Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

hall in twenty minutes.
Maybe he could come back tomorrow. Both of his Wednesday classes were back to back first thing in the morning, Dr. Perez didn’t need him at the lab until Friday and Greg was in class from eight until three. If he came by here just after lunch, Adrian would have a good two and a half hours to attempt communicating with Lyndon again. Hopefully the extra time would allow him to relax more. Send himself into a deeper trance. Something, anything, to tap into those locked-off portions of his mind he needed to access in order to learn the rest of Lyndon’s secrets.
Adrian opened the front door, slipped out into the waning light and used his psychokinesis to lock the door behind him. He hunched his shoulders against a gust of cold wind. He glanced upward. At least the predicted clouds hadn’t materialized. The nearly full moon shone through the bare tree branches, providing him with plenty of light to navigate the gravel drive from the castle to the paved road. He stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and started walking.
He hadn’t gone more than a few yards when he noticed a figure approaching on the otherwise deserted lane. Frowning, he slowed his pace. Who else would be coming to the castle? There were no events going on right now, and even the most desperate students didn’t come here for private moments when it was this cold. Especially since people without psychokinetic powers couldn’t unlock the doors to get inside.
As the figure drew closer, it passed through a space clear of trees. The combination of the vanishing daylight and a particularly bright moonbeam picked out a familiar head of golden brown curls.
Adrian’s heartbeat slowed to a hard, painful thud-thud-thud . He stood rooted to the ground, sick with apprehension, and waited. What else could he do?
Gravel crunched as Greg approached. “Adrian.”
“Greg. What…?” Adrian swallowed. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” Greg stared at him, gray eyes brimming with anger and hurt. “We need to talk.”

Chapter Fourteen
    Shit. Adrian licked his dry lips. “You’re right. Let’s go to my place. We can talk there.” With a curt nod, Greg turned on his heel and stalked off down the road. Adrian followed, shaking all over with a combination of shock and gut-churning dread. He’d been caught red-handed, with no recourse but to tell Greg what he really should have told him weeks ago.
He just hoped Greg would still be around after he heard what Adrian had to say.
The walk from Groome Castle to Adrian’s apartment took eons. Greg marched along at a determined pace without one word or a single glance over his shoulder. Adrian trailed meekly behind him, staring at the stiff line of his spine and wishing they could both go back in time. Just transport backward half a day to that morning, when they had lain tangled together in the warm nest of Adrian’s sheets and blankets, Greg’s naked body curled against Adrian’s side and his head pillowed on Adrian’s chest. If he could turn the clock back, Adrian mused, he would tell Greg then. He’d confess the whole thing, before Greg could find out…however it was he’d found out.
“How did you know I was at Groome Castle?” Adrian asked as they walked up the stairs to his apartment. He concentrated harder than was strictly necessary on punching in the entry code, so he wouldn’t have to see Greg’s face.
“Well, that’s a very interesting story.” Greg swept past Adrian and into the apartment as soon as he swung the door open. Instead of sitting, Greg took off his jacket, threw it on Adrian’s tiny dining table and started pacing. “I got out of class early today. You’d said you were going to be studying at the library, so I decided to head over there. On the way, I ran into your friend Ryan. I mentioned where I was going, and he said to me, ‘Oh, Adrian’s not at the library anymore. I just saw him heading toward Groome Castle.’”
All the air rushed out of Adrian’s lungs. He shut the door, shuffled to his only armchair and fell into it. “Oh.”
Greg snorted. “Yeah, ‘oh’. So I said, ‘Groome Castle? Why would Adrian be going over there?’ And Ryan says, ‘Oh, he goes there all the time. Didn’t you know?’” Crossing the room in a few strides, Greg grabbed the arms of Adrian’s chair and leaned close, eyes blazing. “Didn’t I know ? Why, no, I did not know. Why is that, Adrian? Why did I not know that my