The Haunted_Edit Copy 4-7-17
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Well, now I felt even nicer. “Tucker, this is my ego right<br />
now.” I spread my hands in front of me wider and wider to display<br />
the growth of my self-assurance. “Be careful. Soon I’m not gonna<br />
be able to fit in the car with you. I’ll have to ride on the roof.”<br />
Another laugh burst from his mouth and he shook his head.<br />
“That’s okay. You’re allowed to enjoy this.”<br />
Did I enjoy it? I’d been straight up terrified before I left my<br />
house. Tucker’s presence had calmed me down a little and so had<br />
the grounding session we’d all had before we went in. When the<br />
lights went out, it was all I could do not to scream like Freddy<br />
Krueger had popped out of the wall above my head. But if I stopped<br />
focusing so much on how I’d been working to keep the fear in check,<br />
I realized there had been something else that had carried me through:<br />
excitement. I’d been enthusiastic about facing this head on and<br />
maybe learning something new along the way. And somewhere deep<br />
down, there was actually a little pride bubbling up.<br />
“Yeah, I had a good time.” Part of me couldn’t believe the<br />
words had just left my lips, but the other part of me was going “about<br />
damn time!” Hello, alternate personality in which I am somehow<br />
this adventurous badass. Maybe I should start slamming on eyeliner<br />
and cutting my hair like Joan Jett so the world will know what a<br />
tough bee-otch I suddenly am.<br />
“Next, we just have to review the audio and visual and see if<br />
we picked up any evidence along the way,” he said.<br />
I imagined myself sitting with the recorder on my bed and<br />
hearing a ghostly voice leaking through the headphones. My<br />
imaginary self was, needless to say, freaked out. “You want me to<br />
look at what was on the recorder and camera you lent me?”<br />
Tucker glanced my way. <strong>The</strong> stoplight colored his pale skin<br />
a faint red. “Do you want to?”<br />
I dove deep into my mind and to search for an honest answer<br />
to that question. Did I want to sit alone in my house, which was<br />
formerly a place of safety, and listen to some voices from beyond<br />
the grave? My knee-jerk reaction was hell no, screw that! But there<br />
was that other part of me, the one with the heavy eyeliner and 80s<br />
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