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There I finally finished posting SECRETS. Feel free to tell me what you think. Both good and bad comments are welcome. I have sequels to it that I also hope to post in the near future. Thankfully they don't have different fonts that caused me problems in posting this one.

SECRETS 2: The Apparition

Chapter 1
Blown Cover
"Did you find it yet?" Mitchell called over the cell phone to Daniel who was searching for the supposed Hall of Records.
"Not yet, but we're going to have to find it soon or we'll have to dig up the rock the Sphinx sits on."
"Shouldn't there be a better way."
"You'd think, but it's hard to tell. We don't even know for sure that the Hall of Records is there."
"Okay tell me if you find anything."
"All right," Daniel said hanging up.
Once he had put the phone back in his pocket he walked back over to the Sphinx where his crew was still searching for the Hall of Records.
"Find anything yet?" he asked Justin.
"Nothing. Looks like we're going to have to go at this from a different direction."
"We might not get the chance. Looks like we have trouble."
"What?"
"Looks like the government found us."
"What are you talking about?"
"The Egyptian government is here. See that man over there," Daniel said pointing at a man walking towards them.
"Shoot what are we going to do?" Justin asked when he saw the man.
"I don't know, but you keep looking for now," Daniel said heading over to the man.
"Who's in charge here?" the man was asking as Daniel came over.
"I am."
"What do you think you're doing here?"
"We're an American archaeology team looking for the mythical Hall of Records. I know it sounds stupid doesn't it. Our boss is really into the unexplainable."
"Well, you can't just come here and start digging. You have to ask the government first, and if your boss is so into this whole inexplicable thing then he would
know the government won't let anyone dig here. Now tell them to stop and get out of here."
"Hey guys we have to leave!!!"
"Thank you for your cooperation. I hope no other country has had you dig something up that they wanted left alone, and just a suggestion have your boss
checked into an insane asylum," the man said as he left.
Daniel immediately went over to where Justin was digging.
"I guess we'll have to come back later."
"We weren't getting anywhere anyway, though," Justin said as he quit digging.
While everyone else was getting ready to leave, Daniel picked his phone back up and called Mitchell.
"Mitchell, it looks like we're going to have to delay looking for the Hall of Records for a little while. The government got us. We're heading back now."
"Darn it. The government always gets in the way. We'll have to wait until they forget about this before we can go looking again."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye."
Daniel quickly hung his phone up and got into his truck and followed the others back to headquarters.

As they got close to the building a mob suddenly came out yelling at them and trying to tip the trucks. Before the mob could, though, everyone managed to
get out of the trucks and hurriedly run into the building. On the way they were hit a few times with various objects thrown by the crowd before getting in.
When they got in they all went straight to Mitchell's office.
"What's going on out there," Daniel immediately asked.
"Someone found out that we haven't been doing any archaeology work lately. I was about to warn you when I heard the mob get a hold of your trucks."
"What about the whole reason we made the motto read 'To Investigate All Things Paranormal.' Now is the time to tell them we've changed from an
archaeology agency to investigating all things paranormal."
"I was about to. So if you will excuse me I'll be going to explain things falsely to them," Mitchell said getting up and walking out of his office.

A few minutes later Mitchell was outside in the parking lot trying to calm the mob so he could speak.
"Quiet, quiet. If you will just be quiet for a little while I'll explain everything to you."
"We don't need an explanation!!!! All we need is to know what our tax money is going to!!!" several people in the crowd yelled.
"That is what I'm trying to tell you!!!!! If you would just shut up!!!!" Mitchell yelled over the crowd.
The crowd immediately got quieter.
"Thank you. Now as I was about to say we are no longer an archaeology building. We are now an agency that investigates paranormal activities."
The crowd instantaneously got even louder than they had been before. They responded saying stuff like, "We don't care about stupid imaginary things like
ghosts and aliens!!!!!! We need our archaeology department back!!!!!!"
Blown away by the loudness of the crowd Mitchell quickly tried to silence the crowd again.
"Please, just shut up!!!!!!!! Your argument isn't with us!!!! It's with the government for not telling you that we had changed!!!!!!!! Take this up with
them!!!!!!!" Mitchell screamed as he ran back inside. As he ran the crowd began to quiet and disperse.

Chapter 3 The Apparition
"Excuse me. Would you by any chance have records of all the local residents who have ever lived in this city?" Jake asked the woman at the desk of the local
Historical Society where he had gone to see if they had any records of the person who could be haunting the church.
"Not all, but we have records of the most important and memorable ones," the woman said handing Jake a huge folder full of papers and records.
"Thanks, I hope I can find the person I'm looking for," Jake said heading over to a table and sitting down to look at the records.

"So what are we going to do while Jake's getting the information?" one man asked as they followed Daniel out of the chapel.
"We're going to do the usual ghost hunting procedures."
"Like what?"
"You don't know much about ghosts do you? We're going to do the hunting for magnetic fields and filming. I also want at least one person on watch in the
chapel at all times."
"So where are we going?"
"To my truck to get the equipment."

"Darn it, I'm never going to find this guy," Jake said to himself as he quickly looked through the papers in the folder.
"Is something wrong?" the woman at the desk asked when she heard him.
"Oh, it's just that I'm looking for an old priest. I don't even know what he looks like."
"Well, let's see," the woman said coming over next to him and looking at the folder, "I think I might have another folder that is sorted by subject. Let me go
see," as the woman said this she went back over to her desk and came back with another slightly smaller folder.
"Now lets see," she said laying the folder in front of Jake, and opening it to the point where an R tab was sticking out. "A little way into the R's should be a
religious section. From there you will have to look for all the priests."
"Thanks," Jake said as the woman walked away.

"Hey, get over here, Daniel. I found a magnetic field," one of the archaeologists that was looking for magnetic fields yelled from near the pulpit.
Daniel instantaneously ran over from where he was watching another guy work. When he got over to where the man had yelled was he noticed that the
instrument designed to detect magnetic fields that the guy had been using was beeping around the pulpit.
Daniel quickly took note of this on a piece of paper he had on a clipboard.
"Okay, keep going," he said getting up.
As he looked around he suddenly noticed that the archaeologist he had been checking on before the magnetic field had been found was missing.
"Where did George go?" he asked.
"He went to the bathroom downstairs," the archaeologist who had been next to him said.
"Good, I was just making sure since people disappeared when we discovered the buried ship."
When Daniel was done saying this he headed over to see if another archaeologist had found anything else. Before he got there, though, there was a sudden
crash downstairs.
"What now!!" Daniel yelled throwing down his clipboard and heading downstairs to the bathroom where he found George laying on the ground looking
horrified.
"Are you okay, George?" Daniel said when he saw George on the floor.
"The gh... gh.. ghost."
"What, did you see the ghost?"
"I was just over there washing my hands when all of a sudden a figure of a man appeared," George said shakily pointing at the sink, "I was so surprised by it
that I ran backwards and slipped on the tile and fell."
"Come on, George. Lets go back upstairs to the chapel," Daniel said helping George up from the bathroom floor.

"That's it," Jake whispered to himself when he had found all the records of all the local priests.
He immediately picked the records of the priests up, and closed the folder. He then quickly took the folder and records up to the desk where the woman was
still sitting. When he got to the desk he handed her the folder.
"Do you mind if I take these papers?" Jake asked showing the woman the records of the priests.
"Actually we need..." the woman started to answer, but before she could finish Jake ran out the door carrying the records.

"Okay, I want two people downstairs in the restroom looking for any magnetic fields. Let's get to the bottom of this incident as soon as possible," Daniel said
as two of the archaeologists who had been looking for magnetic fields in the chapel started down the stairs for the bathroom.

Chapter 5
A New Discovery
"I wonder what's taking the others so long, Mike," George said to the other man who had been working upstairs when they sat down to eat in the agency's
cafeteria.
"I don't know," the other man replied.
After saying this the two men continued eating until another former archaeologist came up to them.
"Mitchell has called a meeting," the former archaeologist said when he got their attention.
"Why? What happened?" George asked.
"I don't know. He just told me to tell everyone to go to the meeting room as soon as possible," the man said heading over to another table to tell another
group of former archaeologists.
Once the man was gone George and Mike dumped their food and immediately headed for the meeting room.
When they arrived in the meeting room they found that they were the first to get there.

"What in the world?" one of the men in the chapel said when he saw Daniel go through the window.
When the two men recovered from the shock they hurried over to the shattered window that Daniel had been thrown through.
When they looked through what remained of the window they saw Daniel laying a couple feet away covered in pieces of stained-glass. The shattered glass
had cut him to the point that the grass was starting to become stained a reddish tint.
"We have to get him to the hospital," one of the men said stepping through the broken window while avoiding the broken glass.
Once the other man followed him through the window he made a motion that indicated that he wanted the other man to help him pick Daniel up. When the
man saw he immediately went to Daniel's legs while the other man went to his head.
"On three," the first man said, "one , two, three," he said lifting Daniel up with the help of the other former archaeologist.
Halfway to the truck the first man moved his hand slightly to get a better grip and suddenly dropped Daniel's head.
"Shoot, there's a piece of glass stuck in his shoulder!" the man said holding the palm of his hand which was starting to bleed, "Go pull the truck around. We
can get the truck over here better than near the window where the glass is. I'll see if I can lift him into the truck still."
While the other man went and got the truck the man who had been cut by the glass bent down and looked around for something to bandage his hand. When
he couldn't find anything he tour the bottom of his shirt and tied it around his bleeding hand.
Soon after the injured man bandaged his hand the other former archaeologist drove up in one of the trucks.
"Okay, let's hurry up and put him in the back of the truck," the injured man said standing up while the other man got out of the truck and retook his position at
Daniel's legs.
As soon as they were in position they lifted Daniel into the back of the truck.
"I better ride with you. I probably can't drive very well with this hand," the injured former archaeologist said showing the other man his bloodstained bandage
on his left hand, and getting into the passenger's seat of the truck.

"Darn it, when is this meeting going to start already," George said as he noticed that most of the former archaeologists had entered the meeting room.
A few minutes later Mitchell came into the room and looked around. He had already done this about seven times since George and the other man came into
the meeting room. This time, though, he went over to his seat at the table and sat down.
"Even though Daniel, John (one of the men with Daniel), Jeff (injured man with Daniel), Jake, and Luke aren't here yet I think we will go ahead and get
started," Mitchell said once he was comfortable in his seat, "Okay, the reason I called this meeting is to tell you that I will be going on assignment to Israel. There have
been recent reports of unexplainable lights in the sky there. They are probably just missiles or something knowing Israel, but back to the point. The point is that while
I'm gone we're going to need someone to be in charge. So we need to vote...," as Mitchell was talking John and Jeff who was still holding his bandaged hand walked
into the room.
When Mitchell saw them he got up from his seat and went over to them.
"About time you two got here," Mitchell said, "What happened to your hand, Jeff?"
"That's what it's about," John said.
"That's what what is about," Mitchell asked.
"There has been an accident," Jeff said.
"Two actually," John added.
"Why don't we talk about this in my office," Mitchell said turning around towards the table, "Please, hold on a for a little while," Mitchell said to the former
archaeologists seated at the table. After saying this he turned back around and walked with Jeff and John back to his office.
"Now, what has happened?" Mitchell asked when they were in his office.
"As I have already said there have been two accidents," John said," Which do you want to hear first?"
"I don't care just tell me already."
"Fine, I guess we'll start with the most serious of the two," John said," Evidently, there is actually something going on in that church. While we were packing
up to come for lunch Daniel was attacked by a poltergeist or something, and in the end he was thrown through one of the stained-glass windows."
"That's impossible!!" Mitchell yelled," Ghosts can't be real!!"
"That's what I thought about aliens and we all know what happened there."
"Don't even remind me," Mitchell said," Okay, go ahead and tell me the rest of the story."
"Well, we managed to get Daniel to the hospital," John continued.
"In the process, though, I ended up cutting my hand on a piece of glass stuck in his shoulder," Jeff added showing Mitchell his bandaged hand.
"Anyway he is listed in critical condition," John said,"Then while we were in the hospital we learned of another accident that occurred. This one involved Jake.
Jake was in a car accident. What doctors believe happened is that he was busy and didn't notice that the traffic jam had started moving the speed limit again, and a
truck that didn't see him in time ended up hitting him. Luckily he isn't in too bad of a condition. He, however, has not awakened since the accident."
"Darn it!!!! Is it not bad enough that we have to deal with aliens and paranormal activities, but we also have to deal with normal problems!!!!!!"
After Jeff and John had told Mitchell this they all headed back to the meeting room. When they entered the meeting room Mitchell didn't even sit down
before he began talking.
"Attention," he said waiting for the people in the room to quit talking, "There have been a couple accidents. I, don't have time to explain because my ship
leaves in half an hour but you need to vote for a new person to be in charge while I'm gone, and two people for the ghost mission I sent Daniel on. If you want details
about the accidents ask Jeff and John. George (different George than the one on Daniel's team), count votes," Mitchell said leaving afterwards.
"Okay, lets start with the temporary replacement for Mitchell," George said standing up. As he stood up a few people who were going with Mitchell slipped
out of the room. One of these people was Justin.
"Any nominations?" George continued when everyone that was going with Mitchell had left.
"I nominate Bob," someone said.
"I want to nominate Tom," another person said.
"Okay, any other nominations?" George asked pausing. When he didn't hear anyone else he continued, "Okay, then lets vote. Who wants Bob to be in
charge while Mitchell's gone?" George said counting the hands that went up in response and then continued saying, "Who wants Tom?" Again, he calculated the votes
and when he finished counting he said, "I've finished counting the votes, and Bob wins. Now let's vote for the two people on Daniel's team. Any nominations?"
George asked waiting for nominations.
"I nominate Ben and Jack," someone said.
"Okay, any others?" George continued. When no one else spoke he continued saying," I guess Ben and Jack win by default. Bob, take over."
Once George said this a man stood up and went to Mitchell's chair at the table.
"Is there anything else?" the man said when he sat down. When no one said anything he said, "Then, I guess we're done here."
After he said this everyone stood up and left the room.

"So what exactly happened?" Ben asked Jeff and John in the hall.
In answer to Ben's question Jeff and John told Ben, Jack, Mike, and George what they had told Mitchell.
"So, are they okay?" Jack asked.
"Well, Jake's doing pretty well, but Daniel isn't doing that well. In fact I thought we would go to the hospital before we go to the church," John said.
"Sounds good. Which hospital are they at?" Jack asked.
"The one next to the school building," Jeff answered.
"Okay, I'll see you there," Ben said leaving for the hospital followed by the others in the group.

When they arrived they, immediately went to Daniel's room after they talked to the receptionist at the front desk.
When they got to Daniel's room they found Daniel still unconscious on the hospital bed. His condition hadn't changed much since they had taken him to the
hospital. One of the only differences was that he had stopped bleeding.
They stayed there for a little while, but when they realized Daniel probably wouldn't wake up for a while they went to Jake's room. When they got to his
room they found Jake was no longer unconscious, but was sitting up in his bed watching TV.
"You look better," John said.
"Yeah, but I'm bored to death. There's nothing on," Jake said turning the TV off.
"So, what were you looking at when you wrecked?" John asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Jake asked confusedly.
"The doctor said you must have been looking at something, and not paying attention to the traffic," Jeff said.
"I remember that I looked through the records that I had taken from the historical society, but I kept looking up at the traffic. I must have found something. I
can't remember what, though," Jake replied.
"Well, where are these records? Maybe we can figure out what you saw and why you were so interested in it," Jeff asked.
"I don't know where the records are. The paramedics or police or someone probably have them," Jake answered.
"Darn it! I hope it wasn't anything about the Finas," John yelled.
"Quiet when you say that word," Jake said to John in an attempt to keep him from saying Finas loudly again.
"Anyway back to what I was saying. We need to get those records. There's probably something important about the ghost case or the Finas," John said
whispering when he said Finas this time.
"Well, then what are you waiting for? Maybe you can get the records from whoever has them!!" Jake yelled.
Immediately after Jake yelled this they all started to leave to find the records, but on their way out the door a nurse came in and blocked their way.
"Is something wrong in here?" the nurse asked.
"No, he's just an idiot who can't keep an eye on the road!" John shouted at the nurse forcing his way past her.
"What's wrong with him?" the nurse asked as John walked down the hall.
"It's a long story," Jack said leaving the room with everyone else with him.
When they caught up to John he was attempting to recover the records from the receptionist who was looking at him with a bewildered gaze.
"What are you talking about?" the receptionist was saying to John when Jack, Jeff, Ben, Mike, and George got to the desk.
"I need those records that my friend in that hospital room had with him," John continued.
"For the last time, I don't know what you're talking about!!," the receptionist yelled.
"The freakin' records for crying out loud!!!" John screamed back at the receptionist.
"I don't have any stinkin' records!!!! Is this maniac your friend?" the receptionist asked Ben.
"Yeah, kinda," Ben answered.
"You'll have to excuse him. He gets a bit hysterical sometimes," Jeff said grabbing John's arm, and forcing him outside.
"Look, John you have to calm down. That receptionist didn't have any idea what you were talking about, and if you keep this up you're going to blow our
cover," Jeff said trying to get John to calm down.
"I could tell by the look on her face that she was just playing dumb, and you know it too. She has those records," John said starting to relax.
"You know she didn't have it! We can't have you going around yelling things at people that might blow our cover. You're off the team," Jeff said to John.
"You can't do that!!!! You aren't Mitchell!!!!! You aren't even the team leader!!!!!!" John screamed running off to his truck.
"Take it up with Bob, then!!!!!!! If you're lucky maybe he'll kick you off completely!!!!!!!" Jeff hollered as John got into his truck and drove off.

"Where's John?" George asked when he saw Jeff come in by himself.
"I told him he was overreacting, and to go home," Jeff answered giving the rest of the team a look that let them know that by "home" he meant headquarters.
"I guess we're done here, then," George said looking angrily at Jeff as they walked out the door.
"What's your problem?" Jeff asked George when he saw that George was clearly furious at him.
"You shouldn't have kicked John off the team!"
"Why not? He was walking around yelling at everyone!! He was going to blow our cover!!! We've had enough trouble with it already!!! Otherwise we
wouldn't be on this stupid mission," Jeff bellowed at George.
"You aren't the team leader. Whether Daniel is unconscious or not. Remember Mitchell still referred to us as Daniel's team," George answered.
"Yeah, but if I hadn't kicked him off the team he would have blown our cover, and you remember that mob. We can't have another one of them or they'll
figure out our secrets, and there will be world panic."
"I guess, but I think it was still a little harsh to kick him off," George said.
"Can't you see from the others here that they agree with me, George. It was the right thing to do."
"Actually, I agree with both of you," Mike said, "He was going to blow our cover, but kicking him off the team was still a little cruel. You should've calmed
him down, and then we could have taken him to Bob."
"I was trying to get him to relax, but he wouldn't quit yelling so I told him he was off the team, and to go see Bob," Jeff said to defend himself.
"Well, we still need to find the records so we need to get looking," Ben said trying to get everyone off the topic of John and back to the case.
"You're right, Ben. What should we do about the records?" Mike said in agreement.
"I thought we would have one person look for the records, and everyone else get back to the church and investigate it some more," Ben answered.
"No, I don't like that idea. That's like we had Jake do, and he ended up in a car wreck," George said.
"Yeah, but he got into a traffic jam, and wasn't paying attention to the road," Jeff said.
"I still don't like the idea of sending one person alone," George said.
"Okay, I have an idea," Mike said,"We'll send two people to find the records, and the other three to the church to continue the investigation at the church."
"Sounds good," Jack said,"So who goes where?"
"I'll go look for the records," George said quickly.
"I think at least one person who was already working at the church, and knows what has already been found so Mike or Jeff should go to the church," Jack
said.
"I guess I'll go," Mike said.
"Shoot, Daniel's clipboard!" Jeff suddenly yelled, with a look of fear in his eyes, as he realized they had left Daniel's clipboard on the floor in the church.
"What about his clipboard?" George asked.
"We left it on the floor where the pew fell on Daniel's leg, and it has everything that we've found so far on it," Jeff answered.
"So, if anyone finds it, it'll just show that we've actually been working on the case," George said.
"He's right, Jeff, it only has things about the ghost case, and nothing about the Finas," Mike whispered to Jeff.
"I guess so," Jeff said.
"Okay, back to who goes where," Ben said to get everyone back to finding the records.
"So, Mike you go to the church, and George you go looking for the records since you volunteered to. Now, who else goes where?" Jack continued.
"Jeff, you've been getting too worked up about the records so you go to the church so you don't end up making trouble like John," Ben said.
"I'm interested in seeing what's going on in the church," Jack said, "so I'll go to the church."
"I guess that leaves me to go with George," Ben said.
"Then, lets get moving," Jeff said getting into his truck, and leaving.
Soon after Jeff left, for the church, Jack, and Mike followed in their trucks.
"Any ideas about where to go?" Ben asked George once Jeff, Jack, and Mike were gone.
"I thought we would start with the police," George answered.
"Sounds, like a good place to begin. Although I don't know why they would have it," Ben said getting in his truck and leaving trailed close behind by
George.

A few minutes later Jack, Mike, and Jeff arrived at the church.
"So, where do we need to go?" Jack asked not knowing where the chapel was.
"This way," Mike answered heading down the hall to the chapel signalling to Jack that the chapel was down the hall.
When they entered the chapel they found that a sheet of plastic had been duct taped over the broken stained-glass window, and the fallen pew had been
picked up and put back where it had been before it fell.
"Any idea where Daniel left his clipboard?" Mike asked Jeff.
"Yeah, he left it where the pew fell on his leg," Jeff answered going up to a pew near the front of the chapel.
When he got to the pew he found Daniel's clipboard snapped in half on the floor.
"Great! It's broken," Jeff said when he saw the clipboard.
"That's okay, I can still make out what the paper says," Mike said picking up the pieces of the damaged clipboard and looking at the torn paper that Daniel
had been keeping his notes on.
"Good because I have enough trouble reading his writing when it isn't wrinkled and torn," Jeff said in relief.

"So what do we say when we get in there? I mean we can't just go and ask for the records," Ben said when George and he had arrived at the police station
and met just outside the door.
"I don't know. I didn't really think about it."
After saying this Ben and George entered the police station both frantically trying to think of what they'd say when they got to the desk.
When they got to the desk they had to wait awhile because there was a long line so they had plenty of time to think about what they were going to say.
"I know," Ben suddenly whispered to George when they were a few people from the front, "We won't say anything. We'll just sneak into the back, and see if
we can find it," Ben continued.
"I don't know, Ben," George said hesitantly,"What if we get cau...," George was saying when he abruptly turned around and found they were at the front of
the line.
Thinking quickly George immediately grabbed Ben and took him and went up against the wall near the door.
"Fine, but if we get caught it's your fault," George said when they were up against the wall,"How were you planning to sneak in?"
"Since, there's such an unusually large crowd here we should be able to just creep into the back without being seen," Ben answered.
"That's it! That's your plan!" George said just quiet enough to keep anyone else from hearing him except Ben.
"Well," Ben said pausing,"do you have a better idea?"
"No, but that plan stinks," George answered.
"Well, it's all we've got," Ben whispered as he started walking casually to the door that led to the offices of the police department.
Waiting a little while before following George soon followed hesitantly.
A few minutes later they were sneaking through the doorway, but as they took the first step into the doorway George instantly felt a hand grab his shoulder.
Instantaneously, they both turned around to find a policeman glaring at them.
"I can explain," George started saying, but before he could explain Ben started running down the hall, and the policeman quickly rushed after him.
It wasn't long before the policeman caught Ben and took him back to the doorway where George was waiting nervously.
"You waited," the policeman said in amazement.
"Well, as I said, I can explain."
"Then, lets talk about this in my office," the officer said leading them to one of the offices in the back.
Once they were in the office they all sat down and George began to explain about the records.

"I don't get it," Mike said, "We found all kinds of things before. Why can't we now?"
"I don't know," Jack answered looking up from where he was working next to the pulpit.
"I mean we've been here for what, twenty minutes. We had already found at least one magnetic field in that time when Daniel was here," Mike continued.

"Oh, you mean this," the officer said holding up a bloody folder that had been laying on his desk.
"Thank you," George said reaching for the folder.
"Whoa, not so fast," the officer said pulling the folder out of George's reach,"This is evidence."
"Evidence of what?" Ben asked incredulously.
"Of the robbery," the policeman answered.
"Of what robbery?"
"Your friend stole these," the officer continued shaking the blood-stained folder, "from the historical society."
"Well, it can be evidence of another robbery," Ben said lunging for the records and grabbing them from the policeman.
The officer promptly hastened to where Ben landed on the floor to retrieve the bloody folder, but Ben was faster, and immediately got up and ran out the
door.
George tried to follow, but the policeman hastily recovered from losing Ben and seized George.

A little later Ben got in his truck and left the police station.
As he was leaving he almost instantaneously heard a siren behind him, and looked in the mirror and saw a police car pulling out of the station. To avoid being
caught by the police car he sped up, but as he did so he looked in the mirror again and saw the car turn the other way.
Guess they don't think the records are as important as I though they did, Ben thought as he slowed back down to the speed limit.

You're arresting me for something I didn't even do!!!!" George yelled at the policeman as he put George in a prison cell.
"Your friend, and your other friend stole those historical documents," the officer answered.
"Yeah, but I didn't know the first one stole them, and the other one was acting on his own."
"So you did tell the first one to steal them."
"No!!!!!!!"

"Guess what I finally found," Ben said as he walked into the chapel holding the records.
"About time we found somthing new," Mike said when he saw the folder.
"You mean you haven't found anything," Ben said.
"Not a single thing since Daniel was attacked by the poltergeist."
"That's surprising. Have you tried testing for stuff around the win...," Ben said turning around to see the window, and stopping in astonishment when he saw
how much damage there was to the window.
"Bad, huh," Mike said when he saw Ben staring at the window.
"Yeah, I didn't realize he went through it that hard."
"Well, lets get back to work so we can get to the bottom of this," Mike said," Give me the records, I'm tired of looking for things and not finding anything,"
Mike continued taking the records from Ben and sitting down at the pew to his left.

"Jim!! What are you doing?" a policeman yelled, to the officer who had arrested, George as he got close to George's prison cell.
"He's arresting me for no reason," George said from his cell.
"What are you talking about?! I have plenty of reason!" Jim said.
"Like what?" George asked.
"You're an accessory to the case about the stolen records, and he attempted to enter an employee only area of this police department," Jim said to the officer
who had just recently arrived.
"Well you didn't read him his rights when you arrested him," the other policeman said, "So he's free to go," he continued unlocking George's cell and letting
him leave.

"Hey, I think I found something," Mike suddenly said from where he was sitting with the records.
"What is it!" Jack said excitedly coming over to the pew with Ben and Jeff right behind him.
"This paper has a lot of blood on it so the folder was probably open to it when Jake wrecked," Mike answered.
"Let me see it," Jeff said holding out his hand for the paper.
Mike instantly picked the paper up to give to Jeff, but as he started to hand it to him he caught a good glimpse of the paper, and pulled it away from him.
"Why'd you do that?" Jeff said.
"I recognize the picture. It's the priest that showed us the way to the chapel, and supposedly reported the case."

Chapter 7
The Recovery
"Where'd you go last night?" Ben asked George in the morning.
After the priest had disappeared everyone had gone back to sleep except for Jack and Mike who finished their watch duty. The rest of the night went by
uneventfully and the watch duty went as planned except the last watch was only George because there still wasn't anybody who could wake Ben up. When Ben
finally did awaken in the morning, with the sun shining into his eyes through the broken window which seemed to be becoming less broken every time he looked at it,
he saw that everyone else had already gotten up, and were standing around talking to each other. As he watched them, trying to wake up a little more before standing
up, he was surprised to find George with them.
"It's about time you got up," Mike said when he heard Ben suddenly ask George a question from across the room in the pew in front of the broken window
where he had chosen to sleep, "We were just deciding what to do for breakfast."
"I think someone should go out and get some donuts," Ben heard someone say from over where the others were still talking.
"What time is it?" Ben asked Mike groggily when Mike walked over to him.
"Seven o'clock," Mike answered.
"Good, I can go back to bed for about an hour."
"No, get up, we have work to do, and no one can wake you up when you fall asleep."
"We decided that Jeff's going to go get some donuts," Jack said as Mike returned to the group that was talking about breakfast while Ben slowly got up and
eventually walked over as well.
"That sounds good, but what are we going to do for drinks."
"What's everyone want to drink?" Jeff asked realizing Mike had a good point.
"I'll take orange juice," Mike said at about the same time as Jack.
"Milk," George said.
"Get me some coffee," Ben said sleepily.
"You need some, you're about to fall asleep again it looks like," Mike said humorously.
"How do you want it?" Jeff asked.
"I don't care. I just need something to keep me awake."
"Okay," Jeff said.
Immediately after saying this Jeff left to get breakfast
"Well, one thing you can do to keep yourself awake, Ben, is get back to work," Mike said.
"What is there to do?" Ben asked after pausing for a few seconds to figure out what he could do, and being unable to find anything that needed done.
"Well, first of all you can listen to what you missed last night when we couldn't wake you up."
"Why? What happened last night?" Ben asked in a tone of voice that showed he was getting extremely confused.
"We used my quija board to contact the priest, and instead of answering on the board he appeared."
"Why didn't you wake me up?" Ben asked a little angry.
"I told you, nobody could wake you up."
"Fine, what did he say?"
"Well, he told us why he was here..." Mike said beginning to tell Ben everything that had happened the night before while Ben slept unaware.

"So that's when George came back," Ben said as Mike finished telling Ben what had happened, "but you still haven't answered my question, where did you
go last night, George."
"Yeah, where did you go, George," Jack asked.
"Well, that's a little embarrassing," George said.
"Come on, we might need to know," Mike urged.
"Did I miss anything?" Jeff suddenly asked walking into the chapel carrying a box of donuts and cups full of drinks.
"George was about to tell us where he went last night," Ben answered.
"Fine, I left because I was scared of that ghost I saw in the bathroom." George said suddenly.
"That's it, I was afraid it had to do with something important," Jeff said setting the food and drinks down on the floor.
"Let's see, you got a dozen so everyone gets two," Mike said heading over to the food.
Immediately after Mike said this everyone rushed over to the food and began eating.

"What about the remaining two donuts?" Ben asked after everyone had finished eating.
"I know what we can do with them," Jeff said with a smile on his face.
"What?" Ben asked.
"I got a call when I was coming back with the food," Jeff continued with increasing excitement.
"Who was it from?" Mike asked.
"It was the hospital. Daniel's conscious again. He awakened a couple hours ago."
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Jack asked.
"I forgot with the excitement of George telling where he went."
"Well, let's clean up and go see him," Mike said anxiously.
A few minutes later after cleaning up the group was leaving the church and heading to the hospital to see Daniel.

After talking to the receptionist at the front desk about why they were there they hurried to Daniel's room.
When they got there they found Daniel sitting up in the hospital bed with bandages still on some of the more severe injuries he had sustained from being
thrown through the window.
"It's about time you guys decided to visit me," Daniel said amusingly when he saw them in the doorway.
"Have you know, we visited when you were still unconscious," Mike said happy to see Daniel was feeling well enough to joke around.
"Well, you could have at least left some get well soon cards or something," Daniel said still joking with them.
"Fine, we won't give you these, then," Ben said tossing the box of donuts to Daniel.
"What, only one."
"That's odd, there were two when we left the church," Jack said staring with fake anger at Ben, who had brought the donuts to the hospital.
"Let's get serious, though," Daniel said as he began to eat the donut that was left in the box, "are you still working on the case?"
"Yeah," Mike answered quietly disliking this change in the conversation because he didn't want to worry Daniel with the case.
"What have you found out?"
"We found out that the ghost is the priest that you met the first day," Jack answered taking over the conversation when Mike failed to answer Daniel's
question.
"Is that who George saw in the bathroom?" Daniel asked stuffing the rest of the donut in his mouth and putting the box on a table next to the hospital bed.
"No, we found out that the priest doesn't know who that was," Jack continued.
"Well, where's the poltergeist come into this?"
"The poltergeist began to haunt the church before the priest died."
"Why didn't the priest perform an exorcism?"
"He did, but it didn't work. When the priest died he vowed he wouldn't move on until the poltergeist was gone and the church reopened."
"What! You mean the church isn't open."
"Evidently not, we thought so too, but apparently the priest keeps the place clean in hopes that someone will return to buy it and reopen it. He's even fixing
the window already."
"Did you find out anything else?"
"Only that the priest can see the poltergeist because they're on the same plane of existence, but they can't kill each other. We also found out that the priest is
the one who knocked the pew onto your leg hoping to keep the poltergeist from being able to throw you out the window."
"Where's Jake?" Daniel said suddenly realizing Jake wasn't in the group.
"Well, he had a bit of an accident too," Jeff spoke up.
"Did the poltergeist get him too?"
"No, he had a traffic accident while returning with the information you asked him to get."
"How?"
"He was in a traffic jam and began to look through the file he took from the historical society. The traffic started moving again and evidently he didn't notice
and got hit from behind."
"I didn't think the historical society let people take those files out."
"They don't. That's the beginning of another long story," George said.
"Is it an important story?"
"Not really."
"We better get back to the important information, then."
"That's pretty much it," Jack continued with everyone else in the group nodding their agreement.
"Any ideas, then, on how to get rid of the poltergeist and open the church?"
"We were hoping you'd have an idea," Mike said suddenly joining the conversation again.
"Well, have you tried talking to the poltergeist."
"That's the last thing we want to do!" Ben yelled.
"Somebody might get seriously injured, like you, or even worse get killed!!" Mike shouted.
"Calm down, somebody might hear you," Daniel responded to the sudden clamor he had received in response to his suggestion, "Just try it. I have a feeling
it'll work."
"We can't just trust your feelings," Jeff said angrily.
"I've read a good many ghost stories in my life, and sometimes you just have to find out why something is going on before you can get rid of it."
"Fine, but if somebody gets hurt it's your fault," Mike said turning his back to Daniel and heading for the door.

Chapter 9
The Meeting
"What's the meeting about, Bob?" Daniel asked Bob when he saw him waiting for them at the door to the agency.
"There's been a terrible accident," Bob answered, "Mitchell's dead. Justin is going to explain more at the meeting.
Immediately after saying this Bob began walking down the hall toward the meeting room, leaving Daniel and the rest of the group shocked by the horrible
news.
Slowly the group began to solemnly walk down the hall except Daniel who stayed in the same place stunned by the news.

"What's wrong, Daniel?" a former archaeologist said a few minutes later when he came across Daniel standing in the hall with a stunned look on his face.
"He's dead, Jim," Daniel answered the former archaeologist as he finally decided to start walking to the meeting room for the meeting.
"Who's dead?" Jim asked with a confused look on his face.
"Mitchell," Daniel answered as he disappeared from Jim's line of sight.

Just as Daniel arrived at the meeting room a minute or two later Bob sat down at the seat, that would normally be occupied by Mitchell, and began to
speak.
"As some of you already know, there has been an accident in Israel where Mitchell was leading a team, and now Mitchell is dead."
Immediately, the room got completely silent.
"How?" one person said after a few seconds of silence.
"To answer your questions like that one I would like to turn the meeting over to Justin who was part of Mitchell's team in Israel," Bob said sitting down as
Justin stood up from the seat on Bob's left where he had been sitting.
"Two nights ago a suicide bomber ran a truck full of explosives into the building that Mitchell was investigating. No bodies were found and everyone who
was in the building at the time is presumed dead including Mitchell," Justin answered the former archaeologist's question.
"What was the building?" another person spoke up.
"I am unsure of what the building was used for. All I know is that the building was where the first witness was when he saw the object we were
investigating. Mitchell was the only one of us who knew what the building was for."
There was a brief pause after Justin finished when he was waiting for someone else to ask a question.
"Any more questions?" Justin asked when no one else said anything.
Again there was silence.
"Then, I would like to turn the meeting back over to Bob," Justin concluded sitting back down while Bob stood back up.
"There is only one more thing I want to do," Bob began, "and that is to vote for a new leader since I was only meant to be a temporary one."
"I nominate Bob for 'permanent' leader," someone said before Bob could even ask for nominations.
"I nominate Justin," someone else said.
"I nominate Mike," another former archaeologist said.
"I nominate Daniel," yet another person said.
"Any other nominations?" Bob asked after no one said anything for a moment after the person who nominated Daniel, "Then, let's vote," he continued after
no one nominated anyone else.

A few minutes later the voting was over, and Bob had added all the votes up.
"Okay, it was close this time, but the new leader is Daniel," Bob announced once he had double checked his math, "So you are now in charge, Daniel, if
there is anything you would like to say."
"Just one thing," Daniel said standing up slowly, "Now that we know how dangerous this task we have taken upon ourselves is anyone who wants to leave
should leave now. If you leave, though, you are not to tell anyone for the exact same reason we decided not to in the first place."
In response to this a few people walked slowly and shamefully out the door of the meeting room. Jeff watched with interest to see if John or George was in
the group who left since George got scared so easily and John seemed constantly obsessed about the Finas leading Jeff to believe he was afraid of them, but to his
surprise neither even started to get up.
"If that's everyone then this meeting is adjourned," Daniel said walking out the door when he was sure everyone who was going to leave had left. He was
soon followed by everyone else in the room.

Since I'm not done with the next part of SECRETS yet I'm going to start posting some of my older stuff now.