Closer: Bay City Paranormal Investigation, Book 4

no point in both of y’all getting as soaked as I am.”
“Oh, it’s not for us. It’s in case anything’s happened to Bo. There’s a blanket in Kyle’s car, which we might need, but if something’s wrong and we need to warm him up, we’re gonna need to keep the rain off him too.” Dean glanced up as Kyle joined them. “Did you tell everyone else you’re leaving?”
Kyle nodded. He was still pale and looked nervous, but he seemed calm enough. “Yeah. Y’all ready?”
“Uh-huh.” Shoving his phone in the pocket of his cargo shorts, Dean squeezed Sam’s arm. “Let’s get going. I’ll make sure we all have each other’s numbers in our phones on the ride over.”
Sam followed Dean and Kyle out the front door in silence. Dean’s words had brought home to him the fact that Bo might be in real danger, and not only from the creatures inhabiting the other side. By now, Sam was convinced something was wrong with Bo. Something which made him potentially a danger to himself. Sam had no idea what that might be, but after everything that had happened in the past few days he was sure he was right.
He climbed into the backseat of Kyle’s ancient Nova, handed Dean his phone and tried to sit still as Kyle drove along the narrow road. Staring out the window into the night, Sam found himself silently pleading to whoever or whatever might be listening for Bo’s safety.
The short drive to the fort seemed to last forever. Bo’s car was parked in front of the closed and locked parking lot gate. Sam’s insides twisted with a mix of relief and apprehension. “He’s here.”
“Yeah.” Dean glanced back at Sam. “And the gate’s locked. I’d forgotten about that.”
“Me too,” Sam confessed, feeling stupid.
“What do we do?” Kyle asked. He turned a nervous look to Dean. “If we go in it’s breaking and entering. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
“We won’t ask you to do that. You can wait out here while Sam and I go in.” Dean turned to hand Sam his phone, encased in a plastic sandwich bag to keep it dry. “Sam, you and I can climb the fence. We’ll separate and look for Bo. Whoever finds him calls the other.”
“All right.” Sam stuck his phone in his pocket. “You take the umbrella. I’m already soaked anyhow.”
“Sure. You take the raincoat. That way we’ll each have something to cover Bo with if we need to.” Dean turned back to Kyle. “When we find him, I’ll call you, okay?”
“Okay.” With a self-conscious glance at Sam, Kyle hooked a hand around the back of Dean’s head, pulled him forward and kissed him. “Be careful.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” Smiling, Dean touched Kyle’s cheek, then scooted away and opened his door. “Ready, Sam?”
“Yeah.”
Sam got out of the car, with Dean a couple of steps behind. Pulling on the raincoat, he started scaling the fence. Within seconds, he and Dean were on the other side and jogging through the rain toward the floodlit entrance. Dean opened the umbrella as they went. An oval of brighter light swung across the parking lot as Kyle pulled the car off the road, into the shadows of the trees.
“We should’ve brought flashlights,” Sam said, wiping the water from his eyes to peer at the blackness under the brick arch. “Shit. I was so anxious to get here I wasn’t thinking straight. It’ll be seriously dark in the inside rooms.”
“I brought some lights. Hang on a sec.” Dean stopped and dug through the side pocket of his shorts. He pulled out a small metal flashlight and handed it to Sam. “It’s waterproof.”
Sam took the light. It was heavier than it looked, and when he switched it on the beam proved to be quite powerful. “Thanks.” He turned it off and stuck it in his pocket as he and Dean started moving forward again. “What are you going to use?”
“My penlight.” Dean held up something that looked rather like a thick ballpoint pen made of fluorescent green plastic. He clicked it on, revealing a bright, narrow beam of light, then turned if off again and stuck it in his pocket. “It won’t light up anything very far ahead, but I can see well enough with it. I have great night vision.”
Sam nodded. “Why don’t I start with the rooms inside the walls, since my light’s stronger? You can search the courtyard and the walkway on top of the walls. The floodlights inside should be bright enough that you won’t need a light at all.”
“Sounds good.”
They crossed the rest of the parking lot in