Chapter 2

The next day everyone awoke at Nessa's house early to get packed. Adanna had already been up long enough to shower, get dressed, and repack her carry on. She watched, amused, as Kate and Kasem started bickering over who got to shower first while she poured milk into her bowl of cereal.

"Goodmorning baby girl!" Nessa hugged her on the shoulders, "How are you always miles ahead of everyone?"

Adanna laughed lightly, "I want to avoid that." She gestured towards Kate and Kasem now pounding on the door, yelling at a smug Dave to come out. He had snuck in with his towels while they were arguing.

Nessa rolled her eyes, "That's a good reason."

An hour later everyone had showered and packed their carry on. Nessa had managed to keep actual luggage down to two things- their tent and sleeping bags. It was agreed that everything else would be purchased once they arrived in Colorado. Everyone filed outside to Dave's truck while Nessa said goodbye to her roommate and locked up. As everyone piled into the truck, Adanna was relieved to see Kasem sit in the front. This meant she could relax in the back with Nessa and Kate.

The airport was crowded with students coming home or going home and excited families reuniting with their loved ones. Needless to say, it was hard to keep track of everyone, so Nessa grabbed Adanna and Kate's hands.

"We need to stick together. It's easy for the guys to find us, let's get to our terminal."

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5 hours later the group had landed and promptly found a place near the airport to eat. Adanna took out her phone and Googled how far away they were from Pine Falls, their first stop.

"Okay, so it looks like we will take a cab to the rental car place, and from there we can head on over to our first spot- Pine Falls!" The group cheered.

After everyone was done with their lunch the group went out front to hail a cab. On the ride over to the car rental, they chatted amongst themselves.

"So, do you think you'll find any ghost girls?" Dave teased Kate, "Or maybe even a bigfoot!"

Kate punched Dave in the arm, "Shut up! You never know what you will find when you open your mind to these kinds of things." She went silent for a moment, "I know you guys don't believe me about this kind of stuff but I've seen something with my own eyes."

Everyone turned to her now interested in what she had to say. "'What do you mean? Have you experienced something?" Adanna tilted her head to one side in question.

Kate took a deep breath and looked at everyone, "When I was little my grandma's house was haunted. But not like just little things like a door closing by itself or Keys moving off the counter." she shivered, "No, it was more like a full-blown Poltergeist. I never got a restful sleep as there something was always happening. Sometimes even at night, it sounded like we had a whole party over there were so many footsteps."

Kasem Looked at her seriously, "That's super creepy how come you never told us"

"Did you miss the part where I said you guys never believe me about this stuff?" Kate's lower lip popped out.

"Yeah but that stuff is different from anything that you've experienced. We care about stuff that you've gone through the especially if it was rough on you when you were little."

Kate relented, "Okay I'll tell you guys the one thing that has stuck with me all these years that I still have no idea how to explain." She took a deep breath, "So when I was about 12 I was at my grandma's house saying for an entire week. she had an older house that she was starting to renovate to her dream house. one night I was staying up late because I had my Nintendo DS with me in my room and I wanted to stay up late and play it. At around 3 a.m. I heard the front door slowly swing open and close by the kitchen. At first, I thought it was my grandma or grandpa doing something but then I started hearing slow heavy footsteps walking from the front door towards the hallway where the bedrooms were. At this point, I was kind of scared because I thought an intruder had come into the house. I closed my DS and then pulled the covers up over my head listening intently as the footsteps came down the hallway." Kate let a small shiver run down her back.

"The footsteps had stopped right outside my door and I could sense that there was something there. I did not have the heart to look up and over my bedsheets so I just sat there trembling the rest of the night. However, while I was sitting in my bed scared to move it sounded like someone came through my bedroom and was ransacking everything. When I woke up the next morning the cross above my head was turned upside down the portrait of Mary and Jesus next to me had fallen to the ground."

The whole car was silent after Kate told her story, "Yo, that's super, not cool. Was it actually an intruder? I mean even if it wasn't anything paranormal you still experienced someone break into your house." Kasem finally spoke up.

"See that's where it's weird and I can explain. Nothing else in my room was touched it was just the cross and the picture of Mary and Jesus. But I could have sworn it sounded like someone had taken all my stuff and just dumped it around the room but everything was still there." Kate shrugged, "It's really no big deal now it was just incredibly scary when I was young. But everything in that house was scary, it felt like you are never really quite alone."

After that everyone didn't really know what to say. It seemed to make more sense now as to why Kate was so obsessed with finding something to somehow linked the Paranormal to reality. She wanted her story to feel validated and maybe give her a sense of comfort she wasn't just imagining things.

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"Oh hell no," Nessa said out loud, staring at the pile of crap that barely passed as a car in front of her.

"You could totally say that again." Kasem sighed a dropped his luggage, "I'm boycotting this. No way in hell you get me in that thing." He scrunched his nose as he said 'thing'.

The old Chevy Tahoe in front of them was indeed an absolute pile of garbage. Adanna sighed and looked at Dave.

Dave twirled the keys on his finger, "Alright city slickers, this is the only four-wheel-drive vehicle they had last minute. So no more whining and MARCH your luggage into the Tahoe."

Everyone collectively rolled their eyes and grabbed their luggage. Dave unlocked and opened the trunk, recoiling at a smell that slapped his nose right off his face.

"What the hell is THAT." Kate gagged, "It smells like old toe cheese and soggy cigarettes."

Dave slapped the side of the car, "Just some memories she's kept for us?��� He chuckled as rust sprinkled down from where he had slapped the car. "Yikes, I guess she's seen better days."

Adanna tossed her luggage into the trunk and excitedly, it was finally time for her to experience more of America! She was so excited to share this experience with her American family as well.

But, if she was so happy, why did she dread Pine Falls?

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