Kaede

"There was a...a man!"

"A man who's solid like you are?" Kaede asked. "Or something like a...ghost? Like a manifestation?"

I didn't know nearly as much about the paranormal as Kaede did, but I think I was getting the gist of what she was saying. "It...it was like a shadow against the wall. It didn't have substance..."

The expression on Kaede's face grew sharp and her voice somewhat trembled as she firmly inquired, "You're not fucking with me, are you?"

"No!" I called out, glad to hear that my voice didn't crack. "I wouldn't have nearly sliced my dick on my zipper...and more importantly, I wouldn't have pulled away from you if I hadn't seen what I saw!" My words were coming out fast and jumbled.

Kaede turned around once again and used her camcorder to try to catch anything she could. It felt like she studied the area I had pointed her to for countless minutes, and when she finally spoke again, she replied in a low voice, "I believe you, Marcus."

"Did you see something?" I frantically asked her.

She shook her head while turning to face me. She placed a hand over my heart and felt it racing a mile a minute. "I didn't...but I know you wouldn't lie about such a thing."

I couldn't help but shiver...and this time, it wasn't due to the dark-haired stunner. I was convinced that I had actually seen something paranormal. I was quiet for the longest time until it finally dawned on me and I exclaimed, "I caught it on camera!"

"You did?" Kaede asked, her voice becoming energetic once again.

"Yeah!" I called out. "When I saw the shadow, it was because of the night vision on your camcorder!"

"Fuck yeah!" Kaede cheered for the minor victory. She started to fiddle with the camera as I held my light source on her.

"What are you doing?" I queried since I wasn't as familiar with the technology as she was.

She showed me a small screen that folded out of the side of the camera. She then explained, "I can rewind this and we can watch the footage you caught!"

"That's pretty neat," I said in a dry voice, "But do you think we could maybe get out of here before we do that? I think if I see that thing again while standing in this room, I just may have a heart attack!" I wanted to make my companion laugh as I added, "Let's not forget: This is still my first ghost hunting experience!"

Kaede did indeed find humor in my words as she decided to add, "Oh, Marcus! I forgot that I was popping your ghost hunting cherry!"

After a brief laugh, I decided to lead the way as I flashed my light to where the figure had been standing. I swallowed a lump in my throat as I grabbed Kaede's right wrist and slowly started to creep out of the ancient bedroom. We were both deathly silent while walking, and I was honestly ready for just about anything to jump out at us.

We rounded the slight wall that stuck out with the closet to our right and carefully made our way through the doorway and into the small hallway beyond. Kaede kept her eyes on the room behind us as I flashed my light down the hall to make sure no one was there. The staircase was literally only a few feet away from us.

"I don't see anything," the young woman whispered to me as we vigilantly surveyed the area.

"Me neither," I mumbled under my breath. "Should we make a run for it?"

Kaede shook her head. "Don't run. Let's move slowly so we can keep our ears open for the sounds of anything around us."

I nodded my understanding. She was the expert, after all. I didn't think we were going to die by any means, but I knew our chances of survival in a crisis situation would be better due to the brown-eyed woman's keen intelligence. After all, she was the one who had been on ghostly adventures before and vehemently believed what she was doing. And then there was me who had never once done something like this...and didn't believe in the paranormal for a minute until I caught a glimpse of that shadowed figure.

Kaede led the way up the stairs as I followed behind while keeping my eyes peeled for any kind of movement behind us. It probably took us a good five minutes to climb twenty steps, but we were being both cautious and attentive.

The floorboards creaked beneath us after we reached the ground floor of the cabin and made our way down the short hallway that contained the small bedroom. Within seconds, we were in the main room once more, and after laying eyes on our exit, I gently started shoving Kaede toward it. We picked up the pace and darted outside. It had never felt so good to not have a roof over my head.

"Holy shit!" Kaede called out as we ran to the middle of the clearing in front of the lonely, log cabin. She turned and glanced back at the decaying abode while filming one last shot of it with her camera. I let her finish things up as she narrated, "And that's the end of this little adventure!" She then turned the camcorder off before glancing over at me.

"Wow," I exhaled as I thought about everything that had gone down in the abandoned structure. "That was something else!" I inhaled the scent of the grass and trees surrounding me. For whatever reason, they smelled different during the night.

"Are you glad you came?" The raven-haired beauty asked me.

I knew that she was referring to the fact that I had tagged along for the adventure, but I gave her a sly look as I responded, "Are you?"

When she caught on to what I meant, she playfully slugged one of my arms and then ran a hand through her hair. It was still a bit sticky from what had landed in it, and after she had some of it on her palm and fingers, she wiped it on my shirt before I could get away from her. She laughed upon seeing my reaction.

As we stood under the twilight sky surrounded by the silent sentinels that loomed over us with their intertwined branches, I finally tried to take things seriously again as I said, "I wonder what the hell that was that I saw in there."

"I believe every word you've told me," Kaede firmly said, "But are you sure you didn't see something that was maybe a trick of the light?" She then lowered her voice a bit and talked out of the side of her mouth as she reminded me, "After all, we were kind of 'caught in the moment' there, so are you sure you didn't just see something that you maybe thought you saw? Like maybe you were thinking we were at your house or something and your father had walked in on us? Something like that? The mind does crazy things in certain circumstances..."

"I know what I saw, Kaede," I sternly told my doubting companion. "I know I caught it on video, too. When we watch it back, you'll see."

After being reminded that she held the evidence in her hands, the brown-eyed beauty looked ready to start watching it right then and there...but I placed a hand over what she was doing to stop her.

"What is it, Marcus? I thought you wanted me to see this?"

"I do. But if you don't mind, I'd feel a little better about getting back to the car first. This can wait until we're no longer in the middle of Spookville, okay?"

Kaede couldn't help but laugh since she knew I was legitimately creeped out by what I had seen. She nodded her agreement as we turned to once more make our way through the woods.

* * *

A twig snapped beneath my shoe as our flashlights suddenly landed on the downed tree we had encountered a few hours earlier. We were both relieved to see that the automobile was right where we had left it and no one had apparently touched it. We were once again safe.

After making ourselves comfortable in the vehicle, I was ready for Kaede to fire it up and drive us home. We had a good two and a half to three-hour drive ahead of us, and I for one was looking forward to going home and passing out on my bed. I didn't mind a little adventure here and there, but I usually preferred such odysseys to be found in books or video games. I could do without bumping into things that looked like they'd be better off taking up residence in the darkest corners of my worst nightmares.

When I realized the car still hadn't been fired up, I glanced over and saw Kaede fiddling with the camera in her lap. She was eager to see what I claimed I had witnessed, and I could tell that she wasn't moving another inch until she saw whether or not I had truly spotted something otherworldly.

As much as I didn't care to see the apparent apparition again, I thought it would be nice to scoot in a little closer in order to comfort Kaede if she did indeed see what I had witnessed. I wasn't sure if seeing such a horror would scare her or not, but if it did, I wanted to be there for her.

The woman behind the steering wheel started rewinding the footage we had caught. She let out a slight chuckle when she realized she had landed right on the spot where she was sticking her tongue out at me and shaking her head back and forth. She was able to play the footage from there...and within seconds, we both watched on and could vaguely hear each other talking on the tape when the shot I had caught lifted and caught the silhouette of a man probably just a shade under six feet tall. As I had mentioned, it was nothing but a black mass against the wall.

Kaede's jaw dropped in shock as we watched my shoddy camerawork ruin the shot as my horrified voice on the tape shouted, "What the fuck?!" Momentary chaos accompanied it as the camcorder picked up nothing but footage that would've made most people queasy to watch since it was all over the place.

I could see the intensity on Kaede's face as she replayed the moment. She then did it again. And then a fourth time. On the fifth time, she finally paused it...and we both stared at the image and realized its left hand -- if it was indeed facing us since it looked like nothing more than a shadow -- was somewhat lifted and pointing in the direction of the doorway through which we had entered the room.

"It's...pointing," Kaede stammered as a look of confusion overtook her face. She finally looked away from the tiny screen long enough to ask, "What would it be pointing at?"

"Maybe it was trying to tell us that it wanted us out?" I offered. "Not trying to sound crass, but we were fooling around on its turf."

"That's certainly possible," Kaede agreed as I saw her dark eyes light up at the possibility of solving a mystery. "But if you listen really closely..." She once more rolled the footage back and then held the camera up to my ear so I could listen. The volume on the little device wasn't the best since it was meant to be plugged into a computer or larger TV for the full effect, but the raven-haired stunner had apparently heard something on one of the many playbacks that I hadn't caught. I decided to humor her and instantly wished that I hadn't.

The scene replayed yet again as Kaede was sticking her tongue out and shaking her head. I listened intently as I heard us both laughing while I bent down to slap one of her tits, and then in the moment when I must've lifted the camera and caught the shadow figure, I heard a low voice that obviously didn't belong to either of us. It sounded deliberately demonic and growled, "Tear."

I shot back upon hearing the evil rumble and stared directly into Kaede's eyes. She didn't look nearly as freaked out as I did, but it still troubled her. "After seeing that reaction, I take it you heard that?"

"What the fuck was that?" I called out, cussing only because I was terrified by the wickedness in the voice.

Kaede looked to be deep in thought. "Tear?" She asked herself. "What does it mean? Like a teardrop? Tears from the eyes? Is it trying to express sorrow or grief?"

"I don't think any voice that sounded as evil as that one could be expressing any kind of sadness," I bluntly said.

The dark-haired beauty shook her head as she stared down at the camera and actually smiled. When she looked at me again, she told me, "Marcus, you helped me capture actual proof of the paranormal! We fucking did it!"

Even though I had both seen and heard it, I still wasn't convinced that it was anything supernatural in origin. "Are you sure, Kaede? Could the camera have maybe screwed up somehow and made that...image appear while somehow picking up something that just sounded like a crazed fiend's voice?"

"How can you doubt this? You were the one who caught the footage!"

I shook my head and then placed my right hand on my forehead. I could feel sweat on it as my mind took me back to that very moment. The excitement of covering Kaede's face in cum was short-lived due to whatever the hell it was that I had beheld. I didn't want to believe that such a thing could truly exist. "But Kaede...this is the real world! That kind of stuff isn't supposed to exist here! How can..."

"You're telling me that after seeing and hearing it on here five times in a row, you still don't believe it?"

I was in denial. I knew my partner in crime was right...but I didn't want to speak the words. Saying it aloud would only make it real and give it power.

"Marcus...are you all right?"

"What the hell was it, Kaede?" I asked the dark-haired female. "Was it just a ghost...or something worse?"

"I don't know," the young woman responded as she shook her head. "I never imagined we'd actually find anything. I really don't have any clue."

I was suddenly struck by a new thought and murmured, "You don't think...you don't think that we opened the way for it to be here, do you?"

Kaede hadn't considered what I brought up. Instead, she took the camcorder out of her lap and reached back between us to drop it on her backseat. She then glanced at me with kindness in her eyes since she knew how spooked I was and told me, "You didn't do anything wrong, Marcus."

I felt silly. I couldn't believe the woman I wanted to protect was the one taking care of me. I felt like a real sissy.

Kaede then held out her right hand and gently said, "Could I have the keys, Marcus?"

I reached into my pocket for them...and pulled out nothing. "Oh, shit..."

Horror overtook Kaede's face when she realized I didn't have them. I could tell that she was looking for the right words, but nothing came out. She had no idea where I could've dropped them, but she knew they could've been absolutely anywhere with all the ground we had covered.

I then reached back in and pulled them out. I dangled them in front of her face and did my best to smile as I announced, "Got ya."

The raven-tressed stunner hit my arm before grabbing the keys out of my fingers. She hadn't held back with her shot this time, and I guess in a way, I kind of deserved it. "You asshole!" She called out, and then couldn't help but laugh since I did indeed get her. It felt good to actually send a shiver down her spine since she had been so unbreakable all night.

"Sorry," I finally apologized with a chuckle as she started the automobile up. "I couldn't have you remembering me as a complete weenie all night. Thought I had to do something!"

"It's a good thing I didn't have to pee!" The young woman informed me. "I would've pissed myself right here and now!"

I continued to laugh as she put the car in reverse and started us on our way home.

* * *

Fitting to the mood, it stormed for almost our entire drive home. Lightning crashed and sheets of rain pummeled Kaede's little vehicle to the point where we were almost pushed into a ditch on two different occasions. About an hour into our journey, the dark-haired driver even made the decision to pull over and wait out some of the nasty weather for about twenty minutes. I didn't blame her in the least for doing so.

Kaede dropped me off a little after four in the morning and I was good to my word: I went into my house, down to my bedroom and collapsed face first onto my bed. I slept for a few hours and had some real doozies as far as dreams went, and early the next morning, I decided to just get up for the day and shower.

When I went upstairs and saw my mother sitting at the kitchen table in our dining room with a cup of coffee, I took a seat near her and told her about the little adventure Kaede and I had gone on. I edited out quite a bit of it, of course. I wasn't about to tell her what had happened between me and my dark-haired friend sexually, and I also fibbed about the scary parts and toned them down quite a bit. By the end of my tale, I had pretty much told my mom that Kaede and I spent most of the evening sitting by a lake and talking. The adventure was a completely different story by the time I was done with it.

I wasn't proud of lying to my mother by any means, but if she had known about the horrifying things Kaede and I had encountered, she'd never let me leave the house again until I was at least fifty. If I had even thought about mentioning the shadow figure, Mom would've rushed me to the nearest church and asked the priest to have any malignant forces within me exorcised. She was a wonderful woman...albeit a little frightened by certain things that most people would've normally written off.

After I put a period and a "the end" on my little tale, my mom got up and made her way over to the stove where she had a frying pan already sitting on it. She asked if I'd like an egg sandwich for breakfast, and I ardently nodded since I was absolutely famished. I realized I hadn't eaten anything since before Kaede and I had left for our road trip, and although I'd never say it in front of my mother, I always developed quite the appetite after any kind of sexual action...and what my raven-haired friend had done for me nearly twelve hours earlier had depleted my reserves of energy for quite some time. How I had managed to make it up the stairs that morning is still a minor miracle to me even to this day.

I thought about calling Kaede after eating and heading back downstairs, but I decided to leave it alone since she was probably still sound asleep at her house. I didn't want to rouse her from a rest she truly deserved, so I figured I'd wait until the afternoon to give her a ring.

I lost track of all time and got lost in a movie when the phone rang around four o'clock in the afternoon. I wasn't even paying attention to it and probably wouldn't have noticed it unless my mom hadn't shouted down to me that it was for me. Just as I had two days prior, I went down to the room we treated as an office and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Marcus...I hope you're sitting down!"

"Kaede! How are you? I was going to call you earlier, but I wanted to make sure you got some sle..."

"I haven't been asleep yet, Marcus! You're never going to believe this!"

I was a little taken aback by the admission, but I didn't comment about it. Instead, I asked the hyperactive woman what she was going on about. "What is it, Kaede?"

"Marcus, I've watched our little adventure from beginning to end three times, now...and you're never going to believe what we caught on film!"

Still trying to digest everything my traveling companion was telling me, I asked, "What did we catch, Kaede?"

"Well, first of all, I should preface this conversation by telling you that there's a very real chance that I missed some things since I've only seen the footage three times, but what I have seen...holy hell, Marcus!"

From where I sat in the office with the phone to my ear, I glanced through the doorway to make sure none of my other family members were nearby. When I was convinced that the coast was clear, I told the young woman, "Go on."

"So," Kaede started as if she were giving an important lecture to a group of college students, "Everything that we filmed up until our 'fun time' was just your everyday ghost adventure filler. It was just a bunch of meaningless footage of trashed rooms and nothing special. I made sure to have the volume up in case there were any other voices or noises we happened to miss, but that crashing noise we heard shortly after entering the cabin was the only thing up until...you know."