Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

go. He’d studied those images in his memory until he knew them as well as he knew the family photos hanging on the walls of his apartment. They held no surprises, nothing new for him to learn.
Adrian breathed in through his nose for a slow count of four, then blew the air out of his lungs through pursed lips for a slower count of five. He did it again, and kept going. By the sixth repetition, his head began to buzz. By the time he lost count, he’d managed a deeper trance state than he’d ever been able to achieve in the past.
Floating in the depths of his own subconscious, he became aware of the urgent push of Lyndon’s mind against his. The last of his mental barriers dropped, and he let out an inarticulate cry as a barrage of new images assaulted him…
…Passing Cassius on the street. A nod, a cool hello, trying to hide the instant flare of love and desire, but God it’s so hard when that same desire burns in his eyes too…
…“Dirty queer!” A punch to the jaw, another to the gut. Left bruised and bloodied in the alley behind the bar. Cassius curses the two strangers to hell when he finds out, and heals the wounds with gentle kisses…
…Lightning, bright white and jagged. Tower stabbing the night sky. Bare trees thrashing the castle walls…
…“I’m Cassius. Pleased to meet you, Lyndon.”…
…Leaving, together. Tomorrow. Surely there’s a place in this world where men like them can go and not be afraid all the time. Cassius thinks perhaps California…
…Rain. Wind. Wet earth. Branches overhead…
…White collar. Blue flowers. Smear of dirt on the corner. A stubbled cheek, tendons straining in a sweat-beaded neck, thin lips pulled back in a rictus of fury. Agony drowns the anger and fear, then everything blurs and goes black…
Adrian came back to himself with tears running down his face. He drew a shaking breath. The final image still lingered, burned onto his retinas. He wondered if he’d ever stop seeing it or feeling the horrible sense of finality that went along with it.
Opening his eyes, he met Lyndon’s inscrutable gaze. “I was right, wasn’t I? That’s when you died. That collar is the last thing you saw.”
Lyndon didn’t answer—didn’t react at all, in fact—but he didn’t need to. Adrian knew the truth. He’d felt the sickening crunch of Lyndon’s skull cracking, the impotent wrath and panic in the seconds before Lyndon lost consciousness, when he’d realized he was about to die.
“I could almost see his face. Almost.” Adrian scrubbed the moisture from his cheeks. “Okay. Wow. I think that’s as much as I can handle today, Lyndon. I’m sorry.”
Unsurprisingly, Lyndon rendered no opinion one way or the other regarding Adrian’s announcement. However, when Adrian rose to leave, Lyndon hovered before him with one bloodied palm out and his colorless eyes staring straight into Adrian’s. The ghostly lips moved, but made no sound.
Adrian shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand. If I was still in a trance state—”
His words dissolved into a strangled gasp when Lyndon’s diaphanous form rushed forward and plunged straight into Adrian’s chest.
Unlike Lyndon’s psychic energy, his physical manifestation felt icy cold. Adrian’s body went instantly numb. His breath froze. Yet inside him, deep in his heart and brain and belly, Lyndon’s warmth burned like a supernova.
“Help me,” a low voice whispered in Adrian’s head. “Find me. Release me.”
As quickly as it had happened, it was over. The sensation of cold and heat and another mind inside his own vanished, and Adrian could breathe again. He bent over and rested his hands on his knees until his head stopped spinning.
When he straightened up again, Lyndon was nowhere to be seen. Adrian didn’t bother calling for him. He knew from experience that it wouldn’t do any good.
“Goodbye, Lyndon.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know when I’ll get to come back, but I hope it’ll be soon. Maybe this weekend.”
Adrian studied the empty room. Sunshine poured through the tall, narrow windows, making the room glow with the same pale golden light it had in Lyndon’s memories. The connection between Lyndon’s past and his own present made Adrian smile.
With one last look around, Adrian strode to the door and started down the stairs. He had so much to tell Greg.
Greg was still in one of his theater classes when Adrian returned to campus from Groome Castle. It was too cold to