended up tripping over a rock or a log.
"HELP US!" The men began chanting, over and over.
I curled up into the fetal position, and let out a scream of horror while covering my head with my arms, as all the apparitions started to close in around me.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile...
Zak's Point Of View...
After spending some more time doing an EVP session with a digital recorder while moving around the pool room and not receiving any more responses, I decided to switch to a Spirit Box and head out into the backyard.
The Spirit Box is an audio only device that rapidly scans through multiple audio channels, which ghosts can manipulate to say a word or phrase in real time.
As Aaron and I stepped out through the patio doors, and I was about to turn on the Spirit Box, we both heard a loud, blood curdling scream.
"Whoa dude!" Aaron exclaimed as he jumped, and quickly turned to face the direction the scream had come from.
I on the other hand, while startled, felt like my heart stopped.
"Did that-" I started, but was interrupted by Billy's voice.
"Zak!" He called from inside the pool room, and then ran outside once he saw us outside. "Bro! Why didn't you answer us on the walkie talkie?!" Billy exclaimed, out of breath, and seemingly in a panic.
"We didn't hear you on the walkie talkie," I said. "What's going on?" I added, feeling my entire body tense.
"Ali..." Billy said, while trying to catch his breath. "She said she was seeing the apparition of that guy in the red t-shirt, the half a man, and she followed him out into the forest without her walkie talkie," Billy explained.
My eyes widened in shock.
"What?! Why didn't you contact me bro?!" I asked angrily.
This property was large, and in the pitch blackness of a forest, and with snow now falling, I was terrified Alicia may end up lost.
"Jay and I tried bro!" Billy exclaimed. "You just said you didn't hear us through the walkie talkies!" Billy added.
"Zak...that scream..." Aaron said, sounding worried.
My stomach clenched in fear.
"Did she follow the apparition from the apartment?" I asked Billy, and he nodded.
"Yes, as far as I know," Billy said, looking concerned now himself.
"Aaron, come with me. We'll go see if we can find her footprints and follow them into the woods," I said, and Aaron nodded as he took the Spirit Box from me, and quickly ducked back inside to set it and his camera down. "Billy, go find some blankets and towels, anything we can use to warm her up, and then try to follow us. Have Jay stay at nerve in case we need him to contact someone for help," I added.
"Will do," Billy said, then rushed back inside, while Aaron walked back out to me.
"Let's go," I said, and we both took out our flashlights and turned them on, and then began running with Aaron toward the side of the house where the apartment was located to look for any indication of which way Alicia had gone.
Please be okay...
~*~*~*~*~*~
Roughly fifteen minutes later...
Aaron and I had had luck finding Alicia's footprints, but just barely, as the falling snow was quickly covering them up.
We were now deep in the forest, following her footprints as quickly as we could, while also keeping an eye on our surroundings for any other signs of her, in case she was trying to make her way back to the mansion.
"Ali!" I called out, for what felt like the millionth time in the past few minutes.
No response.
Suddenly, Aaron grabbed me by the arm and stopped me in my tracks.
I looked at him partly in frustration – we didn't have time to stop.
"What?!" I asked.
"Listen...do you hear that?" Aaron asked.
I did my best to calm myself to focus on my hearing, and very faintly heard the sound of what sounded like static.
"Sounds like a Spirit Box," Aaron said, looking at me.
"Come on," I urged, and began running toward the sound, and noticed we were still following what remained of Alicia's footprints.
After what seemed like a lifetime, I finally noticed a dark figure with the beam of my flashlight. The figure was sitting on the ground, their knees bent up to their chest, their face buried in their knees – but I saw the light of my flashlight reflect off the silver studs that donned along the side of Alicia's jeans, and knew it was her.
"Ali!" I called, and quickly ran to her, dropping to my knees in front of her and dropping my flashlight in the snow, taking a hold of Alicia's shoulders with her hands.
Before I could ask her if she was alright, she slowly lifted her head up, and I saw the recognition of seeing it was me show on her face, and she quickly threw herself toward me and threw her arms around me and buried her face in the nape of my neck.
I felt such a huge sense of relief to feel her arms around me again, but I quickly re-focused on her current state and not on the fact that she was hugging me again for the first time since I had been a complete ass to her.
Aaron was silent, but he had thankfully turned off the Spirit Box, and was now looking around the general area to see if he could determine what had happened.
"Ali...you're freezing," I said softly in concern, feeling how cold the skin of her face was against my neck, and noticing now that her hair was damp from the snow. "Here," I added, forcing myself to pull back from her embrace.
I quickly unzipped and pulled off my jacket, and then quickly threw it over her back, and pulled it as tightly as I could around her. I then took off my baseball cap and put it on her head, pulled her long, damp hair around so it was hanging down in front of her shoulder, and pulled up the hood of her jacket up over her head.
As I reached back to my jacket to pull it more firmly around her again, I felt the tiny, cold and exposed parts of her fingers touch mine as she reached up to hold the jacket close around herself, and I quickly covered her hands with my own, and began rubbing them to try to warm them up.
When she finally looked at me, I felt my body tense in concern.
Her face was ghostly white, and her lips had no color at all. Her eyes were bloodshot and red – she had clearly been crying. She looked exhausted, and she had fear in her eyes.
"Ali...what happened?" I asked, frantically trying to think of what else I could do to warm her up.
I saw her eyes begin to water slightly and she slightly shook her head, clearly not wanting to talk about it.
I was fine with that, right now I was more concerned about her immediate wellbeing.
"Zak..." Aaron suddenly said, softly.
When I looked over at him, he motioned for me to come over. His face expressed shock, yet sadness.
I looked back at Ali and gave her hand a gently squeeze.
"I'll be right back, okay?" I asked.
Her eyes met mine and she nodded in agreement. I sensed she knew what Aaron wanted, and that she wanted me to see what he had to show me.
I squeezed her hands again before standing up and walking over to Aaron. I noticed he was holding Alicia's handheld camera, and her flashlight.
"Look..." Aaron said softly, pointing at the ground.
When I looked down at the ground, I was stunned to see a human skull laying in a small hole, and then I immediately felt horrible.
She must have found it...
"Is there anything on her camera?" I asked softly, looking at Aaron, and he nodded.
"It's not good bro," he said softly, giving me a look that clearly said I shouldn't watch it right now.
As curious as I was, I didn't want to see whatever Alicia's camera had recorded of her event, not right now.
"Zak!" I suddenly heard Billy's voice from behind us, and looked back to see him faintly through the falling snow.
Thank god...
I looked back at Aaron.
"Can you get Billy caught up, and radio Jay," I said softly. "We need to get the police out here..." I added.
"Will do Z," Aaron said softly, and I reached up and rubbed his shoulder in thanks before turning back to meet up with Billy who had reached us, and was already wrapping one of the blankets he had with him around Alicia.
Author's Note: Well, I know it was only two chapters, but I hope they were worth the wait...I also hope I still "have it" in terms of writing skill, lol.
Hope you enjoyed the update, and please review and vote! Until next time!