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Harlow House Investigation	By : Need2ScreamNow Category: Singers/Bands/Musicians > Avenged Sevenfold Views: 1051 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not know/own anything associated with Ghost Adventures or A7x. I'm not making any money and this is all fiction

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            “Mrs. Elizabeth Harlow died in this room in 1844 after her newborn died of whooping cough, locking the place up at night I’ve heard a baby cry sometimes. No one’s ever seen her but you do hear footsteps going back and forth, others say they’ve heard her wailing. She actually threw herself over the upstairs banister but she didn’t die when she hit the floor so they brought her in here and after lingering for a few days she finally moved on.” Their guide, Holli, told them as they entered the third bedroom on the first floor. Johnny was already bored with the history lesson but now he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something in this room too, something sad. He looked at the corner of the room where a four post bed was pushed against the window. He scolded himself and looked away, he saw one shadow figure on the lawn and now he was thinking they were everywhere, but his eyes went back to the bed. He couldn’t see anything but he could feel it, a deep sucking sadness that he’d only recently started dragging himself out of.
            “Johnny,” Vengeance called softly. Johnny jumped a little and looked around the empty room before finding the guitarist in the doorway, “come on, we’ve got two more rooms and then it’s upstairs.” He held his hand out and Johnny gave him a wan smile, “sorry, not a fan of history.” He said taking the hand. Vengeance put his arm around his shoulders again, keeping him from looking over his shoulder at the sad room.
            He was hesitant to enter the next room, something about the sad room still called to him but he shook it off when the black depression he had beaten down over the last year rose up to answer the heartbreaking siren call. Holli told them about the civil war soldiers that had been brought to the room and the frequent stench of blood that sometimes came from the floor while they were cleaning. Johnny wrinkled his nose and looked around the plain white walls, hard to imagine people losing limbs and life in such a tiny space.
            Upstairs, there were even more bedrooms, a woman’s sitting room and the balcony a child had fallen from at the turn of the century, the bathroom where one of the various Mr. Harlows had committed suicide by gunshot, and a room where the house slaves slept. Once they left that room Johnny was looking forward to getting outside, Bernie or not, the house had been big when they walked in but now it was stuffy and the walls too close.
            “All right, we’ve got one room left inside and then we’ll head out, and I must admit, I’ve saved this one for last.” Holli said. Johnny looked over the open rail to the foyer, the sad room was just below them. His fingers trailed across the silky wood of the banister, it wasn’t very tall, just reached his hip, no one would be able to stop him if he leaned a little too far. He rolled his shoulders to work the tightness out, the house was closing in around him; he couldn’t leave. Unless he jumped. No, not jumped, that was too intentional, unless he…fell. Below, the wood was a warm river of gold and white sunlight. He could fall into the light and maybe then he’d be happy again he thought feeling like he was half in a dream. Tears burned his eyes, he was tired of being unhappy, he could fall into sunlight and then he’d be free, he’d be happy. His throat was closing up, the walls pressed him closer to the banister.
They passed the stairs and for a second he saw a straight shot to the big double doors and the waiting sunshine. The stairs would be easier, then he really could fall, just tip himself forward enough and let gravity do the dirty work. It would hurt, of course it would hurt, but then it would be over, then he could be happy again. He was past the stairs and it felt like the air itself was trying to suffocate him, he took a deep breath and didn’t feel the pleasant stretch he usually got, his lungs were stuffy too, like they were full of cotton. A stray tear slid down his cheek and he brushed it away, why couldn’t he be happy? He just wanted to be happy again. He looked over the rail again at the buttery sunlit floor. To fall into gold, that’s what it felt like to be happy, it was like falling into gold. The group was a few steps ahead of them, chatting with Holli and each other without noticing how thick the air was or how close the walls were getting, how the ceiling and floor seemed to be inching closer together. They didn’t notice him, they didn’t care how much he was hurting, they didn’t care how each breath was a battle he was tired of fighting. His vision swam for a second and he came to a stop, he realized he was breathing hard, like he’d been running, the hallway was blurry from tears and he couldn’t wipe them away fast enough. Without telling anyone he turned and ran down the stairs.
            He hit the gaudy runner and it was like taking off a lead jacket, his shoulders were lighter, he could breathe again but the sunlight didn’t help the tears. It was trapped inside, just like him, caged by the windows and walls. He looked around for their other guide and didn’t see him so he let himself out the front door.
            When the rest of the group finally found him, Johnny was curled up in the back seat of their rented SUV nursing a growing headache, all over soreness, puffy eyes, and a bone deep exhaustion he usually associated with jetlag. The door opened and he raised his head enough to see Brian before settling again. Calloused fingers brushed across his head, “Johnny, what’s wrong?” the guitarist asked quietly. Johnny took a deep breath of the sweet air and let it out, “don’t know, tired I guess.” He closed his eyes again. Syn climbed in the seat and hoisted Johnny half on his lap, it only took a second for the bassist to find a comfortable position in the familiar embrace. Syn’s cheek pressed against his forehead, “your eyes are red.” The skin of his throat moved subtly against Johnny’s cheek when he spoke, his voice resonated through his chest and filtered into Johnny’s. Johnny nodded, no use denying it, but he didn’t have to elaborate. Brian’s arms tightened, “what’s wrong?” he asked when it became clear a nod was the only answer Johnny was giving.
            “You okay, Johnny?” Matt’s coarse whisper asked. Johnny nodded again, “I just…got tired of being inside.” He lied. Matt’s shadow blocked some of the sunlight that had been heating his shoulder, “Johnny, you’ve never won a game of poker against me.” he said, Johnny smiled, he knew Matt was standing arms crossed leveling a “don’t bullshit me look” at the top of his head. The other door opened and Johnny tucked his legs closer to his body so Zack could climb in, “he brat, what happened?” he asked. Johnny blinked his eyes open and shook his head a little before settling back against Synyster. His head didn’t feel so heavy anymore and the soreness was fading. He blinked again and sat up a little more, “happened?” he said. He knew he had been upset about something, but he couldn’t remember. Zack tilted his head to the side and gave him a worried look, “seriously Christ, what’s wrong?” he said scooting closer. Johnny leaned his head back until he could see Matt, “I don’t know.” He said. Matt brushed his hair off his forehead and he could feel the memories quickly slipping away. He had been upset with something…something in the house? Maybe they pushed lunch back…but why would he cry over that? Had he been crying? It felt like it, but he couldn’t remember why he would be so upset. He brought his head down again and stared at Zack, why was he so worried? Why were they in the car? Smoke break? He could use a smoke.
            “Why are we in the car?” he asked, the sunlight felt good and he was kind of tired. Zack blinked and his mouth dropped open, Synyster’s heart beating against his arm sped up.
            “What do you mean, why are we in the car? You’re the one that came out to the car.” Matt said. Johnny tilted his head back, “why would I come out to the car?” he asked. Matt stared at him for a second, “that’s what we’re asking you.” He said slowly. Johnny shrugged, “I don’t know, don’t we have like four more buildings to look at before sundown?” he said wriggling out of his comfortable position against Brian. His three band mates stared at him, “what?” he asked, climbing over Brian and jumping out of the car next to Matt. The three continued looking at him with growing concern.
            “Seriously, why are you guys looking at me like that?” he said. Aaron came over and smiled at Johnny, “feeling better?” he asked. Johnny looked from him to his band mates and back again, “yeah, why’s everyone keep asking me that?” he asked. Now Aaron was staring at him too. Johnny crossed his arms, trying his hardest not to look petulant, “what?” he said, if this was some elaborate prank he was going to be pissed. Aaron called Nick and Zak over before asking Johnny a question, “what’s the last thing you remember about the house?” Johnny thought about it for a second and looked at his shoes, the last thing he could remember…“ah, I guess the room with the crying baby.” He said looking up. Matt stiffened next to him and he looked up at the singer, Brian looped an arm around his waist and pulled him close, “dude, that was an hour ago.” He whispered. Johnny looked over his shoulder, “what? Are you dickin’ around with me?” he asked suspiciously. Brian shook his head, “I’m serious, we’ve been through the whole house.” He said, his arms tightened around him and Johnny looked at the white wood siding, all the windows. How many rooms had they gone through? He tried to remember something from after the room but there was nothing but waking up with Synyster. “I don’t remember anything past that. Just the room and then waking up in the car with Syn.” He moved closer to the guitarist’s warm body despite the pleasant temperature.
            “Oh…oh my god.” Zak said, for the first time since they met, speechless. Nick was nodding slowly, “you were possessed.” He said. Johnny turned his attention to him and shook his head, “there’s no such fucking thing.” He muttered. Nick snorted, “the last thing you remember is being in a room with an active spirit and waking up in the car. You’ve lost an hour and you’re going to tell me possession doesn’t happen?” after he spoke there wasn’t any noise but the birds and breeze. Johnny pressed back against Synyster and the guitarist turned in the seat so Johnny could be closer. His arms locked around his chest and stomach and his chin rested on his stomach, his body was warm and his heart beat steadily against his back. Matt’s heavy boned body leaned against the car with his gaze fixed on the house. Brian moved a little and Zack’s quiet sigh as he leaned against the other guitarist shook Johnny out of his thoughts. He looked up at Matt and saw his angry fixed stare, “Shads, I’m fine.” He said, his voice was quiet first and then he said it again, louder and believed it. Matt looked down at him and then at the house, the one and only warning the place would get.
            “But there’s no reason to take you in there again.” Zack’s voice was a little muffled between Brian’s body and the seat, he must have seen the singer’s look too. Johnny nodded, the last thing they needed was Matt setting fire to a historical landmark. The three ghost hunters nodded, “well,” Zak said shaking off his quietness, “we’ve got, like, two more big buildings to check out before sundown and we’ve still got to do our pre-lock in prep, so let’s get to it.” He said brightly.
            The long walk to the guest house which for practical reasons (read: in laws) was almost an acre away from the main house chased away the lingering tiredness and discomfort Johnny had. The house was past the orchard and Johnny stuck close to Vengeance as they passed and tried not to look for Bernie, Zak and Nick, however, had no such misgivings and took a few minutes with a voice recorder trying to get the spirit to talk.
            “Jesus Christ, it’s a guest house and it’s still bigger than my house.” Aaron said as they walked up the snaky brick path to the simple wraparound porch. Two chairs and a table were set up facing the orchard. The house wasn’t as ornate or imposing as the main house but the workmanship on the wooden steps and banisters was still top of the line. Inside there was a small foot wiping mat and the room opened up into a formal dining room. A massive claw footed walnut table set for six took up most of the room on the right, a liquor cabinet filled the rest. A crystal decanter with amber liquid stood unopened with two glasses on a small dresser. A chandelier hung over the table, the crystal glinting in the light and casting rainbows over the floor and walls.
            “This is definitely the most haunted house on the grounds.” Holli said. She took off for a narrow flight of stairs past the table and started up on the squeaking steps. “There’s been an old woman seen here several times. We had a psychic come in to get a feel for her and all she could tell us was that it’s malevolent, a demon. Which I’ll vouch for, make sure you’ve got a good grip of the banister, I’ve been shoved a time or two giving tours.”
            “Wait, wait, you were shoved.” Zak said looking around as he climbed. Holli nodded, “all the guides have been shoved in this house, either on these stairs or the cellar ones.”
            “Do you know who she is?” Zak asked when they got to the top. Holli shook her head, “we’ve searched for years but we’ve never found a record of any old women living in the building. A lot of people think it’s a woman named Miss Trundle, she was a neighbor lady that apparently got into a bad fight with the Harlows about their property line. She actually burned the original barn down and killed three of the farmhands that were sleeping there. She was hung for it. Locals think she’s taken up residence here out of spite.” Holli explained.
            “Sounds like our old neighbor.” Brian muttered. Johnny snickered and followed the line down the hall. Holli continued talking about the ghosts, “there’s a man, a male energy, here too. With our research we’re pretty certain it’s lieutenant Wringly, he was holed up here during a civil war battle and made the bad decision to look out a window. A stray bullet caught him right between the eyes and killed him right there. He paces along the hall up here, you’ll hear his boots, sometimes you can smell gunpowder too. It’s pretty unsettling, he’s an angry one too. He won’t shove, but he does pinch and scratch.” When they got to the last door upstairs Holli didn’t open it and stood closer to the opposite wall, sunlight reached from under the door to her shoes and she moved a little further back. “This door is always locked. Period.” She said in a no nonsense tone. When she started to walk away without any more words even Johnny’s curiosity was piqued.
            “Well…why?” Zak asked. Holli looked at the simple wood door and beckoned them to follow as she moved away from it. Johnny hung around until it cleared off enough he could move closer to it. He reached up to knock and before his knuckles met wood panic overtook him. He jumped back and backed away from the door, his heart thudding hard against his chest and the tingly copper taste of fear sitting heavy on his tongue. Something paced past the sunlight without noise. He stared at the floor and the shadow blocking the light until someone tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped and bit back a surprised sound, the rest of the group was staring at him. Vengeance put an arm around his shoulders, previous worry mixing with new, Johnny moved closer to him but the shadow was gone and the sun shone unobstructed.
            “You saw it?” Holli asked quietly. Johnny pried his eyes away from the door but didn’t turn his back to it, “saw what?” his voice was a little scratchy and he didn’t repeat the question. Holli looked over his shoulder, “back in the eighties, the Harlow House was pretty deep in disrepair, the ones set to inherit everything were bickering and no one paid much attention to the place. Teenagers broke in and partied, wrecking the place even more, but when the family finally settled and they kicked everyone out they found a…alter in the back room. They thought at first it was a goat or pig but when they started cleaning up they found some fingers.” The house was perfectly still as if it was listening, too. Holli fidgeted with the hem of her apron, “we don’t tell this part on the tour, we don’t even mention that back room, but when the police came and investigated they found the remains of two people that had been slaughtered. No one knows who killed them, they didn’t even have a suspect list, but it was obvious they were sacrificed to evil. When that psychic was out looking at the grounds she told us to shut and lock that door. Didn’t tell us why but she was so pale when she said it you’d think she’d seen Satan himself in that room, so we locked it and she put a blessing on it and it’s not been opened since.” She finished. Johnny looked over his shoulder and shuddered, “there’s something bad in there.” He whispered to Vengeance. The arm around his shoulders tightened and he was ready to leave the creepy house.
            “Okay, so that door stays closed.” Aaron said with a nervous laugh. Holli nodded still unsmiling, “I would advise staying away from that end of the hall all together, something’s in that room and honestly I don’t know if the blessing works all that well. You get the feeling whatever’s in there is staying put because it wants to, not because it has too and no one’s been in this house overnight since the police investigation.” She said. Johnny looked over at Matt and found his stare fixed on the door. A smile tugged Johnny’s lips, “Matt, you can’t threaten the dead with death.” He snickered. Matt blinked and shrugged with a dimpled smile, “an ass-whooping’s the same dead or alive.” The uncomfortable silence was broken and Holli perked up as she led them to the other end of the hallway and yet another bedroom.
*~*~*
            “All right, this is a big area to cover. We’ve got four structures; the big house, guest house, the overseer’s house, and the slave quarters. Plus, there’s the family graveyard and the slave graveyard which is made up of largely unmarked graves.” Zak said rolling out a map on the kitchen table of the big house.
            “Usually we do the sites together, but since there’s seven of us we figured we could split up for half the night and then all meet up at the place that’s having the most activity for the rest of the investigation.” Nick said. The three looked at the band hopefully and the other four nodded, “sure, that should up the freak out factor.” Vengeance said.
            “We’ll have two people in here since it’s so big.” Aaron said looking around the expansive kitchen.
            “Can I have a graveyard?” Syn asked excitedly, Johnny rolled his eyes, “you’re a freak.” He said. Syn shrugged, “I wanna see some ghosts, and I’m a pro in the Graveyard Ghost Hunting division.” He laughed. Matt put an arm around his shoulders, “Syn, you don’t get to drink a fifth of Jaeger before you do this.” He reminded the guitarist. The rest of the boys laughed and Syn rolled his eyes, “I don’t see why not, how am I supposed to find ghosts if I’m not drunk? Everyone knows you have to tempt them with shots.” Zak uncapped a marker, “which one you want?” he asked between laughs. Brian shrugged, “doesn’t matter.” Zak nodded and put his initials by the Harlow family graveyard, “anyone else want a graveyard?” he asked. When no one jumped on the opportunity he put his initials by the other one. They divvied the land up quickly; Aaron and Zack in the big house, Matt in the overseer’s house, Nick took the slave quarters, and Johnny was left with the guest house.
            “Okay, I figure you guys are pretty good with technology—”
            “Don’t give anything expensive to Vengeance,” Matt plugged.
            “—so I’ll just go over the basics. This is a voice recorder for EVPs, just hit this button and ask your questions, I usually give five to seven seconds for the spirit to respond before I ask another. It’s got full batteries and we’ll give you guys some extras, sometimes spirits like to take energy from the devices to manifest physically. We’ve got static night vision cameras set up at each of the locations, we’ll switch them on when we meet up for the night, and you guys can turn them on if you think something’s going on while you’re not around. Everyone also gets a handheld video camera equipped with night vision and a flashlight. There isn’t going to be any light so make sure you’re comfortable flipping between night vision and normal before you get locked down.” Zak paused to suck in a breath before plunging ahead again, “okay, about the lockdown, we’ve got the grounds keeper coming in like an hour to lock us in, he’s got one of the only keys and we’ve set up a time for him to come back, about one a.m., so until then we’re in our areas, but we’ve got walkie talkies that have a four mile radius so we’ll be able to communicate with each other, and I figure everyone has a phone so if something happens we can get in touch with the outside world.” While Zak took another second to breathe Nick jumped in with the rest of the lockdown procedures, “we can’t lockdown the graveyards, but their pretty big and far enough removed from the houses there won’t be any external contamination from the other investigations going on. Randy, he’s the groundskeeper, he’ll drive Brian and Zak out to the graveyards and then work his way back to the big house. So, Matt when he takes them out you’ll head out to the overseer house and I’ll be with you on the way to the slave quarters. Johnny can head out to the guest house and Aaron and our other Zack can hang out in here.” He looked at the gathered group and they all nodded. He put his fist in the center, “let’s do this.” They all tapped knuckles and then started packing their equipment.
*~*~*
            Johnny plodded to the guest house alone, Matt and Nick were on the other side of the orchard and another half acre away, Syn had blown past him on a golf cart a few seconds ago and blew him a raspberry, a smile still clung to him as he approached the three story house. With the sun behind it now the wraparound porch was deep in shadow and there were no lights inside. Outside the door a chain and padlock were waiting to be fastened. He stopped just short of the stairs and took a deep breath, five and a half hours, you could do anything for five and a half hours. He started up the stairs and looked over his shoulder expecting to see Bernie watching him but the orchard was empty and the big house rose in the distance reflecting soft blue in the last of the daylight.
            Inside nothing had changed from earlier that day, there was a night vision camera set up on a tripod by the door giving the camera a wide shot of the dining room, part of the kitchen and the stairs. The red light was off and Johnny decided to keep it like that for the time being. He needed to decide how to play this for the camera, he was excited to be ghost hunting, they used to do it all the time when they were younger, but they didn’t have an audience then and if he jumped at his own shadow it was only the guys to laugh at him. He shook his head and looked at the stairs before digging out his camera and flashlight. “Start down and work up? Or up and then down?” he said out loud. The house didn’t answer and he got the camera working and practiced switching back and forth between night vision and normal light for a minute before pulling out the other weird thing they had given him. It looked like an over sized tape recorder, Zak told him it allowed spirits to communicate more easily, an FX device or maybe it was PX, something like that. Somehow they could make words with it. Johnny turned it over a couple times and found the on switch but left if off and set it on the dining room table. He decided to work in the middle and then decide if he wanted to try the cellar or dick around with whatever ungodly thing was upstairs. He shivered and checked his flashlight again.
            The house was dark when Randy came up to the door, Johnny still hadn’t started his investigation and was lounging in one of the dining room chairs. “Hi’ya.” Randy said with a wave, “you got everything?” he asked. Johnny nodded and grabbed his camera off the table. Randy’s eyes flicked to the stairs, “good luck.” Then he shut the door and there was a muffled “click” when the lock snapped into place. Johnny sighed, “five and a half hours.” Locked in now, the house seemed darker. Unless he wanted to break a window he was stuck in the place and whatever was trouping around at night.
*~*~*
A/N: I won’t lie, I had to write the next part with the lights on. Thank you for reading and reviewing :)
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Harlow House Investigation