Ghost Hunted

by BL Maxwell

  “Why did this happen? I don’t even remember getting out of bed. Why would I go down there?” He held his head in his hands while he rocked back and forth, the enormity of what happened very apparent.

  I stood up from looking at his feet and kneeled closer to him. I rested my hand on his back, hoping to comfort him. “It’s okay, Jason, we won’t let it happen again. We’ll think of a way to stop you from walking off again. Maybe we can block the door, or we could tie a string between us, so both of us would know if one of us gets up.”

  He reached his hand out to me, and I wrapped my arms around him, while he rested his forehead on my shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay, I promise.”

  He jerked back at that. “But you can’t keep that promise. Don’t you see? We can’t control what goes on in this house. If it wants something to happen it just does.”

  “What do you mean? How do you know you didn’t just sleepwalk down there?”

  “Well, Wade,” he said as he shoved me away, “mostly because I’ve never sleepwalked in my life, you know this. Why would it happen now? Here? You don’t think that seems a little strange?” His voice took on a hysterical edge, like he really could not understand what had happened to him once again.

  I fell backwards onto my ass and just sat there while I watched him start to shake. I sat up on my knees and slowly moved toward him. “It’s okay, Jason. Come on, let’s get your feet cleaned up. That has to hurt.”

  He nodded but kept his head down. He had his finger and thumb both pushed against his eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he had a headache. But that wasn’t what the problem was at all. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him to me once again. I kissed the side of his head and just sat there for a few minutes, neither of us ready to pull away.

  “I’m gonna see if we left any bottled water in the car. I don’t want you to have to walk all the way upstairs with your feet cut up and probably full of glass. I’ll help you wash them off, and we can use the first aid kit in the back to clean out the glass and bandage them up. How does that sound?”

  He snapped back away from me. “No! I don’t want you to leave me here.” His eyes were wide now, his absolute terror obvious.

  “Jason, I’m not leaving you. I told you we’re a team. I’m going to help you walk over to the car. It’ll probably be painful, but you’ll be able to sit in the car while I fix you up.”

  I stood then and offered him my hand. He took it and with some difficulty and obvious pain he stood. I wrapped my arm around his waist to help him as much as I could; luckily the car wasn’t too far away. When we got to it, I opened the rear hatch for him to sit on.

  “Thanks. I don’t know what I’d do without you, man.”

  “Let me see your feet.” I grabbed a bottle of water and the first aid kit from the back, thankful for the interior light. “Sorry, this is gonna hurt, you ready?” He grimaced then nodded to go ahead. I opened the bottle and grabbed a towel that was also in the back and began to pour the water over his right foot.

  “Uh fuck!” He twisted in pain. I stopped and watched him to make sure he was okay with me continuing.

  “Keep going, it’s okay.” I could tell by the look on his face it was very much not “okay,” but I continued until his foot was clean. I shined the flashlight on it to check for any pieces of glass. There were a few small ones which I was able to pick out. I put antibacterial ointment on the cut area and wrapped his foot with gauze.

  Then I prepared to do the same to his left foot. This one was worse. There were a few bigger chunks I was afraid to pull out. I wasn’t sure how much worse it would make the bleeding, and I thought he probably needed stitches.

  “Just take it out. Bandage them up. If we need to, we can drive to Placerville in the morning and see a doctor. Right now I just want to try to get some sleep.”

  “If you’re sure . . .”

  “Wade, I’m sure. Go ahead.”

  I did as he asked, grimacing with each piece of glass I pulled from his foot. He flinched when I removed them, and it made me feel that much worse. I didn’t want to cause him even more pain.

  “Come on. I’ll help you make it back to the room.” I put my arm around his waist again, and he seemed to lean on me even more. We slowly made it across the yard and up the stairs to the front door. It was standing open, which I didn’t question since I’d been half out of my mind when I woke up and found Jason gone.

  We carefully walked into the house and started up the stairs. The house felt so different now, like it was alive with activity. It wasn’t that you could hear anything or see anything, but there was always the sense something was there. Watching and waiting. It was as if the house waited in anticipation for something, and I didn’t want to be down here when that happened, whatever it was.

  “Sorry, this really hurts.” Jason was trying to suck it up but his feet were in bad shape. It had to be really painful. I realized I was trying to hurry him along faster than he was able.

  “Don’t apologize. We’re almost there. Just a few more steps then you can relax.” I adjusted my grip on him and slowed my pace down while he leaned a little heavier on me. I could tell the stairs were tough on him. But finally we were at our room. I opened the door and we stumbled inside. I gently helped him sit on the bed. He immediately leaned back against the wall and pulled his legs up.

  “Think I should change the bandages?” He showed me the bottoms of his feet; both had blood splotches.

  “Yes, but you’re not doing anything. You sit there and relax.” I crossed the room and grabbed the first aid kit we’d brought in with us. Jason was a total Boy Scout. He’d actually given me a first aid kit for Christmas one year . . . just in case. I smiled at that memory now. Who knew we’d need one—two—while we were here.

  “Let me see how it looks.” I sat on the bed next to where Jason was resting. I turned on another lantern so I could see his feet better, and unwrapped the gauze to get a better look. It was pretty dirty, along with the fresh blood spots where he’d started to bleed again in some areas, or maybe it had never stopped.

  “Did I make it worse?”

  “No, I think it’s okay. Some spots started bleeding a little. I just hope I got all the glass out. I really think we should go to Placerville in the morning and get your feet checked out.” He gave me a serious look and seemed to think about it. We were here to check this place out, but if he couldn’t walk, he couldn’t do much. The house was so big and had so many stairs . . . it made it hard to navigate on the best of days.

  “I think I’ll decide in the morning. If it’s still bad we’ll go into town. I could go for some ibuprofen though.” He smiled a sort of sad smile at me. I knew this was killing him. He’d anticipated coming here for so long.

  “Let me grab you some.” I walked over and dug around in my duffle bag until I found the bottle and poured out four into my hand. I knew Jason had to be in quite a bit of pain, but he was trying not to complain. I went to the little cooler and got him a bottle of cold water.

  I sat back on the bed again. “Here you go. I hope it helps.” I leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips then handed him the pills. “So how do we make sure this doesn’t happen again? I don’t want you leaving and getting hurt again.”

  He popped the pills into his mouth then took a quick drink of water. “I think you should sleep closest to the door, then if I get up you’ll know. I’d have to climb over you, so there’s no way I could get out of here without you knowing.”

  “That sounds good to me. Let me just change my clothes then I’m all yours.” I winked at him and he smiled back.

  I was stripped down and changed into my sweat pants in no time at all. I turned off one of the lanterns and dimmed the one we kept on. This time I didn’t try to jump into the bed, I eased in next to Jason. I took a moment to enjoy the comfort of being so close to him, and then I reached out and rested my arm over his stomach.

  “Is this okay?” I whispered to him. He answered by
rolling over, clasping my hand and pulling it to his chest.

  “Thank you again, Wade.”

  I kissed him behind his ear, and in no time we were asleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  The next morning we awoke to the sun just beginning to rise, its soft glow illuminating the room. It was a cloudless day, but since it was fall it was also cold. I tried to snuggle deeper into the sleeping bags, hoping for a few more minutes. I reached over and felt for Jason. This time he was still there. I put my arm around him and pulled him back to me, and he grabbed my hand and twined our fingers together. It felt as natural as breathing, even if it was all new to us.

  “Good morning. How’re your feet?”

  He stretched his legs out and flexed his feet, instantly sucking in a breath that told me they were still painful. “They’re fine.”

  “You always were a terrible liar.” I smiled into his back and kissed the back of his neck. “So what’s on the agenda for today? Do you think we should go into Placerville and get your feet checked out? I don’t want them to get infected or keep bleeding.”

  “Let’s change the bandages and take a look, then we can decide. I don’t think I need a doctor though. As long as they’re clean and all the glass is out it should be fine.”

  “That sounds good, but if anything doesn’t look right, we’re going into town.” I sat up and slid my legs over the side of the bed. Jason seemed like he was in more pain than he wanted to admit, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  He slowly slid over and sat on the edge of the bed with his feet barely touching the floor. I could tell he was hesitant to test his weight on his sensitive feet. He stood very gingerly for a few seconds then sat back down.

  “Is it bad?”

  “It’s just really sensitive. Maybe we should change the bandages before I try to walk on them. We could put some extra gauze so they’re a little more padded.”

  “Let’s try it.” I sat at the end of the bed and guided his feet up into my lap. I carefully unwrapped his feet again. In the sunlight it was easier to see how torn up they were. His left foot was worse than his right. Some of the cuts were a little deeper and all of them were swollen and looked painful. I double-checked for glass and found a few smaller pieces I’d missed last night in the dark.

  I found a small plastic container that had held some cheese and other snacks in the ice chest. Taking the snacks out, I set it on the bed close to Jason’s feet. I grabbed the first aid kit and a bottle of water. There was some antibacterial soap in the kit, so I took it out along with some bandages and gauze.

  “I’m going to try to clean it out a little better than I did last night. I can see some dirt in some of the cuts. Sorry, but we need to.”

  He nodded that he understood and clenched onto the sleeping bag. I held his left foot and poured some water over it, and then I grabbed the antibacterial soap and squirted a little on his foot. He tried to pull away from the sensation.

  “Did I hurt you?” I didn’t want to be any rougher than I had to be. And I didn’t want to hurt him at all; he’d been through enough.

  “No, it’s all right. It’s just a little ticklish.” He smiled at that.

  “As long as I’m not hurting you. Ticklish I can live with.”

  I used my hand and lightly soaped up and rinsed, first his left foot, then his right. They looked better once they were all cleaned up. I left them uncovered while I went about getting us both something to eat.

  I’d made us some overnight oats with fruit and handed one to Jason. He stared at it like he wasn’t quite sure, but once he tasted it he devoured it like he hadn’t eaten in days. Last night had taken a lot out of us both. I pulled out some bottles of iced coffee and we both drank them down. I thought about how good a hot cup of coffee would be.

  “What do you think about going into Coloma later on? We could check out all the historical stuff. Might be fun,” Jason offered. He knew I loved anything historical, so it was a no-brainer for me.

  “That sounds great. Maybe we can eat lunch there, get a hot meal for the day.”

  “You’ve got a date. I would kill for a hot coffee right now.”

  “Dude, I was just thinking the same thing.” We laughed at each other and finished eating our cold breakfast. When we were done, I was getting everything ready to rewrap Jason’s feet when he asked me to pass him one of the laptops.

  “I’m going to start going over what we recorded last night while I’m sitting here,” he explained.

  “Sounds good. Hey why don’t we try some super glue on your cuts? It should help them not be quite so tender, and they’ll heal faster if they’re not wide open.”

  “I’m willing to try it, I’ve always kept it in the first aid kit just in case, but I’ve never used it.”

  “Can’t hurt.” I shrugged.

  “We have a lot of footage to go over. I wonder if we caught anything else that’s exciting.” He tried to change the subject.

  “Why don’t we leave your feet until we finish going over the videos, give them some air.” I’d let it go for now, but we would have to deal with his cuts before we could do anything else.

  He looked up from whatever he was watching. “Get over here then. It’s still cold in here. I need someone to keep me warm.”

  He didn’t need to tell me twice. I moved the bandages and other supplies and sat next to him with our backs against the headboard. We were quiet while we started fast-forwarding through the different feeds. When one of us would notice something we thought was worth a second look, we’d mark it so it was easy enough to find again.

  “Hey, look at this.” I nudged Jason in the side to get his attention.

  “What did you find?”

  I started the video, and we watched as a little girl popped into the view. One minute she wasn’t there, then she was. We had watched the feed earlier that showed her, but we hadn’t seen this part. It was both amazing and creepy. I didn’t want to think about how they could just pop in anywhere and anytime. It was very unnerving.

  “That’s amazing,” Jason commented as he watched from my side.

  “Yeah, amazingly creepy.” I smiled at him. He laughed at that and play punched me in the arm.

  “Let’s see what else we caught—or should I say who?” He winked.

  That wink would be my undoing. I stared at him for a moment, and then I couldn’t stand it anymore. I stood up and took the laptop from him. I walked both of them over to the dresser and set them down. Jason watched me the whole time, but he didn’t say anything. I slowly climbed back onto the bed with him. I lay on my side with my head propped up in my hand. He scooted down so he was lying down facing me.

  “I have a better idea of how to spend the morning.”

  “Oh really, and how would that be?”

  I answered him with a kiss as I pressed him back onto the bed. He reacted by putting his arms around me and threading his fingers through the back of my hair, sending delightful shivers down my spine. I could have stayed in that bed kissing him for days. His tongue gliding over mine, the wet heat of his lips. He was everything I’d ever wanted or needed.

  I slid over to lie on top of him. All of my weight pressed down on him as he wrapped his legs around me and pulled me closer. “Oh god, Jason, you’re killing me here.” He barked out a laugh then grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me back in for another kiss. “I can’t believe we’ve waited so long for this,” he whispered as he kissed the line of my jaw, making me groan out in response.

  “I can’t believe you let me believe you were straight.”

  He puffed out another laugh at that. “All you had to do was ask, or make a move.” He continued with the slow torture of kissing down my throat.

  “You have no idea how badly I wish I had.” My heart pounded with both passion and adrenaline. He had me more turned on than anyone before. Maybe my body had been waiting for him too. I started to grind my hips down on him. We were both hard, and that first press left
me wanting more.

  “More. Touch me, Wade,” he breathed out on a sigh. I looked down at him with his head thrown back and eyes closed. Mouth slightly open begging to be kissed. I wasted no time lifting off him slightly and slipping my hand inside his sweatpants. I’d seen Jason naked many times. We’d showered together in school, and we were best friends. We’d stayed at each other’s house over the years. But nothing was like this.

  The feel of his cock in my hand, and knowing he was hard for me. I slid my thumb over his slit and gathered the drop of fluid I found there. He gasped but didn’t move away. Instead, he wrapped his legs even tighter around me and ground up on my own hardness. We both groaned at the sensation of him pressing our groins together with my hand still gripping him.

  “You’re going to make me bust a nut if you keep that up,” I groaned down at him and put some distance between us. I didn’t want this to end embarrassingly fast, but he was all of my fantasies wrapped in one and he was all mine. At least for now. We really needed to clarify exactly what we were to each other. There was no way one weekend would be enough for me. I hoped the same was true for him.

  “Feels so good. Jack me.”

  “I had no idea you were so pushy.” I also had no problem complying with his demands. It was hot.

  “Oh yeah, just like that. Faster. Come on, babe. Yeah, get it.”

  “Jason, fuck. You’ve been depriving me for too long. Go for it, use my hand.”

  That was all it took. He used one hand and pulled his pants down farther then he started moving his hips in earnest. I watched his face contort with pleasure as he blatantly chased his orgasm. I started pressing down on him without even thinking about it. He had me so turned on my body was taking over and getting as much pleasure from him as it could.

  He frantically pulled at my pants and shimmied them and my underwear down my ass. Then he grabbed both our cocks in his hand and jacked us both at the same time. The friction and drag were so tantalizing and addictive I never wanted it to end.