Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

someone dialed up The Shins’ Oh! Inverted World on the iPod connected to the portable speakers Marisa had brought. Chelsea, Conor and Ashwin struck up an impromptu singalong to “New Slang”, and Adrian had to fight off a sudden urge to run and join them. He couldn’t carry a tune with a handle, but he’d take any excuse he could get to avoid talking about Lyndon in front of all these people.
Susan broke the quiet with an excited squeal. “That’s so cool ! But I thought he only appeared in the tower room? I wonder why he came down here?”
“Maybe he always appears down here, just nobody knew about it before now.” Erin stuck a finger in her Sprite and stirred, her expression thoughtful. “I mean, this is the first time anybody’s spent any real time here in decades. This could’ve been happening all along, every Halloween.”
“Or maybe the ghost never appears at all, unless there’s someone here to see him,” Theo piped up. He grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with red wine from one of the boxes on the table. “Think about it, dude.”
Greg shook his head. “You people have all lost your collective minds. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
Susan and Theo both scoffed. Erin’s eyes went wide. “Greg, Adrian just said he didn’t create the effect. I believe him. But I saw an extremely realistic-looking ghost tonight. I didn’t imagine it, and neither did all those other people who saw it. It had to come from somewhere. We all know Adrian’s the best effects person we have, by far. So if he didn’t do it, how do you explain it?”
Greg didn’t say anything, but Adrian saw the answer in the way his gaze dropped and the faint tightening of his jaw.
He thinks I’m lying.
Setting his cup carefully on the table, Adrian tugged his hand free of Greg’s grip. “Excuse me.”
Greg’s brow furrowed. “Adrian? You okay?”
“Fine, I’m fine, I just…I have to. Um. Go. To the bathroom.”
He fled down the hallway before Greg could talk him out of it. He needed to be alone, if only for a few minutes. Just get away from all those people watching him. It hurt that Greg believed him capable of telling such blatant lies, and he knew his feelings showed on his face for anyone who cared to look. He hated that.
Why are you letting this get to you? he wondered as he slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. You’ve only known him a few weeks. You’ve been dating him exactly sixteen days. Why have you let what he thinks of you become this important?
Leaning his hands on either side of the sink, he stared at himself in the mirror. His eyes brimmed with the fear and confusion roiling inside him. He shook his head, disgusted with himself. Keeping people at a distance had become a survival mechanism for him over the years. How the hell had Greg managed to get around that in such a short time without Adrian even noticing?
A soft knock sounded on the door. “Adrian, it’s me. Come out of there. Let’s talk.”
Adrian watched his reflection light up in spite of himself at the sound of Greg’s voice and thought of his vow from a few hours ago—to make this thing work. To not let his insecurities ruin it. So what if they’d only dated a couple of weeks? Having had a taste of real intimacy for the first time in his life, Adrian couldn’t go back to the lonely half-life he’d had before. And that meant he was by God going to open that door, go sit down with Greg and talk. About ghosts, and truths, and lies, and…
    And hopefully not about why everything I touch lately breaks, or why he and I feel electricity all around us every time we kiss.
Adrian let out a quiet laugh. If Greg didn’t believe in a ghost so many of his friends had seen with their own eyes, what in the world would he think if Adrian said he could move things with his mind?
Greg knocked again, harder this time. “C’mon out. Please. I’m sorry, okay?”
Shaking himself, Adrian pushed away from the sink, unlocked the door and swung it open. “You’re right. We should talk.”
“Yeah.” Greg laid both hands on Adrian’s cheeks, a solemn expression in his gray eyes. “I just think you deserve credit. That’s all.”
Adrian frowned. Before he could ask what that meant, however, Greg dropped his arms, took Adrian’s hand in his and led him down the hallway.
To Adrian’s surprise, they entered the last room on the left. No one was certain what its purpose had been in Groome Castle’s heyday, but since it was