Chapter Eight
THE guys were all otherwise busy on Monday, so Flynn and Blaine checked the footage together. Flynn could barely keep from bouncing as they waited for it to load. He’d heard things. He’d seen things. And Blaine had been freaking possessed. Surely they had something on film to show for their weird visit to the hospital on Sunday.
Still, other than a couple of strange lights that seemed to be on Blaine’s shoulders, there was nothing.
Nothing.
How could that be?
He looked at the tape, rewound it, watched it again. Then he gaped at Blaine. “What the fuck?”
“Is there… are they working right? Is there more footage?”
Flynn shook his head, feeling confused and kind of angry. “That’s all of it, and there’s something wrong with the sound, because it didn’t come through on any of them. I don’t know if the mike wasn’t plugged in properly, if it’s broken, or what, but there’s no sound, there’s barely any footage that isn’t all washed-out. It’s like someone sabotaged our equipment.”
“Huh. Should we call Jason to test the cameras?”
“That’s probably a good idea. I mean, this doesn’t even have your narration in it, let alone anything we saw. Get him to check everything, but we were getting temperature changes and EMF readings, so it just seems like the cameras and the mike were messed up. I mean, it could just be a coincidence, but they worked great Saturday when we didn’t see or hear shit, so that’s a hell of a coincidence.” Honestly, Flynn didn’t know what to think.
There were a few possibilities. It could have been a fluke, some random equipment failure. It could have been sabotage, either by one of the team or someone who wanted to discredit them. Or it could have been that all the activity they’d had going on had messed with the equipment. What did it say about Flynn that he was hoping it was the last option?
“Maybe the spirits affected them, you know?” suggested Blaine. “They can suck batteries….”
Flynn nodded, pleased that he hadn’t been the only one thinking this could have been due to ghostly interference. “Yeah? I was thinking that was a possibility. Of course does that mean anytime we actually make contact our equipment is going to go tits-up? That’s not exactly going to help us prove anything, is it?”
“I don’t know. That’s your job, isn’t it? To invent things to fix that issue?”
Flynn laughed and bumped shoulders with Blaine. “It totally is. I guess I’ll get Jase to test the equipment, and then we’ll have to do tests at the site—different machines, different settings, backups, etc.”
“I guess I need to start researching other places to go too, and update the blog with pictures and some video.”
“Having a new destination will be great, but I think we’re not nearly done with the hospital yet. I mean there’s definitely something there, and we haven’t even hit the second floor.”
Blaine shivered, and Flynn swore that a shadow crossed his face.
“Blaine? You okay, man?” It was almost like when Blaine had been possessed back at the hospital.
“Hmm? Yeah. Yeah, totally. I’m fine.”
That didn’t sound like the truth.
Flynn bumped their shoulders again. “Come on, man. You can tell me anything. I think I’ve proved that I’m on your side.”
“I… I just don’t think we should worry about the second floor. It’s dead.”
“Yeah? I thought you said there was stuff going on up there. I mean, we went up on that first quick run-through, and then you had the guys put a couple of motion-activated cameras there.” Flynn was confused because he was sure it had been on the agenda early Friday.
“I just… it’s a bad idea.”
He didn’t get it. It was almost like Blaine was afraid of going up to the second floor. Which didn’t make a whole lot of sense—he was looking for ghosts after all, not trying to avoid them. “Why?”
“Why does there have to be a why? It’s a dangerous old hospital, that’s all.”
“I know, but… I just don’t get why we can’t give the second floor a try. If we’re getting this much activity on the main level, why not look for more upstairs? We can take extra care.”
“I’ll see. I have to talk to the owners and see if we can go back.”
“Somebody owns that place?” Flynn had assumed it was just a condemned building. Maybe owned by the state or something.
“Yeah, a bunch of investors. You know, it’s a tax write-off.”
“Well, I imagine as long as we’ve signed a waiver saying if anything happens to us it’s on us and not them, they won’t care what we do.” He was eager to explore more. Now that he’d done it in person, he thought he might be hooked on ghost hunting.
“Maybe. Maybe. There’s a couple of places—a hotel that’s rumored to be haunted and an abandoned cottage.”
“They sound great. We really should do a bunch of tests with the equipment at the hospital, though. I can’t really compare filming in one place with filming in another, you know? That would change too many of the variables.” It was true, but he was also being stubborn about going back to the hospital because Blaine seemed so determined not to go back, which honestly seemed like a one-eighty. And there was plenty left there for them to explore. Flynn had a strong hunch that they’d only just scratched the surface.
Not only that, but something was wrong. Not with him—with Blaine. Was he overreacting? He didn’t know Blaine that well, but…. No, something was wrong. And it had all started on their last visit to the hospital, and they had to go back there to fix it. That much he was sure of.
Flynn stared Blaine down, waiting for him to come up with another explanation for why they shouldn’t, or couldn’t, go back to the hospital.
Blaine shrugged. “I’ll see what I can arrange, okay? I’ll talk to Jase.”
Flynn shook his head, but he imagined that Jase and the others wouldn’t want to give up on what had been a fairly active scene two times out of three. Almost scarily active in fact. So he capitulated. “Yeah, that’s fine, man. I’ll get this video transferred to the new storage hard drive and get it backed up.”
“That sounds great.” Blaine rubbed the back of his neck, wincing a little.
“You got a crick?” Flynn laid his hand on Blaine’s neck and dug his fingers in, the motion slightly awkward, sitting next to the man as he was. “I could sit behind you and give you a proper massage.”
“Just a headache.”
Yeah, except there was a hot spot on Blaine’s neck, a little swelling.
“Indulge me—I took a massage course at university.” Flynn grinned as he shifted behind Blaine. The couch was nice and wide, so there was plenty of room for him to fit between the back of the thing and Blaine without knocking him onto the floor.
Flynn tugged Blaine’s shirt back a little so he could get a better look at Blaine’s skin.
There was what looked like a bite—not a spider bite, but a human bite—right there where the base of Blaine’s neck met his shoulder. And it was definitely warm, inflamed. He didn’t like the looks of it.
“Did someone bite you, babe?”
“Did you leave a hickey?”
No. No, this wasn’t a hickey. This was a bite.
“Not a hickey. Not me.” Flynn ran his fingers gently across it.
“I’m not letting—” Blaine jerked and pulled away. “Ow!”
“Something bit you, Blaine, and it looks like human teeth marks.” He wasn’t accusing Blaine of anything—hell he’d been with the guy for the last few days, and this bite was brand-new. “It looks infected.”
“Weird. Maybe it’s a spider. You think I should put some peroxide on it?”
“I think we should do something about it, yeah. But it doesn’t look like a spider bite. You got peroxide? I can go get it.”
“In the bathroom. Thanks.”
He found antibiotic cream, peroxide, a few Tylenol, and a cloth, along with some muscle cream.
Coming back, he again set up behind Blaine, who blinked at all the stuff he’d brought.
“You don’t think this is overkill?”
“No, I don’t at all.” Flynn handed over the Tylenol. “Take two of these.”
“Yes, boss.” Blaine swallowed them dry.
Flynn shook his head but turned his attention back to the bite. He used the peroxide first. While he held the cloth against Blaine’s back beneath the bite, he poured peroxide on the affected area.
Jesus. The liquid bubbled up, white foam developing immediately. He poured more on the bite, wincing. “Does it hurt?”
“It stings.”
“It’s pretty infected. We’re going to need to keep an eye on it. It wasn’t there yesterday, I’m sure.”
“Weird. I don’t remember us getting that wild in the bedroom.”
“We didn’t. I didn’t do this.” Frowning, Flynn wiped away the excess liquid and foam. He drizzled on more peroxide, astonished that it was still bubbling up. “We might need to go to the clinic or something.”
“I’ll see if Mom doesn’t have some sort of salve when I see her.”
“Well, you had some antibiotic cream. I can put that on it. But it looks pretty nasty, and ten minutes ago it was just a little red and hot.” It hadn’t seemed so off only moments ago, had it? Crazy.
Flynn didn’t know what to make of it. He touched it gently, pushing a bit.
Blaine groaned, the sound deep, pained. “Damn, that’s sore.”
“I’m going to keep a very close eye on it.” Flynn poured some more hydrogen peroxide on it. “If it gets any worse, I’m taking you to the doctor.”
“Yeah. First, I’ll see if Mom has anything to put on it. Later. You want to keep working, or you want to go see what’s on TV?”
“If that’s a euphemism, I definitely want to go see what’s on TV.”
“Listen to you!” Blaine chuckled softly but nodded.
“Hey, I can go through film or actually watch TV anytime. Euphemising with you is special.” Blaine made him feel warm—not just in his balls, either.
He took one last look at Blaine’s neck, then stood and held out his hand. “Come on. Your, uh, TV is waiting.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Blaine rolled his neck a little, then took Flynn’s hand.
“If you’re not feeling up to it….” Flynn didn’t want to push Blaine if the guy was hurting.
“Up to TV?” Blaine rolled his eyes, winked.
Laughing, Flynn tugged Blaine up the stairs with him. Okay, it had been a silly question. He was pretty sure Blaine would say yes to a blow job even if he was on his deathbed.
Maybe he’d be able to convince Blaine to go back to the hospital after an orgasm… or two. Flynn had a hunch that they’d have to in order to figure out what the heck was going on.