The Supers

by Sean Michael

  “Excellent. How about you?” Jase asked. “How’s the shoulder?”

  Flynn peered at Blaine’s shoulder, but he couldn’t pull the shirt or sweater back with his hands full of the pot of stew. “You need me to doctor it?”

  “I will, yeah, but after. Jase, grab bowls.”

  They all helped, dishing up the stew and gathering utensils, putting out the bread and butter.

  “I love that you have butter instead of margarine. It always tastes better, especially if the bread—rolls—are homemade.” Flynn grabbed glasses and pulled the milk out of the fridge.

  “Oh, do not get Mom started on the horrors of oleo, huh?”

  “No margarine talk with your mom. Got it.” He gave Blaine a wink, sat, and dug into his stew. Damn—rich and thick and peppery and stunning, it tasted like heaven in a bowl.

  “God, this is good. How do you get to become a good cook like this? Because I’m an okay cook, but this is amazing.”

  “I think it’s a mom thing,” Blaine said. “I mean, maybe your mom skipped those lessons, Jase.”

  “She totally must have. I mean, you’ve seen her actually burn boiling water.”

  “Seriously?” Flynn asked, laughing when Jase nodded.

  “It caught fire, man! Fire.”

  He cackled, and Blaine chuckled along with him. “Seriously.”

  Blaine nodded. “Yep. Actual fire. We put it out with the extinguisher.”

  “That’s….” Flynn just stared. “Wow.”

  He looked up and met Blaine’s eyes, and they both laughed. Flynn really loved Blaine’s laughter, and he knew he wanted to spend a lot of time hearing it.

  “So we’re talking about going back to the hospital and filming you getting bit, man. Thoughts?” Jason asked.

  “Is that kosher?”

  “Are we going to ever break into a deal if we don’t do better?”

  Flynn sighed. “I’m not against going back to the hospital. I’m just not sure about faking the bite, man. Anyone finds out we did that and we lose all credibility.”

  “You don’t think all those guys with shows don’t go back and film pickups and stuff for their narrative?”

  Flynn didn’t know. He just wasn’t sure it was something they should start.

  “We can at least film the bite now, right? Show what happened.”

  Blaine nodded once, just a dip of his chin. “That I can do.”

  “Yeah, I’m down with that too.” Flynn could get behind the truth.

  “You guys are two peas in a pod. Seriously.”

  Flynn grinned over at Blaine. “We’re peas, apparently.”

  “Podlike peas.” Blaine began to chuckle.

  Flynn’s lips twitched. “Wait, wouldn’t that make us aliens? Shouldn’t we be more like ghostlike things?”

  “Ghost peas?” Jason pursed his lips. “I’m not sure. Ghost Peas sounds like a band name.”

  “Maybe that’s what we should call the team. You know, to sell us. Blaine the Brain and the Ghost Peas investigate yet another haunted building.” Flynn was cracking his own shit up.

  “Oh my God. We need a website—Brain and the Ghost Peas!” Jason was howling.

  Flynn gave Blaine a private smile, reaching out and touching his hand, and Blaine twined their fingers together.

  Oh God, were they basking? It felt like they were. He rather liked it. Hell, he loved the idea that he had someone here, someone to bask with. Someone not in the hospital with bugs in his shoulder.

  He squeezed Blaine’s hand. “Hey, Pea.”

  “Do you want to be Pea Two or Pod?”

  “I’ll be the Pod to your Pea any day.”

  Jason snorted. “You two are gross.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who said we were two peas in a pod. We’re just playing along.” Goofing about.

  “Yeah, and I’m wicked jealous, just FYI….”

  “Oh. Um, sorry.” Flynn felt bad now, like they’d been flaunting it in Jason’s face.

  Blaine smirked. “Don’t be. He rubs my face in his boyfriends whenever I’m single.”

  “Oho. You do, do you, Jason?” Flynn threw a corner of his bread at Jason. “Butthead.”

  “Well… okay. Yeah. I totally have.”

  All three of them laughed and went back to their food.

  Flynn sopped up the last of his stew with his bread. “We had just started looking into Christian and David. The guys associated with room 204.”

  “Did you find anything?” Blaine looked worried.

  “Not yet. We hadn’t really gotten very far into it.”

  “Well, I know it’s a sad fucking story, right?”

  “Yeah. Christian was sick, and his family wouldn’t let his lover visit. He finally got in to see him and it was too late, so he killed himself. Kinda Romeo and Juliet, eh?”

  “Yeah. Creepy.” Blaine shivered, arms wrapping around himself.

  Flynn put his hand on Blaine’s shoulder and squeezed. “It is. And if they need help getting to rest, we’ll do that for them, okay?”

  “Yeah.” Blaine didn’t sound so sure.

  “What’s wrong, babe? This whole thing has had you on edge big-time.”

  “I just…. There’s something wrong.” Blaine shook his head, then stood and started cleaning up the dishes, shoulders hunched.

  Flynn got up and went over to his lover. He didn’t even bother with the pretext of bringing more dishes. “So talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong. I can’t help if you won’t talk to me.”

  “I just think we should let it go. Leave them alone.”

  “But….” He wasn’t sure he was going to be able to just forget everything.

  “Room 204.”

  Shit. “I’m not sure it’s going to leave us alone.”

  “It will. They have to.”

  Jason stood, frowned. “Did you two hear that?”

  “Room 204.”

  Flynn whipped his head around to Jason. “You heard it too?” Okay. This was happening. That was all three of them now, not just him and Blaine.

  “I’m fucking calling the rest of the guys. Someone turn on the tape recorders.”

  “Room 204.”

  “Room 204.”

  “Room 204.”

  It repeated over and over again, and Flynn went for the equipment stored in the dining room, looking for the recorders.

  “It won’t matter. They won’t pick it up.”

  “They’ll pick us up, though, and we’re hearing it.” Jason grabbed his phone, and punched his finger at the screen.

  Flynn brought the recorders into the kitchen and turned them on. The room number continued to be repeated, sometimes a whisper, sometimes louder, and honestly, it was beginning to freak him out.

  “You think we should go back and check out room 204?” Surely that would put an end to this.

  “No!” Blaine looked weird for a second, wild.

  Flynn went up to him. “Babe. You have to tell me what’s going on. And don’t tell me it’s nothing. Every time room 204 comes up, you freak the hell out.”

  “You can’t go in there, David!”

  David. He hadn’t imagined it this time for sure. Blaine had called him David. Which was the name of one of the couple. The guy who’d killed himself.

  “Why not, Christian?” Flynn asked, playing along for a moment to see if he could actually get more out of Blaine.

  “You know why. You know. You know they’ll kill you. You know that. He’ll kill you.”

  “They? He? Who? Who will kill me?”

  “You know.” Suddenly Blaine’s bright blue eyes turned dark, almost brown. Like they had physically changed color. Weird.

  “No. No, I don’t know. You have to tell me.” Oh God. This was insane. It was fucking creepy.

  “Blaine? Blaine, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Jason stormed over, grabbed Blaine’s arm, and shook him hard.

  “Don’t!” Flynn pushed Jason away. “We have to figure out what’s going on.” Then he turned
his attention back to Blaine. “Come on, Christian. You have to tell me. You have to. Come on, now. Tell me.”

  Blaine looked at him, blinked. “Tell you what?”

  Flynn sighed, seeing nobody but Blaine there. “You’re back, huh? For a minute there I swear you were Christian, and you were actually going to tell me what the deal with room 204 is.”

  Blaine frowned. “Stop it.”

  Jason stared. “It’s true, man. Seriously.”

  Flynn nodded. “You called me David. You responded to Christian. You were saying that he or they were going to kill me, and that’s why you didn’t want me to go to room 204.” It made Blaine wince every time Flynn spoke about that room.

  “Just stop it.” Blaine shook his head. “Stop saying the room number.”

  “Then tell me what’s got you so freaked out!”

  “Shit, why shouldn’t he be freaked? We heard someone who wasn’t there saying things here in the barn!” Jason wasn’t helping.

  “I agree, Jason, but I’d like to know what he knows.”

  “I don’t know anything. I didn’t do anything, man.”

  Flynn sighed. “I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. It’s like this thing gets a hold of you, and there’s something there but it won’t let you tell.”

  “Darnell is on the way,” Jason noted. “Will has to finish his shift, but he’ll be here in a few hours.”

  “We’ll get everything set up and see if we can’t figure out what the fuck is going on.” Flynn started pacing, trying to work everything out.

  Blaine began to pace too, striding the length of the island in the kitchen. Every now and then they met up and did the “you go, no you go first” dance.

  “So what should we do? More research, or are you not telling us stuff, Blaine?”

  Blaine looked at him, cheeks going bright pink. “Excuse me?”

  “I don’t know if you only know it when Christian takes you over or if you’re just scared to tell me, but there’s stuff that you aren’t telling me. Stuff about room 204.”

  Jason stared at them both like they were crazy.

  “What? What stuff? What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Christian and David and room 204!” Flynn looked into Blaine’s eyes. “Tell me about room 204.”

  Blaine ripped away from him and stormed upstairs. A moment later the bedroom door slammed shut.

  “Goddammit.” Flynn followed him and stood outside the door. “Blaine! Blaine, we can’t just ignore this! It isn’t going away!”

  “Leave me the fuck alone!”

  “Don’t be like this, Blaine. Please? Come on. We need to deal with this.”

  He heard something hit the door, and then he heard sobs. He turned the door handle, cursing when it wouldn’t budge. Blaine had locked it.

  Flynn banged on the door. “Come on, Blaine. Let me in. You can’t keep shutting me out.” Something bad was going to happen.

  Maybe something bad was happening now.

  Jason’s voice came from downstairs. “Blaine? Flynn? Do you guys need me up there?”

  “Let me see if I can get him to let me in.” Flynn banged on the door again. “Blaine? Let me in or we’re breaking the door down.” Maybe he was appealing to the wrong person. What if Christian had hold of him again? What if Blaine was hurt?

  “This is my room, dammit!”

  “Blaine! I mean it. We need you with us, not hiding up here alone where anything could happen to you.”

  The door flew open, and Flynn noticed immediately that Blaine’s shoulder was bleeding again, a slowly expanding red spot on his shirt.

  “Jesus. Did you hit your shoulder on something? Sit. Let me look at it.”

  “I’m not going to be accused of withholding information about some fucking assholes who died before I was even born!”

  “I don’t think you’re doing it on purpose, babe. I think there’s something here. Something… I don’t know. Let me look. Let me see.” He went over and tugged at Blaine’s shirt.

  Jesus. The wound was torn open again. Fuck.

  “Were you scratching at it?” Flynn carefully removed Blaine’s shirt, then called downstairs, “Jason? Bring me the first aid kit, please.”

  “Is he hurt again? Christ. Come downstairs.”

  Flynn rolled his eyes and looked at Blaine’s shoulder more closely. It was a bloody mess, like someone had been scratching at it for ages. “Did you do this? Were you scratching?”

  “When? Between slamming the door and walking across the room?”

  “I don’t know! It’s all open and bloody like someone’s been tearing at it, and if it wasn’t you….” He met Blaine’s eyes. “This is moving into fucking scary, love.”

  “I know.” Blaine looked exhausted, frightened, more than a little lost.

  Flynn hugged Blaine tight, careful not to touch the bloody mess. “Don’t shut me out, okay? We need to face this together. And obviously we can’t ignore it.” Something wanted them to go to room 204, and it was getting vicious about it.

  “You can’t go there. You can’t. It’s a terrible idea.”

  “I get that. I don’t know why you think that, but I get that you feel really strongly about it. And I’m more than willing to try work-arounds. But it really seems like all this scary shit isn’t going to stop unless we do.” And Flynn wanted as much information as he could get. He wanted Blaine to tell him what he knew. Or what he thought he knew.

  “I don’t understand what the hell is going on. I don’t get it, but I know that you can’t go, that it’s dangerous. I know.” Blaine grabbed him, squeezed him. “You just have to believe in me.”

  “I do believe in you. That’s why I’m willing to try to do as much as we can here. See if we can’t get rid of whatever it is that’s… doing this shit.”

  “I don’t even know what to do.”

  “Stick together, hmm?” He hugged Blaine tight. “Come on. Let’s go down and get you doctored and start researching.”

  “Darnell’s pulling up now, guys,” Jason called.

  “The troops are all rallying around. We’re going to be okay. We’ve got friends, people who are in our corner.”

  “I don’t even know what—”

  “Shh. Shh, please. Let’s just stay calm. Focused, huh? We’re going to wire up the barn and figure out what the hell is going on here. We have the know-how.” Flynn kissed Blaine good and hard, smashing their lips together.

  Blaine’s eyes went wide, and then he wrapped one arm around Flynn’s waist. Flynn let himself get lost in the kiss, in Blaine’s taste.

  “Guys. Guys, seriously? Now?” Jason sounded close by and… shocked.

  Groaning, Flynn broke off the kiss, cutting a glance back at Jason, who was now standing in the bedroom doorway. “It’s never a bad thing to remember what you’re fighting for.”

  Jason made a kissy face. “Man, if I’d known Flynn was gonna be so hot, I would have made a play for him.”

  “Fuck off, Jase.”

  Heat climbed Flynn’s cheeks. “He’s in the room.”

  “And he’s a little stud,” Blaine said.

  Flynn’s mouth dropped open, and he turned to stare at Blaine. Then he smiled. “You think I’m a stud?”

  “Duh.” The response was gratifyingly immediate.

  He kissed Blaine again. “Thank you.”

  “Freaks. God. So jealous.” Jason made Flynn chuckle.

  “Okay. Let’s get downstairs and doctor your shoulder and then set up to catch whatever it is that’s haunting us and send it back to hell.” They trooped down, Flynn being careful Blaine didn’t trip.

  “What’s going on?” Darnell came bursting through the door, four pizza boxes in hand. He delivered for a living and got to keep any mismade pies. “Blaine’s back is bad again, and something is haunting the barn. It keeps saying ‘room 204’ over and over again. I heard it.” Jason sounded pretty excited.

  “No shit? Did you catch it on tape?”

  “We
set them up, but hadn’t caught anything as of last night,” Flynn noted.

  “Let’s check it out.” Jason grinned and grabbed half the pizza boxes.

  “After I doctor Blaine’s shoulder,” Flynn added.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Did you know they were together, man?” Jason asked Darnell, looking smug as they set the pizzas down.

  “Who, Flynn and Blaine? How long?”

  Jason looked at him and Blaine, and Flynn shrugged. “A few days.”

  “Before or after Monday?” Darnell asked.

  “What does…?”

  Blaine rolled his eyes. “There’s a bet.”

  Darnell nodded. “Will owes me ten bucks if it was before Monday.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Totally. Ten bucks is ten bucks.”

  Flynn shook his head. “That’s not classy at all.”

  Darnell snorted. “We hunt ghosts, and you two live in a barn. We aren’t exactly the height of class here. Besides, it’s not like either of us was wrong—you guys are doing the deed.”

  Blaine snorted, and suddenly, blessedly, they were all laughing, howling with it.

  “Will totally owes you ten bucks,” Flynn admitted, and they all burst into laughter again.

  “And here I was told there was an emergency,” Will said, coming in with the rest of their equipment. “Not Laugh-In.”

  “You owe me a tenner, man. Did you see Blaine’s shoulder?”

  “Oh.” Will turned green. “No. No way. No looking. I don’t do blood.”

  “Well then, look away. I have to doctor it.” Flynn sat Blaine down and began patting at the blood. “You swear you didn’t scratch at it? Because it’s not pus-y, but it’s been opened up.”

  “I didn’t touch it. Just close it back up. We have more butterfly bandages.”

  “I know, but someone—” He looked at the others. “—or something did.” They needed to get this figured out before anything worse happened to Blaine.

  “For real?” Will asked. “I mean, you guys aren’t just fucking with us?”

  Jason shook his head. “No way. I heard it too.”

  “Heard what?” Will asked, looking at each of them in turn.

  “Room 204,” Jason said. “And it wasn’t any of us.”

  “Yeah.” Flynn shivered. “Over and over again. And I think that the bug in Blaine’s shoulder came from a ghost bite too.”