by BL Maxwell
“Don’t you ask me who it is. Open this door right now,” my mom bellowed from the door, simultaneously kicking the bottom of it.
I jumped up off the couch, yelling as I rushed to the door. “Ma, stop kicking my fucking door.” I unlocked the deadbolt—the only thing that kept her from barging right in—and stepped back to let her in.
“Why are you two sitting here with the door locked? What’s going on? And don’t think I didn’t notice the language that came out of your fucking mouth.”
“The same language you taught me since I was a kid?” I mumbled behind her.
She turned around and popped me in the back of the head. “My hearing is still just fine.” She turned away from me to look at Jason on the couch, kicked back in shorts and a faded shirt still munching on popcorn.
“Hey, Mrs. Rivers.” He waved at her in greeting.
“Hey, Jason, what are you doing today, sweetie?”
“Just hanging out with Wade. Nothing too exciting.”
She tapped her chin with her finger. “Nothing too exciting?”
Jason looked from her to me and back again.
“Oh, for the love of god, Wade, just tell her.”
“Fine. Jason is my boyfriend. We’re together.”
The sound that came out of her mouth is probably still trapped in the sky above Sacramento. It sounded somewhere between a clarinet with a broken reed and a cat whose tail just got stepped on.
Jason looked at me with actual fear in his eyes.
“After all we’ve been through, that’s what scares you?” I laughed, I couldn’t help it. He’d been attacked repeatedly by a ghost and my mom’s reaction was scarier to him than any of the spirits we’d been dealing with the past few days.
“Jason, oh my goodness. I’m sorry. It’s just I’ve been waiting for this to happen for years. I knew there was a slight chance but, you know, I never thought it would really happen.”
He smiled with lots of forced patience and tried to keep up with what she was saying at about three times the normal speed.
“Thanks, Mrs. Rivers. I’m really stoked about it too. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Wade behaves and goes to all the family dinners you invite us to.”
“Oh, you always were a sweet one.”
She started to sit down next to him, and I took that as my signal to get her out of here. “Mom, we’re just getting ready to watch a movie, mind if we have some privacy?”
“You know I don’t mind. I’m just over the moon about you two. How was the haunted house? Same as before?” she asked as she walked toward the door.
“Nope, this one was actually haunted. We saw ghosts, recorded them even.”
She froze with her hand on the doorknob. I wasn’t sure if she was listening or if she was deep in thought. She slowly turned to look at me.
“You’re not messing with me are you? Did you finally see something real?”
“We did, Mom. We’ll show you the tapes. It was so cool! And crazy. We’ll get together later in the week and talk more.”
“Okay, just let me know when. Have a good afternoon.”
“Thanks, Mom. Bye now.”
She waved goodbye as she finally walked out and closed the door behind her. I rushed over and turned the lock. Hopefully that was the last of the interruptions for the day.
“So I guess I should be heading home soon,” Jason said as I sat next to him again.
“Do you really have to? Can’t you just go home in the morning? I’ll drive you to your house, or you can wear some of my clothes and I’ll take you to work.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer. “I’ll stay. I didn’t want to go at all, but I thought I should offer.”
“Nope, you’re mine. All mine and I’m not letting you go again.” I said it meaning it to be a joke, but it ended up being exactly how I felt.
“You’re right. I am yours.”
“That makes me happier than I could ever tell you.”
He wore a contented smile as he rested his head on my shoulder. We spent the rest of the day watching movies and just enjoying each other’s company without having to worry about what the ghosts were going to do next. We’d worry about that when we had our next big adventure. If we ended up having another adventure like the last one.
That night we slept wrapped around each other and made love more than once. It seemed like once we opened that door to being more than friends, neither of us could get enough of the other.
Monday morning flew by with us rushing around to get ready for work and still have enough time for me to take Jason to his house and get to work on time. I pulled up to his house, but I still wasn’t ready to let him go.
“What time are you coming over tonight?”
“I’ll be over as soon as I’m done at work, probably around five.”
I reached for his hand. “I know it sounds so corny, but I really will miss you. I think I’ve gotten used to being with you nonstop.” I tried to sound like I was joking, but he knew me too well. He reached out and lightly scratched at my jaw.
“I’m going to miss you so much today, Wade.”
I put my hand up to cover his and just enjoyed the closeness while it lasted. I tipped my head then slowly turned so I could give him a kiss goodbye. “Have a good day. I’ll see you soon.”
He waved to me as he stepped out of the car. And then he just stood there.
I smiled and waved at him, but I couldn’t make myself put it into gear. I sat in my car staring at him, staring at me. Then he smiled, and I watched him as he finally turned and walked toward his house. When he reached the door, he turned and waved at me before disappearing inside.
Finally, I drove away, already counting down the time until I could see him again. Before I was a mile down the road my phone rang. I answered immediately, thinking it was Jason. “Hey, miss me already?”
“What the fuck? No, I don’t miss you. I just want to know if we’re still on for tonight.” I heard some sputtering and more cursing. “I don’t mean us—fuck, I mean—oh my god.” I heard a deep breath and a much calmer Jimbo started over again. “Hello, Wade, this is Jimbo. I’m calling to see if it’s still okay for me to come over to your house tonight and view the data that you and Jason collected this weekend.”
I hesitated for a full thirty seconds before laughing so hard I considered pulling over. “Jimbo, what the fuck?”
“Man, don’t give me shit. I hate talking on the phone for one thing, and I was worried I’d catch you two doing things I don’t want to know about. I was excited to look at all the video you shot, and I guess it made me a little twitchy.”
“Sounds like more than a little twitchy. Of course, we’re still on. Come over any time after five. I’m going to try to get off early today.”
“I can’t wait to see what you guys caught. There’s got to be some good shit.”
He was clearly just as geeked out about this as I was. Jason really was rubbing off on me. “We got a ton of good shit. I’m excited too. I asked my mom to come over and watch with us. We can set up a few monitors so we can all go over it at once.”
“Looking forward to it. I’ll probably get there early, but I’ll keep myself busy until you get home. Hey, Wade?”
“Yeah, Jimbo.”
“Is Jason okay? I still can’t believe everything that happened. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it.”
“He seems fine. Now that you mention it, he hasn’t brought it up since we got back. We have been sort of busy, but I would have thought he’d want to talk by now.”
I really was wrapped up in Jason; I had barely given what had happened to him a second thought. I’d helped him clean his hand up and checked his feet after we’d gotten home, and he’d helped me with my arm. But that was the last time either of us had really mentioned it.
“I wouldn’t want to bring it up either if I was him,” Jimbo grumbled into the phone.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, man. We’ll talk more this ev
ening. See you soon.”
“See ya, Jimbo.”
I made it to work with just a minute to spare and got right to work on various projects that didn’t hold my attention half as much as being at The Vineyard House had. Even with all the freaky things that happened, I couldn’t stop myself from wishing for more adventures like it. Jason definitely had rubbed off on me.
Chapter Twenty-Six
When I arrived home, a small group had gathered on my front lawn. Jason was there, laughing at something my mom had said. And there next to my mom was Jimbo. Looking like he was one of the family. When did that happen?
Walking toward them, I called out, “Hey, guys. Sorry, I thought I’d be here earlier.”
“No problem, we’ve been getting acquainted,” my mom said as she looped her arm through Jimbo’s. I couldn’t tell if he was more shocked or flattered. Both reactions seemed to be at odds.
I walked up to Jason and kissed him hello. If he was shocked he didn’t show it, just reached up to grab my shirt and pull me in for another. My mother on the other hand was a different story.
“Oh, Wade, you two are just adorable. I just can’t get enough of seeing you two together. So, Jason, are you staying the night again?”
I could feel my face heat at her words; I hadn’t been so embarrassed by her since I was a teenager. I’d gotten used to my mom’s lack of filter, but when it came to Jason, it was different. She knew what he meant to me after all those years of teenage angst when I couldn’t stop myself from brooding over him. She reached over and pinched his cheek. He laughed and grabbed my hand.
“Come on, grouchy, let’s get you into some comfy clothes and get ready to look through our videos. I ordered pizza and wings, it should be here soon.”
“You’re the best, thanks!” I kissed his cheek, and rushed to my bedroom to change. When I walked back into the living room the pizza was just arriving. Jason paid and carried it into the kitchen. Jimbo wasted no time at diving right in.
“Thanks, man, this is great,” he said around the huge bite he’d just shoved in his mouth.
“You’re welcome. Wade, why don’t you help me get the monitors set up, and we can all start going through the videos.”
“Okay, I’m going to grab some pizza first, though, before Jimbo finishes it off.” Jimbo raised his piece of pizza like a toast and went back to munching.
It didn’t take us too long to have it all ready. We had the two laptops we’d taken with us over the weekend set up at the dining room table and cued up the video feeds.
“Jimbo, do you want to look at the video or listen to the audio recordings?” I asked.
“I’ll take the video if that’s all right?”
“Works for me. How about if you and Mom both watch the same monitor. Jason can take the other one, and I’ll take the audio?”
They all nodded and everyone got busy doing their part. I sat next to Jason and put on headphones to listen to the various recordings. So far, most of it sounded the same as we’d heard when we were there. As I came to the first parts where we’d heard actual voices, I paused the recording. “Mom, you want to hear this? Jimbo?”
They both nodded and I handed the headphones over to them. They both had one earpiece and were leaning in close to listen. I hit play and both of them listened intently. I could see the moment they heard the voice; it was still shocking to me and I’d listened multiple times already.
“What the fuck, Wade? That’s creepy as hell.”
“Mom! Language.”
“Sorry, son, but that really is freaky. I know how much you wanted to actually find something, but I have to admit, I never thought it would happen.”
“I know, Mom, I didn’t expect this. It got really bad there.”
Jason was deep in thought. “Wade, show her the basement, what happened to us. I want to see it too,” he said.
“Are you sure? We can look at it later if you want.”
“No, I want to see what it looked like. I still can’t remember any of it.”
“If you’re sure?”
“I’m sure. I want to see what I missed.”
He was trying to joke about it, but we both knew it scared the hell out of him. I cued up the video, and we all circled around the laptop to watch.
It started the same as the other videos did, dust motes floated in the air in the dim light. The infrared camera gave the look of an X-ray, adding to the creepy feeling.
“That’s when we walked in,” Jimbo said and pointed at the screen.
We all watched in complete silence. I turned up the volume so we could hear exactly what happened.
“What were you doing there?” Mom asked.
“We knew that’s where the ghost of the man usually stayed, so we made sort of a cage for him out of salt.”
“You guys are nuts,” my mom mumbled and went back to watching the screen.
We watched as both of us were taken over by the ghosts of Louise and Robert. It was hard for me to watch Jason go through it. It was bad enough that night, but it seemed even more horrible to be here watching it all play out again.
My mom gasped. “The ghosts took you over? They were actually covering you. I could see them and see both of you through them. But I could definitely see them.”
“I told you it was freaky.”
We were quiet once again as everyone concentrated on the video. Finally, it was at the point where Jason was completely taken over by Robert Chalmers. I reached over and took his hand. His palm was sweaty and more than a little clammy. “Are you okay?” I whispered to him.
He nodded in answer, but he didn’t look away from the screen. It was at this point where you could not see Jason at all, he was just Robert. He looked even worse than I remembered.
“That’s when he cut you, Wade,” Jimbo pointed out.
I nodded and then glanced at Jason. His hand was still bandaged, but it wasn’t as tender as it had been yesterday. Even with my own injuries, I hated knowing that he’d been hurt, but there was no other way. I picked up his hand and kissed it. “I’m so sorry that happened.” He blinked several times and focused on me.
“It wasn’t your fault. You were only doing what needed to be done to help the Chalmers. We wanted to help them, right? And you were hurt too, how’s your arm?” He pulled my bandaged arm to him and gently patted it.
“Yeah, we did. It’s fine, it seemed much worse than it really was.” I felt a smile tug at my lips and realized that even though we’d gone through this crazy, otherworldly experience, it had only brought us closer. It had helped both of us see what was really important, and no matter what, we were each other’s most important thing.
“You boys really should call one of the local television stations and see if they’d like to interview you. They’d love this. Hell, everyone would love this,” my mom suggested without even looking away from the video.
“I told the owners that I wouldn’t tell anyone what we found,” Jason said.
“No, you actually told them that you wouldn’t tell anyone what happened there. As long as you’re vague about where it was filmed, you can show the parts that have the interactions with the ghosts. Oh, that part that we recorded of the three ghosts upstairs would be amazing. They’d probably even pay you for that.”
Suddenly he was very excited about this idea. “Do you think we could edit it so you can’t tell where we were at? We don’t need to show the outside or even the staircase.”
“I think we can do it. This is what you’ve always wanted, Jason. You wanted to actually see a ghost and you did it. Several ghosts actually. We could look into our own television show where we go to different haunted places and clear out the ghosts.”
“You’re kidding, right? Because there is no way in hell I want to go through what we went through this weekend again.”
“I’m not kidding, and with Jimbo’s help we can do this. What do you say? We call one of the television stations and see if they’re interested, and if they are then we se
e about starting a business.”
“Are you sure about this? You know I’d love to do it—it would be a dream come true. But I won’t put either of us in danger again.”
I thought about it while I looked around the table. “I’m sure. We can help them, Jason. You know how hurt they were because they couldn’t move on. Maybe we can help more of them.”
“I’m in,” Jimbo added, and nodded his head for emphasis.
“Me too. I can help you boys with anything that doesn’t involve actually going to the haunted house.”
That made us all laugh. “So, we’re doing this? You’re all sure?” Mom and Jimbo nodded and looked over at me. Jason eyed me with a look full of determination.
“We are so doing this. There is no way I would pass up a chance to spend more time with you. And Louise did say that we were stronger together,” I repeated the words of advice we’d received from the first ghost we’d helped.
“Wait, who said what?” Mom asked.
“Just a little advice the ghost gave us.” Jason smiled at me while he said it. My mom’s eyes almost popped out of her head.
“What?” she said that one word at such a pitch I was pretty sure all small animals within a mile of our house heard it. Jason squeezed my hand and then looked between us all.
“Okay, so who wants to call the television stations?”
Epilogue
“Did you remember to bring the go bag?” Jason asked me.
“Of course I remembered it. Feeling a little stressed there, big guy?”
“Sorry, Wade, it’s just . . . this is our first assignment. Shit, you know what I mean.” He gave me a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, you know how all this goes down. We have the go bag, and when we get downtown, we’ll set up the cameras and microphones and see if we get lucky again.”
“I’m not sure if I’d call it lucky,” I heard Jimbo mumble from the backseat.
“You thought it was lucky before,” Jason said over his shoulder.
“I thought it was, but now that we’re going to another place, I’m not so sure. What did you say this place was?”