Chapter 18

1 month later

It had been a rough month for me. I tried my best to not look hurt when we went out or when I was on camera. I knew that it would get easier as time went on. The guys always tried to cover for me. They all knew that I wasn't really looking for anyone to really know about what had really happened.

I showed the guys the scar once I didn't have to wear a bandage. Nick seemed to be really angry. I knew that he felt really bad that it had happened to me. I told him that there was nothing that he could really do about it. He knew that too. Billy seemed to be really sad about the whole thing.

Zak and I made our relationship official. There were people that had seen us in public, holding hands. They asked him on twitter and he told everyone. Most people were really happy about the whole thing. I was glad that there was a positive response.

Gage was sent to prison. They had found the dungeon that he was planning for me. He was also stalking me. The last time that I saw him, he spat at me. I kept my head up, even thought I wanted to run away. Zak, Nick, and Aaron were there for his hearing. I wasn't going to be seeing him ever again.

"Come on, Lea." Billy told me as I was messing with the cameras. I had gotten better with the technology and I was learning fast.

"Alright." I told him. I then walked with him to the ranch that we were at. I saw that the others were already up at the house. I was now an extra investigator. If they needed me to go, I would go. But meanwhile, I liked to stay and watch. Lately, I had been sitting, but I was able to walk a lot better now.

I walked with Billy up to the ranch house and we saw that they were interviewing a man. I looked at him and he seemed to recognize me. He was an older man and he had a mustache. He finished the interview with Zak then he walked up to me.

"Avril, how are you honey?" He asked me. I then remembered that I knew him from one of the towns that I was a librianian at. I went through my memory to try and remember the man's name. It then clicked.  I smiled at him and greeted him with a hug.

"Chuck! I am good. What about yourself?" I asked him. He seemed to be doing better than when I last saw him. He laughed and looked at the others.

"Avril, here, used to work at the library in Liberty. She was the best one. I was just sad to see her go." He told me. I smiled at him and patted his chest.

"You know why I left. I couldn't stay in that town." I told him. He was the only one that was fine with me seeing things.

"I know, I am just giving you a hard time." He told me. I was actually really happy to see him again. Zak was smiling at the two of us the entire time.

I talked with the older man for a while. I confessed to him about some of my life. I told him that I was having to move from town to town when it came out. So I would have to use a new name. He didn't seem to be mad or upset about any of it. He was really understanding about all of it.

Once the guys had finished with their interviews, we went back to the cabins that we had reserved for us. Zak and I were now sharing one. It was just working a lot better than when we would get our own rooms.

"Did you have fun with him?" Zak asked me as we got ready for bed.

"I did. He is a really nice man." I told him. We then got in the bed and laid down. I looked at him and he was smiling at the ceiling.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him. He then looked at me.

"I was just thinking about how you came into my life." He said. I turned so that I was laying on my side.

"What did you think?" I asked him.

"When I saw you, I thought that you weren't really a libraian. Then when I saw you sleeping in your car on one of those nights, I wanted to hold you." He told me. I then started to remember about those nights. I never really saw him.

"I went in the night to check on you." He confessed when he saw my expression. I sighed and pulled the covers up a little more.

"Thanks." I told him. He laughed and pulled me close to him. I felt his hand on the most recent scar. He simply had his hand on it, like he was covering it up. 

There was Gage. His eyes were red and he looked violent. I started running from him. I was running down a hall way and I saw that there were things that were lurking in the shadows. I then came to a dead end. He hadn't moved, though. I then looked around me. There was a door and I opened it.

"I am glad that you could come in. I was afraid that you weren't going to be ready for it." A woman told me. I looked too see that there was a woman that was sitting at a table. She was writing in her book. She had white hair, a long white dress, and no eyes.

"Where am I?" I asked her. I started to walk to her, because she looked nice enough.

"You are in a dream state. You don't have any control over this dream, but I do." She told me. She looked up at me and I saw that there was something bad about her.

"So get on with it. I don't want to over sleep." I told her. She chuckled and set her pen down.

"I am what some would call an oracle. I am just here to tell you something that will or could happen according to the path that you are on." She explained to me. I nodded my head for her to continue.

"You need to know what you are doing. If you conintue with this, you are going to get hurt. Zak will do something to you, that will put you in danger." She told me. I sighed and sat at the chair that was across from her.

"Will I be able to forgive him for it?" I asked her. I could handle getting hurt, to an extent.

"You will, but the others won't understand why he did it." She told me.

"Can you tell me what it is?" I asked her.

"I don't know that. I just know the outcome." She said.

"What should I do?" I finally said after a long silence. 

"You can run, before it begins and keep his name pure. Or you can stay and defend him." She told me. I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"You need to wake and make your decision." She said as she touched my forehead.

I opened my eyes to see that it was already daylight. I saw that Zak was still asleep. I got out of the bed and I walked to my suitcase. I put on a new pair of pants and a t shirt. I then grabbed it and zipped it up. I placed my shoes on and I looked at him one more time.

Once I left the cabin, I walked to the road. It was a county road, so I wouldn't really be able to find many people on it at this time in the morning. I started to walk down the road and away from him.

"I have to protect him. This is the only way that I can." I said to myself as I walked down the road. It was like I was trying to convince myself.

"Oh, girl. You know that there is something else that you could have done. You could have stayed." Leonard told me. I looked and I saw that he was walking with me.

"I leave or I have his name ruined because of me." I told him.

"No! She said among his friends! There is something that will happen between the two of you. No one outside of your family will know!" He told me. I sighed and moved my bag on my shoulder.

"Damn it. I need time. I just need to think!" I practically yelled at him. I heard him scoff at me.

"How could you just leave your family behind like that? Don't you say that they aren't, either. They are your family." Leonard said to me. I stopped and looked at him.

"They might be, but I also have to protect them. I need to make sure that they are still with each other. I don't want to hurt any of them. Which is what might happen, if I go back." I told him.

"Go back! You have to! You leaving them will hurt them more!" He yelled at me. I stood there and looked at the little demon for a while. He was staring right back at me too. He finally sighed and looked around me. I then heard my phone ringing. 

"Answer it." Leonard said. I looked at the phone and it was Aaron. He was calling me.

"Hello?" I said.

"Lea, where are you? Did you just leave?" Aaron asked me. I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Yeah, I did." I told him.

"Where are you? I can come pick you up." He told me.

"I am just a little ways donw the road." I told him as I looked up the road. I could still hide and make it so that they couldn't find me.

"I'll be there soon." Aaron said. I could hear him starting a car up. I sighed and closed the phone.

I stood there and waited for Aaron to come and get me. I was so worried that they would hate me for leaving like this. As the car came closer, I could see that Aaron was driving and Billy was with him. They pulled up next to me and Billy got out of the car. He grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. 

"Damn it, Lea. Don't leave us like that again." He told me ad he hugged me. He let me go and Aaron then pulled me into a hug. 

"Why did you leave?" Aaron asked me. I pulled away from him and I looked at the two of them.

"Something bad is going to happen, because of me. I was just afriad that it would be so bad that you all would hate me or something." I told them.

"We would never hate you. We couldn't do that. After all that you have done for us, that will never happen." Aaron said to me. I watched him as he put my suitcase in the car. I got in with them and we went back to the ranch. Nick and Zak were waiting outside for us.

"Lea, come here." Nick said as I walked closer to them. He pulled me into a hug and held me there. I saw that Zak was still watching me. When Nick let go of me, I could see that he was really hurt that I had left.

"Don't ever do that again. At least not with out telling one of us." Nick said to me. I then looked at Zak. He walked to me and grabbed my hands.

"Why?" He asked me. I sighed as I looked at him.

"Because something is going to happen and I was afraid. I am sorry. That is just what I do. I run. I can't help it." I told him. He then kissed me. He kissed me like it was the last time that he would ever kiss me. It was desperate.

After that scare, I was certian that everything would be okay. It had to be. Zak asked me about what I saw and I told him all of it. I told him that he was going to do something that me and the others wouldn't approve of it. I told him that I don't think that he was going to hurt me, but he was still worried. He wanted me to stay a distance away form him and I reminded him that it wouldn't really work.

The day went by so fast. Before we knew it, it was time for the lockdown. I was going to be walking with Nick for the lockdown. We didn't have a nerve center and it was a big piece of land that we were investigating.

Nick and I turned out to work together really well. He didn't yell too much and I was just very calm about all of it. He and I got a couple of voices and some little stuff. Billy had us come back to the main house in the middle of our investigation. He didn't tell us anything, but he told us to hurry.

When we got there, I felt that something was off about all of this. Billy wasn't in the house No one was in the house. I looked at Nick and he seemed to be a little scared. 

"I am glad that you could make it." A demon said. This was an actual one. This one was here to create chaos. He was standing next to Nick.

"Nick, I need to you move to next to me." I told him. He did as I said. He then looked in his camera.

"None of this will be recorded or captured, so tell your monkey to put the camera down. He isn't going to get anything." It told us.

"Nick, nothing is going to be seen. Like none of this will be documented." I told him.

"That is stupid. What is here?" He asked me. He seemed to be really quick at catching on to what was my feild and not.

"There is a smart ass demon that wants to distract us from something." I told him.

"You are a smart one, aren't you? Well I am sure that you are wondering what it is." He said in a really cocky tone. I wanted to smack him or something.

"Your little boyfriend is going to have something happen to him. I think that a major attatchment will hurt him, won't it? Won't if just damage his soul so much?" He asked me. I looked at Nick and he was wondering what was going on.

"We need to get to Zak, now." I told him. He nodded his head and we walked to the door. Then we were thrown away from the door. Nick collapsed into a table and I was on the floor.

"Nick, are you okay?" I asked him. I saw that he as laying on the floor. I grabbed the camera and looked at him better. eHe was still breathing, but he was out of it.

"Alright. some of this will be captured, but I am editing on the fly." He said. He then snapped his fingers. I figured that the demon just did something to it.

"Come on, Nick. Your wife will kill me if something happens to you on my watch." I told him as I shook his shoulders.

"It was nice knowing you, I guess." He told me with a smile.

"You're an ass." I replied as I helped him up.

"What is happening with Zak?" Nick then asked me.

"He is having another attatchment." I told him. Nick looked like he was devestated.

"That is bad for him, right?" He asked me.

"This one might be. If it is strong enough, I would have to really work on it." I told him. He sighed and looked around the room.

"I think that I can let you apes out of here, now. I edited it to my liking. So you can use the action shots." It told me. Then the door opened. Nick looked at me and I motioned him to go.

We practically ran to Zak's location. He was with Aaron in the old barn. We walked in to see that Zak was standing next to the door. Aaron was just walking around the room. I then saw that attatchment. It was something similar to what I had, except this one was evil.

"Zak, do you feel okay?" I asked him. He looked at me and smiled weakly.

"I am just a little tired." He told me. I then looked at the demon. It was making him weak. I sighed and took off my necklaces. I placed them around his neck and he looked at me with wide eyes.

"You are missing yours." I told him. He sighed and pulled me into a hug. I had cut off the supply to him, but I was now vulnerable.

The rest of the night went by fast. we all met up in the house and we got some evidence. I kept watching stuff around me. When anything came near me I would say, christo. It seemed to work when they came neat me. They would go away and just stare, wanting to make another attatchment.

Billy had notice a change between Zak and I. I was getting concerned that something was going to happen. I did my best to make sure that he was okay, but he kept getting agitated. It was nerve wracking to me.

"Hey, do you wanna come stay with me tonight? Zak seems to be a little out of it." Aaron said to me. I looked at Zak going into our cabin.

"No, I think that he will be okay. It really isn't anything that a good sleep wouldn't take care of." I told him. He smiled at me and looked back at him.

"If you need anything, anything at all, come get me." He told me. I smiled at him and patted his back as I left. I just might need that. I walked in the cabin and Zak had taken the neckalces off of his neck. I sighed and looked to see that the demon had his hand on his forehead. He was under it's control.