Heart over Haunting (On Hold)

Chapter 4

Avalon headed back down to the basement and into the equipment room.  Steve was still working on a camera.

"Hey." Avalon spoke up.

Steve turned around and smiled a little, "Hey.  Do you need something?"

"I just thought I'd come familiarize myself with the equipment."

"Okay.  Well, if you come up to the table I can tell you about some of these things."

Avalon walked up, "I already know what most of these are and how they work."

"Alright.  Name what you can and explain how it works." he crossed his arms and looked expectantly at her.

She cleared her throat and picked up a rectangular box with lights on it, "This is an EMF detector.  It's for finding electro-magnetic fields.  They can make people feel creeped out.  And spirits can feed off it."

He nodded, "Very good."

She smiled and then picked up something that looked like a digital recorder, "This is for recording EVPs."

"And EVP stands for...?" he prompted.

"Electronic Voice Phenomenon."

"That's right."

Next she picked up a small expensive looking video camera, "This is a mini DV, or miniature digital video recorder.  The investigators carry these with them to record things they may not see."

Steve nodded and Avalon picked up an odd looking piece of equipment next, "This is a thermal camera.  It's to look for heat signatures and cold spots."

She set it down and clasped her hands in front of her, "That's all I know."

"Well you sure know your stuff." Steve smiled.

Avalon beamed, "Thank you."

He reached for what looked like a security camera, "This is the only thing you missed.  It's the digital video recorder.  We set these up to keep an eye on the hot spots at an investigation."

"That's right." Avalon hit herself lightly on the forehead, "Now I remember."

"You just might take over as tech manager someday." he smiled.

She shrugged, "You never know."

He went back to his project, "How did you get interested in the paranormal?"

"I've always been interested in it." she leaned against the work table, "But I started to take a real interest in it about four years ago when I was sixteen."

"Have you ever had a paranormal experience?"

"Nothing that exciting.  Just hearing voices and footsteps on investigations, seeing things move and seeing shadows." she sighed, "I'm still waiting for 'the big one' you might say."

"Where did you do your investigating?"

"Back in Oregon where I grew up.  I formed a team with a few of my friends and we investigated all over the state, as well as northern California, southern Washington, southwestern Idaho and northwestern Nevada."

"Awesome.  Is the group still operating without you?"

"Nope.  It split up a few months ago.  Everyone wanted to go their separate ways."

"I see." he plugged in a piece of equipment to test it.

"Well...  I'd better let you work.  Thanks for letting me bother you for awhile."

"You weren't bothering me." he smiled.

"Good." Avalon chuckled and gave a slight wave, "See ya later."

He returned the wave, "See ya."

She turned and trotted upstairs.  Grant was still in his office and Jason still wasn't there.  Avalon's new office was also empty.

Guess Kris isn't coming in today.

The young woman wandered around the main room looking at the posters on the walls.

"Hey."

She jumped and turned to find Tango getting some coffee from the refreshment table, "Oh, hi.  You startled me."

"Did you think I was a ghost?" he winked.

She laughed, "Well, they can come into a room silently too."

"If they want to." he took a sip from the styrofoam cup, "And they can also make footsteps."

"Oh, I know.  I had one walk right behind me on my first investigation.  I just about squeezed all the air out of my friend."

He laughed softly, "Was that your first experience ever?"

"Yeah.  But I don't like to call that my big paranormal experience.  I'm waiting for something more exciting."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure.  Just something more exciting than the usual stuff."

He nodded and took another sip of coffee, "Want to see some of the footage from our last case?"

"I'd love to!" she exclaimed.

He grinned and waved for her to follow him back to his office.