Chapter Three
“MEL Meter, EMF, Boo Bear—do we have the voice box? Cameras all charged? Backup batteries?” Lord, Jason was ramped up. Blaine hadn’t heard that tone in his voice since they’d broken down over a train track.
Weird.
“You okay, buddy?” he asked. Hopefully it was just nerves with Flynn starting tonight.
“I’m fine,” Jason snapped. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
Will snorted. “Because you’re micro-fucking-managing. Of course the equipment is all here, in good working order, and charged up. I know how to do my goddamned job.” There wasn’t a ton of heat in the words, but Will shot Jason a look that said he wasn’t going to put up with much more of Jason’s crap.
Flynn came out of the hotel he was staying at, a backpack on and carrying two bags. Darnell opened the door for him. “Hey, guys, thanks for the lift.”
“Sure. Anytime.” They were all still staring at Jason, wide-eyed.
Flynn looked around as he set his bags on the far back seat. “Everything okay?”
Will shrugged. “Fine and fucking dandy.”
“Seems like everyone’s edgy today. I’m going to burn sage in the van again if everyone isn’t careful.” Blaine knew that threat would work like a charm.
“I said I’m fine!” Jason all but shouted.
Flynn’s eyes went wide, and he very carefully, quietly, put his seat belt on.
Blaine moved to the seat next to Jason and reached out, touching Jase’s arm. “Sorry, man. I was just messing with Sasquatch.”
“You know what happens to people who do that.”
“Messing with the Sasquatch?” Flynn asked. “I thought we were hunting ghosts.”
“God. Tell me you’re not an anti-TV guy. I love those beef jerky commercials.”
“I’m not anti-TV. I just don’t have a lot of time for it. I tend to binge-watch shows on Netflix or Hulu if I’ve got the downtime. Like right after exams. I’m not sure yet when my downtime is going to be….”
“Ah. Well, it’s a stupid commercial, but I love them.” And Blaine was a dipshit who hadn’t finished college.
“Yeah, they’re pretty funny,” Darnell put in. “And it’s kind of like poking the bear—you just shouldn’t do it.”
“So in this scenario, Jason’s the Sasquatch, and you were poking him? Which sounds way dirtier than I meant it.” Flynn laughed.
Jason blinked, and there was a second where it was either going to go good or bad, and then Jase cracked up, the tension easing with a pop Blaine could feel.
Flynn had to have felt it too, because he relaxed visibly. “So guys, my gaydar isn’t the greatest, so pardon the question, but do we all play for the same team here?”
“Assuming you mean are we queer, then yes. Totally. All of us. If not, then I have no idea.” Blaine winked at Flynn. His gaydar was great.
“No, that’s exactly what I meant. I was pretty sure, but I knew if I assumed, I could say something at some point that offended someone. I try not to, but damn, I can put my foot in my mouth sometimes.”
“I hear that’s a kink,” Darnell drawled.
“That’s just gross, man.” Will punched Darnell in the shoulder. “Thanks for the image.”
Flynn just laughed. “Hobbit feet are gross, but most guys have decent feet. Not that I’m advocating sucking toes or anything. Of course I’m not disadvocating for it, either.”
“I don’t want to think about toe sucking before we ghost hunt,” Blaine said.
“Have you seen ghosts doing it before?” Flynn asked, like the question had only just occurred to him.
“No. No, you know, I haven’t.” Blaine blinked. “I mean, I guess you’re not horny as a ghost.”
“I don’t know, man. I’ve never been one.” Flynn winked at him. “But have you seen lover ghosts? I mean, two together who were together when they were still alive?” Flynn’s eyes were alight, bright with curiosity.
“I don’t know. Maybe. You know, it’s really intense and fast.” And Blaine had worried that he was crazy.
“Do you usually debrief after? Tell the guys what you saw and document it?” Flynn certainly didn’t seem to think Blaine was crazy.
“God, no,” Jason said. “We go to bed, and Blaine goes right to work on Saturday mornings.”
Yeah. That was the deal. Blaine stocked and opened the farm stand Saturday morning and didn’t bitch. By the time Sunday rolled around, he was sound asleep in the van.
“You don’t document anything?” Flynn sounded shocked. “Are you gonna fight me on changing that? I mean how do you…? What…? I just…. You need to document everything, you absolutely do. Or at least I do.”
“Document away.”
“Listen to his exhausted ramblings, huh?” Jason chuckled and shook his head. “If Blaine lets you, go for it.”
“Good, good. It’s an important part of the process. I mean, don’t you guys analyze what you find and stuff? Surely you do.”
“We all have other jobs right now. Lives. We keep all our recordings, but Jill took care of that for the most part,” Blaine explained. “That was part of her job.”
“So I basically get carte blanche for setting this end of stuff up how I want, eh?” Flynn rubbed his hands together and gave a maniacal little laugh. “Just kidding. I swear I’m not power hungry.”
“That reminds me. You’ll have to stop over and get all the film and audio from the barn. I have the most storage space, you know?” He lived in a restored barn on his folks’ farm, and it was huge and drafty and amazing.
“Oh cool! But it’s going to have to wait until I find a place to live.” Flynn sounded so disappointed.
“You looking to rent a place or buy?” He could totally use the bonus cash that a roommate could bring, not to mention the company.
“Probably rent to start with. I need to save up if I’m going to be buying. You’ll have to tell me where the quiet neighborhoods are.”
“Shit, man,” Darnell said. “Rent that cool-assed room in Blaine’s barn.”
Flynn shot him a look. “Yeah? You’ve got space going? You don’t have to rent to me just because I’m ghost hunting with you, but I’d be interested if you are. Is this the same barn where all your footage is stored? Because that would be handy.”
“Yeah. I renovated one of the barns—two thousand square feet of drafty wonder.” And he loved it.
“Oh, very cool. Are there any residents aside from you?”
Flynn didn’t have to spell out that he meant ghosts.
“Not that I’ve ever seen, thank goodness.”
“No? You wouldn’t want a benevolent otherworldly neighbor?” Flynn asked. “Because I totally would.”
“Benevolent would be great if you knew for sure.”
“You can’t tell, eh? There isn’t like… an aura around them?” Flynn seemed fascinated by it all.
Blaine wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say.
Flynn waited patiently but clearly expected an answer. He was so damn good-looking, a handsome face, a great body…. Quite a distraction.
Blaine shook himself. “It’s not like I always see these full-bodied apparitions. I sense them more than anything.”
“But like you said before, it’s freakier not seeing them.”
“Exactly.” It felt kind of good to have someone get it.
“You guys ever picked up apparitions on any of the equipment?” Flynn was just a ball of curiosity, but it was probably good, having someone look at how they did things, maybe bring in some new ideas.
“Couple of spirit balls and some kickass EMF readings,” Blaine replied.
“That’s great! I’m really hoping to get some stuff on camera. Being able to actually see things is about the only thing some people will believe. Of course, nowadays it’s easy enough to fake that kind of thing if you know what you’re doing, so I’m not sure even that’ll do anymore.” Flynn laughed a little dryly. “Some people will always find ways to shake other people down.”
“It’s easier not to believe, isn’t it? Isn’t that easier?”
“I guess. If you haven’t had any experience with it. I mean, given what you feel, would it be easier to ignore it and not believe?”
“No. Then you just think you’re insane.” And that was always Blaine’s worry. Always.
“Dude, you’re not insane.” Flynn sounded pretty sure of that. “And we’re going to prove it.”
“There’s a fast-food joint up ahead,” Will told them from the driver’s seat. “This is our last chance to stop before we get to the hospital, and I do believe we are SOL there when it comes to the amenities.”
Blaine leaned toward the speaker. “Double bacon cheeseburger, large fries, Coke, and some chicken nuggets for me.”
Flynn put in his order. “I’ll have two extra-large fries and a vanilla milkshake, please.”
Darnell and Jason both wanted cheeseburgers and fries with Cokes, and they all passed money over to Will as he pulled into the drive-through.
Flynn grinned at Blaine as they waited. “So, you really want a roommate?”
“Sure, if you’re willing. I can always use the extra cash.”
“How much are we looking at? I’ve got a budget, so I know how much I can spend on living expenses and I figure rooming with someone will be cheaper than forging out on my own.”
“You want to say two fifty a month? You can share the kitchen, and you’ll have your own bathroom,” Blaine noted.
“That sounds more than reasonable—are you sure that’ll cover utilities and everything? I’ll be running my computer pretty much full-time.”
“We’ll see, huh? If it’s more, it’ll just be twenty bucks or so, right?”
“I have no clue, but revisiting it after you start getting bills sounds good. Are you much of a cook? I do okay in the kitchen. I mean, I know how long it takes to cook most meats and I can roast potatoes and vegetables with the best of them.”
Blaine shrugged. “I can make basic stuff—farm food, you know? When Mom’s healthy, she cooks a ton.”
“You say farm food like it’s subpar or something. I’m a meat and potatoes guy—so I’m down with that. Maybe we can trade off cooking? You know, rather than both trying to get our own stuff done. When I had roommates at school, I hated the whole compartmentalized food thing. If I’m cooking a pot of pasta, doesn’t it make sense to make it for everyone? It doesn’t exactly take extra time or effort to make two portions instead of one.”
“Sure. Sure, why not? I mean, we’ll see if our schedules mesh.”
“Sounds great.” Flynn grabbed his shake and fries as they were passed back, opened a bunch of the little ketchup packages, and poured them into the bags of fries.
Blaine scarfed down his burger, making yummy noises that were damn near perverse, even if he did say so himself.
Flynn kept shooting him looks, and he fought to shut up. “Sorry, it’s so good.”
“No, no, you’re good. I mean, go for it. Those are great sounds, that’s all.” Flynn gave him a sheepish grin. “Sorry for staring.”
“Eh. I’m just starving. It was too busy to eat today, somehow.” He’d been running his ass off, getting ready for Saturday morning.
“Ah, that’s how you stay so thin.” Flynn munched on a ketchup-covered fry, then licked the salt and tomato off his fingers.
It was Blaine’s turn to find himself staring.
Okay, pretty. He did like eye candy.
“You do make great noises when you eat, though,” Flynn told him between mouthfuls and more licking. “I noticed that the other night at the pub.”
“Yeah?” Okay, he needed to watch that, because how embarrassing.
“Yeah.” Flynn didn’t say anything else, but the expression on his face said it was a good thing, and Flynn’s eyes danced with an expression of…. Blaine didn’t know—it didn’t feel like he was being laughed at, though.
Whatever it was, it was. He just focused on his chicken and on not making any noise.
“We’ve got another half hour or so,” Will told them as they turned off the highway and onto a smaller road. The sun was nearly down now, the atmosphere becoming more mysterious, spooky.
Blaine knew that Jason had chosen this venue to test Flynn. It was creepy as fuck but familiar to them, and they’d had better than average luck in the building.
It didn’t hurt that they knew the owners.
Flynn rubbed his hands together. “I gotta admit, I’m looking forward to it. I want to get started.”
“I hope you have fun. Hell, I hope we get some good readings, something.” Last time they’d had a few EMF spikes that were pretty damn cool.
“God yes.” Flynn was almost bouncing, throwing him a grin. “You’re going to have to tell me everything you see and feel. Everything.”
“You got it. I promise, man. I’ll give it up.”
“Huh?” Jason looked up, his eyes going wide. “You’re giving it up? To Flynn? Did I hear right?”
Will snorted, and Darnell cackled. Jason was notorious for being in his own head and only catching a small part of any conversation.
Flynn didn’t miss a beat, though, nodding vigorously. “You heard right—he totally said exactly that.”
“Huh?” Jason looked at him, then pursed his lips. “Yeah, no.”
“I expect you all to,” Flynn said, making Will sputter from the front seat.
Darnell clapped his hands. “You heard it here first, folks!”
Jason’s mouth dropped open as he stared.
Flynn laughed, eyes twinkling. “Seriously, though. I’m going to want updates from all of you on what you’re seeing, how you’re feeling. What kinds of readings you’re getting. I need all the data I can collect and then some in order to draw any conclusions about our findings.”
“I thought you joining us was supposed to make it less work for the rest of us, not more,” complained Darnell.
“None of our conclusions will be worth a damn if we don’t have data to back it up,” Flynn insisted.
“He’s joining us because he’s got cred.”
“No experience, though,” Jason noted with a grin that said he knew he was being a bitch and was doing it on purpose.
Flynn stuck his tongue out at Jason. “Told you I’m a fast learner. Hopefully I’ll be able to limit my questions to what you’re all experiencing rather than how things work.”
“That’s why we’re doing this run, man. Training.” Blaine offered Flynn a grin that he hoped was friendly and warm.
“Cool. Cool.” Flynn finished his milkshake, and Blaine told himself to stop perving on the guy’s suction.
He needed to get laid. Maybe Darnell would be willing to do joint hand jobs. Darnell was between guys. That might be awkward at his place with Flynn there, though. But Darnell had his own place, and there was always the van. It wouldn’t be the first time it had been used for something other than hauling people and equipment from point A to point ghost.
They turned onto a bumpy dirt road, and Blaine knew they were almost there.
“Hold on to your butts, guys.”
Flynn cackled, but he grabbed hold of the handle above the door with one hand and Blaine’s leg with the other as they flew over their first bump. “Fuck!” Flynn’s fingers dug into Blaine’s thigh.
“Not quite, but it’s a rush, huh?”
“Unexpected.” Flynn laughed. “Good thing I like roller coasters.”
“Me too!” Oh, they’d have to go. The others guys all hated them.
“Bonus! We’ll have to hit the amusement park soon. I haven’t been in a couple years.”
They went over another bump, and Flynn cried out happily.
Blaine cracked up and grabbed his Coke as it tried to go over. Flynn hooted with him, and Jason shook his head.
“You guys are crazy.”
“Probably goes with the territory,” Flynn shot back, and this time it was Darnell who cracked up.
“No shit. Five gay ghost hunters in a shitty van!”
“Hey,” growled Will. “The van is not shitty.” He patted the dashboard. “He didn’t mean it, darling. We think you’re an amazing van, and we hope you last forever.”
Blaine could see Flynn biting his lower lip, eyes twinkling like crazy.
“She is a stunning little van, Will, dear. Your soul mate.”
Will raised his hand over the top of his seat, one finger up. “She’s treated me better than any of my relationships has.”
“Well, that’s pretty sad,” Flynn noted.
“That’s fucking pitiful,” Blaine added.
“Don’t make me stop this van,” Will said, sounding so much like Blaine’s father when Blaine was young that he had to laugh.
Flynn sniggered as well, biting his lip, clearly trying not to laugh out loud.
“You guys are living dangerously,” Darnell chided. “Seriously. It’s not right to get between a man and his van.”
They all burst out laughing at that, the van ringing with it. It was good, surrounding them with positive energy.
Jason leaned over and knocked shoulders with Blaine. “Sorry about earlier. Me and Darren…. He’s cheating on me.”
“Oh man.”
“Yeah. Not common knowledge, but it’s not you.”
“Right.” God, that sucked. Jase hadn’t been with Darren for eons, but longer than a couple of months. Long enough that it had to hurt.
“I’m sorry,” Flynn murmured. “I don’t get cheating. If you want to be with someone else, man up and let the person you’re with know it’s over. It’s still going to hurt, but it won’t be a betrayal like cheating is. People suck.”
“Right on.” Blaine grabbed Jason’s hand and squeezed. “So, we are totally finding spirits tonight. Or tomorrow. Totally.”
“As a reward for being cheated on?” Jason asked, voice dry. Then he smiled. “That would work for me. Darren’s an asshole for cheating, and I’d rather have ghosts than him.”
“Yes. He’s a fuckmonster.”
“A fuckmonster?” Jason’s lips twitched, and they all started laughing again. “I’m going to remember that for the next time I run into him.”
They bounced across a couple of large dips in the road, and Flynn threw his hands up again and shouted out “Whoo!” This time Darnell and Jason joined him. Will, happily, did not.
Blaine leaned back, bouncing against the side of the van. He thought Flynn was going to fit in fine. Just fine.
They rounded a corner, and suddenly the decrepit hospital was in front of them, looming in the near darkness. It was spooky enough during the day, but at night the creep factor was pretty high.
Flynn bounced, without the aid of the van this time, and rubbed his hands together. “Oh man, I can hardly believe we’re here and this is it. I’ve been waiting to do this forever.”
Blaine chuckled softly, and Jase nodded, grinned. “Man, this is totally what we all needed. A shot of enthusiasm. I like it.”
“I can’t imagine this ever becoming old hat,” Flynn admitted. “I mean, ghosts! What’s not to be enthusiastic about?”
“Well, when you hit a bunch in a row that don’t pan out, you start worrying.” At least Blaine did.
“Ah, yeah. I can see where that would be hard.” Flynn nodded as Will parked the van near the side of the building.
Will turned off the engine and leaned around to the back. “You gonna take Flynn on a walk-through while I get all the equipment set up?”
“Yeah. Yeah, come on. I’ll give you the ten-cent tour.” He hopped out of the van, the slight buzz that always seemed to herald a busy spirit night already ringing in his ears.
Flynn got out, bag in hand. “Can I bring my camera? I’ll leave the rest of the stuff for Will, but I’d love to get some establishing shots as we go through the place.”
“Go for it. We’ll start in the lobby. Watch for nails.” God knew he’d stepped on enough.
Flynn nodded and stomped his feet, his work boots loud. “Steel toed. I did my homework.”
Blaine had a feeling Flynn had been a Boy Scout.
They went in, passing under the sign on the front of the building that should have read Eugene Thurston Memorial Hospital, but had enough letters missing that it actually read ug Thurst Mem Ho. It had cracked them all up when they’d first seen it. Blaine figured some kids had had fun with that one a while back. It was too perfect to be random.
“Okay, this is the lobby. The floors are solid, and we’ll set up here at the counter. It’s been abandoned since the eighties, so it’s been empty a long time.”
“Are there any horror stories associated with the place?” Flynn asked. “I mean, obviously people died here, but were any of them under mysterious or sinister circumstances?”
“There was a mass shooting in the emergency room in the early sixties. Eight people died. Four nurses, two doctors, and two patients.”
“Wow. That’s tragic.” Flynn looked around, using his flashlight to check out the walls. “Is that where you’ve had hits? In the emergency room?”
“In the emergency room and one of the rooms upstairs—204.”
“Yeah? Have you got a history for that room?” Flynn followed close behind Blaine, probably reacting to how eerie the place was with the only illumination from their flashlights.
“I don’t.” All he had was feelings. The feeling for 204 had been… creepy. Bad. Slick. Oily.
“Is it awful in the emergency room?” Flynn asked as they made their way there. “Like, are murdered ghosts worse?”
“To me it feels a little frantic.” Rushed. He wasn’t even sure they knew, if he was going to be honest.
“Frantic? Like they’re still working the emergency room or something?” Flynn asked.
“Yeah, maybe? It’s a little distant. We’ll do some EMF work and ask.” That would give Flynn some data, right?
“Sounds good.” They got to the emergency room, and Flynn shivered. “Wow. Even if I hadn’t known you’d found something, I’d think this would be the place to start. Or maybe I just feel it because you said there was something here. Don’t tell me anything else, okay? Let me see if I feel anything on my own first.”
Flynn swung the flashlight around, checking out the emergency room, shying away from the spot where two of the nurses and a doctor had been shot in a cluster. Interesting—Blaine hadn’t told Flynn where anything had happened.
Neat.
He didn’t worry about Flynn. No, he leaned against the nurses’ station and closed his eyes, opening up to the whispers that seemed to float about him.
That frantic feeling hit him first. Not panic, just hurry, hurry, don’t just stand there, do something. All he had to do was breathe and let the sensation happen. It would calm down.
“Oh man.” Flynn gasped. “So much anger, right here.”
Blaine opened his eyes to find Flynn standing near the old entrance doors, and he could see something around Flynn, an area that was darker and sort of shimmered.
A sudden rush of jealousy hit him, and he nudged it back. So what if he wasn’t the only psychic, right?
Flynn shivered and moved away quickly. “I don’t know. I couldn’t see anything, but it felt…. Evil sounds so cheesy, you know?” Coming over to Blaine, Flynn touched his hand, clearly a little spooked.
“Not cheesy. Not at all.” A mean part of him thought, Maybe you can do the walk-through, but he ignored it. He wasn’t an asshole. He wasn’t.
“Good. That was the only word I had for it.” Flynn stepped closer again, and Blaine could feel his warmth. “I’ve never felt anything like that before. Just my mom. I don’t know if it’s real or if it’s because of the atmosphere and knowing the murders happened here.”
“Well, make sure you take notes on what you feel, huh?”
“Right, right. Do you usually take notes on the walk-through or just when you have all the equipment set up and it’s official?” Flynn kept shining his flashlight around the place, but he wasn’t leaving Blaine’s side.
“When all the equipment is set up.” Because his job was to be charming and dramatic, dammit.
“Cool.” Flynn flashed his light several times at the spot where he’d felt the anger and also the area he’d avoided where the two nurses and a doctor had died, but he didn’t seem to be able to see anything at either spot. “So where do we go from here?”
“I’ll lead you through radiology. All the equipment is gone.”
“Sure thing.” Flynn put a hand on Blaine’s back as they began to move, then drew it away. “Sorry. Sorry. I’ve got to admit, I’m a little more spooked than I expected to be.”
“Oh man. I hear you. It’s creepy the first time.”
“How many times have you guys come here?” Flynn asked, staying close, but not actually holding on to him.
“This is number three. I mean, it’s day five, but visit three, you know?”
“Right. Because some visits are more than one day only. Like this one. Checking it out tonight and setting up, doing most of the work tomorrow. Are we going to sleep in the van or at a nearby motel or something? It seems like a long way to go back and forth.”
“Will can take me home to work, sleep in the van, and then drive me back here. You guys will share a motel room.” It sucked, but it was the best solution. He had responsibilities.
“You’ve got to do stuff for your folks, eh? I can see the good and the bad in that.”
They took the stairs in the middle of the place—these being in the best repair.
“Watch your step,” Blaine warned. “There’s no guarantees in here, you know?”
“Yeah, I get it. Something could give way at any moment after thirty years of no repairs or anything.”
Flynn stayed close, and the stairs groaned and creaked, adding to the general spookiness of the atmosphere.
The whole creepy vibe helped Blaine be open to the spirits, helped him get into the right frame of mind for it. Even if nothing happened, he’d be able to make a show of it. When he had nerves, he did a better job.
They got upstairs, and he turned to the right, toward radiology.
“Jesus. How is it even darker up here?” Flynn asked.
“There’s only windows in the rooms up here.”
“Damn. It’s spooky as hell.”
“Yeah. I tell myself that there’s nothing in the dark that isn’t here in the light.” But it was a lie.
“Do you believe yourself?” Flynn asked, hand finding Blaine’s and slipping into it. There was a buzz, like he would have known that was Flynn’s hand even if there’d been a dozen people who could have reached for him.
“No. Not really. Everything’s spookier at night.”
Flynn chuckled and squeezed his hand. “Somehow that makes me feel better.”
“Yeah, well, two guys terrified out of their minds is better than being alone.”
That made Flynn laugh louder, and the sound echoed weirdly, coming back as the laughter of madmen all around them. Flynn snapped his mouth closed.
“Dude, that was pretty cool.” Blaine was all over that.
“Big echo, huh?” Flynn said very quietly.
“Huge. I wonder if we did that on tape if we’d hear something interesting.”
“You think it wasn’t just an echo of my voice?” Flynn asked, sounding like he was regaining his equilibrium.
“Who knows? You never can tell until you play the recordings.” He never heard things as clearly as he did on the EVP.
“Awesome. I’m willing to cackle like an idiot again later.” They got to radiology, noises coming from the dark, supposedly empty room. “What is that?”
“Mice.” Blaine rolled his eyes. “Fucking mice.”
“As long as they’re mice and not rats, there’s nothing scary about that.” Flynn squeezed Blaine’s hand, sending tingles shooting up his arm. Flynn apparently didn’t plan on letting him go quite yet.
“No. No. I mean, I’ve seen lots of little mice, no sewer rats or tree rats or anything.”
“Good. So what happened up here? Or is it that the X-ray machines and stuff make it easier to see the ghosts?”
“I haven’t the foggiest. We got some cool EVPs up here, you know?” Sometimes things just happened. At least that was Blaine’s experience.
“Cool.” Flynn finally let go of his hand and prowled around the room, lighting the way with his flashlight, curious about everything.
This room was the least interesting visually—a series of large empty rooms—but they’d heard the best stuff up here.
Flynn walked along, taking everything in but not venturing too far from Blaine. “It really is spooky.”
“Yeah.” Blaine found this pretty low-key, though, comparatively.
Flynn finally shrugged. “I don’t feel anything but the general creepiness, but that could be because it is pretty creepy, and that’s superseding everything.”
“It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors and some kickass echoes, huh?” Blaine closed his eyes, the dust in the air tickling his nose and making him want to sneeze.
“Uh-huh. I can’t wait to get up here with the instruments, see what we can measure.”
“We’ll have to try the laughter thing too. Just because it’s new.”
Flynn chuckled. “Who’d have thought me being a goofball would lead to a new thing?”
“You’d be surprised. Half of what we get is accidental.”
“Damn. That is going to drive me crazy. On the other hand, a lot of great discoveries were accidents. One thing discovered while someone was trying to invent something completely different. Plus you learn more by failing than you do by succeeding. A lot of people don’t know that about science. About how important failure really is.” Flynn was clearly passionate about the subject. Blaine could hear it in his voice.
“In our line of work, failure just means a bad night on film.”
“But that gives us something to go on for next time. I tell you, failure is a good thing. You’d never have any staying power, anyway, if it always went your way. You’ve learned to be patient and to not expect a dozen ghosts doing the safety dance when you show up.”
“You’re something else, man. This is going to be fun.” Blaine believed that too. There was something about Flynn’s raw enthusiasm that made Blaine ready to work.
“Is there anything else we should check out?” Flynn asked.
He thought about taking Flynn to room 204, then thought better of it. “No, this ought to be good enough for now. For tonight.”
“You hesitated there for a second. Are you sure?” Flynn touched his arm again, little tingles spreading out from the spot where they connected.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure. We’ll just focus here tonight.”
“Okay, cool.” Flynn kept holding on to him as they headed back down the pitch-black hall to the stairs in the middle of the building. “I feel like laughing again to see if the echo is still there.”
“Not until we have a recorder up here, man. That’s too good to waste.”
“Okay, okay. No laughing.” There was laughter in Flynn’s voice, though, as they headed carefully down the stairs.
“Shut up.”
“You guys okay?” Will called.
Flynn jumped about a foot at Will’s voice, his hand tightening on Blaine’s arm. “Fuck, that scared the shit out of me.”
“Remember, you’re not alone, huh? Will, Jase, Darnell—” He paused. “—me.”
“I hadn’t forgotten about you,” Flynn murmured, and this time the squeeze to his arm was clearly deliberate.
“No?” That felt too good, honestly.
“Not at all. And not just because we’re together.”
As they got to the bottom of the steps, Will came into view, glaring. “You should have answered when I called out. I was about to head up to make sure.”
“Yes, Mother.” Blaine let his eyes roll, all dramatic and playful. “You scared?”
“No,” Will growled. “But what if something had happened to the two of you?” Will gave them each a walkie-talkie. “Next time take these with you.”
“Promise.” He clipped it onto his waistband. “We were together.”
“Good. Nobody goes anywhere alone.” Will wagged his finger at them. “And call me mother all you like, but we haven’t lost anyone yet, and that’s down to looking out for each other. Come on. I’ve got everything set up. We should test everything, and I’m betting you want to explore a room or two before we head out for the night.”
“God yes. Let’s not waste the time we have.”
“Better come and check the equipment, then, and Darnell and I will start filming.”
They followed Will back to the lobby where everything was set up, Flynn immediately checking the EMF readers and the thermal cameras.
Darnell and Jason were there, fooling with the cameras and double-checking the two laptops. They had a couple of new thermal recorders that were motion sensitive.
“Where do you want to set these bad boys up?” Jason asked.
“Let’s put one in the ER and one up in”—room 204—“X-ray.”
“Got it.” Jason headed out.
Will growled after him, “Take Darnell with you, and have you got your walkies with you?”
Darnell rolled his eyes, showed Will his walkie-talkie, and headed off after Jason.
“Okay, who’s playing cameraman for me today?”
“Me.” Will raised his hand like he was in school. “That way Flynn can run the EMF and the infrared and the two of you can focus on the Paranormal Activity.” Will always said it so that you could tell he was capitalizing it.
“Are you comfortable with being on camera, Flynn?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Besides, you’ll get most of the attention from the thing.” Flynn pocketed a pack of extra batteries. He gave Blaine a happy grin. “Ready and reporting for duty.”
“Rock on.” Blaine made sure his hair was smooth and braided, his shirt clean. “Okay, let’s do this.”
The light from the camera came on, and Blaine put on his best smile. “Welcome to the Eugene Thurston Memorial Hospital. I’m Blaine Franks, and with my buddies Flynn, Will, Jase, and Darnell, we’re the Supernatural Explorers.”
Flynn waved when Blaine got to him but didn’t add anything as he already had the EMF reader turned on and was checking the readings.
“Let’s do this thing!” Blaine said, and they headed in.
Flynn was all business now—no more rush of questions, his focus on the results he was getting with the EMF reader.
“We’re going to check out the ER first. It was the scene of a mass shooting, shortly before the hospital closed, where eight people were killed.” Blaine knew the more grisly details they could give, the better people would like it. “A shooter came in—Dave Underwood—looking for his ex-wife, Maryann. He ended up killing her and many of her coworkers, along with two patients and himself. Tonight we’re going to try and communicate with them.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Flynn grinning and bouncing. It felt good having that positive and enthusiastic energy there. It made Blaine feel like maybe they weren’t wasting their time on a fool’s errand.
They made their way down the hall, stopping about halfway along when Flynn made a noise. “We’re getting a high reading, here by the admin offices.” Flynn moved the EMF reader around, and Blaine peered over his shoulder at the device. The needle was jumping like crazy.
“Let’s try an EVP.” Blaine turned on the recorder. “Is there anyone here with us? Maryann? Are you here?”
Flynn switched on the infrared camera and aimed it in the direction where the EMF reader had pinged. “Ask again,” Flynn suggested quietly.
“Maryann? Are you here with us? Do you have anything you’d like to say to us?” Blaine paused, giving the spirits a chance to respond. “Anything at all?”
There was a lot of creaking and groaning, but it sort of sounded more like the building settling than noises a spirit might make.
“You feeling anything?” Flynn asked, almost whispering.
“Not so far. But let’s keep running the EVP, huh?” Blaine closed his eyes, took a deep breath. “Is there anyone who wants to speak to us? Just talk into the recorder.”
Will and Flynn stayed silent. In fact, Blaine could almost hear them holding their breath.
Then Flynn spoke quietly. “I’ve got something on the infrared. Just shadows, but they suddenly appeared, and they’re moving toward you.”
Fuck. “If you need to speak to me, I’m right here.”
“One of them is responding to you. Keep talking.” Flynn took a couple of steps in his direction. Blaine didn’t know if it was for his benefit or Flynn’s.
“Tell us what you need to say. Speak right into the recorder.”
Flynn nodded and pointed to the ghostly figure on the infrared camera. It didn’t look like a person, but it was vaguely human shaped—the right height and width, even if there was no definition to it.
Blaine let the recorder run, trying as hard as he could not to either move or freak out.
The thing came closer, still visible only on the special camera. He couldn’t see anything with his naked eye. The air got cold, the drop in temperature sudden, and the image on the infrared sharpened. It was right there in the foreground now, almost on top of them.
Flynn began breathing rapidly, quick little pants that all of a sudden became visible, the air cold enough that each exhalation showed.
Then he blinked, eyes huge, and poof. The moment was gone. Disappeared.
Flynn’s cheer was quiet, but it was there, and Blaine could feel the excitement pouring from him. “That was so cool. Could you see anything? With the naked eye, I mean.”
Blaine shook his head. “No. Nothing. I felt the temperature drop. Did we get a reading?”
“Yeah. The EMF was going nuts, and you saw the thing on the infrared camera. It got damn cold there for a minute.” Flynn’s excitement was contagious. Even Will was chuckling.
“Rock on. Hopefully we’ll have some EVP too.” Damn. Damn, that had been cool.
Flynn nodded, still bouncing on the balls of his feet like a big kid.
“Let’s keep going,” muttered Will. “The ER’s just ahead.”
“Good deal. We’re heading into the emergency room proper now. We’ve just experienced some cold spots and a measurable visual on our infrared cameras, so we’re very hopeful that Maryann will continue to try and reach out to us.”
“A lot of people died in the emergency room,” Flynn added. “We could hit on more than just Maryann.” He was back to using the EMF detector, the little handheld machine beeping along happily but not showing anything significant yet.
“Sure. Go ahead. Call away.” What the actual fuck? Blaine was supposed to lead the team, right? At least in this? Right? “I’m going to take a break. You keep filming, Flynn, huh?” He needed to calm the fuck down and quit being a prima donna. Seriously.
“What?” Flynn and Will said it together, Will actually lowering the camera to look at him.
“Did I do something wrong?” Flynn asked. “I didn’t mean to—this is all so new, you know?”
“Not at all.” He cleared his throat dramatically. “I need to grab a bottle of water. Keep filming. We’ll cut me back in.”
“Okay.” Flynn looked concerned but didn’t question him. “We’ll wait for you here.”
Will had one eyebrow up and a questioning look in his eyes, but he didn’t say anything.
Blaine waved once and jogged toward the others. There’d be a cooler with bottles of water. Hell, maybe he’d run outside and take a leak and just focus. It was never going to be seamless, adding a new person to the group. Maybe he’d become complacent. Maybe that’s why they sucked.
Jason and Darnell had returned from setting up the motion-activated cameras and were checking the feeds when he got back to the lobby.
“Hey, Blaine,” Jason said. “You guys forget something?”
“Just need a drink. Throat’s dry. They’re still filming.”
Flynn might be your new psychic after all.
Darnell tossed him a water bottle. “You’d better get back there. They need you.”
“They’re fine. I may take a handheld and a Mel Meter, head upstairs real quick and get some readings.”
Darnell snorted. “You camera shy all of a sudden?”
Jason didn’t say anything but was watching him, looking as surprised as Darnell.
“Shit no. Flynn wants to try some stuff. I thought I’d give him his head.”
“You’re the front man. If I wanted Flynn to do it, I’d have told you.” Jase’s voice was sure, firm. “You get your ass in front of the camera and show everyone how it’s done. You’re the one with the spark.”
He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, the walkies crackled.
“Blaine, man, you coming back soon?” Will asked. “We’re waiting on you to go into the ER, and there’s a bunch of spooky noises and a lot of action on the EMF reader.”
“Aka get your ass back there squared,” Jase said, pointing toward the hall.
Blaine laughed as he ran back. Yeah, he was a dipshit. An emotional dork.
The guys were waiting for him, and they both cheered as he got there, Flynn immediately showing him the EMF reader. “Look at this! There’s a ton of activity, and I swear to God it feels like it’s way colder in there. Will said he feels it too.”
Will grunted. “Definitely something going on in there that needs your touch, man.”
“Okay. Okay, well, you guys back off a little and let me focus.” If he was going to do this, he needed to trust in it, right? Of course right.
Blaine closed his eyes and relaxed, listening as Will and Flynn moved back. The sound was sure and sharp for a second. Then it faded as they stilled.
He swore he could feel their warmth behind him, contrasting strongly with the decidedly cooler air in front of him. They stayed quiet and still, though, letting him do his thing.
“If you want to talk to me, I’m listening.”
“No, you’re not.”
The words were low but solid. Not the fuzzy whispering he was used to.
“I am. I’m right here. Tell me what you need.”
Nothing.
Nothing.
“Room 204.”
That wasn’t a voice. It was a thought. Still, he wasn’t ready to share that.
Flynn took a gasping breath but didn’t say anything.
“Blaine? We going to go in there?” Will asked, voice soft but not a whisper. Whispers could be fucking creepy in situations like this.
“What? Go in where?” He hadn’t said anything about 204.
“The bay where the shootings happened.”
“Huh? Yeah. Yeah, sure. Did you guys hear anyone answer me?”
“Yes,” Flynn and Will answered at the same time.
“Hopefully it’ll come through on the camera’s audio,” Will added.
“Good deal.” So he wasn’t crazy, which was handy. “Come on. Let’s try in the bay.”
Flynn and Will came up behind him, totally letting him take the lead. When they opened the doors and went in, it was definitely much colder.
“Wow.” Flynn shivered, giving him a wide-eyed look.
“Yeah.”
The automatic word generator attached to the EVP recorder blipped. “Bullet.”
Blaine nodded. “That’s right. You were shot here.”
“Fuck. Amazing.” Flynn sounded like his mind was blown.
“Uh-huh.” Will had seen this kind of thing before, but he was clearly on board with this being an extremely good run.
A stroke brushed his wrist, and he made a show of jerking, spinning around, even though the touch wasn’t harsh at all.
“What? What?” Flynn looked ecstatic, eyes wide, focused on Blaine.
“Something touched me! On the wrist!” Sorry, honey. It’s on camera. Are you okay?
The touch came again, soft, gentle, like someone—she—was checking his pulse.
“Is it a good spirit or a bad one?” Flynn asked.
“Were you a nurse here? Are you Maryann? Maybe Donna Lewis? Or Renee?”
At the name Renee, the touch came again. “Renee? Hey. Hey, do you want to talk to us?”
“I can help you. What brings you here today?” Renee asked, voice warm, professionally concerned.
“Oh my God.” Flynn’s excited whisper seemed to echo all around the place.
Okay. Weird. Blaine was going to just go with it, though. “You did. We were worried about you.”
“Worried about me? Honey, you’re the one in the hospital.” She took his wrist again, and it was a cold touch, but not in any way malevolent.
“I am.” Oh fuck. He was going to pass out. “I totally….”
Flynn touched his shoulder, hand fucking warm, almost hot, compared to the specter’s.
His knees buckled, and everything disappeared for a second, a dull thud at the base of his skull whispering, “Room 204. Room 204. Room 204.”
Flynn caught him. He must have because when Blaine came back to himself, he was being held in Flynn’s arms, and they were outside the ER, a few feet from the door. Will was speaking into his walkie-talkie, voice low and urgent.
“Blaine? Blaine, are you back with us?” Flynn asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, sorry.” His head was pounding, and he felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. The only solid thing that didn’t hurt was where Flynn cradled him. His skin tingled like something important was going on all along where they touched.
“Blaine?” Will asked as Jason and Darnell came flying down the hall.
“Sorry. Sorry. Tell me we got that.” She had been there. Right there.
“I got you fainting when Flynn touched you, yeah. And you were talking pretty good with someone. I heard it, but we’ll have to see what the camera picked up.”
Flynn nodded, hands rubbing up and down along Blaine’s arms, warming him, spreading the tingles. “I totally heard her—she was trying to help you. One of the nurses, eh?”
“Renee. It was Renee. She spoke to me, guys, clear as a bell.”
They all started talking at once.
“What did she say?”
“Tell me we got it on camera.”
“No fucking way!”
“I heard it too, not that clear, but I heard it.”
He let the clamor fade into the background, his brain running around in circles. He’d heard things before, sure. Felt things too, but nothing like this.
Flynn was still holding him, and he had to admit, it felt good, like he was keeping it together because of the tingly touches that Flynn shared with him. Crazy.
“Maybe we should pack it up for tonight, guys. Blaine’s the color of milk.” Darnell sounded worried as hell.
“Yeah, good idea,” Jason said. “I vote we go back to Blaine’s place. We can check out what we have that way. Save a few bucks on the motel too. The drive out here isn’t that bad.”
“Works for me. I got chips and Cokes and stuff.” Blaine just wanted to go home and crawl in bed and… hell, he didn’t know.
The guys came over and helped him and Flynn stand, and it was a physical wrench to not have Flynn’s warmth supporting him anymore. Almost a pain inside him.
“You okay?” Flynn looked concerned and touched his arm.
The pain faded immediately.
“Fine. Totally. Just… that was intense.”
Flynn nodded. “Yeah, my heart was in my throat until you opened your eyes again.”
They got him turned around and headed to base camp at the other end of the hospital.
“Is it always like this?” Flynn asked.
“Shit, no,” Darnell told him. “We haven’t had this much excitement in ages. I mean, sometimes we get a good hit, but it’s less often than we’d like.”
“You must be a good-luck charm,” Will said.
“Beginner’s luck?” Flynn suggested. “I haven’t had to sit through all the times when nothing happened. Yet.”
They got back to base camp, and Jason and Darnell helped Will pack up most of their gear to take with them. It was too expensive to leave out in the open.
“How can I help?” Flynn asked.
“Get Blaine to the van, and get some water and a granola bar down his throat,” Darnell suggested, coming up with one of each and handing them to Flynn.
Will tossed the keys at Flynn, who caught them, then touched Blaine’s arm again. “Come on. We get to sit for a bit.”
“I’m sorry. This doesn’t happen very often.” Honestly.
“Are you kidding? This was exciting. I mean, I’m sorry it seems to have knocked you for a loop, but you spoke with someone! Had an actual conversation. That is so cool.” Flynn walked him to the van and opened the side door, encouraging him up into a seat. “I shouldn’t have touched you, I guess, but you looked so pale.”
He got seated, and Flynn joined him, then closed the door behind them to keep the bugs out. Flynn was about the only warm thing in the van, and Blaine had to admit he was happy they were sitting close enough that he could feel Flynn’s warmth.
Flynn opened the bottle of water and handed it to him.
“Thanks.” He sucked the water down, moaning happily.
Flynn opened the granola bar and handed it over when he was done with the water. “You’re looking better already. You really had gone as white as a… well, ghost.”
“It was a weird experience.” And somehow it had been weirder with Flynn there.
“You wanna talk about it?” Flynn asked, settling in next to him and patting his thigh.
“She was superpresent. Usually I get whispers, feelings, not ‘Hi, how are you?’ You know?”
“How cool is that? You think it’s because you’ve been here a lot and she knows you now? Recognizes you?”
“I don’t know. Seriously. Did you see her? Hear her?”
“I didn’t see anything, not really, but I could tell she was there, and I heard her. Not as clearly as you seem to have, but I could so tell you were having a conversation.” Flynn’s face was lit up, his excitement clear. “She was really there.”
“Hopefully we got something on film.” Blaine closed his eyes, his head pounding, throbbing. The anger had dissipated, though, which was good, because he didn’t need that shit.
“You need anything?” Flynn asked, that hand coming back to rub Blaine’s thigh. It was like Flynn couldn’t stop touching him.
“Just to go home. I’m tired, and I have to be at work at 5:00 a.m.….”
“Oh man. That’s damn early. I’m sure the guys’ll be here soon. You could nap on the drive home.”
“Yeah. Saturdays are harsh, but it’s worth it.”
“Yeah? I’m glad because that was amazing. You’re amazing.” Flynn’s eyes shone.
“I’m just….” He didn’t know what he was. He felt drained, bone-deep.
Flynn suddenly wrapped his arms around Blaine and hugged him tight.
Invisible sparks flew between them, little explosions that faded slowly, leaving him… more peaceful?
“Sorry,” murmured Flynn, sitting back. “You looked like you really needed that.”
“No apologies.” He had. He’d needed whatever that was.
“Cool.” Flynn gave him another quick hug, then sat back and fished a small box of mints out of his pocket. He opened the container and offered Blaine the tiniest mints he’d ever seen. “They’re cinnamon flavored.”
“Those look like dollhouse candies.”
Flynn chuckled. “They’re small but mighty mints. They’re good.” Flynn passed the tin beneath his nose, the scent of cinnamon strong.
“Oh. Oh, that’s cool. How many do I take?”
“As many as you want, man, but I find one at a time is more than enough cinnamon in my mouth. Your mileage might totally vary.” Flynn’s friendly dorkiness was a balm to the weirdness left over from his experience in the ER.
“Thanks.” He took two and popped one in his mouth, the zing exactly what he was looking for.
Flynn put one in his own mouth and sprawled there next to him. There was a companionable silence between them that boded well for them being roommates.
Blaine let his eyes drop closed and focused on his breath. On his heartbeat.
It wasn’t long before the guys arrived with the equipment, and suddenly the van was full of noise and busyness and they were on their way, bumping along the trail, headed home.
They were ramped up, chattering and bouncing, excited, but Blaine ignored it.
He needed to rest.